France
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
France
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
The most consistent experience is with Orange
Orange wins both the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards. This is the second Opensignal report in a row that Orange wins these awards. An impressive 85.5% of tests using Orange met the higher threshold for Excellent Consistent Quality and an even higher 93% met the thresholds for the Core metric.
Orange sweeps the board in overall experience
Winning all five awards, Orange is indisputably the leader in overall mobile network experience in France. These categories cover both two speed awards, plus the awards for Video Experience, Games Experience and Voice App Experience.
In the 5G experience group, Bouygues joint wins two and SFR one award
Orange is prevented from dominance in 5G experience by the results in two categories. Bouygues jointly wins 5G Games Experience sharing the award with Orange. In 5G Video Experience, both SFR and Bouygues remain tied with Orange.
Free Mobile wins the 5G Availability and overall Availability awards
Our users spent the most time with an active 5G connection — 5G Availability — using Free Mobile's network with 18.8% of time. In second place, Bouygues and SFR with statistically tied scores of 13.9%-14.5%. Similarly, users spent the most time with a mobile signal also with Free Mobile, just, with a score of 97.7% ahead of Bouygues, SFR and Orange's statistically tied scores of 96.8-97%.
Orange wins 5G Download Speed by over 100 Mbps
Orange users experienced average 5G download speeds of 310.3 Mbps ahead of our users with second placed SFR that saw 198.1 Mbps average speeds. The winning margin has increased since the last report.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
Across France 5G networks continue to expand. At the start of October, there were 36,295 5G sites up from 35,311 at the start of August. Most of these sites are already in use for older technologies such as 4G. In La Defensé, preparations are underway for 5G mmWave pilots in the 26GHz band — mmWave offers extremely fast speeds and tremendous capacity but with a short range.
Telecom regulator ARCEP has awarded 13 private 5G licenses. Such networks are intended to complement the existing mass market nationwide 5G networks and offer tailored experiences and different quality of service for use by enterprises, ports, factories or other business usage. Similarly, the government has now appointed a consortium to act as the key integrator for a new broadband public safety network with a €700m investment, initially using 4G, with plans to add 5G. This network will also not be open to consumers and will run alongside the four national mobile operators' 5G networks.
Despite these various innovations and changes, there is little change in the award table in this report. Orange again dominates the Opensignal mobile network experience awards with 10 outright wins and a further two joint wins. After Orange, Free Mobile is the only operator to win any awards outright with two wins. Bouygues and SFR only come away with a few joint wins this time.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Orange again comfortably wins Video Experience with a score of 57.8 on a 100 point scale. This ranks as Good (55-65) meaning Orange users had an acceptable but inconsistent experience, even from the same video streaming provider and particularly for higher resolutions, with noticeably slow loading times and stalling not being uncommon.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
- 5G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Video Experience – 5G Users: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G video experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator’s 3G network.
National Analysis
Users on winner Orange had a Fair (65-75) multiplayer mobile gaming experience with a score of 66.4. Orange users found the experience to be 'average'. In most cases the game was responsive to the actions of the player with most users reporting that they felt like they had control over the game. The majority of players reported that they noticed a delay between their actions and the outcomes in the game.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
- 5G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Games Experience – 5G Users: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G games experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Orange wins Voice App Experience with a score of 77 on a 100 point scale. This means Orange wins all three overall experiential awards in this Opensignal report.
A score of 77 means Orange users' experience was Acceptable (74-80). Some users were satisfied. Perceptible call quality impairments were experienced by some users. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion were heard, and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. Listeners were generally able to comprehend without repetition.
Definitions
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
- 5G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Voice App Experience – 5G Users: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G voice app experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users were much faster using Orange than on the other three national mobile networks. With a score of 51.4 Mbps, Orange again wins the Download Speed Experience award. This is approximately 40% faster than the speeds experienced using Free Mobile (36.8 Mbps) or SFR (36.7 Mbps).
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
- 5G Download Speed: The average download speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Download Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G download speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
National Analysis
Orange wins the Upload Speed Experience award with a score of 8.8 Mbps, ahead of Bougues (7.4 Mbps) and third-placed SFR (7 Mbps). The margin of victory was narrower for upload (18.6% faster) than for download (around 40%).
Definitions
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
- 5G Upload Speed: The average upload speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G upload speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
5G Experience
National Analysis
Orange wins 5G Video Experience with a score of 79.6 on a 100-point scale. This ranks as Excellent (75 or above) — two categories higher than the Good (55-65) for Orange's overall Video Experience score. Both Bouygues and SFR also placed in the Excellent category.
An Excellent rating means users had a very consistent experience, across all video streaming providers and resolutions tested, with fast loading times and almost non-existent stalling.
Definitions
5G Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world video streams when they were connected to 5G. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate 5G Video Experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the video experience observed by our users on each operator’s 5G network on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
National Analysis
Bouygues and Orange jointly win the 5G Games Experience award with statistically tied scores of 69.6-71.8. These rate as Fair (65-75), which is the same category as Orange's overall Games Experience, although both the two winning 5G operators' scores are higher with 5G technology.
Definitions
5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator's 5G network. It analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience was affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter. 5G Games Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
5G Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world. Calculating 5G Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games.
National Analysis
Three operators jointly win the 5G Voice App Experience award with scores of 78.4-79.2 on a 100-point scale. However, Free Mobile misses out this time. All four operators rated as Acceptable (74-80).
An Acceptable 5G Voice App Experience means some users were satisfied. Perceptible call quality impairments were experienced by some users. Clicking sounds of short duration or distortion were heard, and/or the volume may not have been sufficiently loud. Listeners were generally able to comprehend without repetition.
Definitions
5G Voice App Experience quantifies the experience of Opensignal users when using over-the-top voice apps — such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — on an operator’s 5G network. It uses a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. 5G Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
National Analysis
Orange's winning 5G Download Speed score was over 100 Mbps faster than the second-placed operator. Orange users experienced average 5G download speeds of 310.3 Mbps ahead of our users with SFR that saw 198.1 Mbps average speeds.
This gap has widened since the last Opensignal report six months ago when Orange scored 300.3 Mbps and second placed SFR then scored 207.8 Mbps.
Definitions
5G Download Speed shows the average download speed experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Download Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
National Analysis
Orange now wins the 5G Upload Speed award outright with a score of 20.3 Mbps ahead of joint second placed Bougues and SFR's scores of 16.3-16.9 Mbps. In the last report all three operators were statistically tied and shared the award.
Definitions
5G Upload Speed measures the average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users across an operator’s 5G network. 5G Upload Speed for each operator is calculated in Mbps (Megabits per second).
Coverage
Bouygues
Free Mobile
Orange
SFR
National Analysis
With a very narrow victory margin, Free Mobile wins the Availability award. Our Free Mobile users spent 97.7 % of time with a 3G, 4G or 5G network connection. However, all operators scored highly for Availability.
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
National Analysis
Free Mobile holds onto the 5G Availability award with a score of 18.8%. This means our Free Mobile 5G users spent almost one fifth of their time with an active 5G connection. Bougues and SFR are in joint second place with statistically tied scores of 13.9%-14.5%.
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
5G Availability shows the proportion of time Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
National Analysis
When we consider the proportion of locations visited by our users where they saw a 5G signal, the results are very close with three operators in a statistical tie. Bouygues, Free Mobile and SFR jointly win the 5G Reach award with scores of 3.7-4.4 on a ten-point scale.
Definitions
5G Reach measures how users experience the geographical extent of an operator’s 5G network. It analyzes the average proportion of locations where users were connected to a 5G network out of all the locations those users have visited. In simple terms, 5G Reach measures the 5G mobile experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users – i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. 5G Reach for each operator is measured on a scale from 0 to 10.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
Consistency
National Analysis
In 85.5% of tests our Orange users met or exceeded the minimum thresholds for more demanding mobile apps and services. Orange again wins the Excellent Consistent Quality award ahead of Bouygues (81.2%) and SFR (78.5%).
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
National Analysis
Orange retains the Core Consistent Quality award with a score of 93%. In second place is Bouygues with 91.7% followed by SFR with a score of 90.2%.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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Confidence Intervals
For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience