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
Orange has the most consistent experience
Orange wins the Consistent Quality award, which replaces the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards used in previous reports. It does so with a score of 82.3% — 3.5 percentage points greater than second-placed Bouygues and 5.6 percentage points ahead of SFR. Free Mobile brings up the rear with 72.5%. Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is 'good enough' for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices.
The fastest average 5G download and upload speeds in France are with Orange
Once again, Orange wins the 5G Download Speed award, with our users on its network achieving the fastest 5G download speeds in France — 336.9Mbps — an impressive 103.1Mbps (44.1%) faster than SFR, the next closest competitor. Similarly, Orange wins the 5G Upload Speed award with a score of 22.7Mbps, around 15% faster than Bouygues and SFR, which tie for second place, and 22.9% times faster than Free Mobile. Orange also wins the overall Download and Upload Speed Experience awards with average speeds of 66.9Mbps and 8.2Mbps, respectively.
SFR leads in 5G Availability
Our 5G users on SFR spend the highest proportion of time with active 5G connections. As a result, SFR wins the 5G Availability award, with a score of 18.2% — a change from the last report, when Free Mobile was in first place. Free Mobile has now slipped down to second place, which it shares with Bouygues and Orange due to their statistically tied scores of 16.2-16.8%.
Free Mobile is top for 5G Coverage Experience
Opensignal’s new Coverage Experience metrics measure the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work, and travel. Free Mobile claims the 5G Coverage Experience award with a score of 3.7 points on a 10-point scale, slightly ahead of Bouygues’ and SFR’s respective scores of 3.3 points and three points. Meanwhile, Orange places last with a significantly lower score of 2.3 points.
Orange takes home overall Live Video Experience
Orange is the first French winner of the overall Live Video Experience award. It wins outright with a score of 61.2 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of around one point over statistically tied SFR and Bouygues. However, Orange is the only operator not to share the 5G Live Video Experience award, as it is jointly won by Bouygues, SFR and Free Mobile with their tied scores of 67.7-68.3 points.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Mobile Network Experience report on France, we introduce Live Video Experience and 5G Live Video Experience, which represent the overall and 5G experience of our users when streaming real-time video over mobile networks. We also introduce new Coverage Experience metrics that measure the extent of overall and 5G coverage in the places people live, work, and travel. Furthermore, Consistent Quality replaces the Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality awards used in previous reports.
Our results show that Orange continues to dominate the mobile network experience awards in France. This time around, it wins 10 out of 15 award categories outright — including Video Experience and all four speed awards — and jointly wins the 5G Games Experience award alongside Bouygues. Orange holds a strong lead in terms of download speeds — over 100Mbps for 5G Download Speed and over 15Mbps for overall Download Speed Experience.
However, Orange is not the dominant operator when it comes to coverage categories, winning only one out of the four awards for taking — Coverage Experience. Free Mobile wins the Availability and 5G Coverage Experience awards outright, while SFR is the new winner of the 5G Availability award. Additionally, Bouygues, SFR and Free Mobile all share the 5G Live Video Experience award.
In this report, we examine the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in France — Bouygues, Free Mobile, Orange, and SFR — over the 90-day period starting on August 1, 2023, and ending on October 29, 2023, to see how they stack up.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Our Orange users continue to enjoy the best on-demand Video Experience. As a result, Orange is once again the outright winner of the on-demand Video Experience award with a score of 66.7 points on a 100-point scale, beating second-placed Bouygues by 1.2 points this time. SFR places third with a score of 64.4 points, and last-placed Free Mobile scores 63.4 points.
With these scores, all four operators rate as Good (58-68) for Video Experience — meaning our users are, on average, able to stream video at 720p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling. Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users' real video experience, including video streams of up to 4K quality.
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
Orange is the first operator to win the Live Video Experience award in France. It comes top with a score of 61.2 points on a 100-point scale, giving it a modest lead of one point over its rivals Bouygues and SFR, which tie for second place. Free Mobile brings up the rear with its score of 59.6 points.
Unlike Video Experience, which represents on-demand video streams, Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events. For example when users watch live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news where the event is happening at that moment in time.
All operators place in the Excellent (58 or above) category. This means that our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling and a satisfactory live offset.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
National Analysis
Orange is once again the sole winner of the Games Experience award. It comes top this time with a score of 67 points on a 100-point scale. Meanwhile, SFR and Bouygues are statistically tied for second place with scores of 64.7-65.5 points, followed by Free Mobile with 63.7 points. Orange and Bouygues therefore place in the Fair (65-75) category, while SFR and Free Mobile rate as Poor (40-65).
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 is once again the sole winner of the Download Speed Experience award. It wins this time with a score of 66.9Mbps, representing the average speed observed by our users across all generations of mobile technology on its network. The Download Speed Experience on Orange is around 30.3% higher than that seen on Bouygues and SFR, which tie for second place, and 60.9% faster than Free Mobile’s 41.6Mbps.
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
As with Download Speed Experience, Orange continues to hold the Upload Speed Experience award, with users' speeds averaging 8.2Mbps this time, just 0.2Mbps (2.7%) faster than second-placed Bouygues. SFR follows with a score of 7.4Mbps, while Free Mobile lags significantly behind with 5.6 Mbps.
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 remains the outright winner of the 5G Video Experience award, this time with a score of 74.9 points (on a scale of 0-100), slightly ahead of Bouygues' 73.9 points. Meanwhile, Free Mobile and SFR share third place with statistically tied scores of 72.9-73.1 points.
All four operators achieve a Very Good (68-78) rating for 5G Video Experience, which means our users on their networks, on average, stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling when connected to 5G. 5G Video Experience scores account for adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows Opensignal to accurately represent users' real video experience, including video streams up to 4K quality.
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, Free Mobile and SFR are joint winners of the 5G Live Video Experience award with statistically tied scores of 67.7-68.3 points on a 100-point scale. Orange places in fourth with its score of 67 points.
5G Live Video Experience is calculated using a range of measures that impact users’ perceived live streaming viewing experience over 5G connections, including picture quality, video loading time, and stall rate, but also live playback offset — the time difference between real-time and the current playback position a viewer sees.
Opensignal users in France enjoy Excellent (58 or above) 5G Live Video Experience on all networks. This means our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of real-time video streamed to mobile devices by measuring video streams over an operator's network. The metric extends the existing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach used for Opensignal's on-demand Video Experience metric, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including live playback offset, picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived live video experience as reported by real people. To calculate live video experience, we are directly measuring live video streams from end-user devices and using this extension of ITU's approach to quantify the overall live video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
5G Live Video Experience quantifies the quality of mobile video experienced by Opensignal users on real-world live video streams when they were connected to 5G.
National Analysis
Orange and Bouygues are the joint winners of the 5G Games Experience award, as both operators remain statistically tied — this time with scores of 78.1-78.7 points on a 100-point scale, placing in the Good (75-85) category. Likewise, SFR also earns a Good (65-75) rating with 76.3 points, while Free Mobile rates Fair (65-75) — one category lower than the other operators.
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
Once again, the 5G Download Speed award goes to Orange, as our Orange users experience the fastest 5G download speeds in the country, with speeds averaging 336.9Mbps — an impressive 44.1% faster than second-placed SFR. Bouygues follows with a score of 213.1Mbps, while Free Mobile is further behind with 151.8Mbps.
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 maintains its hold on 5G Upload Speed with a score of 22.7Mbps, around 15% faster than Bouygues’ and SFR’s statistically tied scores of 19.6-19.9Mbps and 67.4% faster than Free Mobile.
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
Orange has the highest Coverage Experience score — 9.1 points on a 10-point scale — making it the first winner of this award in France. SFR takes second place with a score of 8.7 points, 0.4 points behind the winner, and Bouygues comes third with a score of 8.5 points. Free Mobile places last with 8.1 points.
Definitions
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses 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.
National Analysis
We see a close-run race for 5G Coverage Experience, with Free Mobile leading the pack with a score of 3.7 points (on a 10-point scale), slightly ahead of Bouygues and SFR. Orange lags behind its competitors, with a score of 2.3 points.
Definitions
The Opensignal Coverage Experience metric measures the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel. The metric represents the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.
Traditional coverage metrics typically estimate either a percentage of land area covered, or a percentage of population covered; often neither will be an accurate measurement of the true user expectation and experience. In many markets there are areas where neither population density nor geographic area reflect the importance of coverage to users. For example, in a large mountain range most users will not expect coverage in the wilderness, but poor coverage in the relatively small area of a ski resort is critical for the enjoyment of a holiday. Estimates based purely on population give undue significance to coverage in the most densely populated areas.
Coverage Experience measures geographic coverage of populated areas and therefore more accurately reflects the coverage expectations and experience of typical users. It can give a result that is somewhat different to traditional estimates based on either geographic or population measures. The metric uses a scale from 0 to 10.
5G Coverage Experience shows the proportion of places 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
We see little difference in the time users in France spend with a mobile broadband connection on each operator. Free Mobile wins a close-run race for the Availability award with a spectacular score of 98.5%, beating Bouygues, Orange and SFR by around 0.4 percentage points. These scores mean users across all four national networks spent more than 98% time of their time, on average, connected to a 3G or better signal.
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
SFR steps up to the podium for 5G Availability with its score of 18.2%. Previous winner Free Mobile drops down to second place, sharing the position with Bouygues and Orange due to their statistically similar scores of 16.2-16.8%.
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.
Consistency
National Analysis
Orange is the winner of the Consistent Quality award in France, with a score of 82.3%, followed by Bouygues and SFR, with 78.8% and 76.7%, respectively. Free Mobile is further behind, scoring 72.5%. Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is 'good enough' for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices. This award replaces the previous report's Excellent and Core Consistent Quality awards.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is ‘good enough’ for users to maintain (or complete) various typical tasks on their devices.
We combine different experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet discard, and time to first byte to calculate Consistent Quality. These components are evaluated against thresholds recommended by various more demanding common applications used for a range of common tasks.
To calculate the metric value, the proportion of tests that pass the requirements of Consistent Quality is multiplied by the test success ratio, which is the proportion of completed tests to all tests conducted. Tests that pass indicate that activities such as video calling, uploading an image to social media, or using smart home applications will be possible without noticeable lag or slowdown.
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