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 users have the most reliable experience
Orange is the first French operator to win Opensignal’s new Reliability Experience award. It does so with a score of 906 points on a 100-1000 point scale and a lead of 10 points over second-placed Bouygues’ 897 points. Reliability Experience measures the ability of our users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) tasks on operators’ networks.
Bouygues users experience the best 5G coverage
Bouygues is the new outright winner of the 5G Coverage Experience award, replacing the previous winner Free Mobile. Bouygues wins with a score of 4.3 points on a 10-point scale and a slender lead over now second placed Free Mobile’s 4.1 points. 5G Coverage Experience measures the extent of 5G mobile networks in the places people live, work and travel in the form of geographic 5G coverage in populated areas.
Orange users see the fastest average speeds in France, both overall and on 5G
As was the case in our last report Orange wins all four speed awards outright: Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, 5G Download Speed and 5G Upload Speed. Orange wins Download Speed Experience this time around with a score of 78.4Mbps and a lead of 11Mbps (16%) over second-placed SFR’s 67.4Mbps. The average 5G download speeds seen by our Orange users — 335.6Mbps — are 89Mbps (36%) faster than those seen by users on second-placed SFR.
Free Mobile and SFR keep hold of the Availability and 5G Availability awards, respectively
Our Free Mobile users continue to spend the highest proportion of time with a mobile broadband connection (3G, 4G or 5G). Free Mobile therefore remains the outright winner of the Availability award, winning it with a score of 98.6% and a very slender lead given second-placed Bouygues’ 98.3%. Similarly, SFR is still the outright winner of the 5G Availability award as our 5G users on its network continue to have an active 5G connection for the greatest proportion of time.
Orange has the Best Network
Orange earns the title of Best Network. This recognition goes to those operators providing outstanding overall experiences nationally in key Opensignal metrics. For France these categories are Reliability Experience, Consistent Quality, Download Speed Experience and Coverage Experience.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
Orange continues to take home the lion’s share of awards. This time it wins 10 out of 14 awards outright, including all four speed awards and both video awards. As Orange wins the new Reliability Experience award, along with Consistent Quality, Coverage Experience and Download Speed Experience, it also earns the title of Best Network.
Bouygues and SFR have the next most impressive hauls — they share the overall Games Experience award and each win a single award outright — 5G Coverage Experience (Bouygues) and 5G Availability (SFR). Free Mobile takes home one award — Availability, instead of the two that it won in the previous report, as it has lost the 5G Coverage Experience award to Bouygues.
In September 2024, Free Mobile claimed to be the first French operator to deploy 5G standalone access (SA) technology on a national scale and the first to launch Voice over New Radio (VoNR). SA is harder to deploy than non-standalone access technology because it uses a 5G core network, removing the requirement for 5G users to also be connected to 4G when using 5G services. SA enables the ability to provide users with bespoke premium connectivity via network slicing and improves the latency of connections. VoNR enables users on SA networks to make non-over-the-top voice calls without dropping down to 4G or lower. It also improves calls’ connection times, latency, voice quality and battery drain.
So far in 2024, Free Mobile has twice increased the amount of mobile data bundled with its 5G Free Mobile Plan — from 250GB/month to 300GB/month in May and to 350GB/month in October. Our Free Mobile users have seen the most impressive increase in average 5G download speeds since the previous report, but when we make more recent comparisons, we can see that they have been falling slightly — after peaking at 186.6Mbps for the 90 day period starting 18th April and ending on 16th July — more than 10Mbps faster than the 174.9Mbps shown in this report.
In May 2024, MVNO Lebara switched its host operator from Orange to SFR. SFR also announced in June that from the middle of the month, all SFR subscribers would be given access to 5G services free of charge. Recently, the 5G download speeds seen by our SFR users peaked on the 90 days ending 8th June at 271.1Mbps before falling to the 246.6Mbps seen in this report.
This summer, Paris hosted the 2024 Olympic Games, with Orange being the event’s sole communications partner. Opensignal analyzed the mobile experience during the Games’ opening ceremony and throughout the Games — with a focus on Reliability Experience and packet loss.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in France — Orange, SFR, Free Mobile and Bouygues — over a period of 90 days starting on August 01, 2024, and ending on October 29, 2024, to see how they fared.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Orange remains the outright winner of the Video Experience award. It wins this time around with a score of 69.6 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of around one point over SFR and Bouygues, which place in second with their statistically tied scores of 68.3-68.5 points. Free Mobile comes fourth with a score of 66.1 points.
Our SFR users have seen the greatest improvement from the previous report, as its score has risen by four points. The other operators’ scores have increased by three points.
Orange, SFR and Bouygues place in the Very Good (68-78) category, while Free Mobile places one category lower, in Good (58-68).
A Very Good (68-78) rating means that our users are, on average, able to stream video at 1080p or better with satisfactory loading times and little stalling. A Good (58-68) rating means that 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 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
SFR and Bouygues are the new joint winners of the Games Experience award due to their statistically tied scores of 66.7-66.8 points on a 100-point scale. This is a change from the previous report, when Orange was the outright winner. Bouygues and SFR have a lead of around one point over Orange and Free Mobile, which share third place with their statistically tied scores of 65.2-65.6 points.
Our SFR and Free Mobile users’ experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections have improved by two points from the previous report. Bouygues' score has increased by one point, while Orange's score has decreased by two points.
All operators place in the Fair (65-75) category. This means that users find the experience to be ‘average’. In most cases the game is responsive to the actions of the player with most users feeling like they have control over the game. The majority of players notice 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
Our Orange users continue to see the fastest average overall download speeds in France. Orange therefore remains the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award. It wins this time with a score of 78.4Mbps and a lead of 11Mbps (16%) over second-placed SFR’s 67.4Mbps. Bouygues comes third with a score of 61.4Mbps, while Free Mobile is last with 60.3Mbps.
All four operators’ scores have increased significantly since the previous report. This is not surprising, given rising 5G adoption and the higher speeds our users see when connected to 5G. According to GSMA Intelligence data, the percentage of 5G connections in France rose to 27% in Q3 2024, up from the 15.1% seen in Q3 2023. Our Free Mobile users’ speeds have increased the most from those seen in the last report, rising by 19Mbps. SFR is next with a rise of 16Mbps. Orange’s and Bouygues’ scores have risen by 11Mbps and 10Mbps, respectively.
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 continues to win the Upload Speed Experience award outright. It does so on this occasion with a score of 9.3Mbps and a slender lead over SFR and Bouygues, which share second place with their identical scores of 8.9Mbps. Free Mobile comes fourth with a score of 7.2Mbps.
The average overall upload speeds seen by our Free Mobile users have increased by 2Mbps compared to those in the last report. Users with all three of its rivals have also seen improvements in their upload speeds. SFR’s, Orange’s and Bouygues’s scores have all improved by 1Mbps.
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 continues to win the 5G Video Experience award outright. It does so this time around with a score of 77.6 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of one point over Bouygues, which places in second with its score of 76.3 points. SFR and Free Mobile share third place with statistically tied scores of 75.8-76 points.
All four French operators’ scores are up from those in the last report. Free Mobile's, SFR’s and Orange’s scores have increased by three points, while Bouygues' has risen by two points.
All operators place in the Very Good (68-78) category. This means that our users are, on average, able to 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
Orange has gone from sharing the 5G Games Experience award with Bouygues in the last report, to winning it outright. Orange does so with a score of 79.5 points on a 100-point scale and a lead of around one point over SFR and Bouygues, which place in second with their statistically tied scores of 78-78.3 points. Free Mobile comes fourth with a score of 76.6 points.
Both Free Mobile's and SRF’s scores have increased by two points, compared to those in the last report. Orange's score has risen by one point, while Bouygues' score hasn't changed by a significant amount since the previous report.
All operators place in the Good (75-85) category. This means that most users deem their experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over 5G connections acceptable. The gameplay experience is generally controllable and users receive immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Most users do not experience a delay between their actions and the game.
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, Orange is the outright winner of the 5G Download Speed award. This time around it wins with a score of 335.6Mbps and a lead of 89Mbps (36%) over SFR, which places in second with its score of 246.6Mbps. Bouygues is in third place with a score of 213.6Mbps. Free Mobile is last with a score of 174.9Mbps.
Free Mobile's score has increased by 23Mbps (15%) from the last report, while SFR's has risen by 13Mbps. In contrast, Orange's and Bouygues' scores haven't changed a significant amount since the previous report.
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 continues to win the 5G Upload Speed award outright, doing so this time around with a score of 24.3Mbps and a lead of 2Mbps over SFR, which places in second with its score of 21.9Mbps. Bouygues comes third with a score of 20.9Mbps. Free Mobile is last with a score of 15.9Mbps.
Free Mobile's, SFR’s and Orange’s scores have all increased by 2Mbps from those seen in the previous report, while Bouygues' has risen by 1Mbps.
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
National Analysis
Orange continues to be the outright winner of the Coverage Experience award. It wins this time with a score of 9.3 points on a 10-point scale and a lead of under one point over second placed SFR’s 8.9 points. Bouygues comes third with a score of 8.7 points, while Free Mobile is last with 8.4 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.
National Analysis
Bouygues is the new outright winner of the 5G Coverage Experience award outright, replacing the previous winner Free Mobile. Bouygues wins with a score of 4.3 points on a 10-point scale and a slender lead over now second placed Free Mobile’s 4.1 points. SFR comes third with a score of four points. Orange is in last place with 3.3 points.
All four operators’ scores are up from those seen in the last report. Bouygues, Orange's and SFR's scores have increased by one point. Free Mobile's score has increased by less than a point.
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.
National Analysis
Once again, Free Mobile wins the Availability award outright — this time doing so with a score of 98.6% and a very slender lead given second-placed Bouygues’ 98.3%. This means that our Free Mobile users spent the greatest proportion of time with a mobile broadband connection (3G, 4G or 5G). Orange and SFR share third place with statistically tied scores of 98-98.1%.
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.
National Analysis
As was the case in the previous report, SFR is the outright winner of the 5G Availability award. It wins this time around with a score of 18.1% and a lead of around two percentage points over Orange and Bouygues, which place in second with their statistically tied scores of 15.8-16%. Free Mobile comes fourth with a score of 15.1%.
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.
Consistency
National Analysis
Orange is once again the outright winner of the Consistent Quality award. It wins with a score of 83.8% and a lead of two percentage points over second-placed Bouygues’ 81.5%. SFR comes third with a score of 80.2%, while Free Mobile is in last place with 77.3%.
This metric 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. It assesses a number of experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte.
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.
National Analysis
Orange is the first French operator to win Opensignal’s new Reliability Experience award. It does so with a score of 906 points on a 100-1000 point scale and a lead of 10 points over second-placed Bouygues’ 897 points. SFR and Free Mobile share last place with statistically tied scores of 880-881 points.
Opensignal’s Reliability Experience measures the ability of our users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) tasks on operators’ networks. It consists of the following components:
Signal Availability — The proportion of time Opensignal users can successfully connect to a mobile network
Data Connectivity — the proportion of time when the network is available and the device can connect to the internet
Task completion — whether tasks initiated by the user’s device are completed
Sufficiency — The probability that (basic) tasks will be executed sufficiently well for the user
Definitions
Opensignal’s Reliability Experience measures the ability of Opensignal users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) tasks on communication service providers’ (CSP) networks. It analyzes how much Opensignal users’ experience is affected by the radio access and core network, along with issues that prevent them from connecting to the internet even if they have a connection to their CSP’s network. It also factors in users’ ability to successfully use lower performance applications including SD video, over-the-top 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