“Surprise” Free, the package 20 GB to 10 euros a month? – ZDNet France

That prepares us for Free Tuesday? The operator organizes indeed a mysterious morning press conference. On
  cardboard, except the date and time, a coded message:
 “U3VycHJpc2U =” … A tour on Google tells us that it is
 a message Base64 meaning “surprise”.

Since then, speculation is growing. “Between now and the end of February,” Xavier Niel Free boss had promised
  Another “surprise” for fixed subscribers, perhaps through a box before the launch of the new high-end box, v7 successor to the Revolution and is expected by the end of the year.

In mobile, Free had recently promised a surprise that would be announced early in the year. And
 if it were a house smartphone, branded under Free Mobile
 Android or Firefox OS? In any case it was his understanding that the Figaro in February citing “a discrete rumor” that goes in this direction

But the troublemaker could further, much further. Besides, organizing a press conference at Free always foreshadows something “heavy”. Thus, according to the Tribune, the operator could announce a new tariff in the mobile revolution, bringing his package of 19.99 euros to 10 euros per month!

“I’m going to blow up, just put 10 euros, “Niel have launched during a telephone conversation with the leader of a competitor, reveals our colleague. The operator could therefore again upset the French mobile market, much to the chagrin of its competitors who are just getting the head of the water and betting on price stabilization after successive declines that sealed their finances.

The idea would be to Bouygues Telecom knees (the most fragile), the sworn enemy of Xavier Niel, and why not buy it cheaply or let Altice (SFR / Numericable) do the dirty BouyguesTel job and recover the network to satisfy the Competition Authority. The French number 3 is indeed one that would have the most difficulty cashing a new font in prices.

Obviously such a decline would also impact Free, including ARPU and therefore its profits. But the calculation is also to encourage many customers of the offer to 2 euros per month to migrate to the upper envelope for “only” 8 euros more or less being Freebox subscriber. Besides the many customers that Free resume again to competition.

The balance between volume generated by the new tariff and any loss of profit is at stake in this announcement. Unless Free opts for a solution in-between with a price dropped to 15.99 euros each and 10 euros for Freebox subscribers only? However, a further decline in wholesale price in the industry may again undermine the capacity of investment by operators

And the next spending approach. Furthermore the band of 700 Mhz will be put to auction this year, it will also quickly address the 5G will require very substantial costs.