The quality of the mobile Internet is improving, except in rural areas – Le Figaro

The mobile operators are pursuing the deployment of 4G in France, but great disparities between rural areas and big cities.

For the third consecutive year, Orange outperformed its competitors in terms of mobile Internet. This is indicated by the seventeenth annual study by the Regulatory Authority for Communications and telecoms (ARCEP) on the coverage and quality of mobile services, published on Tuesday. ARCEP carried 600,000 2G measures, 3G and 4G on the entire territory in different areas (rural, intermediate and dense) and transport networks (TGV, mainline trains, regional trains, Metro and highways). Many indicators are taken into account, such as transferring files, browsing the Web, phone calls or exchange of SMS. The report concludes that operators have improved the speed and coverage of the mobile Internet on the French territory, but their customers benefit unevenly.

“The 4G is deployed in France, the flow increases and all operators are improving, “said this morning on Europe 1 Loutrel Benoît, CEO of ARCEP. Four mobile operators, Orange displays the best results in terms of overall service quality. If Bouygues Telecom, second, and SFR, third, retain their positions in 2014 and 2015, “Free Mobile gets significantly worse outcomes on many indicators,” said ARCEP. In deploying 4G, Orange also leads with a national coverage of 35%. Follow Bouygues Telecom (31%), Free (26%) and SFR (21%). A report by ARCEP published in April, the number of users of mobile broadband has doubled in a year.

The deployment of 4G works in favor of customers who can browse the Internet at a rate more rapid. “The flows measured with a 4G terminal is now a national average of 18 megabits per second,” when they were three times less in 2014. In dense area, Orange customers can enjoy a 4G speed up to 48 megabits per second. However, the flow rates do not increase in the same proportions according to the zones. In rural areas, the average speed of 4G is 6 megabits per second, the same as in 2015. In urban areas of more than 400,000 inhabitants, it went from 22 to 30 megabits per second.

“the deployment, especially in rural areas, should continue to narrow the gap between rural and dense area. ARCEP will be very careful, “warns the regulatory authority. In February, she had given notice in advance Bouygues Telecom and SFR for not keeping their commitments regarding national coverage 4G. The government then announced an investment of 30 million euros to cover 268 towns centers where it remains impossible to call to exchange SMS and browse the Internet with mobile. A year earlier, the operators had committed to provide 3G to 2200 cities that are not covered, by mid-2017.

The transport networks are not covered equally according to the operators. Overall transport networks, Orange exceeds again the other operators. Since February, the operator covers almost the entire line of TGV Paris-Lyon in mobile Internet high speed broadband. The report ARCEP points the delay on the Free 4G coverage transport networks. The four operators share a common view of poor performance in the Paris metro, covered 16% of mobile Internet.