Deployment 4G : SFR outperforms Orange – 01net.com

After two years of reign without sharing, Orange was overtaken by Bouygues Telecom in a number of media 4G put into service in France in the month of October 2016. On 2 February, it is the turn of SFR* cross in front of the historic operator, according to the latest figures from the Observatory 4G of the ANFR. Headed to the pole, the Orange finds itself relegated to the third place in the standings, while Free farm ban. Here are the figures :

• Bouygues Telecom (11 047 sites, + 447 in January)
• LICOS (10 341 sites, + 506 in January)
• Orange (10 335 sites, + 297 in January)
• Free Mobile (7 816 sites, + 248 in January)

Note that if Bouygues Telecom is still in the lead, it is the SFR that shows the most active with 506 new sites put into service in January 2017. But if we look at the number of sites allowed, the gap is narrowing between Bouygues Telecom (12936 allowed sites) and SFR (12285 allowed sites). The games are, therefore, open to the rest of the year and it is not excluded that the SFR will eventually snag one in the first place. The operator further stated recently that he was the operator who had deployed the largest number of frequencies per site, which would allow him to boost the speed of its subscribers.

Free Mobile removal

note that the number of antennas does not cover : it is also necessary to take into account the frequencies used. Orange remain in first place on the plan of coverage, affecting 88% of the population, just ahead of Bouygues Telecom, which reached 85%, SFR 81% and Free Mobile, which showed 73% of the population covered at September 30.

in this regard, the ceo of Iliad, Maxime Lombardini has justified the fourth place of Free during his hearing at the national Assembly this 1^st February on the mobile coverage and fixed. the ” We have received spectrum 700 MHz which are released gradually, which explains that we are a little bit less present than the other three operators. The latter already had spectrum in the 800 MHz, very useful to carry the 4G in the countryside “, has justified the leader. And indeed, we see that Free Mobile has already put into service on 388 sites and has obtained permissions for 589 media. Therefore, it is the only one to invest in this frequency band.

This is not sufficient to explain the gap that separates it from its competitors the most dynamic in terms of deploying 4G. Also note that Free Mobile has increased very little in the number of 3G sites – 8757 sites in service in February against 8190 in December-then even the speed in roaming with Orange is limited to 1 Mbit/s download and 448 kbit/s upload from the 1^st January, 2017.

*01net.com is published by a subsidiary of NextRadioTV, which itself is owned 49% deSFR Media.