France - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

The French mobile phone market is one of the largest in Europe, worth about €13 billion annually. The network operators Orange, SFR Group (owned by Altice Group), Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile have invested in network infrastructure and technologies in recent years. Services based on LTE have near universal coverage, while the network operators have undertaken extensive 5G trials and are looking to launch commercial services in the second half of 2020. This timing is being supported by the auction of spectrum in a range of bands.

Competition among the MNOs and a large number of MVNOs caused mobile services revenue to fall steadily until 2017, since when growth has been low but steady. Pressure on revenue has encouraged operators to look to convergence and bundled services, and so expand their offerings beyond mobile voice and data.

This report provides key statistics and analyses on the French mobile voice and data market. It assesses recent developments related to spectrum licensing and regulatory issues, and profiles the major players and MVNOs, providing statistics on their operating and financial performance as well as their strategies in an increasingly fierce competitive market.

Key developments:

Iliad sells its French tower portfolio to help fund 5G rollout;
Regulator approves 5G trial licences in the 26GHz band;
Bouygues and SFR permitted to use 2.1GHz spectrum for LTE;
Orange partners with Ericsson and Nokia to develop a path to 5G, launches national LTE-M service;
Regulator consults on revised guidelines for mobile network sharing;
Regulator to make 1.5GHz spectrum available for 5G by 2022;
MVNO market share increases to 11.1% of subscribers;
Report update includes the regulator's market data to June 2019, operator data to Q2 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Orange, SFR, Free Mobile, Bouygues Telecom, Virgin Mobile, Omea Telecom

Table of Contents

Market analysis
Mobile statistics

General statistics

Mobile infrastructure

5G
4G (LTE)

Bouygues Telecom
SFR
Orange
Free Mobile

Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
Mobile voice

Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE)

Mobile data

Short Message Service (SMS)
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Mobile broadband
Regulatory issues

Spectrum regulations and spectrum auctions

GSM
3G Licensing – round one
700MHz
800MHz
2.6GHz
900MHz
1800MHz
1.5GHz
2.3GHz shared spectrum
2.1GHz
3.5Hz
Spectrum reassignment – November 2018

Network sharing
Mobile termination rates (MTRs)
Roaming
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Major mobile operators

Orange
Altice France
Free Mobile
Bouygues Telecom
MVNOs

Mobile content and applications

m-payments
m-banking

Appendix – Historic data
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Developments in mobile retail revenue and network investment – 2009 – 2019
Table 2 – Development of investment in 3G and LTE infrastructure – 2013 – 2018
Table 3 – Decline in average monthly bill, ARPU - 2006 – 2019
Table 4 – Increase in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2019 – 2024
Table 5 – Increase in the number of active mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 6 – Change in mobile market share of subscribers by MNO – 2016 – 2019
Table 7 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers (national, excl. M2M) – 2011 – 2019
Table 8 – Change in the proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 9 – Change in the number of active 3G and LTE subscribers – 2007 – 2019
Table 10 – Increase in the number of Free Mobile’s LTE subscribers – 2014 – 2019
Table 11 – Free Mobile average LTE data use – 2015 – 2019
Table 12 – 3G base stations in service by operator – October 2019
Table 13 – 2G base stations in service by operator – October 2019
Table 14 – Increase in the number of M2M cards in use – 2011 – 2019
Table 15 – Development of revenue from M2M cards – 2009 – 2019
Table 16 – Growth in mobile voice traffic – 2009 – 2019
Table 17 – Growth in mobile voice traffic in minutes by type (quarterly) – 2006 – 2019
Table 18 – Growth in annual mobile voice traffic by type – 2008 – 2019
Table 19 – Growth in mobile data traffic – 2008 – 2019
Table 20 – Growth in average mobile data traffic per LTE subscriber – 2011 – 2019
Table 21 – Increase in average mobile data traffic per mobile subscriber – 2011 – 2019
Table 22 – Change in SMS traffic volume (national) – 2004 – 2019
Table 23 – Decline in annual SMS traffic – 2003 – 2019
Table 24 – Growth in annual MMS traffic – 2003 – 2019
Table 25 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Table 26 – Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers – 2007 – 2019
Table 27 – 2.6GHz spectrum results – Sep 2011
Table 28 – Growth in mobile roaming out voice traffic – 2009 – 2019
Table 29 – Change in the number of annual mobile numbers ported – 2009 – 2019
Table 30 – Change in the number of Orange’s mobile subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 31 – Decline in Orange’s ARPU and ARPO – 2009 – 2019
Table 32 – Change in Orange’s mobile-only revenue (new style) – 2016 – 2019
Table 33 – Change in Orange’s mobile customer churn – 2009 – 2019
Table 34 – Change in SFR’s mobile revenue (under Altice) – 2015 – 2019
Table 35 – Development of SFR’s subscriber base by type – 2006 – 2019
Table 36 – Growth in Free Mobile’s mobile subscriber base – 2012 – 2019
Table 37 – Growth in Free Mobile’s mobile revenue – 2012 – 2019
Table 38 – Growth in Bouygues Telecom’s mobile subscriber base – 2005 – 2019
Table 39 – Decline in Bouygues Telecom’s mobile ARPU – 2007 – 2019
Table 40 – Development of Bouygues Telecom’s financial data by type – 2005 – 2019
Table 41 – Orange MVNO subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Table 42 – Increase in the number of MNO and MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) – 2005 – 2019
Table 43 – Change in MVNO market share of subscribers (metropolitan) – 2005 – 2019
Table 44 – Data market revenue by type (historic) – 2002 – 2012
Table 45 – Historic - Mobile retail revenue – 1998 – 2009
Table 46 – Historic - Mobile subscribers (national, old format incl. M2M) and penetration rate – 1999 – 2014
Table 47 – Historic - Annual mobile numbers ported – 2004 – 2009
Table 48 – Prepaid and contract subscribers (old format national, incl. M2M) – 2005 – 2014
Table 49 – Growth in Mobile voice traffic – 1998 – 2019
Table 50 – Historic - Mobile market share of subscribers by operator – 2005 – 2015
Table 51 – Historic - Proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers – 1999 – 2009
Table 52 – Historic - Mobile interconnection revenue – 2003 – 2017
Table 53 – Historic - Mobile roaming out voice traffic – 2003 – 2009
Table 54 – Historic - Orange mobile revenue by type – 2011 – 2017

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Developments in mobile retail revenue and network investment – 2009 – 2019
Chart 2 – Development of investment in 3G and LTE infrastructure – 2013 – 2018
Chart 3 – Decline in average monthly bill, ARPU - 2006 – 2019
Chart 4 – Increase in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2019 – 2024
Chart 5 – Change in mobile market share of subscribers by MNO – 2016 – 2019
Chart 6 – Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers (national, excl. M2M) – 2011 – 2019
Chart 7 – Change in the proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers – 2009 – 2019
Chart 8 – Change in the number of active 3G and LTE subscribers – 2007 – 2019
Chart 9 – Increase in the number of Free Mobile’s LTE subscribers – 2014 – 2019
Chart 10 – Increase in the number of M2M cards in use – 2011 – 2019
Chart 11 – Development of revenue from M2M cards – 2009 – 2019
Chart 12 – Growth in mobile voice traffic – 2009 – 2019
Chart 13 – Growth in annual mobile voice traffic by type – 2008 – 2019
Chart 14 – Growth in mobile data traffic – 2008 – 2019
Chart 15 – Growth in average mobile data traffic per LTE subscriber – 2011 – 2019
Chart 16 – Increase in average mobile data traffic per mobile subscriber – 2011 – 2019
Chart 17 – Change in SMS traffic volume (national) – 2004 – 2019
Chart 18 – Decline in annual SMS traffic – 2003 – 2019
Chart 19 – Growth in annual MMS traffic – 2003 – 2019
Chart 20 – Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2009 – 2024
Chart 21 – Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers – 2007 – 2019
Chart 22 – Growth in mobile roaming out voice traffic – 2009 – 2019
Chart 23 – Change in the number of annual mobile numbers ported – 2009 – 2019
Chart 24 – Change in the number of Orange’s mobile subscribers (France) – 2009 – 2019
Chart 25 – Decline in Orange’s ARPU and ARPO – 2009 – 2019
Chart 26 – Change in Orange’s mobile-only revenue (new style) – 2016 – 2019
Chart 27 – Change in Orange’s mobile customer churn – 2009 – 2019
Chart 28 – Change in SFR’s mobile revenue (under Altice) – 2015 – 2019
Chart 29 – Development of SFR’s subscriber base by type – 2006 – 2019
Chart 30 – Growth in Free Mobile’s mobile subscriber base – 2012 – 2019
Chart 31 – Growth in Free Mobile’s mobile revenue – 2012 – 2019
Chart 32 – Growth in Bouygues Telecom’s mobile subscriber base – 2005 – 2019
Chart 33 – Decline in Bouygues Telecom’s mobile ARPU – 2007 – 2019
Chart 34 – Development of Bouygues Telecom’s financial data by type – 2005 – 2019
Chart 35 – Increase in the number of MNO and MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) – 2005 – 2019
Chart 36 – Change in MVNO market share of subscribers (metropolitan) – 2005 – 2019

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – 3G licensees
Exhibit 2 – Reassigned multi-spectrum holdings (900MHz) – 2021 – 2025
Exhibit 3 – Operating MVNOs and network provider

Related Reports

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Licence Information

Focus Report Profile

Technologies

Mobile & Wireless Broadband and Media
Mobile Communications (voice and infrastructure)
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)

Number of pages 110

Status Current

Last updated 25 Oct 2019
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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France - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report:

Market analysis

Mobile statistics

Mobile infrastructure

Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

Mobile voice

Mobile data

Mobile broadband

Regulatory issues

Major mobile operators

Mobile content and applications

Appendix – Historic data

Related reports