+353-1-416-8900REST OF WORLD
+44-20-3973-8888REST OF WORLD
1-917-300-0470EAST COAST U.S
1-800-526-8630U.S. (TOLL FREE)

France - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

  • PDF Icon

    Report

  • October 2019
  • Region: France
  • Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd
  • ID: 4850852

France Looking for 5G Auction Enabling Licensees to Invest in Infrastructure

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in France’s telecommunications market. The report analyses the fixed-line, mobile and broadband sectors.

Subjects Include:


  • Market and industry analyses, trends and developments
  • Facts, figures and statistics
  • Industry and regulatory issues
  • Infrastructure developments
  • Major Players, Revenues, Subscribers, ARPU, MoU
  • Mobile Voice and Data Markets
  • Broadband (FttP, DSL, cable, wireless)
  • Mobile subscribers and ARPU
  • Broadband market forecasts
  • Government policies affecting the telecoms industry
  • Market liberalisation and industry issues
  • Telecoms operators - privatisation, IPOs, acquisitions, new licences
  • Mobile technologies (GSM; 3G, HSPA, LTE, 5G)

France has the third largest telecoms market in Europe, worth about €31 billion annually. The incumbent telco Orange Group is one of the world’s major players with interests in markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company is embarked on a multi-year investment program with an emphasis on fibre-based broadband and mobile infrastructure based on 5G. Despite market liberalisation, orange still dominates all sectors though increasing competition from a number of major players (notably Altice, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad) has gradually eroded this lead.

The mobile phone market, worth about €13 billion annually, is dominated by Orange, SFR Group (owned by Altice Group), Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile. Services based on LTE have near universal coverage, while 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.

France also has one of the largest broadband subscriber bases in Europe. Growth in recent years has been bolstered by demand for high bandwidth services, which has prompted considerable investment in fibre infrastructure among telcos and regional governments. DSL still dominates the broadband market in terms of access lines, though the number of DSL lines is falling as customers are migrated to fibre infrastructure. Fibre deployments have grown substantially in recent years, with all of the major ISPs concentrating their investments in the platform with a view to promoting 1Gb/s services. Their efforts have been encouraged by the regulator which is keen to see effective competition in fibre access.

This report assesses the key aspects of France’s telecom market, providing updated statistics on the country’s fixed network, an analysis of operator strategies, and a review of the key regulatory issues including the status of number portability, wholesaling and carrier preselection. The report also covers the mobile voice and data segments, including spectrum licensing and regulatory issues and profiles of the major players and MVNOs. In addition, the report analyses the fixed and fixed-wireless broadband markets, focussing on cable, DSL and the fast-developing FttP/C sectors. It reviews the strategies of the principal providers such as Orange, Iliad and Altice (SFR Group), and considers the regulatory status of LLU and access to fibre infrastructure. Subscriber forecasts to 2024 are provided for several market areas.

Key Developments:


  • Iliad sells its French tower portfolio to help fund 5G rollout
  • Orange stops promoting PSTN products
  • Regulator approves 5G trial licences in the 26GHz band
  • Altice increases the footprint of its 1Gb/s FttP service
  • DSL subscriber base continues to fall
  • The success of fibre co-investment deals among operators
  • Orange partners with Ericsson and Nokia to develop a path to 5G launches national LTE-M service
  • 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, telcos' financial and operating data to Q2 2019, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments

Table of Contents


1. Key statistics
2. Telecommunications market
2.1 Market analysis
2.2 Regional European Market Comparison
3. Regulatory environment
3.1 History
3.2 National legal framework
3.3 France NumErique 2012
3.4 Regulatory authority
3.5 Telecom sector liberalisation
4. Fixed network operators
4.1 Orange Group
4.2 Altice France
4.3 Free (Iliad)
4.4 Bouygues Telecom
5. Telecommunications infrastructure
5.1 National telecom network
5.2 International infrastructure
5.3 Smart infrastructure
6. Broadband market
6.1 Introduction and statistical overview
6.2 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
6.3 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
6.4 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
6.5 Other fixed broadband services
7. Mobile communications
7.1 Market analysis
7.2 Mobile statistics
7.3 Mobile infrastructure
7.4 Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
7.5 Mobile voice
7.6 Mobile data
7.7 Mobile broadband
7.8 Regulatory issues
7.9 Major mobile operators
7.10 Mobile content and applications
8. Appendix Historic data
List of Tables
Table 1 Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - France 2019 (e)
Table 2 Development in telecom service investment 2009 2018
Table 3 Change in end-user traffic volume in minutes by sector 2009 2019
Table 4 Percentage change in end-user traffic by sector 2009 2019
Table 5 Decline in telecom market revenue, by sector 2008 2019
Table 6 Development of end-user fixed-line market revenue (telephony, broadband) 2009 2019
Table 7 Change in the proportion of telecom revenue by sector 2009 2019
Table 8 Percentage change in end-user telecom market revenue 2009 2019
Table 9 End-user monthly bill by service 2010 2019
Table 10 Change in the number of fixed lines subscriptions by type 2009 2019
Table 11 Change in the number of unbundled and bitstream lines 2009 2019
Table 12 Decline in the number of Orange's wholesale broadband lines 2006 2019
Table 13 Development of annual fixed number porting 2005 2019
Table 14 Change in the number of Orange's customers by sector (France) 2006 2019
Table 15 Drop in the number of Orange's retail voice lines 2007 2019
Table 16 Development of Orange Group's financial data by sector 2008 2019
Table 17 Decline in Orange's domestic revenue 2007 2019
Table 18 Change in Orange's domestic telecom capex 2008 2019
Table 19 Change in the number of Orange's retail and wholesale lines 2006 2019
Table 20 Growth in the number of SFR Group's subscribers by type 2009 2019
Table 21 SFR Group financial data 2009 2019
Table 22 Change in SFR Group's revenue by type 2017 2019
Table 23 SFR Group telecom capex 2008 2019
Table 24 Increase in Free's revenue by segment 2009 2019
Table 25 Increase in the number of Free's subscribers by sector 2009 2019
Table 26 Change in the number of Bouygues Telecom's subscribers by sector 2009 2019
Table 27 Development of Bouygues Telecom's financial data 2009 2019
Table 28 Change in the number of fixed-lines in service, and penetration 2009 2024
Table 29 Change in the proportion of fixed lines by technology 2009 2019
Table 30 Development of international internet bandwidth 2009 2016
Table 31 Change in the number of broadband subscribers by platform 2009 2019
Table 32 Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration 2009 2024
Table 33 Growth in the number of superfast broadband connections 2011 2019
Table 34 Increase in the number of superfast broadband connections (>100Mb/s) by platform 2011 2019
Table 35 Change in broadband penetration by technology 2007 2018
Table 36 Change in the number of superfast cable broadband subscriptions 2011 2019
Table 37 Decline in the number of DSL subscribers 2009 2019
Table 38 Drop in the number of Orange's DSL subscriptions 2005 2019
Table 39 Development of Free's broadband revenue 2006 2019
Table 40 Growth in the number of Free's broadband subscriber base 2005 2019
Table 41 Free broadband subscriber ARPU 2013 2019
Table 42 Growth in the number of SFR's broadband subscriber base, by type 2005 2019
Table 43 Increase in the number of SFR broadband homes passed 2009 2019
Table 44 Increase in the number of FttP equipped and passed buildings 2008 2019
Table 45 Increase in the number of FttP subscribers 2011 2019
Table 46 Increase in the number of Orange's fibre subscribers and connected premises 2006 2019
Table 47 Increase in the number of Free's fibre subscribers 2015 2019
Table 48 Increase in the number of Bouygues Telecom's broadband and fibre subscribers 2010 2019
Table 49 FttP subscriptions via shared networks 2015 2019
Table 50 Developments in mobile retail revenue and network investment 2009 2019
Table 51 Development of investment in 3G and LTE infrastructure 2013 2018
Table 52 Decline in average monthly bill, ARPU - 2006 2019
Table 53 Increase in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration rate 2019 2024
Table 54 Increase in the number of active mobile subscribers 2009 2019
Table 55 Change in mobile market share of subscribers by MNO 2016 2019
Table 56 Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers (national, excl. M2M) 2011 2019
Table 57 Change in the proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers 2009 2019
Table 58 Change in the number of active 3G and LTE subscribers 2007 2019
Table 59 Increase in the number of Free Mobile's LTE subscribers 2014 2019
Table 60 Free Mobile average LTE data use 2015 2019
Table 61 3G base stations in service by operator October 2019
Table 62 2G base stations in service by operator October 2019
Table 63 Increase in the number of M2M cards in use 2011 2019
Table 64 Development of revenue from M2M cards 2009 2019
Table 65 Growth in mobile voice traffic 2009 2019
Table 66 Growth in mobile voice traffic in minutes by type (quarterly) 2006 2019
Table 67 Growth in annual mobile voice traffic by type 2008 2019
Table 68 Growth in mobile data traffic 2008 2019
Table 69 Growth in average mobile data traffic per LTE subscriber 2011 2019
Table 70 Increase in average mobile data traffic per mobile subscriber 2011 2019
Table 71 Change in SMS traffic volume (national) 2004 2019
Table 72 Decline in annual SMS traffic 2003 2019
Table 73 Growth in annual MMS traffic 2003 2019
Table 74 Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration 2009 2024
Table 75 Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers 2007 2019
Table 76 2.6GHz spectrum results Sep 2011
Table 77 Growth in mobile roaming out voice traffic 2009 2019
Table 78 Change in the number of annual mobile numbers ported 2009 2019
Table 79 Change in the number of Orange's mobile subscribers 2009 2019
Table 80 Decline in Orange's ARPU and ARPO 2009 2019
Table 81 Change in Orange's mobile-only revenue (new style) 2016 2019
Table 82 Change in Orange's mobile customer churn 2009 2019
Table 83 Change in SFR's mobile revenue (under Altice) 2015 2019
Table 84 Development of SFR's subscriber base by type 2006 2019
Table 85 Growth in Free Mobile's mobile subscriber base 2012 2019
Table 86 Growth in Free Mobile's mobile revenue 2012 2019
Table 87 Growth in Bouygues Telecom's mobile subscriber base 2005 2019
Table 88 Decline in Bouygues Telecom's mobile ARPU 2007 2019
Table 89 Development of Bouygues Telecom's financial data by type 2005 2019
Table 90 Orange MVNO subscribers 2009 2019
Table 91 Increase in the number of MNO and MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 2019
Table 92 Change in MVNO market share of subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 2019
Table 93 Historic - Telecom service investment 2002 2009
Table 94 Historic - End-user fixed-line market value 2003 2009
Table 95 Historic - Proportion of fixed lines by technology 2004 2009
Table 96 Historic - International internet bandwidth 2000 2009
Table 97 Historic - End-user traffic volume in minutes by sector 2002 2099
Table 98 Historic - End-user traffic growth by sector 2002 2009
Table 99 Historic Change in end-user telecom market revenue 2004 2009
Table 100 Historic - Fixed lines subscriptions by type 2003 2009
Table 101 Historic - Unbundled and bitstream lines 2002 2099
Table 102 Historic - Indirect fixed line connections 2006 2016
Table 103 Historic - Dial-up internet subscribers 2005 2015
Table 104 Historic - Internet users and penetration rate 1995 2015
Table 105 Historic - Dial-up internet traffic 2004 2014
Table 106 Historic - Cable broadband subscribers 2000 2017
Table 107 Historic - DSL subscribers 2000 2009
Table 108 Historic - Broadband subscribers by platform 2000 2009
Table 109 Historic - Proportion of premises covered by superfast broadband networks 2012 2017
Table 110 Data market revenue by type (historic) 2002 2012
Table 111 Historic - Mobile retail revenue 1998 2009
Table 112 Historic - Mobile subscribers (national, old format incl. M2M) and penetration rate 1999 2014
Table 113 Historic - Annual mobile numbers ported 2004 2009
Table 114 Prepaid and contract subscribers (old format national, incl. M2M) 2005 2014
Table 115 Growth in Mobile voice traffic 1998 2019
Table 116 Historic - Mobile market share of subscribers by operator 2005 2015
Table 117 Historic - Proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers 1999 2009
Table 118 Historic - Mobile interconnection revenue 2003 2017
Table 119 Historic - Mobile roaming out voice traffic 2003 2009
Table 120 Historic - Orange mobile revenue by type 2011 2017
List of Charts
Chart 1 Development in telecom service investment 2009 2018
Chart 2 Change in end-user traffic volume in minutes by sector 2009 2019
Chart 3 Percentage change in end-user traffic by sector 2009 2019
Chart 4 Decline in telecom market revenue, by sector 2008 2019
Chart 5 Development of end-user fixed-line market revenue (telephony, broadband) 2009 2019
Chart 6 Change in the proportion of telecom revenue by sector 2009 2019
Chart 7 Change in the number of fixed lines subscriptions by type 2009 2019
Chart 8 Europe Telecoms Maturity Index Market Leaders (top tier)
Chart 9 Europe Telecoms Maturity Index Market Challengers (middle tier)
Chart 10 Europe Telecoms Maturity Index Market Emergents (bottom tier)
Chart 11 Overall view - Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita
Chart 12 Europe - mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 13 Scandinavia and Baltics: mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 14 Northern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 15 Southern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 16 Eastern Europe mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 17 Scandinavia and Baltics fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 18 Northern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 19 Southern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 20 Eastern Europe fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 21 Change in the number of unbundled and bitstream lines 2009 2019
Chart 22 Decline in the number of Orange's wholesale broadband lines 2006 2019
Chart 23 Development of annual fixed number porting 2005 2019
Chart 24 Change in the number of Orange's customers by sector (France) 2006 2019
Chart 25 Drop in the number of Orange's retail voice lines 2007 2019
Chart 26 Development of Orange Group's financial data by sector 2008 2019
Chart 27 Decline in Orange's domestic revenue 2007 2019
Chart 28 Change in the number of Orange's retail and wholesale lines 2006 2019
Chart 29 Growth in the number of SFR Group's subscribers by type 2009 2019
Chart 30 SFR Group financial data 2009 2019
Chart 31 Change in SFR Group's revenue by type 2017 2019
Chart 32 Increase in Free's revenue by segment 2009 2019
Chart 33 Increase in the number of Free's subscribers by sector 2009 2019
Chart 34 Change in the number of Bouygues Telecom's subscribers by sector 2009 2019
Chart 35 Development of Bouygues Telecom's financial data 2009 2019
Chart 36 Change in the number of fixed-lines in service, and penetration 2009 2024
Chart 37 Change in the proportion of fixed lines by technology 2009 2019
Chart 38 Development of international internet bandwidth 2009 2016
Chart 39 Change in the number of broadband subscribers by platform 2009 2019
Chart 40 Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration 2009 2024
Chart 41 Growth in the number of superfast broadband connections 2011 2019
Chart 42 Increase in the number of superfast broadband connections (>100Mb/s) by platform 2011 2019
Chart 43 Change in broadband penetration by technology 2007 2018
Chart 44 Change in the number of superfast cable broadband subscriptions 2011 2019
Chart 45 Decline in the number of DSL subscribers 2009 2019
Chart 46 Drop in the number of Orange's DSL subscriptions 2005 2019
Chart 47 Development of Free's broadband revenue 2006 2019
Chart 48 Growth in the number of Free's broadband subscriber base 2005 2019
Chart 49 Growth in the number of SFR's broadband subscriber base, by type 2013 2019
Chart 50 Increase in the number of SFR broadband homes passed 2009 2019
Chart 51 Increase in the number of FttP equipped and passed buildings 2008 2019
Chart 52 Increase in the number of FttP subscribers 2011 2019
Chart 53 Increase in the number of Orange's fibre subscribers and connected premises 2006 2019
Chart 54 Increase in the number of Free's fibre subscribers 2015 2019
Chart 55 Increase in the number of Bouygues Telecom's broadband and fibre subscribers 2010 2019
Chart 56 Developments in mobile retail revenue and network investment 2009 2019
Chart 57 Development of investment in 3G and LTE infrastructure 2013 2018
Chart 58 Decline in average monthly bill, ARPU - 2006 2019
Chart 59 Increase in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration rate 2019 2024
Chart 60 Change in mobile market share of subscribers by MNO 2016 2019
Chart 61 Change in the number of prepaid and contract subscribers (national, excl. M2M) 2011 2019
Chart 62 Change in the proportion of prepaid versus contract subscribers 2009 2019
Chart 63 Change in the number of active 3G and LTE subscribers 2007 2019
Chart 64 Increase in the number of Free Mobile's LTE subscribers 2014 2019
Chart 65 Increase in the number of M2M cards in use 2011 2019
Chart 66 Development of revenue from M2M cards 2009 2019
Chart 67 Growth in mobile voice traffic 2009 2019
Chart 68 Growth in annual mobile voice traffic by type 2008 2019
Chart 69 Growth in mobile data traffic 2008 2019
Chart 70 Growth in average mobile data traffic per LTE subscriber 2011 2019
Chart 71 Increase in average mobile data traffic per mobile subscriber 2011 2019
Chart 72 Change in SMS traffic volume (national) 2004 2019
Chart 73 Decline in annual SMS traffic 2003 2019
Chart 74 Growth in annual MMS traffic 2003 2019
Chart 75 Growth in the number of active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration 2009 2024
Chart 76 Change in the number of dedicated mobile broadband subscribers 2007 2019
Chart 77 Growth in mobile roaming out voice traffic 2009 2019
Chart 78 Change in the number of annual mobile numbers ported 2009 2019
Chart 79 Change in the number of Orange's mobile subscribers (France) 2009 2019
Chart 80 Decline in Orange's ARPU and ARPO 2009 2019
Chart 81 Change in Orange's mobile-only revenue (new style) 2016 2019
Chart 82 Change in Orange's mobile customer churn 2009 2019
Chart 83 Change in SFR's mobile revenue (under Altice) 2015 2019
Chart 84 Development of SFR's subscriber base by type 2006 2019
Chart 85 Growth in Free Mobile's mobile subscriber base 2012 2019
Chart 86 Growth in Free Mobile's mobile revenue 2012 2019
Chart 87 Growth in Bouygues Telecom's mobile subscriber base 2005 2019
Chart 88 Decline in Bouygues Telecom's mobile ARPU 2007 2019
Chart 89 Development of Bouygues Telecom's financial data by type 2005 2019
Chart 90 Increase in the number of MNO and MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 2019
Chart 91 Change in MVNO market share of subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 2019
List of Exhibits
Exhibit 1 Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 2 Access and the local loop
Exhibit 3 Principal FttP and FttC (FttLA) deployments
Exhibit 4 3G licensees
Exhibit 5 Reassigned multi-spectrum holdings (900MHz) 2021 2025
Exhibit 6 Operating MVNOs and network provider

Companies Mentioned

  • Altice (SFR Group, Numéricable)
  • Bouygues Telecom
  • Iliad (Free, Free Mobile)
  • Omea Telecom
  • Orange
  • Virgin Mobile