France - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses
The French mobile phone market remains one of the largest in Europe. Operators have consistently invested over 2 billion in their network infrastructure in recent years in a bid to deploy new technologies and keep pace with customer demand for mobile broadband services. Fierce competition among the four MNOs and a large number of MVNOs has caused mobile services revenue to fall steadily, to just above 14 billion in 2015. This pressure has encouraged operators to look to convergence and bundled services, and so expand their offerings beyond mobile voice and data.
Orange and SFR dominate the market, followed by Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile. The three largest players all host a number of MVNOs. Free Mobile, having launched commercial services in 2012 with low pricing which continues to have repercussions in the market into 2016, has expanded its network reach and capabilities. Regulatory measures have ensured that the company has access to sufficient spectrum to be an effective market competitor.
This report provides key statistics and analyses on the French mobile voice and data market. It assess 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:
Orange and Bouygues call off merger talks; regulator consults on revised guidelines for mobile network sharing; RED Technologies pilots Licensed Shared Access using 2.3GHz spectrum; MNOs agree on 40 million program to cover remaining mobile dead zones by 2020; LTE available nationally; Bouygues Telecom joins the Telefónica Partners Program, Omea Telecom becomes the first full MVNO in France; MVNO market share stable at 10.6% of subscribers; Virgin Mobile launches quad-play service; femtocells create mesh networks; Orange launches low-cost brand; report update includes the regulator's market data to December 2015, operator data to Q4 2015, recent market developments.
Companies mentioned in this report:
Orange, SFR, Free Mobile, Bouygues Telecom, Virgin Mobile, Omea Telecom.
- 1. Synopsis
- 2. Market analysis
- 3. Mobile statistics
- 3.1 General statistics
- 3.2 Mobile voice
- 3.2.1 Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE)
- 3.3 Mobile data
- 3.3.1 Short Message Service (SMS)
- 3.3.2 Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
- 3.4 Mobile broadband
- 3.5 Forecasts mobile subscribers 2016; 2018; 2021
- 3.5.1 Notes on scenario forecasts
- 4. Regulatory issues
- 4.1 Spectrum regulations and spectrum auctions
- 4.1.1 GSM
- 4.1.2 3G Licensing round one
- 4.1.3 3G Licensing round two
- 4.1.4 3G Licensing round three
- 4.1.5 900 and 1800MHz frequencies
- 4.1.6 Public Analogue Mobile Radio (PAMR)
- 4.1.7 700MHz
- 4.1.8 800MHz
- 4.1.9 2.6GHz
- 4.2 900MHz
- 4.3 1800MHz
- 4.4 2.3GHz shared spectrum
- 4.5 2.6GHz
- 4.6 Network sharing
- 4.7 Mobile termination rates (MTR)
- 4.8 SMS interconnection
- 4.9 Roaming
- 4.10 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
- 4.11 Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC)
- 5. Mobile infrastructure
- 5.1 Digital networks
- 5.2 Third Generation (3G) mobile
- 5.3 Long-term Evolution (LTE)
- 5.3.1 Bouygues Telecom
- 5.3.2 SFR
- 5.3.3 Orange
- 5.3.4 Free Mobile
- 5.3.5 Other players
- 5.4 Other infrastructure developments
- 5.4.1 General Packet Radio Services (GPRS)
- 5.4.2 High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA)
- 5.4.3 High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)
- 5.4.4 Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE)
- 5.4.5 Femtocells
- 6. Major mobile operators
- 6.1 Orange
- 6.1.1 Network contracts
- 6.1.2 JV with Deutsche Telekom (DT)
- 6.2 SFR
- 6.2.1 Network contracts
- 6.3 Free Mobile
- 6.4 Bouygues Telecom
- 6.4.1 Network contracts
- 6.4.2 Attempts at company sale
- 6.5 MVNOs
- 7. Mobile content and applications
- 7.1 Location based services
- 7.2 Near Field Communication (NFC)
- 7.3 Mobile satellite services
- 8. Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
- 9. Related reports
- Table 1 Mobile sector investment 2007 - 2016
- Table 2 Mobile services revenue 1998 - 2016
- Table 3 Average monthly bill, ARPU - 2006 - 2015
- Table 4 Historic - Mobile subscribers (national, old format incl. M2M) and penetration rate 1999 - 2004
- Table 5 Mobile subscribers (national, old format incl. M2M) and penetration rate 2005 - 2014
- Table 6 Mobile subscribers (national) and penetration rate 2013 - 2017
- Table 7 Mobile services traffic in minutes 1998 - 2016
- Table 8 Mobile voice traffic in minutes 2006 - 2015
- Table 9 Mobile operator market share 2005 - 2014
- Table 10 Prepaid and contract subscribers (old format national, incl. M2M) 2005 2014
- Table 11 Percentage of prepaid versus contract subscribers 1999 - 2015
- Table 12 Prepaid and contract subscribers (national, excl. M2M) 2011 2017
- Table 13 Data market revenue 2002 - 2014
- Table 14 Data as proportion of mobile service revenue 2004 - 2015
- Table 15 Historic - mobile services revenues by sector 2007 - 2012
- Table 16 Mobile data traffic (TB) 2008 - 2016
- Table 17 Average mobile data traffic per subscriber 2011 - 2015
- Table 18 Average mobile data traffic per 3G/LTE subscriber 2011 - 2015
- Table 19 SMS traffic volume (national) 2004 - 2016
- Table 20 Annual SMS volume (national) 2003 - 2015
- Table 21 Annual MMS volume 2000 - 2015
- Table 22 Active mobile broadband subscribers 2007 - 2016
- Table 23 Dedicated mobile broadband subscribers 2007 - 2016
- Table 24 Forecast - mobile subscribers - 2016; 2018; 2021
- Table 25 2.6GHz spectrum results Sep 2011
- Table 26 Mobile termination charges 2005 - 2013
- Table 27 Mobile interconnection revenue 2003 - 2014
- Table 29 Mobile roaming in revenue and traffic in minutes 2003 - 2015
- Table 32 Annual mobile numbers ported 2004 2015
- Table 33 2G base stations in service by operator February 2016
- Table 34 3G base stations in service by operator February 2016
- Table 35 Active 3G subscribers and proportion of total 2007 - 2015
- Table 36 LTE base stations in service by operator February 2016
- Table 37 Active LTE subscribers and proportion of total 2014 - 2015
- Table 38 Orange mobile subscribers (France) 2005 - 2015
- Table 39 Orange blended, contract, prepaid ARPU (Q4) 2005 - 2015
- Table 40 Orange mobile consumer revenue 2005 - 2015
- Table 41 Orange mobile customer churn 2003 2015
- Table 42 Orange mobile customer acquisition costs 2007 - 2015
- Table 43 SFR mobile annualised ARPU 2005 - 2015
- Table 44 SFR revenue (historic) 2004 - 2013
- Table 45 SFR annualised mobile ARPU (historic) 2005 - 2013
- Table 46 SFR subscribers 2006 - 2015
- Table 47 Free Mobile mobile subscribers 2012 - 2015
- Table 48 Free Mobile mobile revenue 2012 - 2015
- Table 49 Bouygues Telecom subscribers 2005 - 2015
- Table 50 Bouygues Telecom mobile ARPU 2007 - 2015
- Table 51 Bouygues Telecom financial data 2005 - 2015
- Table 52 MNO and MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 - 2015
- Table 53 MVNO market share (metropolitan) 2005 - 2015
- Table 54 M2M cards in use 2011 - 2015
- Table 55 Average monthly revenue from M2M cards 2011 - 2015
- Table 56 Numéricable-SFR M2M cards in use 2013 - 2015
- Chart 1 Average monthly bill and ARPU - 2006 2015
- Chart 2 Mobile subscribers (national) and penetration rate 2005 2014
- Chart 3 Mobile voice traffic in minutes 2006 2015
- Chart 4 Mobile operator market share 2005 2014
- Chart 5 Prepaid and contract subscribers (national) 2005 2014
- Chart 6 Data market revenue 2003 2014
- Chart 7 Quarterly SMS traffic volume; SMS/user/month (national) 2004 - 2016
- Chart 8 Mobile termination charges 2005 - 2013
- Chart 9 Mobile roaming in revenue and traffic in minutes 2003 - 2015
- Chart 10 Active 3G subscribers and annual change 2007 - 2015
- Chart 11 Orange mobile subscribers (France) 2005 2015
- Chart 12 Orange blended, contract, prepaid ARPU 2005 2015
- Chart 13 Orange mobile customer acquisition costs 2007 - 2015
- Chart 14 SFR subscribers 2006 - 2015
- Chart 15 Bouygues Telecom financial data 2005 2015
- Chart 16 MNO, MVNO subscribers (metropolitan) 2005 - 2015
- Exhibit 1 3G licensees
- Exhibit 2 Operators GPRS and GPRS/Wi-Fi launch dates
- Exhibit 3 Operating MVNOs and network provider 2016
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