The ANFR is a public institution responsible for planning, managing and controlling the use of public domain radio frequencies. A kind of super policeman of the waves. As part of its mission, the agency publishes a monthly observatory of mobile network deployments while updating the cartoradio.fr site, a cartographic platform listing all the radioelectric sites in the national territory.
A calm month… very calm even
The latest report stops its count on August 1, 2023. The ANFR counts on this date 41,699 authorized 5G sites, that is to say having received the installation and transmission agreement. 32,108 sites are declared by the operators as technically operational, which means that they transmit, but that they are not necessarily commercially open. Compared to the previous month, the number of authorized 5G sites increased by only 1.1%. Note that only seven sites are entirely dedicated to 5G.
Let’s go into a bit of detail. 22,181 authorized sites transmit on the 700 MHz band used by Free Mobile, Orange and Telco OI (Telecom Réunion Mayotte), of which 17,045 are declared technically operational, compared to 21,994 and 16,924 respectively on July 1 (i.e. +0.85 and +0.71%). The table is essentially the same for the 2100 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands.
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Orange, a surprising position
Let’s see this now by operator, a table made more complex by the pooling game. Excluding this last factor, Free Mobile has the highest number of operational 5G sites with 17,051 units, followed by Bouygues Telecom (11,080), SFR (9,788) and Orange (7,284). Of course, these figures do not reflect the quality of the network and the speeds they allow to be achieved. In addition, the table is different depending on the frequency bands. So in 700 MHz, Free Mobile is alone…well, almost, because Orange has a station in this band. ConverselyFree Mobile is totally absent on the 2100 MHz band.
4G: minimal investments
The 4G network includes 64,676 authorized sites in France on August 1, compared to 64,427 on July 1. A minimal increase there too: +0.39%. SFR was the most active on this very calm sea, followed by Free Mobile. In total number of 4G sites, Orange dominates with 29,316 units in service. Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free follow in order.