Free prides itself on seeing the quality of its mobile services improve significantly in France, based on an Arcep survey. However, this survey focuses on the Metropolis: Free therefore does not talk about the DROM-COM.
The mobile operator claims it: its services have recorded clear progress in many indicators. If the progress is to be congratulated, there is a communication pirouette on the part of Free: the survey mentioned focuses on mainland France and does not address the DROM-COM.
Free first (or second) almost everywhere
In a press release from Iliad, the parent company of Free, we learn that the latter is first or second (sometimes tied) with regard to 201 indicators out of the 278 examined by Arcep. Free bases its results on “ railway lines, rural areas and medium-sized towns (less than 400,000 inhabitants) » with a number 1 or number 2 place in 80% of the indicators.
“ The overall quality of Free’s mobile services reaches an excellent level“, we read in the press release.
Where it stands out is mainly in download speeds and video streaming. The operator also claims to cover “more99% of the French population on 3G/4G and 92% on 5G.»
However, this information is only based on mainland France: if Free’s mobile coverage map clearly indicates this (in small lines at the bottom of the page), this is not the case in the Free press release. ‘Illiad.
And the DROM-COMs in all this? Free is less efficient
Formerly “DOM-TOM”, the overseas departments and regions and overseas communities represented 2.8 million inhabitants in 2019 according to INSEE, or 4% of the French population. Arcep also conducts surveys on the quality of mobile services outside the mainland. Its last report focused on the Antilles (which includes Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin) and Guyana, published last May.
This is the first time that Free Caraibes, Iliad’s division for this sector, has seen its performance measured by Arcep.
Reading this report sheds light on the reasons why Illiad does not communicate or hardly communicates about its presence in the DROM-COM. In the Antilles and Guyana, Free Caribbean coverage varies between 75 and 97%. But what we realize in the Arcep report is that Free is (except on the speed test above 3 Mbit/s in living spaces in Saint-Barthélemy) still behind the historic operator Orange. Free is also regularly overtaken by other players present, Digicel and Dauphin Telecom. This does not mean that Free Caraibes is a bad operator, simply that it is not the best.
As for Reunion (860,000 inhabitants), Mayotte (255,000 inhabitants) or New Caledonia (270,000 inhabitants), Free is simply not present there.
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