The telecoms regulatory authority publishes the results of its twenty-third survey of French mobile networks.
The digital divide has not yet been completely bridged, as evidenced by the results of the twenty-third survey by the telecoms authority (Arcep) on the quality of service of mobile networks. The gap may have narrowed, but it is still real: subscribers benefit from better service in cities than in rural areas. All aspects are concerned, from telephone communication, to video streaming and file sharing.
Orange dominates the ranking. It comes ahead of its competitors in almost all the use cases analyzed by Arcep and in all geographical configurations: cities, less densely populated areas or major transport routes. Behind him, Bouygues Telecom, Free and SFR are generally in a pocket handkerchief. For example, in dense areas, the four operators have very high results in the web page display test: they are displayed in less than 10 seconds in 98% of attempts for Orange, 97% for Bouygues Telecom, 95% for Free Mobile and 94% for SFR. But in rural areas in rural areas, Orange (90%) is followed by Free Mobile (86%) then Bouygues Telecom and SFR (81%). The latter two share their network in the territories, which explains why they have the same results there. For download speeds, the same observation: Orange stands out, but this time, Free is fourth and last.
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For the moment, the use of 5G does not have a major impact on the ranking. This network is still being deployed by operators and its immediate benefit lies above all in the additional capacity it provides where mobile networks are heavily used or even saturatedexplains Arcep. It is therefore necessary to wait until the operators have in particular mutated their network cores so that the notable differences between 4G and 5G connections can be quantified. Which should start to happen next year.
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Another particularity of this test campaign, version 2022, it was carried out in summer. This has two consequences. The first is that the average results, all operators combined, are down slightly over one year. Arcep attributes this phenomenon to the period: in 2021, subscribers traveled less, due to successive confinements, and made less use of the networks. Second, some results may have been distorted by the high temperatures. The point is a bit technical, but the most recent smartphones adapt to the temperature by putting certain applications in the background, as soon as the temperature exceeds 42 degrees. Their operation is therefore modified and data had to be corrected. In the future, Arcep may have to establish two barometers, one in cool weather and the other in heat waves!
Last lesson finally, statements made by Arcep, if points remain to be improved on the French mobile networks, the subscribers can nevertheless be satisfied to profit from services among the most powerful of Europe.
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