The growth of 5G network deployments continued in France in 2022, reaching over 6 million users at the end of last year.
It is no exaggeration to say that 5G is the subject of more or less proven criticism (on its usefulness, its energy and environmental cost, its deployment, etc.), enough to temper the enthusiasm of the French about it. However, as indicated by the telecoms regulator, ARCEP, in the latest repository of digital uses, “ growth in deployments and number of users on 5G networks continues “. But how much, then?
Users, speeds and antennas: 5G continues to be rolled out in France
At the end of the third quarter of 2022, there were 6.2 million active mobile cards on 5G networks, among the 83 million identified. This is certainly still a small proportion (7% of all mobile cards), but in one year, the number of active users on the 5G network (to put it another way) has increased by 287% from 1 .6 to 6.2 million.
5G covers a larger part of the territory thanks to an increasing number of sites. 35,500 5G sites were commercially open as of September 30, 2022, 60% more than a year earlier. Note that the number of sites equipped with 3,500 MHz bands (the core band, or “true 5G” as it can be called) is also increasing, from 10,600 in Q3 2021 to 16,600 in Q3 2022.
4G, for its part, is far from having said its last word
Flow rates are also increasing. In 2022, the download speeds of consumers who have a mobile phone and a compatible 5G plan (2G/3G/4G/5G combined) reached 94 Mbits/s on average, compared to 63 for active 4G users (who remain limited to 2G/3G/4G networks).
The rate of users of 4G networks reached 84% at the end of last year, which represents approximately 70 million SIM cards in operation. Despite the emergence of 5G, we are still seeing growth in 4G usage, with an active base that swelled by 5 million users between the third quarter of 2021 and Q3 2022.
Finally, note the growth in fiber optic subscriptions (+3.7 million in one year) which reached 17.1 million households, for less than 4 million very high speed subscriptions (cable and VDSL2).
Source : ARCEP
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