Orange, best mobile network in 2023, and behind?

Orange still outperforms Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free Mobile on almost all measures.

The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep) has published the results of its annual survey on the quality of mobile networks in France. And as is often the case, Orange emerges as the big winner from the study.

Bouygues Telecom performs well in dense areas, less so in rural areas

All residential areas combined, Orange presents the best results in the three new categories drawn up by Arcep: speeds greater than 3 Mbps, 8 Mbps and 30 Mbps. Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile and SFR are neck and neck on the lower thresholds (3 Mbps and 8 Mbps), while Free Mobile is behind its competitors on the 30 Mbps threshold.

In dense areas, such as medium and large cities, Bouygues Telecom manages to hold its own against Orange, while SFR and Free Mobile are further behind. Bouygues Telecom, on the other hand, is the operator suffering the most in rural areas.

“There are significant differences in quality depending on locations and operators”warns Arcep, which invites users to compare performances themselves via the My mobile network tool depending on the type of areas (dense, intermediate or rural) where they live and the transport routes used.

Free Mobile upgrades voice quality

At the national level, voice quality improves in 2023 compared to 2022, indicates the barometer. The perfect quality call indicator (the rate of calls maintained for two minutes and without audible disturbances) reached 96% at Orange, 95% at Bouygues Telecom and 92% at SFR and Free Mobile in dense areas. In intermediate areas, Free Mobile progressed by 6 points to make up for its delay, catching up with SFR at 91% and trailing Bouygues Telecom at 92%, Orange remaining leader at 95%. In rural areas, Bouygues Telecom confirms its difficulties, last with 76%, compared to 78% for SFR and Free Mobile and 85% for Orange.

For streaming video viewing, the four operators do equally well in dense areas (97%), but Orange stands out in rural areas at 89%, compared to 85% at SFR, 84% at Free Mobile and 82% at Bouygues Telecom .

The quality of web browsing (pages displayed in less than 10 seconds) is high in dense areas (Orange at 97%, Bouygues Telecom at 96%, SFR at 94% and Free Mobile 93%. In rural areas, the differences are greater significant: Orange is leader with 84%, followed by Free Mobile at 78%, SFR at 77% and Bouygues Telecom at 75%.

Source : Arcep