Which operator offers the best mobile network in the different areas of the country? To answer this, Arcep is lifting the lid on the 22nd edition of its annual survey to assess the quality of service of metropolitan mobile operators. Orange is once again a big winner. Free Mobile is improving and performing in rural areas.

The dynamic deployment of 4G and 5G networks will continue at high speed in 2021, subscribers to the four operators will not all be able to say the opposite. On November 19, Arcep published the results of its mobile services measurement campaign over the year: “a clear improvement in the quality of service for mobile internet, after a year 2020 marked by the health crisis”, summarizes the regulator.

In total, more than 1 million measurements in 2G, 3G, 4G, and for the first time, in 5G, were carried out in all departments, from May to September 2021, in places of life - at the inside and outside buildings – and in transport. The survey focused on the most popular mobile services: web browsing, video playback, data transfer, SMS and voice calls.

So which operators were the most efficient according to the zones? Unsurprisingly, Orange confirms its leading position for the eleventh consecutive year and “shows the best results by arriving 1st or 1st exæquo on 366 of the 403 criteria measured”, he congratulates himself this morning. The incumbent operator remains the leader in terms of quality of mobile service with a 4G, data, voice and sms offer and terminal, in dense, intermediate, rural and tourist areas, on main roads and on all rail lines (TGV , metro, transiliens, RER, intercity).

Free records the best progress in mobile quality of service

Starting by far, Free Mobile records the best progress in all mobile quality of service indicators. “We are the second operator that has made the most progress compared to last year with, in particular, an improvement rate of +55% on speeds in all areas.”

In this respect, the average speed measured for Orange is thus 110 Mbit/s, followed by SFR (69 Mbit/s), then Bouygues (55 Mbit/s) and Free Mobile (50 Mbit/s). In rural areas, Free mobile offers the second best average speed, behind the historic operator. “This translates into very good results in terms of usage: Free is second in terms of web page display speed and video viewing (streaming). Entering the mobile market 15 years after the other players, Free has now established itself as the 1^st alternative operator in sparsely populated areas,” says Xavier Niel’s operator.

Lagging behind in speeds, Free Mobile is penalized at first sight by the test mode, namely in "mono-connections", i.e. consisting of opening and using a single connection flow between the mobile and the server where the file to be downloaded is hosted. If it is today the majority use on the Internet according to Arcep, this protocol can reveal the efforts of optimization of the networks of the operators in this direction but also the differences between the speeds measured by the regulator and those from applications such as nPerf favoring “multi-connection” tests, which put more emphasis on the “maximum capacity” of the network in terms of speeds. For its part, Free Mobile seems to limit the download of a single file. The reasons for this restriction are not known, but this limitation gives very different results depending on the mode chosen.

In any case, the quality of mobile Internet service is improving significantly in general thanks to the investment policy of the telcos. “This trend is particularly visible for the results of web browsing and online video viewing tests: in dense and intermediate areas, Orange can display web pages in less than 5 seconds in 98% of cases, followed by Bouygues Telecom (96%), SFR (95%) then Free Mobile (93%). In rural areas, Orange (90%) is this time ahead of Free Mobile (83%) then Bouygues Telecom and SFR (81%), reveals the regulator.

As for video viewing (streaming), in dense areas Bouygues Telecom is ahead of Orange, when their two other rivals bring up the rear In intermediate and rural areas, Orange is in the lead, with a lead of 4 points over its competitors, Free placed second in streaming in the campaigns.

Initial measurements of 5G quality of service, Orange ahead on speeds, Free is a hit on attachment

For the first time, Arcep has implemented a protocol to test quality of service for a subscriber with a package and a smartphone compatible with 5G. Orange thus offers the best download speeds, with an average of 142 Mbit/s throughout France. “The operator's 5G subscribers in dense areas, where most of their 5G sites are deployed, have an average of 227 Mbit/s. It is followed by SFR, with 84 Mbit/s on average throughout France and 145 Mbit/s only in dense areas, then Bouygues Telecom (71 Mbit/s on average, 130 Mbit/s in dense areas). Free is last with 31 Mbit/s on average, with few differences between dense areas and intermediate or rural areas”, reveals Arcep.

Covering more than 70% of the population in 5G by choosing to deploy the 700 MhHz band in addition to the cozur 3.5 GHz band, Free Mobile today relies on a close mesh of the territory of what import it on the 5G "hook rate", i.e. the share of speed tests carried out with 5G compatible measurements that actually "used" 5G to download files. On this indicator, Free is 2^th in dense areas, and very largely 1^st in intermediate, tourist and rural areas.