Free, SFR, Orange, Bouygues…who has the best mobile network?

L’ARCEP unveiled its new comparison between Orange, SFR, Free and Bouygues to find out who has the best telecom network. In the city, the results remain quite solid for everyone, but, as soon as we move away to the countryside or in certain places, such as trains, certain suppliers stand out.

The telecoms authority points out that territorial disparities remain, with rural areas lagging 10 to 20 points behind large cities in terms of call quality.

Who has the best network?

Between Orange, Bouygues, SFR and Free, it’s Orange which won the prize for best telecom network according to ARCEP, particularly outside rural areas.

According to the authority, the company has superior call quality to other operators. In the city, competition remains tight, and it is Bouygues Telecom which is doing well, closely followed by Orange.

It must be remembered that the cities naturally benefit from denser infrastructure and an optimal network of antennas, which allows users to make their calls with almost perfect quality, while the countryside remains a little less well served.

This year, theARCEP evaluated mobile internet differently. Rather than looking at maximum speeds, it checks whether the connections really allow you to use the web.

Connections are evaluated according to three levels corresponding to concrete uses: the first allows you to surf the Internet, the second allows you to watch videos online. streamingand the third, higher, is necessary for videoconferencing and collaborative work tools.

The idea is to measure actual user experience rather than focusing on raw numbers.

The best network on the roads?

ARCEP does not just analyze cities and countryside. She also looks at roads and transport in general, and there, no matter the service, it quickly becomes a disaster.

Mobile coverage remains strong on roads and in metros, with successful calls in almost all cases. On the other hand, everything becomes complicated at high speed, especially in TGVwhere call quality drops sharply and web browsing becomes slow.

Intercity and TER do little better, and calls via applications like WhatsApp are generally less reliable than traditional communications.

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