Free was active on 4G in June, but also on 5G. As of July 1, operator Xavier Niel once again had more new 5G operational positions than its competitors. It even exceeds the 10,000 symbolic milestone.
ANFR just published its observatory for 5G deployment. As of July 1, 2021, 31,580 sites have been approved, including 16,974 technically working sites.
Free stays ahead of its three competitors, all frequencies combined, surpassing the token bar of 10,000 5G operating locations. Xavier Niel has slowed slightly, but still maintains its pace on the 700MHz band allowing it to claim the largest 5G network in France (announced to exceed 50% last May and target 80% of the population at the end of 2021). Out of 10,250, 10,248 operate on this bandwidth to ensure better coverage and better building penetration. The telecom operator activated 720 sites in April 2021 and 780 in May 2021. It activated 664 sites in June 2021. Followed by Bouygues Telecom, with 3150 sites, which crossed the €3,000 threshold. If they get close, Orange and SFR are still below the 2000 mark.
The classification was created as follows:
- Free mobile: 10,250 5G sites in operation (+664 in May 2021)
- Bouygues Telecom: 3,150 active 5G sites (+197)
- Orange: 1,869 5G sites active (+210)
- SFR: 1,705 5G operating locations (+211)
Freestyle is more active than its competitors combined, and still operates fully at 700MHz
At the end of June 2021, Free Mobile had an additional 664 sites running on 5G, including 664 on the 700MHz band allowing better coverage and 160 on the 3.5GHz band providing better speeds. That’s more than 618 for competitors combined. In detail, there are 211 new for SFR, 210 new for Orange and 197 new for Bouygues Telecom.
Orange still first on 5G 3.5GHz, wakes up SFR
Orange remains #1 on the 3.5GHz band with 1,594 operating locations on the so-called “base” frequency band. It outperforms Free Mobile, Bouygues, and SFR with 1,303, 1,187 and 911 new sites, respectively. If the red-square operator brings up the back on the 5G 3.5GHz site count, it keeps whipping up to catch up. With 213 new operational locations, nearly Orange and a few dozen more Free Mobile (+160) and Bouygues Telecom (+157) have been activated.
