Never change a winning team.
Free chooses to apply the same recipes to 5G as for 4G.
It launches its plans for the new generation of mobile telephony at no extra cost and immediately announces a very wide coverage of the territory.
Its three packages including mobile data envelopes are now compatible with 5G.
It therefore offers a subscription at 9.99 euros per month for Freebox Pop subscribers, with unlimited data.
The price drops to 15.99 euros for Freebox holders and 19.99 euros for others.
The latter also comes with an envelope limited to 150 GB of data.
With these rates, Free is the most aggressive on the market.
Bouygues Telecom and SFR, for their part, launched subscriptions at 25 euros per month for 130 GB of data.
40% of the population covered
In terms of coverage, Xavier Niel's operator also wants to be the best seller on the market.
It claims 5,255 active sites and 40% population coverage.
This wide coverage is explained by the choice to use “
frequencies in the 700 MHz band, the 1st frequency band fully available since mid-2019 for 5G according to Arcep, as well as the 3.5 GHz band acquired in France. end of the auction in 2020 ”
.
In a press release the group explains that this mix of frequency bands allows it to offer "
wide coverage and a good signal inside buildings thanks to the so-called low frequencies (700 MHz
)" and "
ultra-fast speeds thanks to at 70 MHz in the high frequency band (3.5 GHz)
”.
The war on the quality of coverage is therefore open, with a debate that risks triggering on the nature of 5G.
Orange Bouygues Telecom and SFR have chosen to use the 3.5 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands.
They also cover fewer cities that Free but are working extra hard to quickly expand their coverage.