Arcep has just published on January 12, 2023 its latest telecoms market observatory dedicated to the 3rd quarter of 2022. The opportunity to draw up an inventory of the sector and to note the growing share of active users on 5G networks in France .
This January 12, 2023, Arcep updated its telecoms market observatory with the figures for the 3rd quarter of 2022. The opportunity for the institution to draw up an inventory of the sector, whether on the number of optical fiber subscriptions, on the users’ average mobile data consumption or the number of text messages sent per subscriber each month.
For example, we learned from the Arcep report that VoWiFi continues to grow in popularity in France. Indeed, in the 3rd quarter of 2022, out of 47.7 billion minutes sent from mobile terminals, 4.5% were sent via WiFi. This represents an impressive increase of 24% in just one year.
In this study, Arcep also looked at the number of active users on 5G networks in France. The institution reveals that we have exceeded the 6.2 million active users on 5G networks in the country during the 3rd quarter of 2022. In other words, 5G subscribers currently represent 6% of the total number of SIM cards in service in France. Interestingly, their number grew by 1.1 million in just one quarter, and by 4.5 million over one year.
4G remains the number 1 network in France, 3G hangs on
For its part, 4G obviously remains the dominant standard, with 69.7 million active users on these networks over the same period. More surprisingly, 3G is still just as popular, with 69.3 million users. “The annual growth of 4G users has fluctuated between +8% and +10% for nearly two years (+5 million), while that of 3G users has experienced a decline since the start of 2022: approximately +2 million against between +3 and +4 million the three previous quarters”, specifies Arcep.
As a reminder, a study conducted by Ookla and published in December 2022 confirmed that the deployment of 5G was lagging behind in France, compared to other countries. According to the organization, France is in 9th place in terms of 5G availability, with 19.3%. The leading trio consists of the United States, Cyprus and South Korea.
