While France was quite late in offering 5G after many countries in Asia, the number of users of the next-generation network has seen strong growth in the past year.
Two years after its commercial launch, 5G continues to seduce users. According to the latest figures published in a recent Arcep report, the number of active users on 5G networks has reached a new record of 8.2 millionwith a growth of 2.0 million in one quarter, which represents the largest increase since its commercial launch in December 2020. In 2022, 5.2 million new users have switched to the new generation.
Regarding its market share, the proportion of active cards on 5G networks has seen a sharp increase, from 7% to 10% in the fourth quarter of 2022. This rapid growth could be a sign that users are adopting the new technology more and more quickly, in particular thanks to the multiplication of offers from all French operators.
4G does not retreat, despite the rise of 5G
While one might think that 4G is being replaced by 5G, this is not the case. In parallel, 4G networks, which still represent the majority of SIM cards in servicerecorded a modest growth of 7% in one year, with a total of 68.9 million users in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In terms of subscription types, packages continue to dominate, with a total of 75 million packages out of the 82.7 million SIM cards in service. However, the annual rate of plan growth slowed significantly this quarter, with only 2.0 million increases compared to almost 2.5 million since the start of 2021. This decline could be due to the termination exceptional number of inactive subscriptions.
Despite the positive 5G numbers, other reports had indicated that the rollout was significantly less intense than when it first started. Indeed, according to figures from Ookla, France is only in 9th place in terms of 5G availabilitythe technology being present in only 19.3% of the territory.
Source : Arcep
