Free Mobile signed a 2G and 3G roaming agreement with Orange on 3 March 2011. It will run until the end of 2020. 100% of the 2G traffic will go through Orange's network as Free Mobile has no 2G license.
Network deployment
Free Mobile has for legal obligation to cover 27% of the French population by January 2012, 75% by January 2015 and 90% by January 2018. Free Mobile was already covering 30% of the French population in November 2011. A 3G roaming agreement with Orange enables communications channeled through Orange's network, which covers about 98% of the French metropolitan population according to ARCEP. Free Mobile was covering 37.3% of the French population in July 2012. Xavier Niel announced its network was covering 50% in January 2013. ARCEP confirmed that Free Mobile covered 78% of the population in January 2015. An estimated 18,000 antennas, depending on the frequencies, are required to cover the whole French metropolitan area. Free Mobile operates roughly 17,000 3G antennas and 14,800 4G antennas as of January 2020. Number of 3G and 4G antennas in service :
Service launch
confirmed that Free covers enough of the country to open commercially and start using its roaming agreement with Orange. For the few first years Free will pay Orange to get a full national coverage, for the roaming license agreement as it arrived late to the mobile market. Free Mobile launched its two offers on 10 January 2012. Both offers are without commitment and without subsidized phones.
4G license (2600 MHz)
Free Mobile obtained a 4G license on 22 September 2011 for 271 million euros for a duplex 20 MHz band in the 2600 MHz frequency band. It failed to obtain further bands in the 800 MHz frequency band.
4G launch
Xavier Niel announced on his Twitter account the availability of the 4G on 3 December 2013. 4G was added, at no additional cost, to the current commercial packages.
Additional 4G frequency bands (1800 MHz)
Free Mobile has been granted 15 MHz duplex bands in the 1800 MHz frequency band to balance with the licenses offered for free in this band to the other operators back in early 2000s. 5 MHz have been available between January and June 2015 and the remaining 10 MHz will be on 25 May 2016.
Additional 4G frequency bands (700 MHz)
The auction for the 700 MHz frequency band started on 16 November 2015. Initial bidding price was set at 416 million euros per 5 MHz duplex band. Six bands were for sale. The auction ended on 17 November 2015. Free mobile bought two bands at 466 million euros.
3G data roaming throttling
Free Mobile announced covering 85% of the population in 3G as of 1 July 2016. 3G data roaming throttling will be applied on Orange network:
Free Mobile launched its two offers on 10 January 2012. The number of customers rose quickly in Q1 2012 and again in Q4 2012, after Free Mobile upgraded its €2.00 offer on 6 December 2012. Number of customers : Free Mobile reached 5,205,000 customers, an 8% market share, in its first year. Free Mobile currently holds a 19% market share. Its long-term goal is a 25% market share.
