The free mobile network

Free offers several applications, available on the Google Play Store or on the App Store. Among them, there is in particular a special customer dedicated to voicemail, whose touch control is much easier than traditional voice command. The app Free Mobile – My account, also available on iPad, allows for consume in real time to avoid being faced with an unexpected over-shipping.

Free mobile review (2022): he managed to resolve concerns ?

Founded in 1999, Free was for a long time a minority player in the telecommunications market, until it becomes the fourth approved mobile operator in the country ten years later.

Building on the success of its freebox, the first triple play offer in the sector, the brand had already started its establishment in the homes of France thanks to a much more complete device than competition, and whose technical superiority is still demonstrated by our days. But what are his Packages and its freeboxes ? Here is our opinion on Free Mobile

Unlimited calls & SMS

for 12 months

Data in Europe: 18 GB

Unlimited calls & SMS

Data in Europe: 35 GB

Option (s): 15.99 euros and unlimited data for Freebox customers. € 9.99 for Freebox Pop customers !

2h00 & unlimited SMS

Data in Europe: 50 MB

Free, the definition of low-cost

Above all, there is a crucial thing to know if you opt for a free package: its offers are without engagement, And if they are very often cheaper than competition, it is because the quality of service is provided accordingly.

Understand that free opinions are often mixed, especially due to less effective connections than at other suppliers (detail below), but that this is the price to pay for money. If however you are a professional or that you need to be connected to the internet permanently and without cutting for imperative reasons, you can always turn to the alternatives of Bouygues Telecom, Orange or SFR.

Price of subscriptions at Free Mobile

Let’s go to the concrete: what are the prices of the packages offered by Free Mobile ?

• For only € 2 per month : 50 MB of Internet in 4G + in France and abroad + two hours of calls + SMS and unlimited MMS – Our opinion: the cheapest package, for tight budgets !
• For 19.99 euros per month : 100 GB of data, 25 GB in the European Union + Unlimited calls, SMS and MMS – Our opinion: a correct envelope for those who travel

Regularly, Free also offers Limited series For a few days, with substantial discounts: remember to consult our site regularly where we publish all the good deals of the operator ! Finally, also note that by choosing several offers (for example a box + a mobile package), the amounts to be paid when subscribing and monthly will be lower (the 2 euros package becomes free with a freebox).

Right now, it highlights a free limited series with unlimited calls, SMS and MMS as well as 70 GB of data for € 12.99 per month. Please note, this price is only valid for the first 12 months, after which it dates back to € 19.99 per month. In any case, Free Mobile does not require any commitment to its mobile plan. You can be quiet and terminate at any time. This is a strong point in our free opinion. In the end, it is the latter that is One of the best iPhone packages on the market.

A wide choice of smartphones

Like many other operators, Free offers all its customers a substantial catalog of mobile phones which can be purchased before, during or after registering for one of its packages.

Our free opinion will rather turn to the high -end devices of the seller, among which we find the iPhone 11 pro and 11 pro max. With their 4 GB of RAM and their premium processor completely optimized for their operating system, iOS, these are relatively fluid products and which will suit all audiences.

The advantage of this type of purchase is that the price can be spread over several months by acquiring mobile at the same time as a package: thus, no need to spend several hundred euros as soon as your equipment must be changed, in the event of an unexpected failure or breakage.

The stagnation can range from three to twenty-four months, and there are many available brands, including the Chinese Oppo, Huawei (including his subsidiary Honor), OnePlus and Xiaomi. The most historic Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel are also part of the list, while articles reconditioned are also available for those who wish to make an environmental gesture without breaking the bank.

Free is installed in many cities

If in rural areas it is sometimes difficult to capture the free network, subscribers installed in town can however be reassured: this operator generally has everything you need to serve its urban customers.

There are thus Free center In most metropolises, where users can meet a technician, register or simply test a new laptop before buying it. Advisers are very available, and you can go there without an appointment. There are more than fifty establishments throughout France, from Corsica to Paris via Tarbes or Toulouse. Only downside: these addresses are generally closed on Sunday.

If not even any of these stores is open, no concern: the Free terminals are available to you with many partner businesses, such as tobacco offices or certain parcel relays. On the same model as the touch screens that can be found in fast food brands, these can deliver a SIM card in less than three minutes, regardless of the format.

You can also pay your invoices by bank card and obtain the corresponding receipt. There are more than 1,000 free terminals in France, a very practical option whose strategy recalls Tesla superchargers and that we do not find at SFR or Orange, which allows us to differentiate themselves from others Fai.

The best boxes on the market ?

Let’s come to the most innovative: the Freebox. Factory brands of their distributor, these devices- which range from the entry-level to a resolutely premium character not found in other access providers to Internet- are often much more than a simple decoder or Wi- access point FI.

In our opinion, the best is the Freebox Delta designed in partnership with Devialet. French, this company is deemed to be one of the most qualitative players in the particular hi-fi, and its Phantom speaker sold several thousand euros has already been honored by many sound criticisms.

The product that the startup has designed jointly with Free thus takes up the basic characteristics of a Freebox, to which is added a speaker with round bass and with faithful rendering which will delight both electronic music lovers and those who listen classic. Like a homepod, this hub also serves asvocal assistant, But this time with Amazon Alexa inside.

Otherwise, you can always opt for the Freebox One, much more compact and with similar features, but whose price is also more accessible. It broadcasts a 4K HDR image and includes the catalog Netflix, displays the time and has a format similar to that of an Apple TV.

Of course, the operating system is not the same, but the services offered meet and the downward speed reaches 1 GB per second thanks to the fiber optical. Free TV channels, from TF1, to France Info, are also part of the bouquet offered live and delayed. Finally, there are also other models, such as the Freebox Delta S, the Freebox Revolution, the Freebox Mini 4K and the Freebox Crystal, whose price is different.

Cover: the bad student

If the opinion of free subscribers is often very shared, it is often because its network can sometimes be very capricious, whether it is a fixed line or a mobile package. Indeed, if we are interested, for example, in the 4G cover card communicated by ARCEP, which is the French organization in charge of telecoms regulation, we realize that Free would only cover 93% of the country’s population in 4G (the figures date from June 2019). For comparison, Bouygues, SFR and Orange reach around 99%.

For my part, with a freebox in the countryside, it is impossible to capture Wi-Fi more than ten meters away or upstairs, and the flow is always very slow (less than one MB per second) at the point of Make any streaming without latency impossible. In addition, untimely disconnections are legion.

On the mobile side, you should know that Free is based on orange antennas, which takes advantage of it to bridle The network provided to its competitor: it is thus common not to be able to watch a video on youtube in HD without reason, while your neighbors arrive there. So think about it before subscribing to this company: like its prices, its service is low-cost and a professional cannot for example afford such incidents.

Applications: can do better ..

Free offers several applications, available on the Google Play Store or on the App Store. Among them, there is in particular a special customer dedicated to voicemail, whose touch control is much easier than traditional voice command. The app Free Mobile – My account, also available on iPad, allows for consume in real time to avoid being faced with an unexpected over-shipping.

You can also create personalized answering machine announcements, consult the list of free relay antennas and view the operator’s coverage area in real time, or even modify the options of its package from your mobile.

On the fixed side, the Freebox also has its application: we can Program a remote recording From his favorite shows, consult his call journal (received and issued), follow and manage the downloads launched, copy the photos of his smartphone to the box storage space, or even manage parental control.

This very practical menu selects the content accessible to the youngest, and thus avoids that your offspring will be found for example in front of shocking images during its navigation on the Internet. The opinion on free of users of this 4.3 in 5 stars app on the AP Store, on nearly 50,000 notes: an honorable score, but which does not necessarily reflect the majority of returns ..

Free opinion of… consumers !

Indeed, if we look at thenotice Previous free mobile customers, feedback are rather mixed. Although on its official website the brand claims that nine in ten people are satisfied according to an Ifop survey, reality seems quite different when you search more.

Take the example of Facebook: Free hid the review section there, and it is enough to read the comments to understand that it is probably because the overall evaluation was very negative there. On Trustpilot, Free only obtains the score of 1.2/5 of more than 3,000 reviews: it’s very poor. Finally, the opinions left on the iOS and Android apps are also there mainly negative. It’s even less good than Red by Sfr, who is doing better in recent years.

Free Wi-Fi, it’s practical !

All Free subscribers participate in a program P2P global, which transforms their box into a Wi-Fi access point for all other subscribers. This solution, which then shares their network with other users, is really very practical on the move. Imagine for example that you are traveling in a village where 4G does not pass, but where some residents are equipped with a freebox. You just need to connect to their hotspot to enjoy the internet.

© Unsplash / Tim Mossholder

Our opinion on Free Mobile

Finally, what is our opinion on Free Mobile ? Above all, his price are clearly the most attractive on the market, and choosing this operator is therefore an opportunity to save for those who are not ready to invest several hundred euros per year in a package. The other strong point is the quality of its fixed offer, which with freeboxes classify the brand to the rank of real quality connected products manufacturer in the same way as Apple, where most of its competitors are hold on to services.

On the other hand, the network de Free leaves in our opinion a bitter taste after having asked it: often the victim of latencies and slowdowns, it is clearly not intended for the youngest generations who need a stable connection to stream, play or work. A primary criterion to take into account when buying. Finally, here is our comparison, updated in real time, Free Mobile Packages:

The free mobile network

Offered by the operator Free in terms of mobile network ? Coverage, network quality, 4G and 5G speeds… We tell you more to help you choose..

François Le Gall – Modified on 09/18/2023 at 2:50 p.m. Summary

1. Mobile coverage: Free almost at the level of other operators
2. Quality of service: Free partially reappears
3. The flows of 4G and 5G free
4. What to do in the event of a problem on the Free network ?

Each year, ARCEP, the telecom regulator publishes its observatory for the quality of mobile services, the results of which come from more than a million measures in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G, for the first time in 2021. Cover, call quality, SMS reception, Internet debit, Web navigation, online video. Everything goes there. An opportunity for the operator to rejoice: Free is “The first alternative operator on the quality of mobile internet services in mainland France“”.

It is clear that the operator is now playing equal with the other three major operators in terms of 4G coverage of the population and even better than them in terms of 5G coverage. Nevertheless, on most arcep indicators, Free remains in fourth place in the ranking and the operator displays an average speed in 5G disappointing. Nevertheless, the more the years pass, the more free mobile approaches its competitors.

To help you choose the best mobile network for your package, here is an inventory of coverage, flows and quality of Free Mobile network in 2022.

Mobile coverage: Free almost at the level of other operators

Free burst into the mobile telephony market fifteen years after its three main competitors. But, year after year, he has been late and is now playing with SFR, Orange and Bouygues. Like them, in fact, it displays a 4G coverage rate of 99% of the French population. Nevertheless, it still displays surface coverage of the territory lower than that of its rivals of around 92%, when the other three are 95%respectively, 94%and 94%. And for good reason: with 25101 sites 4G On September 1, 2023 (source: ANFR), free still has many 4G antennas than them.

On the other hand, concerning the deployment of 5G Free, with 17,791 activated 5g sites As of September 1, 2023 (source: ANFR), the operator is very clearly in advance on Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Orange. Indeed, according to the operator, the 5G Free has been lit in 9.788 municipalities and already covers 90% of the French population (on June 13, 2023). It has the largest 5G network in France, As you can see on our map of cities covered in 5g.

Important precision: some of the sites authorized in the different frequency bands are shared. This explains why the sum of the sites authorized by frequencies is not equal to all the authorized sites

Very active in deployment, Free aims to reach a network of 25.000 4G/5G branches in 2024. This massive effort is notably made possible by the use of a crucial frequency band for free, those of the 700 MHz. This portion of the spectrum previously occupied by TNT houses the lower frequencies used for mobile telephony. That is to say those with the best propagation quality: enough to improve the 4G coverage of free in low dense areas. Free is also the 2nd operator in rural areas, Behind the historic operator.

With a Free Package, you now have mobile coverage almost equivalent to that of other operators.

Is a 4G or 5G antenna from Free located near you ? Discover the geolocation of the relay antennas of mobile phone operators on our card.

Quality of service: Free partially reappears

Regarding the quality of free mobile services, it remains lower than that of the other three operators. But, Free progresses on all indicators, to the point of making almost equal game with SFR and Bouygues Telecom, behind Orange. This is at least the conclusion of the observatory on the quality of the mobile services of the arcep. In its edition over the year 2022, the operator does not miss the opportunity to emphasize that “Free records a strong progression on almost all indicators in all areas“”. On a national level, “Free is, among alternative operators, the one who obtains the best indicators on the majority of mobile uses measured by ARCEP: speed of access to websites, quality of video streaming and download of files. Free is particularly efficient in intermediate areas and rural areas“”.

Nevertheless, all criteria combined, at the level of the metropolis, Free remains the least classified of the four major operators. Despite everything, year after year, the free gap and the other three operators continues to be reduced, to the point that on certain criteria, Free ranks second behind Orange, in terms of mobile internet for example.

Comparison of the quality of mobile service by operator

Bouygues Telecom	Free	Orange	SFR
Calls	88%	82%	89%	87%
Sms	98%	97%	98%	97%
Web navigation	90%	91%	95%	89%
streaming	89%	91%	95%	88%
3G/4G flow	55 Mb/s	49 Mb/s	89 Mb/s	57 Mb/s
3G/4G/5G flow	84 Mb/s	64 Mb/s	143 Mb/s	84 Mb/s

To find out more and know the precise results of each operator in the 15 largest cities, the agglomerations between 10.000 and 400.000 inhabitants, and the municipalities of more than 10.000 inhabitants, you can consult our mobile network test.

The flows of 4G and 5G free

In 4G LTE, the Free Mobile operator uses three frequency bands: 700 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2,600 MHz. In areas covered in 4G with free you can benefit from a maximum theoretical flow of up to 150 Mb/s.

Free also pursues the massive opening of sites in 4G+ allowing its subscribers to benefit from better flows thanks to the aggregation of frequencies. In areas covered in 4G+ by Free, with a compatible smartphone, we can expect higher connection speeds, up to 325 Mb/s, according to its price brochure. And even, on an increasing part of the network, 440 MB/s thanks to the progressive activation of 256 QAM technology.

Regarding flows with 5G Free, the operator, like the others, has the obligation to guarantee users a minimum speed of 100 Mb/s in 5G. Nevertheless, on its site, Free remains very evasive evoking a flow “Ultra fast“,”Up to three faster than 4G“”.

So what about it really and what are the average speeds really issued by Free Mobile in 2021 ? Here is Arcep’s response:

• Average flow with the 4G Free: 49 Mb/s
• Average flow with the 5G Free: 64 Mb/s on average, with few differences between dense areas and intermediate zones.

In terms of flows, Free does less well than all other operators, except in rural areas where it ranks second.

Thanks to the degree partner’s speed barometer, you can follow the monthly evolution of Internet flows on the 4G/5G network of Free Mobile.

What to do in the event of a problem on the Free network ?

In the event of a free network problem with your phone, you can check if disturbances are behind the malfunction. To do this, you can contact customer service that will inform you of Current breakdowns on the Free Network Around your position.

The free network problem can also come from your mobile. It may be useful to turn off and then turn back on your device. This simple manipulation can resolve your malfunction with the free mobile network.

Finally, it may happen that the mobile internet does not pass on the Free network. A difficulty very often linked to roaming on the orange network mentioned above. Supposed to be temporary, it leads certain phones to stay Blocked in 3G roaming on the network Orange and not to reconnect to the Free 4G network even when it is within. You will have to force your phone to Search for the Free Network To connect again. Manipulation to be carried out in the parameters of the device, generally in the network section and the sub -section “Mobile networks” or “networks”.

What to remember on the Free network

What is the coverage of the free network ?

The 3G/4G network of Free covers 99% of the population, it is also that SFR, Bouygues and Orange. Regarding the 5G network of Free, activated at the end of 2020, it is “The largest 5G network in France“, boasts the operator. 5G Free covers more than 9.689 municipalities, or 84% of the population.

What are the 4G and 5G speeds with a free package ?

The maximum theoretical flow with a free package is 150 Mb/s in 4G and 325 Mb/s in 4G+. Nevertheless, the average 4G free flow is 49 Mb/s. Regarding the flows that it is possible to reach in 5g, Free promises a flow three times faster than in 4G. In reality, the average flow with 5G Free is only 64 Mb/s.

What is the quality of the Free network ?

The quality of free mobile services remains lower than that of its competitors. Nevertheless, Free is the operator who progressed the most in 2021, to the point of making almost equal game with SFR and Bouygues, behind Orange.

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