According to foreign media reports, in December 2021, Arthur D. Little released a report on behalf of several French telecommunications organizations that assessed the value of the 5G market in France.
According to the study, the 5G ecosystem in France is perfect and generated nearly €2 billion ($2.26 billion) in revenue in 2020. About half of that comes from network construction at Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free, while the other half comes from sales of 5G end-user equipment. However, 5G postpaid package users contributed only €13 million ($14.7 million) in revenue.
Looking ahead, annual 5G investment in France is expected to be between €1.5 billion ($1.69 billion) and €2.2 billion ($2.48 billion), while 5G revenue is expected to rise to €23 billion ($26 billion) to €28 billion ($3.16 billion) by 2027, depending on the speed of adoption of 5G solutions.
By 2027, five verticals are expected to account for around 75% of direct spending on commercial applications in the French market, broken down as follows:
Industry 4.0: €1.3 billion to €1.9 billion ($1.5 billion-$2.2 billion);
Transportation: €800 million to €1.2 billion ($900 million to $1.4 billion);
Energy and water: €250 million to €400 million ($280 million-$450 million);
Health: €330 million to €500 million ($375 million-$570 million);
Agriculture: €330 million to €500 million ($375 million-$570 million).
The 5G ecosystem also supported 250 companies in 2020, of which 180 were French companies and employed between 6,000 and 8,000 people. In the long run, the number of jobs is expected to increase to 100,000.
After auctioning off spectrum in the 3.5GHz band in France, work on the construction of a 5G network officially began in September 2020. The four French operators mentioned above all launched their 5G networks at the end of 2020 and began marketing the first 5G services.
French carriers now offer 5G package plans with large amounts of data, although Orange and Bouygue Telecom currently set their package caps at 200GB. SFR offers a 5G unlimited plan, and users can also get a 5G unlimited plan from Free – as long as they subscribe to any of Freebox's Freebox home broadband and TV plan plans.
By 2022, each (French) national operator with a 5G license must deploy 3,000 5G sites, and by 2024, each operator must deploy more than 8,000 sites (including 4,000 in low-population density areas), the study said. 5G slicing is expected to be available from 2023, and by 2030, (French) networks should reach "100% 5G".
According to the latest data from French telecom regulator Arcep, Iliad's Free is far ahead of its competitors in commercial deployments of 5G sites.
As of September 30, 2021, Free has deployed 12,000 5G sites, most of them in the 700MHz-800MHz band. It was followed by Bouygues Telecom with 5003 5G sites, followed by SFR with Altice France with 3160 sites, and finally Orange with 2473 sites. Still, Orange has the highest number of sites deployed in the 3.5GHz band (about 2177). Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR also use the 1.8GHz and 2.1GHz bands in 5G. in Ace