From 0.12 to 0.29 euros per gigabyte in a few weeks: the French mobile plan is experiencing its major correction. Only one operator has not changed its prices, and the shadow of the SFR takeover hangs over everything else.
For more than a decade, the French mobile plan has lived according to a simple law: always more gigabytes for ever cheaper, a legacy of the price war triggered by the arrival of Free in 2012. This era is closing before our eyes. The Edcom comparator barometer, which monitors each week the average price of GB on packages sold around 10 euros, has just recorded a record at 0.29 euros per gigabytemore than double the 0.12 to 0.13 euros which still prevailed at the start of the year.
Three weeks of increases and differences that make you dizzy
For each operator, the comparator uses a single package, the one whose price is closest to 10 euros, then divides this price by the quantity of data included. When the index rises, it does not mean that your subscription has jumped overnight. Operators are proceeding more discreetly, with reduced promotions, reduced data envelopes or targeted increases. The technique of the cereal packet which shrinks while the label does not move, applied to telecoms.
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By network, Orange stands at around 0.49 euros per GB, Bouygues Telecom signs the most brutal surge of the moment by jumping towards 0.34 euros (it, the historic champion of low prices), and SFR continues its rise around 0.18 euros. The picture becomes frankly bleeding when we isolate the brands themselves, without the virtual operators who rent their networks: on the package close to 10 euros, Bouygues is now close to 1.6 euros per gigabyteOrange gravitates towards 0.9 euros and SFR towards 0.8 euros. Since the sharp increase in April, none of these prices have ever come down.
Free last bastion of purchasing power, really?
In the midst of this surge, Free displays an unchanged index at 0.08 euros per gigabytealmost four times below the market average, which earned it the status of Edcom “market anchor”. The operator has undertaken not to touch the price of its two historic packages before 2027 at least, and its Free Series (110 GB in 5G+ for 12.99 euros per month currently) remains the adjustment offer which evolves according to the competition. The arsonist of 2012 converted into a purchasing power firefighter, the scenario had to be daring.
The title of last rampart still deserves two asterisks. Firstly because virtual operators are doing even better, with Lebara going down to 0.04 euros per Go and YouPrice at 0.05 euros, half as much as Free. Then because the root cause of the increase is not cyclical: the acquisition of SFR is becoming clearer, and the prospect of going from four to three major operators is already reducing competitive pressure, with each adjusting their prices in anticipation. Three of the big four have increased their prices or reduced the data on their entry-level plans, and the movement could only be in its early stages.
A half-hearted clarification: the index measures the price of offers offered to new customers, not the bill for existing subscribers. Your old package has therefore just gained an unexpected status, that of an investment to be protected. The next SMS from your operator touting an “enriched” offer deserves to be read twice rather than once.
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Source :
EdCom
