French telecoms regulator Arcep has revealed the number of operational 5G sites in the country at the end of Q3 2021, with Free Mobile leading the pack with 12,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), followed by Bouygues Telecom (5,003), Altice France (3,160) and Orange (2,473).
Free is the sole operator currently offering 5G commercial services in the 700MHz and 800MHz bands (12,000 sites), with 1,691 of these sites also equipped to offer services in the 3500MHz band. Bouygues meanwhile had 4,701 sites in the 1800MHz/2100MHz and 1,934 in the 3500MHz bands, while Altice boasted 1,475 sites (1800MHz/2100MHz) and 1,934 (3,500MHz). For its part, Orange had 475 sites in the 1800MHz/2100MHz and 2,177 BTS in the 3500MHz bands. Elsewhere, Orange France had a total of 19,857 LTE-A sites – using carrier aggregation (CA) in at least two bands and capable of offering minimum speeds of 240Mbps – at the end of Q3 2021, followed by Free Mobile (16,828), SFR (14,084) and Bouygues (12,963).