the most expensive fiber operator is Free

Free completely shook up the French Internet landscape more than twenty years ago by launching the Freebox. The French Internet service provider is even behind a world first with the first triple play box and an unbeatable price of 29.99 euros per month. An approach which forged the reputation of the man who would earn the nickname of telecoms troublemaker with innovative solutions. The success is there and will continue with the arrival of its subsidiary Free Mobile, one of the four French operators. The Iliad group, founded by Xavier Niel, will apply the same recipe, promising to cut prices on both mobile and fixed lines. In October 2024, the status of Free is no longer the same, as Ariase explains in its latest barometer.

The Freebox Ultra is not responsible for this situation

The specialized site compiles each month the prices of the various entry-level subscriptions offered by the four historic operators, as well as their 100% digital discount subsidiaries. One comes out price barometeri.e. a monthly average calculated on the basis of 24 months of subscription. The Freebox Ultra, the most expensive fiber box on the market excluding promotions, is therefore not taken into account in this calculation.

This calculation method shows that Free is now the least competitive operator, with an average subscription price of 32.03 euros per month. This monthly cost over 24 months (with activation fees) concerns the Freebox Revolution Light and makes Free “the operator that offers the most expensive entry-level fiber subscription on the market”.

Indeed, the operator far exceeds RED by SFR which stands out as the cheapest ISP (24.53 euros). It is also well ahead of Sosh, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and even exceeds Orange by a little more than 1.5 euros per month.

This ranking takes into account the evolution of offers from the main operators. Free has just ended “the exceptional promotion” on its Freebox Revolution Light (€24.99/month for one year in September). The operator finds himself without any particular promotion and his prices are necessarily less competitive, if we only take this criterion into account. On site The PointFree says it is harmed by the methodology of this ranking which “compares things that are not comparable”.

Cheapest box or box with the best quality/price ratio?

The operator explains: “To arrive at the conclusion that we are the most expensive on the box, Ariase compares the dual play offers (2P, telephone and internet) and in particular the Bouygues offers with Bbox Fit and Orange Just Fiber, against our Freebox Revolution in triple play (internet-phone-television) ». Free’s arguments are admissible and the Freebox Revolution Light has more than one ace up its sleeve. First of all, it is located in the high range of speeds offered by operators for their entry-level offer: 1 Gbit/s for downloading and 600 Mbit/s for sending. In addition, it includes a TV decoder with Blu-Ray player and a 250 GB hard drive. No direct competitor offers such a complete offer, unless you go through paid options.

A barometer with its limits, but a valid ranking (no offense to Free)

Free is therefore right, but we cannot say that it is wronged in this ranking either. Indeed, Ariase does not hide the fact that his price barometer is interested in… prices and nothing but prices. It does not take into account what the subscription offers, but offers an overall vision of the prices charged for operators. If a customer is looking for the cheapest box at the moment, the Freebox Revolution Light does not come to mind.

On the other hand, it can become relevant if this same customer has precise criteria in terms of speeds and wants to have a TV decoder. In many cases, we can nevertheless assume that customers looking for the cheapest offer – and not the one with the best quality/price ratio, are not the most careful about speeds. Even the Sosh subscription, whose speed was the lowest on the market (300 Mbit/s), remains sufficient for many users. The Orange subsidiary has just increased to 400 Mbit/s for downloading and 400 Mbit/s for sending, without a price increase. Same observation for the Bbox fit which has just gone from 400 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s/s and becomes the fastest box without TV on the market.

These offers are also the symbol of the comeback of dual play offers. If Free is riding on a certain nostalgia by touting a “mythical price” with its Freebox Revolution Light, more and more subscribers want to save money by doing without the television package.

Fewer very advantageous call offers, but lower prices

Finally, we especially note that call offers at 10 or 15 euros per month for a limited period are becoming rare. The Internet box market is less warlike than in the past, with restrictions on promotional offers. A situation that pushes some to wonder if you can replace your Internet box with a 4G or 5G package. The increase in the data envelope is not unrelated to the rise in importance of this subject, as evidenced by the Free Mobile package which has just increased to 350 GB without a price increase.

To limit the loss of fixed subscribers, we note that an entry-level fiber box (with TV decoder) costs on average 28.59 euros/month. This price is down 8% over one year and 4 euros compared to last winter.