The latest report on the value of the French 5G market: 100% 5G network is expected to be achieved by 2030

According to foreign media reports, in December 2021, Arthur D. Little released a report on behalf of several French telecommunications organizations, which assessed the value of France's 5G market.

According to the study, the French 5G ecosystem is very well developed and generated nearly 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion) in revenue in 2020. About half of this came from the network construction of Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free, and the other half came from the sales of 5G end-user devices. However, 5G postpaid package users only contributed 13 million euros ($14.7 million) in revenue.

Looking ahead, annual French 5G investments are expected to be between €1.5 billion ($1.69 billion) and €2.2 billion ($2.48 billion), while 5G revenues are expected to rise to between €23 billion ($26 billion) and €28 billion ($3.16 billion) by 2027, depending on the pace of adoption of 5G solutions.

Five verticals are expected to account for around 75% of direct spending on commercial applications in France by 2027, broken down as follows:

• Industry 4.0: €1.3 billion-1.9 billion ($1.5 billion-2.2 billion);
• Transport: €800 million-1.2 billion (US$900 million-1.4 billion);
• Energy and water: €250 million-400 million ($280 million-450 million);
• Health: €330 million-500 million ($375 million-570 million);
• Agriculture: €330 million-500 million ($375 million-570 million).

The 5G ecosystem also supported 250 companies in 2020, 180 of which were French, with between 6,000 and 8,000 employees. In the long term, the number of jobs is expected to rise to 100,000.

After France auctioned the 3.5GHz band spectrum, the construction of 5G networks officially began in September 2020. The above four French operators all launched 5G networks at the end of 2020 and began marketing the first batch of 5G services.

French operators now offer 5G plans with large data allowances, although Orange and Bouygues Telecom currently cap their plans at 200GB. SFR offers unlimited 5G plans, and users can also get unlimited 5G plans from Free - as long as they subscribe to any of Free's Freebox home broadband and TV plans.

The study says that by 2022, each (French) national operator with a 5G license must deploy 3,000 5G sites, while by 2024, the number of sites deployed by each operator must exceed 8,000 (including 4,000 in low-density areas). 5G slicing is expected to be available from 2023, and by 2030, the (French) network should be "100% 5G."

According to the latest data from French telecom regulator Arcep, Iliad's Free is far ahead of its competitors in the commercial deployment of 5G sites.

As of September 30, 2021, Free has deployed 12,000 5G sites, most of which are in the 700MHz-800MHz band. It is followed by Bouygues Telecom with 5,003 5G sites, followed by SFR owned by Altice France with 3,160 sites, and finally Orange with 2,473 sites. Despite this, Orange has the largest number of sites deployed in the 3.5GHz band (about 2,177). Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR also use the 1.8GHz and 2.1GHz bands in 5G.