Comments on: Free Mobile starts a wireless French Revolution

By: jay

jay — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:46:24 +0000

Kevin I don’t think your article was over-excited at all, I think it has just about the right amount of excitement for a potentially game-changing development.

Consumers are not brand loyal when it comes to mobile and internet service providers. They’ll jump ship as soon as a better deal comes along – and happily. This is especially true in the US, where the phone companies have been unscrupulously gouging consumers for decades.

And though the danger of spotty coverage in rural areas is a real problem for free, it’s not a showstopper considering most of the market is in concentrated urban areas – and the incumbent providers have never been exactly magnanimous with their rural coverage.

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:10:31 +0000

Hi 186K, Tim,

Sorry for the late response. Thanks for putting a little perspective on the post. You’re both right. There’s no guarantee of success for Free.fr’s plan. I did let my excitement get the better of me, perhaps. :) From a U.S. perspective it’s just very exciting to see such a radical new business model emerge in telecom, one with real scale, rather than a small MVNO. It’s going to be very interesting to watch Free over the next few months to say the least.

So what are predictions? Do you think this huge carrier-switching surge will die down? Do you think Free can maintain these price levels? Do you think capacity and coverage issues will get the better of them, causing disgruntled customers to switch back to the 3 incumbents?

Would love your thoughts!

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:04:44 +0000

Thanks for commenting, Tim. I wrapped up my reply with my response to 186k below.

By: 186k

186k — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:03:25 +0000

I am all for innovation by mobile operators but I wouldn’t assume run away success for Free. WiFi is great for home and office but it can often be a very poor alternative to cellular when away from these locations. Free may have a large base of residential hotspots but the power limitations on WiFi in Europe mean the range is very low and despite the large number they’ll be many many gaps in coverage even in urban areas. When you’re out of your home and office, you just want coverage/capacity and don’t want to have to think about it. Cellular offers this and on the cellular front, Free has poor spectrum holdings. Free launched with 2x5MHz of 2.1GHz spectrum and a national roaming deal with SFR. They also managed to acquire 2x20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum but missed out on the 800Mhz spectrum which was split between the three incumbents. France is a big country and rolling out at 2.1 and 2.6 beyond the urban areas will be prohibitive and hence Free will be dependent on costly roaming with SFR for the foreseeable future

Free’s mobile launch is bold and ambitious but I suspect they will struggle with capacity issues and their financial returns could be poor and hence I am less sure that they herald a brave new future for mobile

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:03:07 +0000

As a long term subscriber to Free.fr’s unlimited triple play service — WIFI, Cable TV (~50 useful channels+) and Unlimited Fixed Line Phone service to 104 countries, including mobile cell phones in the US, I can attest to Free’s high quality service, and incredible low price at 29.99 Euros (~USD$39.00) per month.

Free. fr is owned and operated by French listed company Iliad.fr which now has a 15 year track record of innovation in bringing better telecom products and services at much, much lower prices to French consumers. Free.fr has already a disrupted the telecom market in France; I can only hope they’ll foster similar innovation in the US and globally.

In the mobile cell phone market in France, it’s too soon to tell with Free.fr’s revolutionary new, low cost service, though their prospects are good, since they are not a fringe player, and instead, a well established player with a solid reputation.

Tim