Who is the Iliad group, the Mother house of the operator Free

If Free was late at the 4G network when it arrived on the market, the operator quickly extended its coverage area over almost all French territory. Nevertheless, Orange is still ahead of its competitor slightly : the operator covers more than 99% of the population (95% of the territory) against 99% for Free (92% of the territory).

Free or Orange: which internet and mobile operator to choose ?

Orange and Free are the first two French mobile operators in terms of number of subscribers, representing more than 40% respectively and more than 20% of market share in 2023. They both offer very attractive offers, but with very distinct strengths. Which of these two operators is made for you ? What offer is the most interesting ?

• The essential
• Orange and Free have excellent 4G coverage, and their 5G is gradually unfolding, free covering a little more territory.
• The 4G orange network is considered to be slightly better due to quality of its mobile reception.
• Free and Orange both offer Blocked, without commitment and 5G packages.
• The two operators are distinguished at the level of Options offered.
• Free as orange offer 3 Internet offers (ADSL or fiber) for each price range.

Orange and free internet offers

Here are the different internet offers offered by the two operators:

It is free who offers The most economical internet offers : the Freebox Revolution is particularly recommended for television enthusiasts with a small budget.

On the mid -range, Free offers The best speed (the freebox fiber pop can reach 5GB/s) while Orange Includes 4K television and one low price the first year.

Finally, on the top of the range, the Freebox Delta is distinguished thanks to all the services offered (in particular a Netflix and Canal Plus subscription) as well as the extremely fast fiber flow.

The best 5G package: Orange vs free

Orange markets a range of 3 5G plans, all offer a large data envelope to be able to make the most of the ultra -fast speed of this new generation of network.

Free has adopted a very different strategy: the operator added 5G for free to its 100GB package, passing the Data envelope from the 100GB package at the same time to 210GB.

Which of free or orange choose ? The Free 5G package is distinguished thanks to its very high data envelope for its relatively low price: Data 5g free usable in France is 50% higher than that of the Orange 5G equivalent package. The Free 5G package also allows you to call on fixes of more than 100 destinations unlimited, which is not possible with orange packages from the same price range. If you want to use your package abroad, it is however recommended to turn to orange offers which offer much more data in Europe.

In order to enjoy 5G for free with the Free Package, you must activate the option in its customer area.

Package without commitment: Free or Orange ?

All free packages are offered without obligation. It was one of the operator’s key arguments when he arrived on the mobile operators market in 2012. Rent your phone with your free package, however, causes a 24 -month commitment. In this case, it remains possible to terminate its Free subscription, but the monthly rental of the rental will be increased by 5 €/month.

The majority of orange packages are also now available without commitment, or subject to two years of commitment if subscribed with a subsidized phone. To take advantage of the Orange network with a non -binding package, you can also turn to Sosh, the operator’s low cost brand. No SOSH package is subject to commitment:

In addition to these offers, the operator very regularly offers limited series and very interesting promotions, to benefit from a package with a large data envelope for a reduced price. All these packages make it possible to use the orange network without committing.

Compared to the Sosh 70GB subscription, the Free Package remains the most interesting in terms of price and data included. The Sosh package stands out by allowing to use up to 70GB of data in Europe.

You are looking for a Sosh package ?

Orange/Free: which package blocked to choose ?

Orange offers two blocked packages: the two cheapest packages in its range.

Free, meanwhile, has no blocked package strictly speaking. The operator, however, offers a blocking option, Only for its € 19.99 package. This option is to be activated on your subscriber space: you have to go to “Manage my account” then “my options”. You can then activate the “Blocked Package” option: all the consumption potentially out of package will then be blocked.

Activate this free blocking option also makes all paid communications to and abroad impossible.

The package with free blocking option is unique : this is the only blocked package to offer so much data. It is also one of the rare blocked packages without engagement.

Orange and free mobile packages options

The two operators offer additional services, to be taken out in addition to the package. The free option range is relatively reduced:

• An international option, Reserved for the € 2 package, which makes it possible to join foreign destinations not included in the package.
• A travel option, For the € 2 package, which allows you to call from areas not included in the package.
• An IPv6 option In order to use this protocol with its smartphone.

Orange offers a much more diverse option range. Here is a selection:

• Parental control Xooloo Digital Coach, which is offered for a month then proposed to € 3.50/month.
• Deezer Premium, at 1 €/month For 3 months then € 10.99/month.
• Digital press service pawn, he too offered for a month then at the rate of € 9.99/month.
• Internet option 2GB additional for blocked packages, 5 €/month.
• International options such as 20 hours of calls to Europe, the United States and Canada, For 8 €/month.

Options at Free essentially allow Unlock features for the € 2 package, While options at Orange enrich the operator’s packages in exchange for a monthly subscription

Comparison of free/orange mobile networks

The 4G network

If Free was late at the 4G network when it arrived on the market, the operator quickly extended its coverage area over almost all French territory. Nevertheless, Orange is still ahead of its competitor slightly : the operator covers more than 99% of the population (95% of the territory) against 99% for Free (92% of the territory).

The Orange operator is recognized for the quality of its mobile reception (especially in public transport) slightly better than its competitors, free included.

The 5G network

Free is the leader in the deployment of 5G in France : the operator has already set up 15345 5G antennas which are in service, which allow it to cover in 5g more than 80% of French. However, most of these antennas (more than 10,000) emit 700mhz. The waves of this frequency penetrate the obstacles very well and can cover a long distance, but offer a flow closer to 4G than other waves 5G.

Orange has adopted a radically different strategy: The operator leads to France on 3500MHz waves, With more than 5,400 antennas of this frequency deployed. These are the waves, with a reduced range, which offer the best 5G speed. 5G Orange is available in major cities in France and is gradually developing in the additional areas and smaller cities. According to the NPERF barometer, Orange has a real rate in 5g of almost 340 Mbit/s, against a little less than 200 Mbit/s for free.

The website of the two operators makes it possible to follow the availability of 5G orange and free on French territory.

You are looking for a mobile or internet offer ? Contact one of our Selectra advisers for free so that it helps you find the offer that best suits your needs, according to your operator preference and your budget.

Acquire your smartphone with Orange or Free

Orange offers a reduction on many smartphones if they are purchased with its high -end packages. Here is as an example the price of the iPhone 13, worth € 969, If it is acquired with an orange package.

Free does not allow you to buy your smartphone with a package, but offers a rental service. Location Free Flex is reserved for subscribers to the Free 5G package. Thus, the iPhone 13 rented at Free will return to 279 € when ordering then € 19.99/month for 24 months, for a total of € 758.76. At the end of the rental, you can pay a purchase option (which amounts to 100 €) for definitively acquire the device.

If you decide not to pay the purchase option, the phone rented at Free does not belong to you: you must return it in good condition to the operator at the end of the rental contract.

Free vs orange, what a package subscribed ?

Here is a direct comparison between the two most popular packages of the two operators:

The two packages make it possible to communicate without restriction in France and in Europe.

The Free Package stands out for the price and the data envelope in France. To obtain an equivalent data volume at Orange, you must subscribe to the 220GB 5G package, at a rate of € 49.99/month (then € 64.99/month spent the first year).

Free regularly offers promotions and limited series packages on its website.

The orange package is doing well by offering a much wider data envelope in Europe and in Offering a second SIM card. The package also allows you to navigate the Orange 5G 3.5 GHz network in cities where technology is deployed.

Generally, Free packages offer the best price/data ratio, while Orange packages offer more international services, options and content. The orange or free choice therefore depends on your use of a mobile package.

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Updated on 08/25/2023

Armand mainly takes care of writing articles and guides on SFR and Bouygues operators. A graduate of a Master in Digital Marketing and Data Analytics, he joined Selectra in December 2020.

Which is the Iliad group, the mother’s parent company Free ?

Founded in 1991, Iliad is a French telecommunications group by constant development. Founded by Xavier Niel and chaired by Thomas Reynaud, the group is present in France but also in Morocco. The Iliad group specializes especially in mobile telephony and the fixed internet. What is the story of Iliad ? Where is the group today ?

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• The essential
• The Iliad group is the Free parent company, Founded in 2011.
• Iliad offers, through free, Mobile and internet offers at low and non -commitment.
• The strategy of the Iliad group consists of Innovate in order to meet customer needs, while fixing very attractive price.
• In 2019, Free had 13.4 million subscribers mobile.

The history of the Iliad group: a group in constant innovation

When Xavier Niel buys Fermic Multimedia in 1991, we are still far from the activities of the Iliad group. Indeed, Multimedia Fermic was at the time a publisher of telematic services reserved for adults. In other words. The “pink minitel” ! It was not until 1994 that he launched into the market Internet access providers.

The group then decides to interconnect its minute telematic services with the Internet operated at the time by Worldnet. Telematic is the term that covers applications that combine telecommunications and computer science. This term appears in France thanks to the technological sector which will allow the minitel to see the light of day.

In 2004, the group launched the 4th version of its Freebox which is now sold in the form of a router equipped with the Wireless. The company deploys the unbundling at the same time total in all the major cities of France. It was also that year that he is on the stock market. His actions are listed at Paris stock exchange and the Iliad action (abbreviated in Ild) is a member of the CAC Next 20 index.

To prove that the group is innovative and always on the lookout for novelty, in 2005 there is a partnership with Canalplay channel+. Iliad then proposed the first offer of video on demand by dsl. Then when version 5 released from the Freebox in 2006, Iliad takes a step in advance with a hard drive with PVR function that allows you register Some contents.

Iliad Internet Access Provider with Free

Still for the sake of evolution, in 1996, the Iliad group launched the Minitel 3617 annu service, a subsidiary which develops services reverse directory. At the end of the 1990s, the Iliad group obtained the telecommunications licenses necessary to operate its own telecommunications network and market these services intended for the public.

This is how the network is born Free. Thanks to the substantial investment of Goldman Sachs (15 million euros !), the Iliad group deploys its network and is interconnected with that of France Telecom. The company gradually ceases its activities on Minitel.

At the end of 2001, Iliad bought the exploitation license of “one.Tel »to the British company Centrica Telecommunications for ten years. The French group thus seeks to increase its research to develop its multimedia terminal called “Freebox»».

Iliad launches his free broadband offer at € 29.99 per month in the fall of 2002. This is already a small revolution because most other Internet service providers offer a package at almost € 45 per month ! It was also in 2002 that the Iliad group undertook the unbundling First lines first in Paris then, later, in the big cities of France (in 2003). From March 2003, Iliad became the second French internet supplier, just behind France Telecom.

A TNT receiver is also provided. This allows you to watch your programs in high definition. With this launch is also developed an offer of mobile telephony called “unlimited” offering you calls to mobile phones.

Next comes the development of an offer optical fiber very high speed which first extends to Paris then in several major cities in France. With Alice’s acquisition in 2008, Iliad Telecom became the Internet leader just behind Orange but in front of Nine Cegetel.

Thanks to the various acquisitions carried out by the group, in 2021, it takes more than 6.8 million subscribers in Internet Free offers, including 3.3 FTTH fiber.

Iliad and mobile telephony

Free entry into the mobile offers market

It is from 2009 that the subsidiary of Iliad Free Mobile received authorization from the ARCEP (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts). This is an authority in charge of regulating electronic communications and posts in France) to develop its own mobile telephone network, This allowed it to integrate the closed circle of mobile network operators alongside Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.

The operator was to offer his offers and services from January 12, 2012 at the latest. In December 2010, Iliad obtained the right to intervene on the mobile telephony market by committing to the authority to provide a rate advantageous to his subscribers. Free will then present a relatively interesting 3G offer but the operator remains, at that time, late on its competitors with regard to 4G (the company has already taken almost 10 years to offer 3G).

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Free mobile offers

The plans offered by Free Mobile are 3 in number and have a number of options sought (such as unlimited or a large mobile internet envelope) for prices affordable.

Free has once again innovated and took its competitors by offering a basic package to 2 euros. This non -binding package gives you access:

1. 2 hours of calls to fixed and mobiles in mainland France, to mobiles in the United States, Canada, China and DOM but also to the fixed of 100 destinations.
2. Unlimited SMS in mainland France and to the French overseas departments.
3. Unlimited MMS in mainland France.
4. 50MB of Data in 4G in mainland France and an additional 50 MB from Europe and the DOM.

In addition, if you are already a freebox customer, your basic package can come back to you. 0 euros !

The second free package, the free package 19.99 euros (15.99 euros for Freebox subscribers), presented at the start of 2015, includes:

1. Unlimited calls to fixed and mobiles in mainland France, to mobiles in the United States, Canada, China and DOMs as well as to fixes of more than 100 international destinations.
2. Unlimited SMS/MMS in France and from Europe, the French overseas departments, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.
3. A volume of data now reaching 100GB in mainland France !

However, be sure to read the Terms of Sales To verify that the proposed package corresponds well to your mobile telephony needs.

Finally, the operator’s last package is not a permanent offer, since it is a Special limited series in time. Currently, the special free series offers 80 GB of mobile data in France and 10 GB in Europe, for € 9.99/month.

The particularity of this package is that after 12 months of subscription, the free mobile client sees its package turned into a free package € 19.99. Since the series is without commitment, it is free to terminate its subscription when it seems.

In the first quarter of 2021, Free counted 13.382 million mobile customers.

The latest news from Iliad Telecom

Iliad in figures

Today, Iliad keeps his optics innovate And always try to go further. To talk about figures, note that for the first half of the year 2021, with regard to mobile telephony, Iliad (and therefore Free) lost 37,000 customers in total: an increase of 9,700,000 subscribers to its unlimited package but many ‘Subscribers lost on voice packages (134,000).

For the same quarter, the group has a turnover that exceeds the 1.293 billion euros. In terms of deployment From mobile sites, the Iliad group has set up more than 500 new 4G sites.

This of course improved the network quality By reinforcing in particular the 3G and 4G coverage. In September 2021, the group benefited from complete coverage, whether outdoors or inside the buildings:

• On more than 99% of the population in 3G.
• On 98% of the population in 4G.

Online, the Iliad group subsidiary, created two new datacenters in 2016, which triples the surface of its data centers. The group ultimately has 5 datacenters Usable by online customers. A datacenter or data center is a physical site on which there are equipment constituting the company’s information system (central computers, servers, storage berries, etc.).

The current strategy of the Iliad group

Finally, Iliad/Free Tape Strong and puts pressure on his competitors by offering the Unlimited 4G for less than 20 euros per month. Thanks to this offer, you can take advantage of the unlimited internet everywhere in France for Freebox subscribers and 25 GB offered for more than 65 destinations. Today’s offer is therefore at the data overbidding because it is one of the main concerns of users. Indeed, it is more reassuring to have too much data rather than not enough. And Free understood this.

In short, the Iliad group regularly seeks to innovate and to offer ever more modern solutions to respond to User expectations. Iliad often takes daring bets and tries to surpass its competitors on the mobile telephony market as well as that of the Internet.

Good deals of the moment: freebox pop vs fiber power sfr

Free	SFR
See the offer	See the offer
Advantage	Video and channel premium+ series offered	Family and Netflix bouquet offered
Monthly price	€ 29.99 for 12 months Then € 39.99	26 € for 12 months Then 43 €
Fiber flow	Descendant: 5gbit/s Amount: 700Mbit/s	Descendant: 2gbit/s Amount: 700Mbit/s
Wifi 6	Included	Included
Network operator	Free	SFR
Home phone	Unlimited to fixed and mobiles in France (+ 100 international fixed)	Unlimited to fixed and mobiles in France (+ 100 international fixed)
TV	220 channels	200 channels
TV options included	Video premium (6 months) Canal+ series (12 months)	Family bouquet (6 months) Netflix or Disney+ (6 months)
Equipment	Pop server and player	SFR Box 8 and Connect TV Android
Commitment	Without engagement	12 months
See the offer	See the offer

Information valid on November 28, 2022

Good mobile

10GB € 5.99 See

100GB € 16.99 See

20GB € 5.99 See

Good mobile

€ 5.99 See the offer

€ 5.99 See the offer

€ 2.99 See the offer

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