The 4G mobile network highlights “an extremely marked territorial inequality” between cities and the countryside, according to the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir.
The figures published this Thursday in a study are edifying. Last year, the association launched the “Queldébit” mobile application which allows it, on the basis of the results compiled by users, “to establish indicators making it possible to provide transparency on the quality of mobile networks at national, and territories.
14% of speeds below 3 Megabits per second
However, even if mobile phones display a 4G network in rural areas, the quality is often poor with an Internet connection with a speed of less than 8 Megabits per second. In detail, 14.3% of the speeds recorded are even lower than 3 Mbit/s, the minimum speed for accessing basic mobile Internet services, while the “good broadband” defined by the government, namely a speed at least equal to 8 Mbit/s, is not reached in 32% of cases in rural areas. Conversely, in urban areas, average speeds are 66% higher than in rural areas with an average of 55.3 Mbit/s.
Faced with this situation, the association asks the public authorities to impose on operators “a minimum quality of service allowing the use of mobile Internet in good conditions, wherever mobile coverage is allegedly guaranteed”, launches the association in adding that she does not accept that “almost 10 years following the launch of 4G, quality broadband remains a pipe dream for many consumers. »
Indeed, launched in 2013, the “France Very High Speed” Plan was intended to cover the entire French territory in very high speed (speed greater than 30 Mbits/s) by 2022 with a total investment of 20 billion public and private euros. Another text, the “New Deal Mobile”, signed in January 2018 between the government, the telecoms regulator and the operators, also aimed to reduce the “white areas-town centers” in France by 2022, namely territories not covered by latest generation mobile networks such as 4G. And 2022, here we are…
