© Unsplash/Compare Fiber
This is a bitter observation for the purchasing power of the French. In this period of inflation, telecoms are far from being an exception to the rule, and their prices have soared. In a report published on January 11, Arcep confirms this upward trend in French market prices for the third quarter of 2023.
An avalanche of package increases
Concretely, the administrative authority emphasizes that the average monthly bill for a household subscribing to fixed high or very high speed Internet is 34.8 euros. This represents 1.5 euros more than a year ago at the same period, and a level which had not been reached for ten years. The progression is a little less marked with regard to mobile subscriptions: 16.2 euros on average, an increase of 20 cents over one year.
As a reminder, operators Orange, SFR, and Bouygues Telecom informed their customers of increases in their packages last year. Likewise, and as our colleagues from La Tribune rightly point out, promotional periods tend to be reduced, which reduces the opportunities for good deals for consumers.
In this slump, Free tries to stand out. Xavier Niel's company has thus confirmed its offensive strategy of not changing the prices of its mobile plans. There are two: one for 20 euros with 5G and 250 GB of data, and another for 2 euros and 2 hours of calls in France (50 MB of data).
Good news on fiber and 5G
To keep up, the operator is controlling its costs by internalizing advisors and technicians. Investment in networks and deployment of technologies to turn off unused frequencies at night also makes it possible to reduce costs as much as possible.
Let's end this article with some good news of the Arcep report. The telecoms policeman indicates that the number of fiber subscribers now reaches 20.6 million in France at the end of September 2023, or 64% of the total number of high and very high speed internet subscriptions. This is an increase of 10 points in one year.
The trend is also positive when it comes to 5G. Thus, of the 83.2 million SIM cards in service in France, more than 12 million have been used on 5G networks. This is an increase of 15 points compared to last year.
Have you noticed, like many other consumers, an increase in your packages& ;nbsp;? Tell us in the comments.
📍 To not miss any news from Presse-citron, follow us on Google News and WhatsApp.
[ ]