Free, Orange, SFR or Bouygues

The race for speeds is reaching new heights with the arrival of internet boxes promising 8 Gb/s in download and uplink speed via optical fiber. Currently, three access providers offer such performances, Orange, SFR and Free were joined by Bouygues Telecom at the start of 2025.

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Free, Bouygues and Orange are therefore engaged in a technological battle, but what are these ultra-high speed offers really worth? Here's a big comparison.

Moreover, you can also play with our ADSL/Optical fiber comparator, to find the offer that best suits you.

Summary table

Let's start with a summary table, because the difficulty with such offers is to check everything: the speeds offered, the technical characteristics of the box, the service offering… and even third-party options, such as the included repeaters.

Here, these are very complete offers, necessarily expensive, but with many services.

The boxes

In France, for the moment, it is complicated to separate the supply from the material. It's not impossible, but it's not as simple as in other countries. It is therefore important to take an interest in the material of the offers, because not all boxes are worth it.

We therefore have the Freebox Ultra, the Bbox WiFi 7 and the Livebox 7.

If the four operators proudly announce theoretical speeds of 8 Gb/s, for downloading and uploading, the reality is more nuanced.

Free and Bouygues Telecom offer Wi-Fi 7 (with the 6 GHz band), while Orange remains on Wi-Fi 6E (also with the 6 GHz band). SFR “only” offers Wi-Fi 6, without the 6 GHz band.

This technological difference might seem minor, but it directly impacts real-world performance: Wi-Fi 7 promises speeds up to twice as high as Wi-Fi 6E and better management of connected devices. In any case, in theory.

The connectivity is also interesting to study: the Freebox Ultra offers four 2.5 Gb/s ports, as well as a 10 Gb/s SFP+ port while the Bbox WiFi 7 makes do with two 1 Gb/s ports and one RJ45 in 10 Gb/s.

The Livebox 7 offers 4 ports at 1 Gb/s and 1 port at 10 Gb/s. This technical detail can make a real difference if you want to benefit from the maximum speed offered.

As for the SFR Box 8X, it offers an SFP port to offer 10 Gb/s, since the 4 Ethernet ports of the box only deliver 1 Gb/s.

To go further
How to exploit the symmetrical 8 Gbit/s of the Freebox Ultra

For example, Free requires specific SFP+ hardware, which is quite unusual for the general public. It will therefore be necessary to have adapters or switch adapted.

Repeaters included

Free, with its Freebox Ultra, offers up to 4 WiFi 7 repeaters, enough to generously cover large homes. On the other hand, these repeaters do not have support for the 6 GHz band, they also only have a 1 Gb/s port.

Bouygues plays the precision card with the Bbox: 2 WiFi 7 repeaters are provided, but only after a diagnosis which confirms their usefulness.

Orange places itself between the two by offering 3 repeaters for its Livebox Max, even if they are “only” WiFi 6.

SFR offers “up to 2 Smart WiFi repeaters”, which are available free of charge on request from the Customer Area after commissioning the box. They are WiFi 6 (like the box).

Nice point: all these little boxes are installed almost automatically, you just have to plug them in and the mobile app does the rest.

The service offering

Beyond pure technical performance, it is in the services that the real differentiation comes into play. Free offers a very large streaming offer including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and even Canal+ live.

Bouygues responds with a more modest proposition (Prime Video and Universal+ included for one year), while Orange opts for a different approach with discounts of 5 euros/month on streaming subscriptions.

The SFR Box 8X offers an attractive streaming offer at first glance with Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime included, but beware of the 9-month trap: beyond that, count on nearly €18 monthly supplement to keep these services.

The differences are also widening in the TV offering: Free dominates with more than 280 channels (and the Oqee TV application), followed by Orange (200+) and Bouygues (180+). For SFR, the TV package includes 200 channels. The quality of TV decoders is comparable, all offering 4K HDR.

Multi TV is automatically included with operators. Also check the compatibility of the app offered with your television, this will allow you to benefit from the channels without necessarily using the TV box.

Prices and conclusion

Now let's have some fun analyzing costs over time. This will have some surprises in store for us.

Among the three very high speed offers,a Bbox WiFi 7 stands out by positioning itself as the most economical. Over three years, it saves more than €250 compared to the Freebox Ultra, with a total bill of €1,787. A strong argument for controlled budgets.

For its part, Orange is playing the card of immediate seduction with its Livebox Max. Its base price of €34.99 for six months is tempting, but be careful with the price change! The move to €57.99 per month ultimately places it in an intermediate position over time.

As for the Freebox Ultra, it assumes its premium positioning with a higher entry ticket. But let's not stop at €2,039 over 36 months: the offer includes an impressive streaming service package.

Netflix, Disney+, Canal+ live and other platforms are included without time limit, that's around thirty euros per month for services. Enough to put the investment into perspective for fans of series and cinema! However, Free has an Ultra Essential offer at 10 euros less, without SVoD.

The SFR Box 8X offer plays on a clever but deceptive pricing strategy. With a displayed price of €44.99/month without commitment, it seems very competitive at first glance. Activation fees are even free! But the true cost is revealed after 9 months, when streaming services become chargeable. Netflix (€5.99), Disney+ (€5.99) and Prime (€6.99) increase the bill by around €18 per month.

Over 24 months, what seemed to be the most economical offer at €1079.76 actually becomes one of the most expensive at almost €1350 once the options are added. A price which ultimately places it at the level of the Freebox Ultra, but with technically inferior services (WiFi 6 vs WiFi 7).

Have you decided? Be careful, everything is not done. You now need to check if your accommodation is eligible. To do this, the best thing is to go to the website of each operator and enter your postal address manually. For what ? All customers are not yet eligible for XGS-PON fiber (at Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Free) or 10G-EPON (at Free). What is necessary to obtain symmetrical 8 Gb/s.