Good news for the French. While the gas bill will see a further increase in July, their telecoms spending has been on a downward slope for several months. Consumers are benefiting from the umpteenth price war currently being waged by Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free.
After having passed on the cost of inflation to the prices of their mobile and fixed subscriptions, the four operators must take into account the high volatility of the market. Subscribers no longer hesitate to change brands if the pricing conditions no longer suit them.
Over the first three months of the year, SFR lost more than half a million subscribers while Free gained nearly 300,000 new customers.
Mobile plans have decreased by 25% in one year
According to the latest Ariase barometer, the prices of mobile plans are at a historic low in June 2024. At 12.93 euros, the average monthly cost of a mobile plan with unlimited calls and at least 10 GB of data fell by 10.4% over one month and 24.4% over one year.
This is the lowest price recorded by the comparator since the creation of its index in December 2019.
“This month, RED by SFR and Bouygues Telecom both reduced their entry-level package by one euro, but the most structuring change concerns the operator SFR, observes Ariase. The red square brand has simplified its package offering and now offers an intermediate 20 GB subscription with unlimited calls for 15.99 euros per month. » Or 7 euros less than its closest plan, which however has a 140 GB data plan.
Fixed packages down 10% since the winter peak
This downward trend is observed to a lesser degree on fixed line subscriptions. Still according to the Ariase barometer, the average monthly cost of an entry-level fiber box for a new subscriber stood at 29.36 euros in June. That is to say a decline of almost 10% compared to the peak reached in November 2023 (32.62 euros).
Ariase notes that, since the start of the year, the operators have all reviewed, each in turn, their commercial policy.
“ Red by SFR, SFR, Free and Sosh now offer a more attractive contractual price but without a promotional period, Orange has set up a lighter offer without TV and Bouygues Telecom has, for its part, extended the promotional period of its entry-level offer. »
The French do not seem to have been fooled
In a post, Ariase tackles Bouygues Telecom which is among the operators who “ tried to hide the increase in their prices by reducing the duration of the subscription promotion “.
The French do not seem to have been fooled according to the comparator. The operator has since returned to a classic commercial policy, with “sustainable promotions” corresponding to the mandatory minimum commitment period of 12 months.
More generally, the inflationary period may have encouraged certain excesses on the part of operators. False promotions, forced subscriptions, breaches of distance selling rules… Fraud repression recently highlighted, in an investigation, the abusive or misleading practices of mobile telephone and internet access providers.
