France's telecom sector has recorded a new high in fixed network investments, with an estimated spend of EUR 7.8 billion in 2019, up from EUR 7.2 billion in 2018 according to Arcep's latest annual report. Over the same period, the overall investment on mobile networks declined from EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 2.6 billion (excluding spending on frequencies), bringing the total across the fixed and mobile segments to EUR 10.4 billion. For the third consecutive year, FTTH roll-outs were behind the increased spend on fixed networks, as operators brought fibre connectivity to an additional 4.8 million premises in 2019.
The mobile segment continued to achieve positive growth in service revenues (+1.5%), partly offsetting the ongoing decline in fixed services revenues (-2.3%). Overall, the telecom sector saw retail revenues decline by 1.0 percent year-on-year, when including valued-added services and ancillary sales.
Looking at the evolution of monthly bills for telecom services, Arcep noted that prices levelled off in 2019 following the fall recorded in 2018, as operators scaled back their promotional offers.
The upward trend in mobile data usage continued in 2019, with the monthly average per active LTE SIM increasing to 8.6 GB from 6.8 GB in 2018 (excluding M2M). The country closed the year with 54.8 million active LTE users, representing 71 percent of total active SIMs.
