Orange France has announced that it has accelerated its LTE roadmap to cover 40 percent of the population by the end of the year, versus its previous target of 30 percent. The operator also announced that it is now offering 4G coverage for all of Paris and 37 towns in the Paris area. By the end of September, Orange 4G will cover 70 cities and their surrounding areas, including over 500 towns in mainland France. Orange is encouraging the move to LTE by offering premium music and video content through the Origami mobile and Open quad-play packages, as well as selling a wide range of 4G devices.
The operator has created a website allowing residents to gauge LTE coverage in their area. Orange claims to be the only operator to be offering maximum theoretical 4G speeds of 150 Mbps, compared to SFR and Bouygues Telecom's 115 Mbps. MNO challenger Free has yet to launch 4G service. Orange states that its LTE service is now available in 390 towns in 54 coverage areas, in contrast with SFR (11 towns in 7 areas) and Bouygues (12 towns in 8 areas).
