French operator SFR has officially launched its Parisian LTE network, claiming its 4G service offers more coverage than competitors and asserting that it will be available across the whole city by the end of the year. Having begun its Paris LTE network in financial district La Defense at the end of January, SFR plans yet another launch of LTE in Paris at a celebration planned for 21 September.
The operator, which currently competes in 4G with Orange France and will contend with a national network from Bouygues Telecom from October, says its service will cover 300 municipalities in the Ile-de-France region in and around Paris at the end of the year.
The French capital is the seventh metro area where its 4G network is present, and the Vivendi subsidiary intends to increase its presence to 55 big cities by year-end, notably thanks to the use of 800MHz spectrum, which provides better in-building coverage, requires fewer cell sites, and will be used nationwide by Bouygues. The operator aims to cover 70 percent of the French population with LTE and DC-HSPA+ by December, half of which in LTE.
SFR sells 17 LTE smartphones, starting at EUR 1, and its 4G plans for consumers begin at EUR 29.99 a month. SFR Business Team offers LTE plans to enterprise customers. The marketing department has kitted out the SFR 4G Bus to demonstrate the standard’s higher speeds and is marking the Paris launch with a EUR 30 discount on a range of LTE smartphones until 9 September in participating stores.
