Orange launches Free Mobile for its “fake 5G” offer intended to mislead consumers

This Wednesday, January 27, during his greetings to the press, Stéphane Richard CEO of Orange took the opportunity to attack Free Mobile and its deceptive commercial offer on “fake 5G”.

The deployment of 5G in France took a slight delay, but the new generation mobile network is now available in several cities. Free Mobile was the last operator in terms of commercial offers. Very quickly, Xavier Niel’s firm found itself in the eye of the storm because of the speeds on its 5G offers. This is a reproach that was reiterated by Stéphane Richard, the CEO of Orange.

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Orange considers 5G Free to be “improved 4G”

The crux of the problem lies in the communication of Free Mobile. The operator claims to have the largest 5G network in France. However, according to Stéphane Richard, most of the system put forward by Xavier Niel’s company would only be on a 700 MHz frequency band. “For us, 5G is the one that uses the 3.5 GHz frequency band. The rest is not 5G, even if it can be named after him ”. After Bouygues and SFR, it is therefore Orange which is attacking the competition.

Stéphane Richard therefore seems to use elements of language that have also been used by consumer associations to initiate legal action. As a reminder, the four major Orange operators included have been assigned by UFC-Que-Choisir for deceptive commercial practices. The attack is on the fact that companies are leaving a voluntary vagueness around the proposed 5G speeds. The question of true or false 5G still seems childish between operators. Especially since the last word goes, as always, to the telecommunications gendarme, namely: Arcep.

Source: Le Figaro