Free Mobile
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SAS (subsidiary of Iliad) |
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| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 24 July 2007 |
| Founder | Xavier Niel |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
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Area served
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France |
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Key people
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Xavier Niel Maxime Lombardini Rani Assaf Antoine Levavasseur |
| Owner | Iliad |
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Number of employees
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1,638 (as of January 2012) |
| Parent | Free |
| Website | mobile.free.fr |
Free Mobile is a French wireless service provider, part of the Iliad group. It was the fourth mobile network operator to obtain a metropolitan French 3G license in 2009. It also obtained a 4G license in 2011.
Free Mobile provides wireless services to 12.7 million subscribers as of December 2016.
The first 3G licenses were awarded to France Telecom (now Orange) in 2000, SFR in 2000 and Bouygues Telecom in 2002. Free Mobile application has been agreed by French regulatory authority ARCEP on 17 December 2009. The license price is 240 million euros for two 5 MHz duplex bands in the 2100 MHz and 900 MHz frequency bands.
Free Mobile signed a 2G and 3G roaming agreement with Orange on 3 March 2011. It will run until the end of 2020. 100% of the 2G traffic will go through Orange's network as Free Mobile has no 2G license.
Free Mobile has for legal obligation to cover 27% of the French population by January 2012, 75% by January 2015 and 90% by January 2018.
Free Mobile was already covering 30% of the French population in November 2011. A 3G roaming agreement with Orange enables communications channeled through Orange's network, which covers about 98% of the French metropolitan population according to ARCEP.
Free Mobile was covering 37.3% of the French population in July 2012. Xavier Niel announced its network was covering 50% in January 2013.ARCEP confirmed that Free Mobile covered 78% of the population in January 2015.
An estimated 16,000 antennas, depending on the frequencies, are required to cover the whole French metropolitan area. Free Mobile operates roughly 8,800 antennas (11,000 authorizations) as of March 2017.
ARCEP confirmed that Free covers enough of the country to open commercially and start using its roaming agreement with Orange. For the few first years Free will pay Orange to get a full national coverage, for the roaming license agreement as it arrived late to the mobile market.
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Wikipedia