Telecommunication in France

The development of telecommunications in France is roughly equivalent to the average of the European Union. Under the country code +33, there were a total of 110.51 m connections in 2020. Among them were 72.75 m million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.1 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.

In the expansion of broadband Internet connections France is very well in the race. Around 83% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 45% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).

With about 17.27 m webhosts, France is below the world's average by population.

Back to overview: France

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 198.72 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, France ranked 9th in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 142.47 Mbit/second (12th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 20th place.
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, France comes 26th with a download speed of 73.23 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 11 Mbit was enough for 92nd place.

The "Speedtest Global Index" published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in Mai 2021 from 180 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the Internet in France from 1990 - 2019

Broadband internet in France 1998 - 2020

Landlines 1990 - 2020

Mobile phones 1990 - 2020

Distribution in 2020	France Total	France percent	EU Total	EU percent
Broadband users	30.63 m	45.45 %	162.67 m	36.33 %
Landlines	37.76 m	56.03 %	159.99 m	35.73 %
Mobile cellulars	72.75 m	107.95 %	541.96 m	121.03 %