France's low-cost Free offers 4G for free

PARIS, FRANCE: Low-cost telecommunications company Free stirred up France's mobile phone market on Tuesday, 3 December, by announcing an offer that includes 4G data services at no additional cost to the customer.

France's Free mobile operator offers free 4G service. Image: Style-photography.de Fotolia

The company - which has been responsible for pushing down prices for home telephone, television and Internet services - did the same for mobile phones when it became France's fourth operator in 2012.

Forced into a price war, France's main operators - Orange, SFR and Bouygues - saw earnings slump, but were hoping to recover by charging a premium for the new generation service.

Free also said it would provide even more data as part of is standard €20 per month package.

The announcement hit the share price of its competitors. Shares in Orange dropped 3.0% to €9.25, Bouygues fell 3.1% to €26.86 while SFR-owner Vivendi slid 2.3% to €18.19.

Shares in Free's parent company Iliad, owned by Xavier Niel, climbed marginally to €174.40.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge