Founded in 1999, Free was for a long time a minority player in the telecommunications market, until becoming the fourth approved mobile operator in the country ten years later.
Building on the success of its Freebox, the first triple play offer in the sector, the brand had already begun its establishment in homes in France thanks to a device much more complete than the competition, and whose technical superiority is still demonstrated by our days. But what are theirpackages and its Freeboxes? Here is our opinion on Free Mobile
Free, the definition of low-cost
First of all, there is one crucial thing to know if you opt for a Free plan: its offers aresans engagement, and if they are often less expensive than the competition, it is because the quality of service is provided accordingly.
Understand that opinions on Free are often mixed, in particular because of less efficient connections than with other providers (details below), but that this is the price to pay to save money. If, however, you are a professional or you need to be connected to the internet permanently and without interruption for imperative reasons, you can always turn to the alternatives from Bouygues Telecom, Orange or SFR.
© Fabian Blank
Subscription prices at Free Mobile
Let's get down to business: what are the prices of the packages offered by Free Mobile?
- For only2€ per month: 50 MB of Internet in 4G+ in France and abroad + two hours of calls + unlimited SMS and MMS –Our opinion: the cheapest package, for tight budgets!
- Pour19.99 euros per month: 100 GB of data, 25 GB in the European Union + unlimited calls, SMS and MMS –Our opinion: a correct envelope for those who travel
Free regularly also offersLimited Seriesfor a few days, with significant reductions: remember to regularly consult our site where we publish all the operator's good deals! Finally, also note that by choosing several offers (for example a box package + a mobile plan), the amounts to be paid upon subscription and monthly will be lower (the 2 euro package thus becomes free with a Freebox).
Currently, it is promoting a Free Limited Series with unlimited calls, SMS and MMS as well as 70 GB of data for €12.99 per month. Please note, this price is only valid for the first 12 months, after which it goes back to €19.99 per month. In all cases, Free Mobile does not require any commitment on its mobile plan. You can rest easy and cancel at any time. This is a strong point in our Free review. In the end, it is the latter who isone of the best iPhone plans on the market.
© Presse-citron.net
A wide choice of smartphones
Like many other operators, Free offers all its customers a substantial catalog of mobile phones which can be purchased before, during or after registering for one of its plans.
Our Free review will instead focus on the seller's high-end devices, includingwe find the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. With their 4 GB of RAM and their premium processor completely optimized for their operating system, iOS, these are relatively fluid products that will suit all audiences.
The advantage of this type of purchase is that the price can be spread over several months by acquiring the mobile at the same time as a package: thus, no need to spend several hundred euros as soon as your equipment needs be changed in the event of an unforeseen breakdown or breakage.
The installments can go from three to twenty-four months, and there are many brands available, including the Chinese Oppo, Huawei (including its subsidiary Honor), OnePlus and Xiaomi. The most historic Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel are also part of the list, while articlesreconditionedare also available for those who wish to make an environmental gesture without breaking the bank.
© Free
Free is installed in many cities
If in rural areas it is sometimes difficult to access the Free network, subscribers located in town can nevertheless be reassured: this operator generally has everything necessary to serve its urban customers.
There are thus Free centerin most metropolitan areas, where users can meet a technician, register or simply test a new laptop before purchasing it. The advisors are very available, and you can go there without an appointment. There are more than fifty establishments throughout France, from Corsica to Paris via Tarbes or Toulouse. The only downside: these addresses are generally closed on Sundays.
However, if even none of these stores are open, don't worry: thebornes Freeare available to you from many partner businesses, such as tobacco shops or certain parcel relays. Using the same model as the touch screens that can be found in fast food stores, these can deliver a SIM card in less than three minutes, regardless of the format.
You can also pay your bills by credit card and obtain the corresponding receipt. There are more than 1,000 Free terminals in France, a very practical option whose strategy is reminiscent of Tesla's Superchargers and which is not found at either SFR or Orange, which in our opinion allows Free Mobile to differentiate itself from the others ISP.
© Free
The best boxes on the market?
Let's come to the most innovative: theFreebox. Trademarks of their distributor, these devices - which range from entry-level to a resolutely premium character not found with other Internet access providers - are often much more than a simple decoder or Wi-Fi access point. Fi.
In our opinion, the best is the Freebox Delta designed in partnership with Devialet. French, this company is renowned as one of the most qualitative players in particular Hi-Fi, and its Phantom speaker, sold for several thousand euros, has already been honored by numerous sound reviews.
The product that the startup designed jointly with Free thus takes up the basic characteristics of a Freebox, to which is added a speaker with round bass and faithful rendering which will delight both fans of electronic music and those who listen classic. Like a HomePod, this hub also serves as aassistant vocal, but this time with Amazon Alexa inside.
Otherwise, you can always opt for the Freebox One, much more compact and with similar features, but whose price is also more accessible. It broadcasts a 4K HDR image and includes the catalogNetflix, displays the time and has a format similar to that of an Apple TV.
Of course, the operating system is not the same, but the services offered are similar and the download speed reaches 1 Gb per second thanks to thefibreoptical. Free television channels, from TF1 to France Info, are also part of the package offered live and delayed. Finally, there are also other models, such as the Freebox Delta S, the Freebox Revolution, the Freebox mini 4K and the Freebox Crystal, whose price is different.
© Free
Cover: The Bad Student
If the opinion of Free subscribers is often very divided, it is often because its network can sometimes prove to be very capricious, whether it is a landline or a mobile plan. Indeed, if we look, for example, at the 4G coverage map communicated by ARCEP, which is the French organization in charge of telecoms regulation, we realize thatFree would only cover 93% of the country's population in 4G(figures are from June 2019). For comparison, Bouygues, SFR and Orange reach around 99%.
For my part, with a Freebox in the countryside, it is impossible to receive Wi-Fi more than ten meters away or upstairs, and the speed is always very slow (less than one MB per second) to the point of make any streaming without latency impossible. Furthermore, untimely disconnections are legion.
On the mobile side, you should know that Free relies on the antennas of Orange, which takes advantage of this tobridlethe network provided to its competitor: it is therefore common to not be able to watch a video on YouTube in HD for no reason, even though your neighbors can. So think about it before subscribing to this company: like its prices, its service is low-cost and a professional cannot, for example, afford such incidents.
© Free
Applications: can do better…
Free offers several applications, available on the Google Play Store or the App Store. Among them, we find in particular a special client dedicated to voice messaging, whose touch control is much easier than traditional voice control. The appFree Mobile – My account, also available on iPad, allows you totrack your consumptionin real time to avoid being faced with unexpected over-billing.
You can also create personalized answering machine announcements, consult the list of Free relay antennas and view the operator's coverage area in real time, or even modify the options of your plan from your mobile.
On the fixed side, the Freebox also has its application: you canschedule a remote recordingof your favorite shows, consult your call log (received and made), track and manage downloads launched, copy photos from your smartphone to the box's storage space, or even manage parental controls.
This very practical menu selects content accessible to young people, and thus prevents your children from finding themselves, for example, faced with shocking images when browsing the internet. The opinion on Free from users of this app 4.3 stars out of 5 on the Ap Store, out of nearly 50,000 ratings: an honorable score, but which does not necessarily reflect the majority of feedback...
© iPhon.fr
Opinion on Free from…consumers!
Indeed, if we look at theavisFrom previous Free Mobile customers, feedback is rather mixed. Although on its official website the brand claims that nine out of ten people are satisfied according to an IFOP survey, the reality seems quite different when we carry out further research.
Let's take the example of Facebook: Free hid the reviews section there, and you just have to read the comments to understand that this is probably because the overall evaluation there was very negative. On Trustpilot, Free only obtains a rating of 1.2/5 out of more than 3,000 reviews: that's verypoor. Finally, the opinions left on the iOS and Android apps are also mainly negative. It's even worse thanRED by SFR, which has been doing better in recent years.
Free Wi-Fi is practical!
All Free subscribers participate in a programP2Pglobal, which transforms their box into a Wi-Fi access point for all other subscribers. This solution, which then shares their network with other users, is really very practical on the move. Imagine, for example, that you are traveling in a village where 4G is not available, but where some residents are equipped with a Freebox. All you have to do is connect to their hotspot to enjoy the internet.
© Unsplash / Tim Mossholder
Our opinion on Free Mobile
Finally, what is our opinion on Free Mobile? Above all, itsprixare clearly the most attractive on the market, and choosing this operator is therefore an opportunity to save money for those who are not ready to invest several hundred euros per year in a package. The other strong point is the quality of its fixed offer, which with the Freeboxes ranks the brand as a true manufacturer of quality connected products in the same way as Apple, where most of its competitors fall short. care about services.
On the other hand, thenetworkof Free leaves, in our opinion, a bitter taste after having used it: often the victim of latency and slowdowns, it is clearly not intended for the youngest generations who need a stable connection to stream, play or work. An essential criterion to take into account when purchasing. Finally, here is our comparison, updated in real time, of Free mobile plans:
And you, what is your opinion on Free?
We love
- Wide range of boxes
- Prix
- Bornes Free
- Free Wi-Fi
We like less
- Support
- Subcontracted coverage
