France has the third largest telecom market in Europe, behind Germany and the UK. The sector has represented about 2.3% of GDP since 2000. Efficiencies by cost-conscious operators have meant that the number of employees in the telecoms sector has fallen steadily in recent years, from about 156,000 in 1998 to about 122,000 by 2006, and 112,700 by the beginning of 2018. Although revenue from the fixed market has fallen steadily in recent years it has been propped up by the broadband sector while fixed-telephony continues to suffer from a combination of price competition and the migration to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and mobile-only solutions. Although the overall investment climate has been poor in recent years, investment in the telecom sector has recovered since 2009 as operators have committed themselves to upgrading networks and securing mobile spectrum at auction to provide services based on Long-term Evolution (LTE) technology. In the mobile sector there is also investment in 5G developments, with operators anticipating the launch of commercial services by late 2019. Investments among fixed operators have risen slowly since 2003, and now account for just under two-thirds of total investment, with the bulk of spending going to broadband access networks. Fixed-line investments are particularly strong in the fibre sector where Free (Iliad), Orange and SFR Group have deployed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks.

1. Key statistics 

2. Telecommunications market 

3. Regulatory environment 

4. Fixed network operators 

5. Telecommunications infrastructure

6. Broadband market

7. Mobile communications