Free dethrones Orange: a deserved spot?
Pierr10 Posted messages 13775 Registration date Status Modérateur Last intervention -
Hello everyone,
I wanted to start a debate on a current issue that, in my opinion, deserves our attention: for the first time in over ten years, Free has overtaken Orange in the customer satisfaction ranking of Arcep (IFOP survey 2025). Free scored 8.1/10, Orange dropped to 8/10, Bouygues follows with 7.8, and SFR is last at 7.5.
Orange has always been THE quality reference, the one we recommended to everyone to avoid hassle. Seeing Free come out on top is a real earthquake in the small operator bubble. Is it deserved?
While I commend Free for democratizing prices and shaking up the market, I find that in terms of service quality, we are still far from the mark in many regions. I tested Free and Orange over the past two years, and honestly, the difference in coverage and network stability remains striking, especially once you leave the big cities.
So, does this ranking really reflect reality? Or has Free mainly benefited from aggressive marketing and lower expectations from its customers? I'm also wondering if the weariness towards Orange, which sometimes tends to rest on its laurels (and quietly raise its prices…), has not influenced the responses.
And what do you think? Is this ranking going to make you switch providers, or will you remain loyal to your current operator?
2 réponses
Hello,
We can already see that the gap between the worst and the best is very small: 0.6 points out of 10. That's not enough to say that SFR is a disaster and Free and Orange are excellent.
For me, these satisfaction surveys are biased from the start. It's rare for a customer to drag their operator through the mud and consequently admit that they were scammed.
This implies that operators with the most customers will likely have the best score: success breeds success.
Personally, I am with Free and I am satisfied. But I know very well that Free can be subject to the same hardware failures as the other operators, and that an unfortunate digger's strike can result in hours of network outage.
So I will be careful not to proclaim that Free is the best.
What is well conceived is clearly expressed,
And the words to say it come easily.
(Boileau)
Hello
I’ve known about customer satisfaction rankings since before they existed, and I’ve seen in all areas that it’s not what drives the quality of work, the long-term viability of businesses, the service provided, and the structures in place. Even less is it the event to remember from the past 10 years; you’re just going to draw correlations.
Even the companies in question change their status and functions in the communication system; sometimes one takes on the heavy structure and costs, and sometimes it no longer does, etc.