Arcep is developing its online mapping tool My mobile network by adding new levels of information on the quality of telephone network coverage in France.
In September 2017, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep) launched a tool called “My mobile network“. This allows Internet users to consult a map of metropolitan France and overseas territories and to compare the performance of the four main mobile operators (SFR, Orange, Free, Bouygues Telecom) in terms of coverage and quality of service in a building, in the street and in transport. To enhance this technology, the telecoms regulator had then integrated no less than four levels of evaluation in its 4G coverage maps (Voice and SMS). Seven years later, Arcep announced that it would do the same for its “4G mobile internet” coverage maps.
“My mobile network” by Arcep: what are the new evaluation levels?
In a press release published this Monday, September 2, Arcep announced the addition of four levels of evaluation for its “4G mobile Internet” coverage maps within a few months. Previously, Internet users could only find out whether the address they were searching for was covered or not by 2G, 3G and 4G from the main operators.“[La mise à jour] will apply for the first time to coverage maps dated December 31, 2024 that operators are required to send to Arcep during February 2025. The integration of these maps will take place at the time of the launch of the new version of the ‘My mobile network’ site planned for the first quarter of 2025”said the telecoms regulator, which had notably launched a public consultation on this subject last March. With this development, the organization hopes to better reflect “the user experience at a given address by adopting a more detailed vision of 4G mobile internet coverage”.
This new feature will therefore make it possible to better represent the theoretical coverage in 3G/4G mobile Internet at a given address using four levels of coverage:
- “No coverage”: unlikely to be able to exchange mobile data, whether inside or outside buildings;
- “Limited coverage”: Possibility of exchanging mobile data outside buildings in most cases, but probably not inside buildings;
- “Good coverage”: ability to exchange mobile data outside buildings in most cases, and in some cases inside buildings;
- “Very good coverage”: ability to exchange mobile data outside buildings, and, in most cases, inside buildings.
To produce such maps, Arcep has announced that it will use digital simulations for the entire French territory. This provides data “as accurate as possible”, but who “always represent, by nature, simplified and imperfect visions of reality”. “Nevertheless, mobile coverage maps must respect a minimum reliability level established by Arcep (reinforced in 2020 from 95% to 98%)”concluded the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution. And it is true that the best way to know the quality of network coverage in a place is to check it in situ…