A month after Xavier Niel’s announcements and the presentation of its new Freeboxes, SFR is back in the game. The operator has decided to align part of its prices with those of Free and to lower the others… in the long term.

A month after Xavier Niel’s announcements and the presentation of its new Freeboxes, SFR is back in the game. The operator has decided to align part of its prices with those of Free and to lower the others… in the long term.

It’s been a long time since the operator in the red square has been talked about… well. We had to wait for Free’s announcements on January 30 concerning its new offers accompanied by its new Freeboxes for the sleeping giant SFR to wake up a month later and go on the counterattack. To face the Free offensive, SFR is reviewing its Premium offers and also returning to a fixed price scale (understand without promotion for the first months) on its other boxes.

On the technical side first of all, the Freebox Premium (therefore fiber) intends to come and carve out some croupiers to the very new Freebox Ultra. SFR now offers 8 Gbit/s for the download rate as was already the case, but also for the upload rate. On this point the operator aligns with Free’s proposal. The new features, however, stop on the technical aspect since the SFR Box 8 TV itself does not change. Unlike Free, it “only” includes WiFi 6 and not the brand new WiFi 7 standard. The services included also remain identical. The offer still includes 200 TV channels and 9 months of Netflix Standard subscription (with advertising) billed afterwards €5.99 per month or 9 months of subscription to Disney+ Standard with family package billed afterwards €8.99 per month. We are therefore still quite far from the Free proposition with the Freebox Ultra accompanied by its eponymous offer with its vast catalog of services included (TVbyCanal, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Free Ligue 1 and even Universal+ and the Canal+ channel live) . The SFR Box 8 TV Premium offer is available without commitment and invoiced €44.99 monthly. A fixed price which therefore does not benefit from promotions during the first year as was previously the case. As a reminder, the Free Ultra Essential and no-obligation offer (including 280 channels including TV byCanal and access to the Oqee Ciné streaming platform) is offered at €39.99 per month for a year then €49.99 per month from the second year. Taking into account the cost over two years, and without the Netflix Stndard or Disney+ Standard packs at SFR, the two operators are perfectly aligned at €1079.76. Free’s most complete offer with a Freebox Ultra and the no-commitment Ultra package obviously remains more expensive with its plethora of services at a price of €49.99 monthly for the first year then €59.99 per month in the following years or, over two years, €1319.76.

SFR Internet Box: new prices on classic offers

In parallel with the new premium offers and the upstream speed aligned with that of Free, SFR has also revised its price list for its other Box Starter and Power offers. The options offered for these boxes, backed by a 12-month commitment, do not change. The Starter box still offers a download speed of 1 Gbit/s and an upload speed of 700 Mbit/s with 160 TV channels included and WiFi 5. Its cost is now set at €29.99 per month without rebate for the first six months as before. Which increases the annual bill to €359.88 i.e. 12 euros more than previously. The Power offer with its downstream speed of 2 Gbit/s and upward speed of 700 Mbit/s, its 200 TV channels including its Wifi 6 repeater and, your choice, 6 months of subscription to standard Netflix or Disney+ (charged then respectively 5 .99 €/month and 8.99 €/month) is now available at the price of €36.99 per month. Without the Netflix or Disney+ options, the first year is also €24 more expensive since the promotional offer has disappeared.

An increase that may raise eyebrows at first glance, but which is not really an increase if you keep your subscription for two years. In fact, the annual cost of Starter and Power Boxes shows a significant decrease over 24 months. As long as in the meantime, SFR does not decide to arbitrarily increase its prices, as the operator has a bad habit.