In two months, three new boxes have landed on the consumer market: the SFR Box 8X*, the Livebox 6 and a new evolution of the Bbox Fibre. A new match between high-end modems was therefore necessary.
On the Free side, we chose the Freebox Delta to get into the ring. It is indeed a debatable choice, since it now dates from December 2018. We could have selected the more recent Freebox Pop, which has arguments such as its 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet port or its Wi- Fi more efficient, for example. But the commercial offer of the Freebox Delta ranks it more on the side of high-end boxes, whether in terms of its prices or the variety of services and content provided in addition.
While the four products provide access to fiber optics under very good conditions, they are distinguished by different technological choices and prices, as you can see in the table above.
XGS-PON, a more modern connection technology
There are now three different fiber optic access technologies. Free has chosen 10G-EPON, which is an aging standard, Bouygues Telecom and Orange are still using GPON and SFR has ventured into XGS-PON.
It is the latter choice that we favor since it is recent and much more efficient. Eventually, it will leave SFR full latitude to move towards a commercial offer with symmetrical 10 Gbit/s. But beware, not all subscribers are eligible for the SFR box. They would be only a little more than two million currently. Switching to XGS-PON indeed requires changing equipment in the NRO (Optical Connection Node) and the operation is done gradually.
In terms of speed, Free and SFR are the most generous, with 8 Gbit/s of theoretical downlink speed. But on the connector side, only SFR offers a 10 Gbit/s SFP+ module allowing a terminal to be connected directly to it. The Bbox Fiber offers a 10 Gbit/s Ethernet port, but it does not use its full capacity since the commercial offer remains limited to 2 Gbit/s in downstream speed.
Advantage at Wi-Fi 6E
Let’s move on to Wi-Fi. There are three camps here. On the one hand SFR, which was the first to offer Wi-Fi 6. On the other, Orange and Bouygues Telecom which have moved to Wi-Fi 6E. And finally, Free, which is starting to lag behind with its Wi-Fi 5. Again, our preference goes to the latest standard, Wi-Fi 6E, which allows you to mix three different frequency bands. The 6 Ghz has indeed been added to the traditional 2.5 and 5 GHz for more capacity and throughput.
Repeaters are included in the offer for Free, Bouygues Telecom and Orange. That of SFR is paying and it is a bad point. But it is Orange that makes the most interesting proposal since it is possible to request up to three dual-band Wi-Fi 6 repeaters designed to operate in a mesh network. Bouygues Telecom delivers two. You have to pay at Free from the second and the product is limited by its Wi-Fi 5.
At Free, a decoder the most attractive TV box
Hard hard, now, for an operator, to make the difference with his TV decoder. It seems that they have refocused more on modems and that they have almost given up. All boxes have long been 4K compatible. It would seem that TV decoders with built-in speakers have gone out of fashion. That of SFR, released in 2019 remains on this model.
That said, Free’s Player Pop pulls out of the game by opting for Android TV and its in-house developed Oqee interface. Its elegant design and compact appearance are also strong points.
The 4K Player that accompanies the Bbox Fiber is also an Android TV. This allows you to take advantage of all Android applications and easily stream content from your smartphone.
In terms of additional content, the prize goes to the Freebox Delta, whose offer includes subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix and TV by Canal.
Bouygues Telecom is the cheapest on the market
Orange has dared to cross the 50 euros per month mark again with its Livebox 6, which is priced at 54.99 euros after the promotion for the first year. It’s five euros more than SFR and Free and even eight euros more than Bouygues Telecom.
On paper, this difference is not entirely justified compared to Bouygues Telecom and SFR, whose expected performance is roughly equivalent for consumer use. However, it is conceded that Orange offers a higher uplink speed of 800 Mbit/s. Compared to the Freebox Delta, the Livebox 6 is certainly much more powerful. But the content is much richer with the Free offer and the TV Player Pop decoder is appealing.
To conclude, and this was already what we wrote during the Livebox 6 vs Bbox Fiber match, the advantage goes rather to the BBox Fiber which theoretically presents the most interesting quality-price ratio on the market.
* 01net.com is published by a subsidiary of NextRadioTV, itself owned by Altice Media