Paris, 25th October 2004
Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART) published today its Mobile Observatory figures for the third quarter 2004.
During this quarter, 626 800 new mobile telephone customers were recorded, bringing the total to 42.9 million at 30 September 2004.
The mobile telephony penetration rate has reached 71.1% of the French population, with significant regional differences; indeed, the penetration rate in some regions is almost double that of others (e.g. 101.6% in Ile-de-France compared with 51.1% in Auvergne).
The share of customers choosing a flat-rate package over a pre-paid card continues to increase, reaching 61.4% of total customers.
The multimedia services offered by mobile operators were used by over 8 million customers, representing 20% of total active customers. Some 47 500 numbers were ported between operators during the third quarter 2004.
Finally, 2.7 billion text messages (SMS) were sent during the same period, for a monthly average of 21.6 SMS per customer.
Linked documents
The Mobile Observatory figures 