October 27, 2006: SFR now has 2 million 3G customers and 6 million users of Vodafone live! phones

 

 Download the press release English / French

 

Press release
Paris, 27 October 2006

SFR now has 2 million 3G customers and 6 million users of Vodafone live! phones

SFR, which was the first operator to launch 3G services in France in November 2004 and which has since made 3G its main priority, has just passed the 2 million mark for 3G customers. These customers are connected to the new 3G network - the only network with additional voice capacity, allowing the use of video calling and offering high-speed access to new multimedia services such as music or video downloads.

SFR is well on the way to achieving its target of a total of 2.5 million 3G customers by the end of 2006.

These figures reflect the success of SFR’s strategy to boost the 3G market in France, particularly by significantly reducing the price of mobile phones, which now start from just one euro, and by offering the most extensive 3G/3G+ coverage in France, with 65% of the population able to access 3G/3G+ services by the end of 2006. As of the end of September 2006, 45% of the French population were already covered by SFR’s 3G+ network, and it offered access to the 3G network in 48 countries or other destinations throughout the world.

Another significant trend is the strong growth in the use of 3G services:

-Nearly 6 million video calls have been made on SFR’s 3G network since January 2006, i.e. three times more video calls than in the whole of 2005,
-More than one in five 3G customers use video calling,
-The number of TV–Video sessions has tripled compared with 2005,
-300,000 music tracks are downloaded on average every month, with a total of 2 million since the beginning of 2006, the target being one million downloads per month in 2007,
-1,5 million games are downloaded since the beginning of the year, on 3G mobile phones,
-More than two out of three customers with a 3G mobile use the Vodafone live! portal.