Which telecom operators received the most complaints in 2020?

Arcep, the telecoms regulator, publishes its annual report on its alert service. Here are the operators that generated the most complaints last year.

The telecom networks were particularly in demand last year because of the confinements and the massive use of telework. What generate more dissatisfaction on the part of users who are much more dependent on their connection in their homes.

The figures of the regulator (Arcep) are final. The number of reports received via its alert service jumped 37% over one year with 33,000 complaints...

As a reminder, this service allows each user (individual, company, etc.) to report malfunctions encountered in their relations with mobile telephone operators, internet service providers, postal operators or press distributors.

Free concentrated the most complaints

“This marked increase is largely due to alerts concerning malfunctions of the fixed internet, which have taken on a new dimension in the context of the health crisis and the generalization of teleworking”, underlines Arcep.

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"The reports received again this year most frequently concern the quality of service, including after-sales service (SAV). Then comes dissatisfaction with network developments (fiber deployment, insufficient mobile coverage, etc.) in particular the deployment of fiber, followed by the commercial practices of operators and the difficulties encountered during a change of operator", notes the Authority.

Which operator has crystallized the most complaints? In one year, the ranking has changed with Free, which has seen its number of alerts increase sharply and has become the operator having generated the most reports with 29 per 100,000 customers in 2020 (compared to 15 a year earlier).

Conversely, Bouygues Telecom is the operator for which the alerts, reported to the number of customers, is the least important last year (with 19 reports for 100,000 customers).

Declining overall satisfaction

Orange ranks second with 25 complaints per 100,000 subscribers followed by SFR (which belongs to the Altice group just like BFM Business) with 26 complaints per 100,000 customers.

Sometimes, the problems encountered were such that Arcep contacted the operators concerned directly. "For example, following various localized alert peaks targeting the quality of final fiber connections, Arcep contacted the infrastructure operators concerned in order to better understand the cases of so-called 'non-standard' connections and 'identifying areas for improvement'.

This dissatisfaction is also illustrated in the average satisfaction of users, expressed as a score from 1 to 10, which thus fell from 7.65 in 2019 to 7.5 in 2020, according to a survey conducted by Ifop for the Autorité .