Bouygues Telecom is a French mobile phone, Internet service provider and IPTV company, part of the Bouygues group. The company is the third oldest mobile network operator in France, with its headquarters located at the border of Paris and Issy-les-Moulineaux near the River Seine. The French government authorised Bouygues Telecom to build and operate France's third GSM mobile phone network on 4 December 1994, and the company commercially launched its network on 30 May 1996. To offset initial weaker coverage compared to Orange and SFR, Bouygues Telecom introduced several innovations, including heavy use of the 1800 MHz frequency band and the marketing of the first combo packages. By 2001, the company's market share reached approximately 17%. In 2009, Bouygues Telecom launched France's first converged quadruple play offer called "ideo", using a combined Internet modem and set-top box called Bbox. In 2011, the company introduced its lower-cost brand, B&YOU, offering postpaid plans online without fixed contracts. In 2020, Bouygues Telecom acquired Euro-Information Telecom, subsequently renaming it as Bouygues Telecom Business – Distribution in early-2021.
Alias
Bouygues Télécom S.A.
Country
France
Type
Mobile Network Operator
Bouygues Telecom logo

Bouygues 4G Network

4G was first implemented in a number of French cities in May 2013 over the B7 (2600 MHz) band. Following permission granted by ARCEP to refarm its 1800 MHz spectrum for 4G, Bouygues rolled out B3 (1800 MHz) LTE to 63% of the population in October 2013. A 220 Mbps LTE-A 2C aggregation upgrade was implemented in July 2014. 3C CA was added in November 2015 with the addition of a B20 (800 MHz). In May 2016 Huawei and Bouygues trialled LTE-A Pro which achieved peak data rates of 1.1 Gbps, using 4C CA, 4X4 MIMO, and 256QAM.

4G Frequency Bands
Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
10
Active
B3 (1800 MHz)
20
Active
B7 (2600 MHz)
15
Active
B20 (800 MHz)
10
Active
B28 (700 MHz)
5
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 4G Network
Launch

Bouygues 5G Network

The company has been actively testing 5G technologies since 2017, most notably testing in partnership with Ericsson where the company demonstrated data rates of 25.2 Gbps. In July 2018 Bouygues Telecom was awarded a temporary licence in the 3.6 to 3.7 GHz band, valid until September 2020 for 5G pilots in three cities (Bordeaux, Lyon, and Villeurbanne). An innovation agreement signed with Huawei in February 2018 would see 5G technologies tested over the following year. In November 2018 it was revealed Bouygues Telecom had installed a 5G pilot base station in Gironde, again using the n78 (3500 MHz) band.

In January 2019 Bouygues Telecom announced its first successful 5G call. The trial was conducted in partnership with Ericsson and Qualcomm in the city of Lyon. Lyon is the second city in which Bouygues Telecom has piloted 5G in France, following the launch of a 5G test network in Bordeaux during July 2018. The company has deployed eleven 5G sites as part of its Bordeaux trial.

The network was launched in December 2020 using n1 and n78. An SA network was established in 2022 in partnership with Ericsson.

Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
n1 (2100 MHz)
10
Active
n78 (3500 MHz)
70
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 5G Network
Launch