Xavier Niel, CEO of Iliad, has skilfully managed to keep the announcement as short as possible, and for several weeks now has been keeping the launch date of his Free Mobile offer under wraps. On Tuesday morning, all eyes converged on Iliad's headquarters, where Xavier Niel unveiled a price range to match the buzz: an all-inclusive, unlimited package (calls, messages, Internet, with 3GB of Data for Internet) priced at €19.99 per month, and even €15.99 for Free customers. The offer could therefore be of interest to more than one business traveller, thanks in particular to the agreements signed in some forty countries, which provide good international network coverage and allow calls to 40 destinations to be included in the all-inclusive package. When travelling, business customers will also benefit from lower roaming charges: from €0.7 to €0.5. The second part of Free mobile is presented as a "low cost" offer, accessible from €2 - and even free for Free customers - and giving access to 1 hour of calls and 60 text messages.
The offer presented on Tuesday therefore seems to live up to the many expectations of consumers, even if there are still a number of grey areas, and not the least: the price of the two packages is in fact limited to an introductory offer, and should 'only' concern the first 3 million subscriptions. What about the rates that will apply thereafter? Finally, it remains to be seen whether Free, its parent company Iliad and partner Orange, which leases part of its network, will be able to handle the influx of customers likely to join the new entrant.
Compare Free's rates for calls from abroad
(Source: Free Mobile)
