Free Mobile suffering from congestion

The newly launched fourth cellular network operator in France, Free Mobile, has been suffering from network congestion problems during peak early evening periods, with some customers unable to make calls or send text messages. Fierce Wireless quotes the French newspaper Le Figaro as saying that the problems are being caused by congested interconnection links between Free Mobile’s own infrastructure and that of its national roaming partner, France Telecom-Orange. Under the terms of the interconnection contract between the two operators, network links are due to be upgraded from DSL to fibre beginning in July. FT-Orange complained last month that Free Mobile was passing too much traffic onto the Orange network and under-using its own infrastructure. Free Mobile is backed by the fixed line and internet operator Iliad (Free) and launched its low-cost service in January this year.