The race for speeds is raging between French operators. Free hit hard at the start of the year with its Freebox Ultra and its included streaming services. Bouygues responds with a minimalist, but aggressive offer: the B&You Pure fiber at €23.99. The price appealed to me, I took the plunge. A look back at a mixed experience.
The Freebox Ultra: a complete but expensive offer
The Freebox Ultra constituted a real revolution in the landscape of French internet boxes. On the menu: a symmetrical speed of 8 Gb/s and a bouquet of streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Universal+ and Canal+. All for €49.99 the first year, then €59.99.
The offer seemed attractive on paper. The savings made on streaming subscriptions reach almost €230 per year. The speed lived up to its promises, providing an exceptional browsing and downloading experience. Only downside: the box’s catastrophic WiFi forced me to invest in an additional router.
The situation got worse when streaming services started imposing their conditions. To avoid advertising on Netflix and Disney+, I had to pay extra. The bill rose to €60.49 per month, with a prospect of €70.49 after the first year. We are moving dangerously away from the initial promise.
B&You Pure fiber: the call of minimalism
Faced with this galloping inflation, the B&You Pure fiber offer seemed to fall from the sky. The promise, 8 Gb/s downstream and 1 Gb/s upstream for only €23.99 per month without commitment. A monthly saving of more than €35, even in the first year. Well obviously, we will have to do without the streaming offers offered by Free, but given the quality of the content recently, it is without regret for me.
The change of operator turned out to be more complex than expected. The technician’s intervention lasted 1 hour 45 minutes.between administrative justifications and multiple restarts of the BBox Ultym (the size of which is very impressive by the way). A striking contrast with the installation of the Freebox Ultra, completed in 15 minutes.
What followed didn’t help matters. The technician returned, alerted by an installation fault notification. I had to leave the box untouched for several hours before I could configure it. A customer experience far from optimal.
Disillusionment with flow rates
Once the installation has stabilized, the verdict of the speed tests is in: barely 2 Gb/s going down, far from the promised 8 Gb/s. However, the fiber installation in my village is less than three years old. Free delivered the maximum speed on the same lineproof that its investment is greater than that of Bouygues.
This limitation will not penalize most users. 2 Gb/s is more than enough for 4K streaming, online gaming or teleworking. But the commercial promise is not kept. My purchase of a 10 Gb/s network card becomes unnecessary. Also impossible to take full advantage of WiFi 7.
However, the price-quality ratio remains interesting. Saving more than €35 per month compensates for the disappointment of the debits. But Bouygues should be transparent rather than surfing on the 8 Gb/s marketing argument “subject to eligibility”. A practice reminiscent of the beginnings of 4G, when operators promised unattainable theoretical speeds.
So, Free or B&You?
For demanding users looking for maximum throughput, the Freebox Ultra maintains an undeniable technical advantage. The others will find their account with the B&You Pure fiber offer which represents much better value for money than Free’s Ultra and Essential offers. It remains to accept the compromise between performance and savings.
While waiting for another operator to offer an offer combining high real speeds and an attractive price, I will have to be content with my 2 Gb/s.
