France's mobile subscriber base barely grew in the March quarter, but a number of prepaid customers made the jump to post-paid plans, according to regulator Arcep.
The market recorded a marginal decline in quarterly net additions, Arcep said, and penetration decreased to an estimated 92.6% from 92.8%.
But the post-paid sector recorded 612,000 net adds - nearly the exact opposite of the prepaid market, where net adds declined by 617,000.
MVNOs saw more success during the quarter, increasing their relative market share to 6.1% from 5.9% the quarter before. And in contrast to the MNO segment, net additions were 114,700 – a 3.3% increase quarter-on-quarter.
SMS growth continued unabated, with 22.3 billion messages sent during the quarter – up 14.6% on 4Q09.
The average active customer in France sends 124.4 SMS per month.