Despite the plaintive cries from big tech, the French regulator reports that users are seeing browser choices on handsets
The Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse’s (Arcep) latest digital barometer has once more revealed that users are addicted to their smartphones. But more interestingly, it provides some evidence that the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is making the US tech giants actually take action.
Last week, both Apple and Google were targeted by EU action under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In preliminary findings against Google parent Alphabet, the EC stated that certain features and functionalities of Google Search treat Alphabet’s own services more favourably compared to rival ones. The Commission has informed Alphabet of its preliminary view that its app marketplace Google Play does not comply with the DMA, as app developers are prevented from freely steering consumers to other channels for better offers.
The EC also adopted two decisions under the DMA specifying the measures that Apple has to take to comply with its interoperability obligation. Apple will be required to open up support for non-Apple accessories on the iPhone. This means Apple will be required to provide other companies and developers with improved access to iOS for consumer devices like smartwatches, headphones or TVs.
Google warned darkly that the EU’s position “will hurt European businesses and consumers, hinder innovation, weaken security, and degrade product quality”. It added that the Commission had created a “false choice” between openness and security.
While the smartphone is taking hold as an essential tool, handset, operating system (OS) and browser suppliers have become key players in free and open access to content and services. Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into force in March 2024, and seeks to guarantee open digital markets. Among its rules: operating systems are prohibited from imposing any software by default on their users.
Arcep’s latest report found that four months after the DMA came into force, close to a third of smartphone owners report having been given the option of switching their mobile browser or being informed of these new provisions.
Connected society
The report – which was carried out with CREDOC on behalf of the regulator, the Economic Council (CGE) and France’s National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT) – also found that in 2024, 98% of people in France aged 12 and up owned a mobile phone (up 4 points YoY). Of particular note, the already massively adopted smartphone has become virtually ubiquitous: 91% of people aged 12 and up own one, alongside computers which are owned by 89% of the population.
Smart speaker ownership is also rising (33%, up 4 points) and their rate of daily use has overtaken that of landline phones. Other connected devices (health, security, home automation, household appliances) are found in 40% of households (up 3 points). Online storage services, whose free versions are the most widely used, have been adopted by 50% of the population.
Fibre rules
Underpinning this trend is the increasingly widespread access to fibre. In 2024, 75% of people aged 12 and up with a fixed internet connection had a fibre or a cable plan (up 8 points YoY), whereas copper line access was still predominant in 2020. This percentage of fibre users is rising even more significantly thanks to a surge in the proportion of fibre customers in municipalities with a population of under 20,000, which reached 69% in 2024 and is nearing the fibre subscription rates found in large cities.
Addicted to phones
Queried about how much time they spend on their devices for personal use, close to three out of four people report spending more than two hours a day, and one in four report spending more than five hours a day on their screens. Average screen time is around four hours a day, or a quarter of people’s waking hours. Also queried about how they perceive their screen time, 42% of respondents said they feel that they spend too much time and, for 19% of them, far too much time on their devices.
The youngest among them stand out for being the heaviest consumers, but also the most sensitive to their overexposure: 61% of 18 to 24-year-olds who spend more than three hours a day on their devices consider it excessive, compared to 31% of people aged 70 and over.
An apparently determining factor in this sentiment is the use of digital platforms with a business model based on capturing users’ attention: 59% of users who go on social media multiple times a day feel that their screen time is excessive. For equal screen time, regular social media users are two to three times more likely to feel that they spend too much time online compared to those who never use social media.
More for more plans
Unsurprisingly, given it is a global phenomenon, the percentage of mobile customers with a monthly allowance of more than 100 Gb has more than doubled in four years, going from 15% to 32%. Despite which, two thirds of people almost never consume their entire monthly allowance. It has nevertheless been observed that average data traffic on mobile networks (16.5 Gb a month per SIM card) continues to grow, albeit more slowly: an over 10% increase in 2024, compared to around 25% a year between 2020 and 2023. The results show that more for more plans may have a shelf life.
Circular economy
Every household in France owns an average of around 10 digital devices with a screen, of which two are never used and could be recycled or sold. Smartphones in particular are kept after no longer being used: by more than half the population. People are keeping their smartphones longer, however. In 2020, only 16% of those queried kept their smartphone for more than three years.
This percentage grew to more than a quarter in 2024 (27%), marking an 11-point increase in four years. Despite this trend, buying a new smartphone remains the norm, representing 78% of all handset sales, compared to 22% for used or repurposed smartphones. This latter statistic is hardly surprising given the enforced software obsolescence handset manufacturers inflict on the public making buying a refurbished older phone less straightforward.
Arcep also found that information has been available to mobile service users since January 2022 on their data traffic’s carbon footprint, but only a minority of users are aware of this fact, however: 40% are aware that this information exists, and 28% have consulted it. Among those who are aware, only a third say this information created an incentive for them to limit their data consumption, or 14% of all mobile phone owners.
