Free, the (for English speakers) annoyingly named French broadband service provider, tops our recent survey in customer satisfaction. 81% of Free’s customers report themselves to be somewhat or very satisfied with their broadband service. Free set the French broadband market alight several years ago now when it became the first provider to introduce a triple play bundle (TV, phone, internet) at the then unprecedented monthly fee of €29.99. Other providers quickly followed and €29.99 became the standard offer in the French market. Anecdotally I’ve heard varying reports about Free’s advantages and disadvantages over the years. While some customers clearly rave about the company, I have heard of some complaints about quality, particularly regarding its IPTV service. In fact, our survey suggests Free is not number one on every metric: in terms of reliability it is beaten by Alice, Neuf and Orange. Numericable is seen as significantly less reliable than its competitors. Not surprisingly, it is on value for money that Free is seen as the best performer, which is entirely in line with the company’s strategy. Twitter: www.twitter.com/dmercer15 Client Reading: Broadband Satisfaction and Customer Churn:France Survey Results 2H'08