The rollout of 5G represents a significant advancement in the telecommunications industry, offering the potential for markedly enhanced speeds, reduced latency, and improved connectivity. Considering these anticipated advantages, it is interesting to understand the progressive adoption of the new technology by operators and their subscribers. In this paper, we analyze the evolution and current operation of the nation-wide 5G network of Orange, a leading mobile operator in France. By inspecting longitudinal data about (i) the over-five-year-long development of the country-wide 5G radio access infrastructure and (ii) the last two years of 5G traffic demands, we unveil how the operator has planned the deployment of the 5G radio access and characterize the actual usage patterns of the available 5G infrastructure. We also investigate the recent introduction of a 5G Standalone (SA) commercial service and its adoption by the mobile subscribers. We show that by mid 2025, the 5G network under study has achieved substantial coverage of populated areas and the operator has very recently started adding capacity layers to its 5G radio access. However, our investigation reveals that such massive infrastructure deployment efforts are not matched by a commensurate adoption of the technology by the end users, as the 5G capacity -especially for SA- stays largely underutilized.

The rollout of 5G promises major improvements in speed, latency, and connectivity over previous-generation radio access technologies. Our study analyzes Orange's nationwide 5G network in France, combining longitudinal data on infrastructure deployment with data traffic patterns. Early results show that while 5G coverage has steadily expanded and is presently reaching the vast majority of the user population, adoption by mobile subscribers remains limited, leaving much of the new capacity underutilized.

Summer Olympic Games are one of the major sports and social events worldwide, attracting global media attention, thousands of athletes, and large crowds to the hosting country.As such, the Olympics also represent a moment of severe strain for local infrastructures, including the telecommunication one.Yet, very little is known about how this large event affects demands for telco services.In this paper, we explore how the 2024 Summer Olympics hosted by Paris, France conditioned local mobile data traffic volumes and dynamics.We do so from a privileged vantage point by analyzing measurements collected in Orange's production network, largest mobile operator in the country and the official communications partner to the event organization.Our results shed light on a variety of aspects, including how Olympic Games affect consumption of mobile services, the burden that the event imposes on the local mobile network infrastructure, and how operators prepare for it.