French new entrant Free kept up its pressure on incumbent rivals by announcing the launch of 4G services “at no extra cost and still on a no-commitment basis”.

The company said that by including 4G with its €19.99 Free Mobile monthly plan, it is “offering a price that is five times cheaper than that proposed in the market for this type of 4G plan”.

According to Reuters, rival Orange France has said it intends to stick with plans to increase the price of its 4G mobile services in February 2014, arguing that “coverage and quality are fundamental”.

“We are not afraid of an offer that is backed with no network,” Delphine Ernotte Cunci, head of Orange France, told the publication.

Illad, parent of Free, said it is one of just two operators in the market to have 20MHz of spectrum dedicated to 4G in the 2.6GHz band, meaning it can offer customers “the fastest maximum theoretical speeds of up to 150Mb/s”.

It also claims to offer “the market’s highest data volume” at 20GB via 4G.

Free said it has 700 4G sites covering more than 1,000 towns and cities (as of 1 December), which is “set to rapidly increase with several hundred new 4G sites coming on stream in the next few weeks”.

France’s three main mobile operators – Orange, SFR and Bouygues – also already have 4G networks up and running in various parts of the country.