France’s third-largest operator Bouygues Telecom has launched 4G services, adding the carrot of a free one-month trial to the 40 million people in its LTE coverage area.

Provided users have a 4G-compatible device, customers – whether on the Bouygues Telecom network or not – can sign up to a SIM-only plan that’s free for the first month (and which can be cancelled at no extra cost). The offer is available until 17 November.

Although Bouygues claims its LTE launch is ahead of schedule, Orange and Vivendi-owned SFR already have 4G services up and running.

SFR, the country’s second-largest operator, was first out of the 4G traps in November 2012. The following month, Orange launched a commercial LTE network in Paris.

Both operators have made one-upmanship claims on LTE coverage. SFR, in the summer, said it had the widest 4G coverage in Paris. Orange, with plans to cover 70 “agglomerations” with LTE by the beginning of October, including over 500 towns, said it was number one for 4G coverage in France.

However, Bouygues Telecom’s chief executive Oliver Roussat said the operator had the “widest nationwide coverage” with 63 per cent of French population in range of its LTE signals as of 1 October.

Much to the annoyance of its two bigger rivals, Bouygues Telecom was given the go-ahead in March by Arcep, France’s telecoms regulator, to use its 1800MHz spectrum assets for 4G.

SFR and Orange say they are aiming to cover 40 per cent of the population by the end of the year and both target at least 1 million 4G customers by the end-2013.

Bouygues has not given a customer target.

The cheapest SIM-only plan from Bouygues starts at €29.99 per month for 3GB of data. There is also an 8GB option for €39.99 per month. A high-end 16GB dollop of data is available for €59.99.

The lower-end SIM-only offer from Bouygues is similar to SFR, which offers 3GB for €30.99 per month. However, SFR looks poorer value higher up, charging €45.99 for 5GB.

Orange is similarly priced to SFR. A SIM-only deal for 2GB costs €29.99, and 4GB is priced at €39.99. (For the same price, however, a Bouygues 4G customers gets 8GB).

All three operators see 4G as a way to blunt competition from low-cost player Iliad, which has taken a 10 per cent mobile market share since January 2012.

Although Iliad owns a block of 2.6GHz spectrum, it has not yet announced plans for 4G launch.

Analysts at MacQuarie Equities Research, quoted by Reuters, believe Iliad will not be able to match the 4G offers and service of rivals.

“We believe Iliad’s lack of spectrum, limited network and the difficulties of implementing a roaming agreement will prevent it from providing an effective 4G offering,” wrote the analysts.