Guadeloupe coverage

What the Guadeloupe numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 46.2 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 3.5 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Guadeloupe when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Orange Caraïbe, SFR Caraïbe, Digicel and Free Caraïbe. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Guadeloupe

• Four network operators: Digicel AFG, Free Caraibe, Orange and Outremer Telecom each hold licences for the 700 MHz, 900 MHz and 3.4 to 3.8 GHz bands in Guadeloupe, awarded by the regulator Arcep on 18 February 2025.
• Digicel and Free Caraibe: Digicel and Free Caraibe share a radio network through their joint company Madiacom, pooling their low band 800 MHz and 900 MHz spectrum. Arcep reviewed the deal in April 2021 and did not ask for changes.
• Free Caraibe: Arcep fined Free Caraibe 300,000 euros in September 2022 for missing its obligation to cover 50 percent of Guadeloupe's population with voice and very high speed mobile access by November 2018. Its commercial offers launched on 17 May 2022.
• Orange: In the February 2025 award Orange won 708 to 713 MHz and 763 to 768 MHz, 895 to 905 MHz and 940 to 950 MHz from May 2025, and 3520 to 3620 MHz in Guadeloupe, committing about 8.4 million euros.
• Market size: Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy together had 547,000 SIM cards at the end of 2025: 469,000 postpaid and 79,000 prepaid, of which only 61,000 prepaid cards were actually in use.

5G in Guadeloupe

• Arcep let the four operators use their 700 MHz and 3.4 to 3.8 GHz spectrum in Guadeloupe from 18 February 2025 and the new 900 MHz spectrum from 1 May 2025. Each winner received a 50 MHz block in the 3.4 to 3.8 GHz band in return for a set of commitments.
• The first commercial 5G offers in Guadeloupe launched in the first half of 2025. By the end of 2025, 11 percent of active SIM cards across overseas France used 5G, against 40 percent in mainland France.
• Within five years of its 2025 licence, Orange must provide 3.5 GHz service from at least half of its higher power sites and from no fewer than 25 sites in Guadeloupe.

Network notes for Guadeloupe

• Orange's 2025 licence requires voice and very high speed mobile access inside vehicles on about 350 km of Guadeloupe's main roads by 1 May 2028, available in at least 95 percent of connection attempts.
• Orange must publish, and update daily, a list and map of its sites that are down or degraded for maintenance or faults, including the start time of each fault and the expected repair date.
• Within 36 months of the February 2025 licence, Orange must switch on voice and SMS over wifi and make the option free on all its plans for customers with a compatible phone.
• Mobile data use in Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy reached 90,367 terabytes in 2025, an average of 14.3 GB per SIM card each month, and 411,000 cards were active on 4G.
• Arcep's 2025 survey took more than 385,000 measurements across the French Antilles and Guiana between January and April. In Guadeloupe, Orange delivered the best voice call quality.