The telecommunications authority in France is asking the mobile phone industry to comment on licensing procedures for third-generation mobile phone systems with the goal of issuing licenses by 2000.
The French telecommunications regulatory authority said comments on the matter are due May 28. The agency wants to determine how many players may be interested in obtaining a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System license. UMTS is the standard chosen by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute that incorporates wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology for mobile systems.
The Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency also requested comments that were due in March, while the Netherlands solicited comments last summer. The United Kingdom, which will grant 3G licenses through an auction process, continually has postponed its licensing plan, now slated for this fall.
The French regulatory body plans to summarize the responses in July and launch the licensing procedure in 2000. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted a decision on the introduction of UMTS in Europe in December requiring member states to take actions that will allow mobile phone operators to introduce UMTS services by Jan. 1, 2002 at the latest and establish an authorization system for UMTS no later than Jan. 1, 2000. Finland was the first EU country to grant 3G licenses late last month. Fifteen consortia applied for the free licenses. Finland chose four applicants, including the country’s existing Global System for Mobile communications operators.
France’s regulatory authority said the number of UMTS licenses will be limited to four as it has estimated that each UMTS operator would initially require 2 X 15 megahertz symmetrically coupled in bands 1920-1980 MHz-2170 MHz and a block of 5 megahertz in bands 1900-1920 MHz and 2010-2025 MHz.
France believes UMTS operators should agree to offer services over UMTS networks over and above those provided by GSM networks to ensure these carriers roll out true 3G networks. It also advocates allowing UMTS operators from 2002 to progressively introduce UMTS systems as the future standard and market prospects are uncertain. This would require administrations to free up UMTS frequency bands faster than they had originally agreed.
The French regulatory agency said it is holding discussions with today’s frequency users to free up spectrum needed to progressively allocate frequencies to future UMTS operators between 2001 and 2005. One scenario would be to free up paired and unpaired bands, region by region, while a second possibility would free up a 2 X 40 MHz band in the paired bands, region by region, followed by all of the paired and unpaired bands, region by region, as soon as these frequency bands become available in mainland France.
Sweden too is struggling with how to free up frequency bands for UMTS systems. A preliminary agreement between the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency and the Swedish Defence calls for the Swedish Defence to free up 2 X 45 MHz for UMTS services by Jan. 1, 2002. By 2005, the Swedish Defence must vacate the entire UMTS band. But the Swedish Defence is facing difficulties in moving traffic to other frequency bands, and space only will be available for a total of three parallel UMTS networks by 2002, said the PTS.
“Depending on the rate at which Defence can transfer their operations to other frequency bands, the frequency availability per network until [Jan. 1, 2005] will be limited to 2 X 10 MHz in certain parts of the country,” said PTS. “Any spectrum that subsequently becomes available over and above the frequencies that have been allocated before the year 2002, can either be applied for the issue of new network permits, or allocated for further expansion of the networks that are already operating.”
