Telecom regulator ARCEP expects to award the spectrum by year end
France formally launched plans toward auctioning 700 MHz spectrum band licenses, according to local press.
Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron and Secretary of State Axelle Lemaire are said to have approved telecommunications regulator ARCEP’s proposed conditions for the auction of 30 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band.
The French government also confirmed that the reserve price for a 5-megahertz block of paired 700 MHz spectrum will start at $461 million. If the 30-megahertz of available spectrum is sold, the government will raise a total of $2.77 billion. The ministers also ratified ARCEP’s previously announced conditions on coverage and spectrum caps.
According to the conditions of the process, the winning operators will have to provide coverage in rural areas and along 29,000 km of railway lines across France. The coverage conditions also stipulate that operators will have to provide nationwide coverage by the end of 2030. ARCEP said that the licenses would be valid for a 20-year period. Authorities have also capped the amount of spectrum an operator may hold across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands at a total of 60 megahertz.
The government expects to award the spectrum licenses by the end of the year. ARCEP had previously announced that interested operators will have until the end of September to submit their applications, with the spectrum auction scheduled to take place during the last quarter of the year. ARCEP is expected to provide a more precise schedule in the coming months.
The 700 MHz spectrum band is expected to allow French operators to broaden the reach of their LTE networks, which are still limited in scope. French operator Bouygues offers LTE services using 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum bands; Orange and SFR currently offer LTE services using their 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum bands; while Free uses just the 2.6 GHz band to support LTE services.
