EDITORIAL
Telecoms operators now know all the conditions of allocation of frequencies used for the deployment of 5G: Sunday evening, the government has set the minimum price of 2.17 billion euros to pay to provide this technology will gradually replace the 4G. In his eco-commentary on Monday morning, Nicolas Barré compares the government's strategy in this area with that adopted by the Italian executive, who has given greater priority to budgetary logic in setting the price.
"To deploy the 5G, the operators need frequencies, but these frequencies are a public good, it is a heritage that belongs to all the French, so the State has set a minimum price of a little more than 2 billion euros that operators will have to pay to be able to offer 5G.
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This sum, by the way, is comparable to what the State has just recovered in the privatization of the FDJ. So at least 2 billion euros, at least, will enter the coffers of the state through the sale of a piece of public heritage.
Could the state have made more money?
"Yes, in Italy, the state sold fewer frequencies - 200 MHz against 310 MHz at home - for much more expensive: 6.5 billion euros!" But the Italian state was in a pure budgetary logic. This means that operators who have paid a lot of money will catch up on the rates charged to customers.
France has made another choice, more industrial, hoping to develop all the possibilities of 5G. At the end of the day, it's about building a network that can move more data faster. This is crucial for the autonomous car, airports, factories of the future, the health sector with remote consultation, connected objects ...
To develop all these services, it was better not to start by shutting down the operators with exorbitant frequency rates. Now, it is urgent to move on because on the 5G, France has already a little too dragged. In China, the state that plans everything already on the 6G. "