Paris (AFP)

The frequency allocation procedure for the new 5G mobile technology is officially launched in France: the Telecom Regulatory Authority (Arcep) published its specifications on Thursday, a few weeks late and in a context of intense lobbying from the operators.

The arrival of 5G is highly anticipated because, due to the high data rates and the very low response time (latency) that it promises, it is supposed to accelerate the digitization of the economy and eventually allow the development of new services, from the autonomous car to connected health through an acceleration of the robotization of the industry, in particular.

The publication of Arcep's specifications was initially planned for early October, with the aim of officially allocating frequencies from the beginning of the year 2020. This should be done only before the beginning of spring.

"Operators have not responded in a common voice, unlike previous times, they left divided.The difficulty has surely been to find the right balance," told AFP a source close to the file.

For the first time indeed, the operators will first acquire a fixed block each and then bid on the share of remaining frequencies, an unusual model compared to previous auctions or even to what has happened elsewhere in Europe.

The stakes are high: more than for the previous technologies, the possibility of offering the services promised by the 5G rests above all on the size of the blocks held by the operators. Too small, and that's the risk of not being able to compete with others.

Very quickly, two camps were formed, Orange and SFR militant rather for minimum blocks of 40 megahertz (MHz) when Bouygues Telecom and Free were pushing for blocks of 60 MHz.

"Arcep proposed to retain a block size of 60 MHz to meet all the directions set by the government", but the latter "has favored a block size of 50 MHz to achieve the objectives it has "says the regulator Thursday in its statement.

- Billions for the state -

It remains to be seen how much it will cost operators. Among the European countries where the allocation of frequencies for 5G has already been carried out, Italy and Germany are those where they have disbursed the most, beyond 6.5 billion euros.

"It is essential to find the right balance between the auctions and the investment capacity of the operators", insists Arthur Dreyfuss, the president of the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), questioned by AFP, "we are already investing 10 billion euros per year and we will have to maintain these investment capacities. "

The president of Arcep, Sebastien Soriano, also warns in an interview with Le Figaro that if the price is too high, "the risk is that the battle is delivered between two operators, not four, depriving the smallest (Bouygues Telecom and Free, Ed) their ability to participate in the auction.

The government should specify the price in the next few days.

"We should be closer to 1.5 billion than 3 billion euros," said a source close to the record, which notes that Free, who had to spend heavily in Italy for 5G frequencies, has been very active in favor a low price.

Beyond the issue of blocks and tariff, the specifications of Arcep provides a series of hedging commitments for operators.

Among the most important, Orange, Bouygues Telecom, Free and SFR will have to cover at least two cities each before the end of 2020. Deadlines have also been set for the coverage of medium-term roads, minimum bit rate of 240 megabits per second (Mbps) on 75% of mobile sites by 2022.

However, there is no guidance at this stage from equipment suppliers, even though one of the most advanced players in the sector, Huawei, is in the crosshairs in the United States.

"We are still waiting for clarification on the subject of equipment manufacturers because they are essential in the face of current and future challenges and investments," insists Mr. Dreyfuss.

The French government has voted before the summer a law on securing networks that should allow greater control of equipment that will be used, but the decrees of applications have still not been published, forcing operators delay the order of their equipment.

© 2019 AFP