Paris (AFP)
The final allocation of frequencies for 5G, the new mobile technology, will be "by June 2020," confirmed Thursday the French government in a statement announcing the public consultation of the draft decree on the award procedure .
The Government also states that the award process will be formally launched "by the end of autumn".
The decree confirms the global amount of 2.17 billion euros, at least, that will have to be paid by the four operators with a network, Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR, as well as the hedging obligations attached to the allocation of frequencies.
"These modalities are an unprecedented mechanism in Europe: we set hedge commitments in 5G much more ambitious than in other countries while properly valuing the frequencies, which are the heritage of the French," said Secretary of State Agnès Pannier-Runacher, quoted in the press release.
The draft decree also provides that operators pay, in addition to the reserve price already announced, a variable portion corresponding to 1% of the total amount of revenue generated through the frequencies used. A rule already applied for 3G and 4G frequencies in particular.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority (Arcep) announced on November 21 that the 5G frequencies, between 3.4 and 3.8 GHz, would be divided into four blocks of 50MHz, one per operator, the balance being auctioned by 10 MHz blocks, for a total of 310 MHz available to operators.
On Sunday, the government said that this allocation would be at the reserve price of 70 million euros per block of 10MHz, a minimum of 2.17 billion euros to pay by the operators.
An amount that strongly reacted to the latter, who estimated, through the voice of the president of the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), Arthur Dreyfuss, have "never had so many investment obligations and an amount potentially involved in the frequencies as important ".
The Secretary of State had on her side defended a price of reserved that she had considered "balanced" and "not indecent".
The allocation of the 5G frequencies has enjoyed various fortunes in the European Union, with Germany and Italy being the countries where prices have peaked at more than 6.5 billion euros for each of them. 'between them.
© 2019 AFP