Paris (AFP)
The Telecoms Regulatory Authority (Arcep) announced Tuesday the opening of applications for the allocation of radio frequencies between 3.4 GigaHertz (GHz) and 3.8 GHz, which will be used for the new 5G mobile technology, as well as the publication in the Official Journal of the order specifying the conditions of allocation.
Operators who wish to offer this new technology have until February 25 to apply for the auction, which will be carried out in stride, with an allocation of frequencies scheduled before the end of June.
This is the official start of the allocation process for these highly anticipated frequencies, while 5G deployments have already started in a number of countries around the world.
The procedure must bring a minimum of 2.17 billion euros to the State, which provides telecom operators with 310MHz of radio spectrum for the deployment of 5G.
Operators who wish to do so will initially recover 50MHz each - a middle position between that hoped for by Arcep and that envisaged for a time by the government - and will then have to participate in auctions if they wish to have more spectrum, which which should increase the total price.
The regulator wanted in particular larger blocks in order to preserve competition between the four operators, fearing that smaller blocks would favor the two operators with greater financial means (Orange and SFR), to the detriment of the smaller ones (Bouygues Telecom and Free).
On December 17, the government accepted Arcep's proposal for a payment spread over 15 years, and not 4 years as initially planned, for the frequencies obtained by the operators, an approach seen as being a compromise to allow all operators to have the means necessary for the deployment of 5G.
Among the many deployment obligations imposed on operators who will receive frequencies, the first will be to offer 5G in at least two cities in the country at the end of 2020.
The allocation of 5G frequencies has known various fortunes within the European Union, Germany and Italy being the countries where prices have reached peaks, at more than 6.5 billion euros for each d 'between them.
© 2019 AFP