Paris (AFP)
The auctions scheduled for April 21 to decide between French operators part of the frequency bands necessary for the launch of the latest generation of mobile networks called 5G will be postponed, announced Tuesday the Telecom Regulatory Authority, Arcep.
The college of the Authority must meet Thursday and set a new schedule, said a spokeswoman for AFP, explaining this decision by "operational reasons", including "the impossibility of making simulations in this period of confinement "in the face of coronavirus.
Thomas Reynaud, the managing director of Iliad, the parent company of the operator Free, had earlier declared that he had "incorporated a possible postponement" of the call for tenders for this procedure, on the sidelines of the presentation of the group's results.
However, Mr. Reynaud said that he was still counting on launching these 5G commercial offers by the end of the year.
The four French operators (Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR) have each submitted an application for the allocation of the first 5G frequencies in France, in the so-called 3.5 Gigahertz (GHz) band.
The allocation will take place in two phases, with the allocation of blocks of 50 Megahertz (MHz) per operator at a fixed price of 350 million euros per block, then an auction system on 110 MHz remaining, per 10 MHz band and for a minimum amount of 70 million euros per band.
The State hopes to draw from the allocation operation at least 2.17 billion euros, but the amount could ultimately be much higher, depending on the intensity of the auction phase.
However, the procedure is the subject of multiple appeals, from a union which accuses it of not being accompanied by obligations in terms of employment, but especially associations worried about an impact of 5G on health and the environment.
Seized by these associations, the Council of State had refused to suspend the procedure urgently but must render a decision on the merits by the summer.
The question of the presence of the Chinese equipment supplier Huawei - at the heart of the Sino-American trade war and suspected of spying by Washington for the benefit of Beijing - within the French network of certain operators must also be decided by the State.
© 2020 AFP