New French 3G licence designed to trigger competition

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:40:20 -0400

Lack of competition in the French cell phone market has prompted the telecoms regulator ARCEP to recommend that a new 3G licence should be awarded in a public tender. However, ARCEP failed to specify if it would award all the available frequencies to one bidder or divide the available spectrum into several bundles, some of which could then be earmarked for new entrants.

Leaving the door open to further political lobbying, the French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, said she had received the recommendations and would be discussing the issue with other relevant ministers prior to submitting their observations to parliament at some future date.

Following public consultation conducted earlier this year by ARCEP, the idea that the available 3G spectrum could be bundled into packages open to existing operators was rejected unanimously. This essentially leaves the French broadband provider Iliad (which tendered a low offer last year) as the most likely bidder for a 3G licence. In the past ARCEP has rejected Iliad's applications for failing to stand up to financial scrutiny, although with this latest recommendation the regulator has failed to provide any details of the financial criteria required of interested parties.

"We are looking at procedures that give priority to all or part of the frequencies to a newcomer, following similar conditions that governed the previous tenders," said an ARCEP spokesman.

For more on this story:
- go to EasyBourse and ITPro

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Rumour Mill: Will Google finance French WiMAX deployment?

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:03:24 -0400

Strenuous denials have come from all those said to be involved in deploying a nationwide WiMAX network in France. The suggested joint venture, which would involve funding from Google, was reported by the French daily Les Echos to include the ISP Free, a unit of Iliad, and Bollore Group's Bollore Telecom. While the companies mentioned--Intel Capital was also included in the Les Echo article--have refuted any suggestion of discussions or talks, Free is the sole holder of a national licence for WiMAX and Bollore Telecom holds 20 regional licences for the service. A nationwide network in France is estimated to require €1 billion investment and would need the assistance of technology providers and wealthy backers--roles that Intel Capital and Google could, and might be very eager to, fulfil.

For more on this story:
- go to Forbes

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