France has finalised its second round 4G licence auction, with successful bids amounting to €2.64bn (US$3.45bn) from three of the nation’s major operators.
Telecommunications regulator ARCEP announced it has awarded licences in its 800MHz band to…
France has finalised its second round 4G licence auction, with successful bids amounting to €2.64bn (US$3.45bn) from three of the nation’s major operators.
Telecommunications regulator ARCEP announced it has awarded licences in its 800MHz band to Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Orange France. Free Fréquences was the sole shortlisted bidder to miss out, although the regulator stated that Free Mobile, a major shareholder in the company, could apply to share SFR’s network.
In the auction, Bouygues Telecom paid €683m for Block A of the spectrum, SFR paid €1.07bn for Blocks B and C and Orange France paid €891m for Block D.
The regulator stated SFR will be required to offer access to Free Mobile when the latter’s own 2.6GHz network reaches 25% of the population.
ARCEP first called for applications for spectrum in the ultra high-speed networks in June. It awarded licences in its 2.6GHz band to Bouygues Telecom, SFR, Orange France and Free Fréquences in October, with the allocation of the 800MHz band, resulting from the digital dividend, following a separate procedure.
France has raised a total of nearly €3.6bn from the sale of the frequencies in the auctions, well above the minimum target of €2.5b, ARCEP stated.