The Authority publishes bidding procedure results

Paris, 7th July 2006

The Authority published today its selection of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators in Metropolitan France’s 22 regions, the overseas department of Guyana and the territorial collectivity of Mayotte, along with a substantiated report of the procedure.

• The procedure was held as scheduled

 

An authorization issuing procedure for wireless local loop frequencies in the 3.4-3.6 GHz band began August 6, 2005 with a call for bids.

The Authority’s preparatory phase garnered 175 letters of intent on October 14, 2005. This step allowed players seeking Wireless Local Loop authorization time to examine options for sharing their frequency use with other parties.

In early January, at the end of this phase, the Authority examined the applications in order to evaluate the potential scarcity of frequencies region by region. On January 10, 2006, a review of the 45 applications received showed that there was a scarcity of frequencies in the 22 Metropolitan regions, Guyana and Mayotte, where formal procedures had been launched. There were, however, sufficient spectrum resources in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, where three authorizations were made available. They were issued to France Télécom, Mediaserv and Omtel SPM.

In all, 35 players submitted applications.

• The results

 

are published in three tables at the end of this release showing :

- results by region
- results in the overseas departments and territories
- results by player

• Analysis of results

 

Applications were examined according to three criteria, which were listed in the call for bids :

- the contribution of broadband services to territorial development
- the project's ability to encourage broadband competition
- the bidder’s financial offers

• Broadband coverage of the territory

 

The selected candidates have committed to large deployments, which will become obligations in the authorizations. The obligations will involve deployments, starting in June 2008, in a total of more than 3,500 sites. The deployment commitments target, in particular, zones not covered by DSL, referred to as broadband ‘white spots.’

Moreover, some selected candidates intend to resell frequencies, where they do not use them, and to provide wholesale frequency access offers on their network. Some selected candidates have no retail plans and may only provide wholesale offers.

• A contribution to broadband access competition

 

From now on, there will be three authorized WLL operators in every area of France: the two per area who were just selected, and the company IFW (Iliad Group), which already has a national authorization.

This will help stimulate broadband access competition, not only in rural areas, but also in densely populated areas by competing with existing fixed networks.

In addition, wholesale WLL infrastructure offers will attract third party service providers.

• Fees collected by the government

 

In 2006, the French government will collect a total of 125 million euros from candidates for the frequency authorizations.

In addition, the government will collect about 1.6 million euros annually in fees from operators for the use of WLL frequencies.

• Regional councils take advantage of WLL frequency procedure

 

• Following the industry trend, 14 regional councils entered the WLL frequency allocation procedure. Six were selected.

 

• The selected regional council projects involve large deployments, which are well coordinated with those of local authorities within their regions. It will now be up to the regional councils either to provide frequencies to the local authorities, which were designated in their frequency applications, or to operators for the provision of services in the local authorities, according to the guidelines defined in Mr. Daniel Labetoulle’s report.

 

• Local authorities who were not selected, or who do not have frequencies, but wish to extend their broadband coverage using WLL, will be able to form public-private partnerships with the selected operators.

 

• Post selection procedure steps

 

In a few days, the Authority will deliver frequency use authorizations to the selected candidates. It will be up to the candidates to officially accept these authorizations. All selected candidates who accept will receive the frequencies by the end of July.

Selected candidates will need to honor their commitments, particularly :

- by starting the deployment of WLL networks
- by creating partnerships for wholesale offers
- by providing their frequencies to third parties under agreed commitments

The Authority will make an assessment within 18 to 24 months.

• New opportunities to access spectrum

 

• Implementation of a secondary frequency market

 

The Postal and Electronic Communications code provides for flexible procedures allowing the evolution of frequency allocation. They allow the transfer of frequency authorizations in a secondary market, under the allocation process for frequencies in the 3.4-3.6 GHz band.

• Transfer of frequencies

 

Under a frequency transfer mechanism, authorization holders can transfer use of their frequencies to third parties but not their authorizations, because ARCEP holds the frequency owners responsible for obligations in their authorizations.

Identification of new frequencies available in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band

The Authority is currently working to identify other available frequencies in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band that could be used to issue authorizations in the future.

• The 5.4-5.7 GHz band

The Authority reminds operators that the 5470-5725 MHz frequency band was opened early this year. This unlicensed band can be used to provide broadband access services.

Appendix

Procedure results for the issuing of WLL-WiMax authorizations by region (7 July 2006)