Paris, 8 March 2007
The application procedure for the assignment of the fourth 3G license was launched today by the Minister of Industry. This launch follows ARCEP’s adoption on 20 February of Decision no. 2007-0177 proposing to the Minister the means and conditions of assigning a fourth 3G license in Metropolitan France.
The general conditions of the beauty contest are defined in the decision annex and the financial conditions are established in the opinion, which was published today by the Minister of Industry, regarding the financial means of assigning an authorisation in Metropolitan France for a third-generation mobile system.
This application procedure is similar to the previous two procedures conducted in 2000 and 2001 for the first three licenses. It provides measures in favour of the fourth mobile operator, which cover among others the reuse by 3G of frequencies currently used by 2G, national 2G roaming and site sharing.
ARCEP’s decision defines the application timetable. So, in accordance with the application procedure, application files must be submitted to ARCEP headquarters by noon on 31 July 2007.
In the meantime, as announced in its decision, ARCEP will provide fuller details on how the fourth operator will be provided with 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies reused for 3G, so that applicants are able to consider this information when preparing their applications.
