ARCEP publishes its summary of the public consultation on the renewal of three GSM operators’ authorisations in overseas dependencies: Digicel, Société Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone and Orange Caraïbes

Paris, 14^th October 2008

The companies Digicel, Société Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone (SRR) and Orange Caraïbes hold frequency use authorisations for the deployment of second-generation GSM mobile networks in overseas dependencies.

These three authorisations expire on 8 December 2009, 23 February 2010 and 14 June 2011, respectively. Consequently, under Article l. 42-1 of the Posts and Electronic Communications Code, ARCEP is responsible for establishing the conditions for renewing the three operators’ authorisations.

Prior to informing Digicel, Société Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone and Orange Caraïbes of the renewal conditions for the GSM authorisations, ARCEP began preparatory work in order to collect comments on the renewal of these authorisations.

In this framework, a public consultation was held from 8 July to 24 August 2008.

ARCEP is publishing its summary today. The full text is available on ARCEP’s web site.

The public consultation concluded that the three GSM authorisations could be renewed with the same frequency assignments and with stricter obligations concerning the service offer, coverage and quality of service.

So, ARCEP will adopt the decisions establishing the conditions for renewing the authorisations, and will notify Digicel, SRR and Orange Caraïbes of them by the end of the year.

Furthermore, by 2011 at the latest, ARCEP will review spectrum use through a public consultation, in order to re-examine the suitability of the frequency allowances with 2G and 3G operators’ needs, and will examine the reuse of the 900 MHz band for 3G.