Paris, 9 July 2004
For a limited period until 1st September 2005, Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART) will allow manufacturers and operators to conduct technical tests of new wireless local loop (WLL) equipment which have appeared recently on the 3.4-3.8 GHz band. These tests must be strictly technical―no commercial aspects are permitted. They must be completed and all equipment disassembled by 1st September 2005: no extensions to frequency allocations will be granted.
ART emphasizes that this measure is not open to municipal or regional authorities wishing to initiate a project with a commercial aspect or to experiment solutions or services which, if successful, might result in a subsequent request for an extension. Any players or local authorities having these types of projects are invited to respond to the public consultation just launched by ART and must submit their requests under the procedure to be defined by ART upon completion of the consultation.
The aim of this measure is to respond to requests from manufacturers and operators for temporary testing in order to prepare, on a technical level, for the new authorisation allocation phase for wireless local loop (WLL) in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band (the conditions of this long-term allocation will be established by ART upon completion of the public consultation launched on 29 June).
The geographic areas and number of channels available for allocation for temporary testing will be determined by ART based on the proposals submitted by applicants and the frequencies available. ART may impose technical constraints in order to ensure existing systems are not affected. Clearly, these temporary technical tests will not give any special rights in procedures which will be conducted at a later date for the allocation of long-term authorisations.
Manufacturers and operators interested in such temporary technical tests are invited to submit their requests to ART as soon as possible.
