21 November 2001
Bertrand Pancher, chairman of the general council of the Meuse département (local administrative area) in northeastern France, and Jean-Michel Hubert, ART chairman, today signed a partnership agreement for a survey to assess coverage by mobile phone networks.
Improving mobile coverage is a crucial aspect of regional development, both for local authorities and for ART. For this reason ART has developed a method for accurately evaluating effective regional coverage, district by district.
ART's methodology was fine tuned in the course of two successive studies. The first was carried out in May and June last and involved 40 districts. The second, involving 60 districts, is in its final stages. ART is making its methodology available to local authorities so that they can determine, as reliably as possible, the real degree of coverage that exists in the zones that concern them.
Under the terms of this agreement, the Meuse département undertakes to carry out the study using the method devised by ART and to provide ART with a detailed report of the results.
This is the first such agreement between ART and a local authority. It follows on from a partnership agreement signed in the city of Rodez on 17 October 2001 between ART and an association of départements, aimed at helping départéments to carry out studies to assess mobile network coverage.
The results of these studies will shed light on the choice of coverage objectives for the départéments and will make it easier to implement the guidelines laid down during the interministerial committee meeting on regional development, held in Limoges on 9 July 2001.