Paris, 12 January 2015
Under the terms of the frequency licence issued by ARCEP on 12 January 2010, operator Free Mobile is obligated to be covering at least 75% of the population of Metropolitan France with its own 3G network as of 12 January 2015. This obligation excludes any roaming agreement the carrier may have with another mobile operator.
As a result, ARCEP requested that Free Mobile prove that it is meeting its rollout obligation, and notably to submit a map of its 3G network coverage (excluding roaming) as of 12 January 2015.
As has been done with all mobile network rollout obligations, regardless of operator, ARCEP will verify the accuracy of the coverage map supplied by Free Mobile.
ARCEP will thus perform tests in the field over several weeks to verify this information. Once these verifications are complete, ARCEP will be able to assess whether Free Mobile is meeting its coverage obligation.