Thursday, 22 September 2011

The French telecoms regulator, Arcep has announced the details of the winners in its 2.6Hgz spectrum auction. Arcep said that it accepted the applications of all four companies, which were received on 15th September 2011.

Bouygues Telecom will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 15 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of EUR 228 million and made a commitment to host MVNOs on its network.

Free Mobile will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 20 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of EUR 271 million and made a commitment to host MVNOs on its network.

Orange France will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 20 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of EUR 287.1 million and made a commitment to host MVNOs on its network.

SFR will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 15 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of EUR 150 million, and did not make a commitment to host MVNOs on its network.

All of the frequencies that were available have thus been allocated.

The allocation of these frequencies totalled EUR 936 million, compared to the reserve price of EUR 700 million.

In the coming weeks, Arcep will issue the winning candidates with licences to use their respective frequencies, once it has determined each operator's position on the 2.6 GHz band. For this determination, Arcep will examine the wishes that each candidate has expressed in regard to position, in the following order - which corresponds to the average mark per 5 MHz duplex: Bouygues Telecom, Orange France, Free Mobile and, lastly, SFR.

The allocation procedure for the 2.6 GHz band marks the first stage in the award of 4G licences. The second stage will consist of the allocation procedure for the 800 MHz band, resulting from the digital dividend, for which the deadline for applications is 15th December 2011.