The French telecoms regulator, Arcep says that it has awarded 4G licenses in the 800Mhz bands to Bouygues Telecom, Orange France and SFR following an auction.

Four companies had applied for the licenses, but Free Mobile was unable to secure a license, but will be able to negotiate a roaming agreement with SFR as part of SFR's commitments in the auction.

In the auction, Bouygues Telecom won block A of the spectrum with a bid of EUR 683 million, while Orange France paid EUR 891 million for block D of the spectrum.

Blocks B and C went to SFR, which paid EUR 1.07 billion - but was also then required to offer access to Free Mobile once Free Mobile's own 2.6Ghz network reaches 25% of the population.