Access to 4G for all French people by the end of 2020?
Despite the deployment delays caused by the health crisis, the government assures that the coverage targets of the New Deal Mobile will be met. This is in any case what the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Julien de Normandie, assured in an interview with Les Echos.
All French people must have access to 4G before the end of 2020, this is the government's promise and the objective of the New Mobile Deal signed in January 2018 with the operators and the Arcep.
In particular, the scheme provided for the shared deployment of new towers between operators in order to eliminate white zones. Julien Denormandie declared on this subject: "Of the 485 sites of the targeted coverage system expected at the end of June, 340 are already operational. Dozens of others have been erected and are just waiting for an electrical connection. By the end of September, we will be back to normal". A further 600 new pylons are to be erected before 31 December.
The agreement also provided for the switch from 2G and 3G sites to 4G. According to the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, 10,000 new municipalities will be affected in the last quarter.
However, the capacity of these mobile networks will still need to be increased to achieve true quality of service. This is why the targeted coverage scheme will continue until 2025 with 700 to 800 new sites each year.
Source : 01Net