The Arcep, by putting an end to the call for tenders for 5G frequencies, has just delivered the positioning of operators on the 3.5 GHz band.

Only Free will have spent 3 million euros to secure a central position in the 5G "queen band". Iliad's French subsidiary will have access to 70 MHz of frequencies on a block ranging from 3.64 GHz to 3.71 GHz.

In detail, SFR will have 80 MHz of frequencies on a block ranging from 3.49 GHz to 3.57 GHz, while the 70 MHz of frequencies held by Bouygues Telecom will be located between 3.57 GHz and 3.64 GHz. Finally, Orange, which holds the largest block of frequencies, with 90 MHz of 5G frequencies, will have a block ranging from 3.71 GHz to 3.80 GHz.

During this second phase of the auction, the operators have disbursed a total of 2.78 billion euros. Bouygues Telecom paid 602 million euros to acquire 70 MHz of frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, as did Free, which added 3 million euros to this sum to benefit from the positioning of its choice. For its part, SFR invested 728 million euros to get its hands on 80 MHz of frequencies, while Orange spent 854 million euros to get its hands on 90 MHz of frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band.

350 million spent by each operator to purchase fixed 50 MHz blocks will be reimbursed "in 15 equal parts over 15 years, the first part upon the award of the frequency license and the other 14 parts on the anniversary date of the award".

The amounts paid by the operators during the auction and positioning phase will be repayable "in four equal parts payable over four years, the first as soon as the authorization to use the frequencies is granted and the other three on the anniversary date of the grant".

"In addition to these sums, a variable annual portion equal to 1% of the revenues generated by the operation of these frequencies will be added to these amounts," said the telecom police officer.

The frequencies will be officially delivered by the Arcep as of November 18th. But operators will still have to wait for the ANFR's approval before they can market their first 5G offers to the general public and professionals, which should take about 10 additional days.

Concerning the marketing of 5G packages, the operators have not yet made their strategies known. In any case, they will have to wait for the approval of the municipalities to officially launch the 5G era among users. If patience is therefore required, operators are already beginning the major maneuvers to lower the cost of their 5G infrastructure.

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Source : ZDNet

On October 23rd, the Arcep validated an amendment to the roaming contract that already bound the two operators. Free will thus be able to use Orange's 2G and 3G networks for its own commercial offers until December 31, 2022 instead of December 31, 2020. This is despite criticism from SFR, Bouygues Telecom or other alternative operators grouped within the Alternative Telecom association.

To justify its delay in deploying its own 2G and 3G infrastructures, the operator founded by Xavier Niel denounced the mutualization of networks signed in 2014 by Bouygues Telecom and SFR, the reinforced 4G deployment obligations imposed by the New Mobile Deal, and the lack of frequencies.

This argument hit the nail on the head with the Arcep, which nevertheless maintained the cap on the maximum upload and download speeds achievable by roaming customers at 384 kbits.

Even if the Arcep assures that it will "remain attentive to the continued investment by Free Mobile in the deployment of its own networks", this is not enough to calm the criticism of those opposed to this extension.

Starting with the management of SFR, for whom "ten years after obtaining its 3G license, this roaming agreement granted to Free Mobile is only the admission of a crying lack of investment by Free Mobile during all these years".

For its part, Bouygues Telecom points out that "roaming was designed from the outset as a transitional measure, with the sole aim of enabling the new entrant to compensate for its late entry into the market". However, "Free can no longer be described as a new entrant in the mobile telephony market" and "now has a network that is broadly comparable to that of its competitors, and therefore quite sufficient to enable it to compete vigorously" in the mobile market."

Alternative operators point out that the license granted to Free Mobile by the authorities was awarded "in exchange for ambitious commitments to stimulate competition".

These criticisms did not prevent the extension of the roaming agreement between Free and Orange. Even if Free's management is now tending to catch up in terms of deployment, it is not certain that this will be enough to calm the slings and arrows of its competitors. Especially since the recent statements of Orange's CEO concerning a possible mutualization of the two operators' 5G networks should not help to pacify the debate.

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Source : ZDNet

On October 8th, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered SFR to send a letter to certain subscribers informing them that they can unilaterally terminate their fixed Internet access contract. Capital tells us that if the operator resists, it will have to pay 500,000 euros for each day of delay.

This legal procedure was initiated in January 2018 by its competitor Free. Indeed, although a decree has regulated the use of the word fibre since 2016, SFR has continued to maintain a certain vagueness in its commercial offers.

It is also accused of using the term FttB (Fiber to the Building) since, in some cases, its fiber does not go all the way down to the bottom of the building but only into a street cabinet.

Today SFR claims to have 3.1 million end-to-end fibre optic customers (FttH) and 13.8 million lines eligible for Very High Speed broadband.

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Source : 01net

On the evening of the second day of the auction, the State is already assured of pocketing at least €2.65 billion for the allocation of 5G frequencies in France.

Organised by Arcep, the auction covers eleven 10 MHz blocks coveted by Bouygues Telecom (Bouygues), Orange, Free (Iliad) and SFR (Altice).

Each of the 10 MHz blocks, put up for sale at a minimum price of €70 million, reached a new price of €114 million on the evening of 30 September. It had already risen to 90 million on the first day of the auction the day before. The Arcep specifies that the process will continue on Thursday.

Having already raised 1.4 billion euros during the non-auction allocation of four 50 MHz blocks - one per operator - the amount reached by the auction guarantees 2.65 billion euros to the State for the moment. Orange is still asking for five blocks, followed by SFR and Bouygues Telecom with three blocks each, then Iliad with just two blocks.

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Source : Challenges

This week, the Arcep unveiled its assessment of fiber optic deployments in the second quarter. And even though the milestone was reached under difficult containment conditions, half of French homes are now eligible for fiber optic cable. In fact, 1.2 million new lines were deployed between April and June. Fiber optic coverage of the territory is progressing at a "high rate", even if "the health situation related to Covid-19 has not allowed operators to continue the significant acceleration observed at the end of last year".

Despite severe restrictions due to the health crisis, work continued at a rate equivalent to that at the beginning of the year: around 400,000 lines per month. The equivalent of a town like Nemours or Granville... every day.

This dynamic allows us to calmly envisage the "five million new lines" in 2020 predicted by Minister Cédric O. If this pace is maintained for another two years, the executive will have kept its promise to bring fiber to 80% of French homes by the end of 2022.

However, the Arcep is showing its vigilance in one particular area: medium-sized cities. Indeed, in 2018 Orange and SFR made a commitment to the government and the regulator to cover them entirely with optical fiber by the end of 2020. And with 10.5 million connectable lines, they are still a long way off. Orange covers only 67% of households in the municipalities to which it has committed and SFR 75%.

In theory, they have nine months left to complete 5.5 million lines - an almost impossible task. Arcep's only concession: the deadline can be postponed by three months following the health crisis, as provided for in the government order on the extension of deadlines linked to the coronavirus. Even with this additional quarter, "the pace of deployments will be critical over the next few quarters and the Arcep will continue to be attentive to the efforts of operators", writes the Telecoms gendarme, who clearly has no intention of slackening on the subject.

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Source : Les Echos

The telecoms regulator has published a new timetable for the continuation of the 5G frequency allocation procedure in the 3.5 GHz band. It will therefore be between September 20th and 30th.  Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR, which qualified last February following a call for applications, will participate.

At the end of the procedure, they will each obtain a 50 GHz block in return for 350 million euros per head and a number of deployment obligations. In early autumn, the main auction will allow them to complete this first block by winning one or more 10 GHz blocks. This will be followed by an auction to position the resulting frequencies in the 3.4-3.8 GHz section. The Arcep indicates that the final allocation of frequencies will take place "in October or November". Operators will thus be able to market their future 5G packages "by the end of the year".

However, in the end, operators will not be obliged to provide 5G coverage in at least two major cities before the end of 2020. The delay in the procedure has led the telecoms police to lift this obligation accompanying the first 50GHz block. The marketing will be done "at the initiative of the operators" even if the Arcep promises to remain attentive to the conditions of marketing of the new network and the promises of the operators.

The first obligation will therefore be to deploy 5G on at least 3,000 of their sites by the end of 2022. Operators will also have to distilled at least 240 Mb/s on 75 % of their sites into 4G+ by the same deadline.

This is a reminder that the specifications have been drawn up so that the deployment of 5G and 4G coverage of territories go hand in hand. It is also a response to Bouygues Telecom and SFR, who recently balanced the deployment of the 5th generation network against the need to improve 4G coverage in rural areas.

At the same time, Arcep also intends to respond to growing concerns about the environmental impact of digital technology. Within the framework of a new platform called "for a sustainable digital environment", "associations, institutions, operators, digital companies, personalities" are invited to contribute to it during a series of thematic workshops starting on July 9th.

A report by the end of the year will provide an opportunity to take stock of this work and will propose the "first avenues for taking the response to environmental issues further", which the Authority intends to make a "new chapter in regulation".

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Source : DegroupNews

While the 4G deployment figures had remained within the norm in March and April 2020, the stall finally occurred in May. 330 new sites brought into service by Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free according to data from the French National Frequencies Agency. The figure is relatively low but remains higher than last February or spring-summer 2019.

Nevertheless, the breakdown by operator shows a significant slowdown on the part of Orange and Free. The locomotives of the deployment over the past year respectively brought 154 and 230 new 4G sites into service in May, well below the pace observed in recent months. This slowdown cannot help but be associated with the health crisis. Operators have reported various difficulties during containment.

What's more, the number of new activated antennas is down 20 to 50% compared to the previous month at Free and Orange. Antenna activations on their current flagship bands have reached the lowest levels seen in a long time, 18 to 24 months in some cases.

There was also a general decline in the number of authorizations obtained by Free and 4G in 700 MHz. The number of authorizations received by Iliad's brand in this band, which has usually fluctuated between 500 and 1,000 per month for the past year, plunged to less than 200 in May.

At first glance, SFR and Bouygues Telecom appear to have been less affected by the disruptions despite a decline in activations and authorizations on several frequency bands. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from this, as the pace of deployment of these two operators has been irregular for several months. It should be noted that only SFR seems to have felt the need to make extensive use of the derogatory mechanism put in place by the State to ensure the continuity of deployments, on 58 occasions.

With 155 new 4G media in service, Bouygues Telecom achieved its best month since December in May. In terms of antennas too, the operator set a six-month record: 556 more in May. Of these, 313 were in the 1,800 MHz frequency band, notably to serve a number of major cities (Paris, Lille), several major roads and seaside resorts, according to ANFR.

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Source : DegroupNews

A saturation of the Internet networks was mentioned several times at the beginning of the containment. A risk that is globally non-existent except locally on over-solicited mobile antennas. This is what nPerf has just revealed in a study specially dedicated to the impact of containment on Internet speeds. The specialist in connection evaluation thus observes a slight drop in performance on mobile networks, but that of fixed connections has not weakened.

Indeed, mobile networks in residential areas were not really designed to handle the extra traffic overnight. They were used much more than in normal times, and the fact that all residents shared the same antenna meant that they were unable to deliver their usual performance.

A 10% drop in average flow rates, i.e. 4 Mb/s, was observed on average over the end of March. Accompanied by a drop in browsing performance, notably at Orange and Free, while streaming remained stable. Despite this, nPerf believes that the overall picture remains "very acceptable" for the four operators.

On the other hand, confinement has not really had a negative impact on fixed Internet speeds. According to the tests compiled, the overall situation even tended to improve at the end of March. This is the case at Bouygues Telecom, SFR and Orange, with the exception of Free.

Fiber Internet speeds remained stable overall at Orange and Free. For its part, SFR has posted steady growth since the beginning of the year, which has not been contradicted despite the containment. Bouygues Telecom's Internet bandwidths also increased at the end of the quarter.

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Source : Ariase

Even though its network had not yet been built, Free Mobile was able to play a real role as the fourth largest telecoms operator on the French market as soon as it arrived in 2012. How did this happen? Thanks to the 2G / 3G roaming agreement negotiated with Orange.

An agreement validated by the Arcep on the condition that it is only temporary. Roaming between Orange and Free was therefore scheduled to end at the end of 2020 but both operators have just requested an extension until the end of 2022.

On February 24th, the Arcep indicated that it had received an amendment announcing an extension until December 31, 2022. This amendment is justified by "the impossibility for Free Mobile to catch up with the market coverage standard which has increased significantly with the Crozon mutualisation agreement and the New Deal obligations despite a very proactive deployment".

Free also points to the need for 2G coverage in order to maintain a certain number of subscribers in 2G but without having the resources to deploy a network. In addition, the other operators maintain 2G as a "fallback technology in certain situations, particularly indoors at peak times".

This news is not going to be well received by Bouygues Telecom and SFR. Indeed, they have constantly denounced the roaming agreement between their competitors, considering it to be a competitive advantage for Free.

SFR's representatives are already castigating Free's decision to distribute dividends and to try to prolong the agreement instead of investing in its networks.

SFR and Bouygues Telecom have announced the suspension of the payment of dividends, but this is also in order to benefit from government aid linked to the short-time working of some of the staff.

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Source : Génération NT

The data published by the National Frequency Agency for the month of March shows that the health crisis has not really had a visible impact in figures on the deployment of 4G.

In fact, as of April 1st, ANFR recorded a 1% increase in requests for authorizations and activation of 4G sites from one month to the next. This is the usual rate, but the restrictions were not put in place until mid-March and there may be a delay between the installation of an antenna and its activation.

The impact is likely to be observable in the data for the coming months as operators are now giving priority to the maintenance and resizing of their networks. The objective is to cope with the high demand on the networks - voice and data - and the new geographical situation brought about by confinement.

The emergency law voted to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic includes a digital infrastructure component for mobile operators. They will be able to use a "simplified procedure for sites that will ensure continuity of service". However, this initiative is too recent to be included in the March report, as "the request for authorisation of sites authorised on 1 April was received before this system was applicable", explains the ANFR.

Orange was the most dynamic in March, with 350 new sites, followed by SFR (276), Free (251) and Bouygues Telecom (83). The incumbent operator maintained its leadership in terms of the number of 4G sites operated (21,830), ahead of SFR (19,000), Bouygues Telecom (18,188) and Free (15,586).

The situation is slightly different in terms of the number of activated antennas. Orange is also the leader here with 1,481 new activations. But it is Free that we find behind with 1,016 activated antennas. Activity was significantly less intense in March at SFR (553) and Bouygues Telecom (352).

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Source : DegroupNews

This partnership between Orange and Free - known as the "passive mutualisation agreement" - will last at least five years and aims to share and build together mobile phone masts in rural areas. In other words, the operators would share masts and their operating costs, but each would graft its own radio equipment onto them. The territories concerned are located in a so-called "priority deployment zone" (or PDZ), i.e. rural territories where mobile coverage is poor or insufficient.

In general, this type of agreement allows operators to significantly lower their costs in order to cover sparsely populated and therefore unprofitable areas. However, the stakes here are a little different for Orange.

Today, any operator wishing to deploy a new tower in the ZDP is faced with a "prior consultation obligation". He must warn his rivals to find out if they are interested in sharing the site. This obligation appeared in January 2018 during the New Deal in order to put an end to the "white" and "grey" zones. But at the time, this provision was unacceptable for Orange, which considered it ruined all these efforts to differentiate the ZDP.

The Arcep then reviewed its copy and proposed that if an operator made an offer to one of its rivals for passive pooling in ZDPs that it considered reasonable, then the obligation of prior consultation could be waived. Orange therefore asked the regulator to lift this obligation. Free made the same request, but only for sites that would be co-constructed with Orange.

For its part, the Arcep has launched a public consultation to gather the sector's opinion on this subject but also concerning a possible removal, for all players, of this obligation.

The question of the pooling of mobile infrastructures has become eminently strategic for operators with the arrival of 5G next summer. SFR and Bouygues Telecom have long shared a large part of their mobile infrastructures in less densely populated areas. A similar agreement between Orange and Free would enable them to be more competitive. This is particularly true for Xavier Niel's operator, which is forced to make greater efforts to improve its national coverage.

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Source : La Tribune

The names of the operators who will participate in the allocation of the first frequencies dedicated to 5G were unveiled by Arcep on 26 February. Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free have therefore applied. The four major national operators will compete in an auction, scheduled to start in mid-April, to win back as many frequencies as possible. And the stakes are high: those who win the most spectrum will be able to offer a better service than the others.

For the Arcep, the fact that the four major operators have responded is a source of satisfaction. For the president of the institution, Sébastien Soriano, it proves that the conditions of this sale "are reasonable". Even if some operators have shouted the opposite in recent months, believing that the government was financially too greedy. They also felt that the spectrum came with obligations to cover the territory - especially rural areas, which are much less profitable than cities - too large and costly.

No other telecom players applied for 5G, including the large MVNOs. The same is true for industrialists in different sectors. It must be said that the allocation requires the purchase of a minimum of 40 MHz of frequencies. This measure, which aims "to avoid the fragmentation of the spectrum" explains Sébastien Soriano, has de facto "set the bar a little high" for industrialists.

Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free, provided they comply with the required commitments, should each recover a block of 50 MHz at a fixed price of 350 million euros. 350 million. A battle will follow for the remaining 110 MHz, which will be auctioned in blocks of 10 MHz, but no operator will be able to win more than 100 MHz of spectrum in total.

The Arcep is due to determine in the coming weeks how the auctions will be conducted. Several modalities are still to be worked out.

It should be noted that during the auctions, operators will not be allowed to discuss and agree on certain common strategies among themselves, which would distort competition. If there is no change in the agenda, the regulator expects the frequencies to be allocated in June. Operators will then be able to start rolling out 5G in early summer, in July.

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Source : La Tribune

A little over a year ago, Axione and the Mirova Fund created CityFast. The company had bought the 140,000 fibre optic lines deployed by Bouygues Telecom in major cities. CityFast then made a commitment to connect 3.4 million urban households by the end of 2021 and to lease this infrastructure to Martin Bouygues' operator and others.

One year later, CityFast assures to have crossed the 800,000 fiber optic lines deployed. The wholesaler will therefore move on to the next phase: the marketing of these pipes to interested operators. The multitude of regional or specialized operators supplying VSE-SMEs will then be able to offer fibre optic subscriptions in city centres at very competitive rates.

The president of CityFast, Eric Jammaron, explains "Today, it is a very closed market. A downtown law firm, for example, has a very limited choice. Either it takes an FTTH subscription from one of the major operators present in the building, without guarantees, or it goes through a corporate operator to have a dedicated fibre with a very superior quality of service, but a very expensive subscription".

The wholesaler is convinced that small and medium operators will be in a hurry to offer fibre, with or without a guaranteed recovery time, to VSE-SMEs.

"We are betting on the mass, with extremely aggressive prices," says Eric Jammaron. Today, an ADSL pro offer, with much lower speeds, sells for 60 to 80 euros. Pro fibre doesn't go below 300 euros. "CityFast will sell its FTTH lines with service guarantees three times cheaper to operators.

An argument that is not entirely convincing. Nicolas Aubé, head of Celeste, is convinced that companies will remain fond of lines just for themselves.

CityFast will quickly know what to expect. As of this week, it opens to rent its fiber lines in the 7th district of Paris, then in the other districts of the capital, as well as in Lyon and Marseille.

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Source : Les Echos

According to several telecom specialists, operators' uncertainty about whether or not to use Huawei's 5G antennas for their new mobile networks is growing.

Yet the law on securing mobile networks (nicknamed "anti-Huawei") has made things clearer. Indeed, operators must get the green light from Anssi - the National Agency for Information Systems Security - before using 5G equipment. The Agency then has two months to study their files.

At the end of December, Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom all submitted authorization applications for the deployment of Chinese 5G antennas in France.

However, according to several sources, cyber-experts in the French-speaking part of the country are making more and more requests for further information. It's not serious, "says a concerned operator. If they're trying to save time this way, it's a mistake. A court would never agree with them, the case law is very clear".

What operators are actually afraid of is that the Anssi is deliberately dragging its feet to avoid having to post a denial of clearance ahead of the 5G frequency allocations, scheduled for April. If equipment manufacturers were to be denied to operators before that date, the latter would then be weakened and could therefore lower their bids for the 5G auctions .

According to the new legal framework, the absence of a positive response from the Anssi within two months is tantamount to a refusal. But this time limit runs from receipt of a complete file... a complete file. Hence the irritation of the operators in front of what one actor describes as "delaying tactics" to postpone the deadline.

A specialist in the sector even indicates that "Some operators are impatiently waiting for an implicit refusal to be able to take legal action".

But the strategic interest of the four players differs. Indeed, Free, using only antennae of the Finnish Nokia, is not concerned.

Orange does not use Huawei antennas in France to date. However, it wants to have the possibility to solicit the Chinese supplier for its future 5G network.

As for SFR and Bouygues Telecom, which use Huawei on half of their respective networks, they are keen to be able to continue doing business with the Shenzhen giant. Doing without its 5G antennas would indeed require dismantling the 3G and 4G antennas for compatibility reasons. The cost would be enormous. You would have to buy and install this equipment. Above all, a large part of the network would be disrupted for many months, pushing customers into the arms of the competition. "Free would become, without doing anything, the second best network in the country... while it remains far behind" as a telecom specialist analyses.

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Source : Les Echos

This time, let's do it! Operators who wish to launch into 5G can now apply to the Arcep for frequencies in the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band. Operators must apply before 12 noon on February 25th 2020.

The regulatory authority will examine the applications and issue authorisations during the first half of 2020. It is expected that the four operators - Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile - will be successful at the end of the award procedure.

As resources are limited, the real question is how many frequencies each applicant will have.

A mixed allocation system has been planned: the frequencies are divided into fixed-price lots and variable-price lots, which will be determined by auction. The fixed-price lots each contain a 50 MHz block, while the variable-price lots consist of a 10 MHz block. An operator must apply for at least 40 MHz and is not allowed to have more than 100 MHz.

Fixed price blocks are sold for EUR 350 million each. The others start at EUR 70 million.

However, the government does not intend to squeeze the candidates and a certain flexibility in the purchase of frequencies is thus provided for: the 10 MHz blocks can be paid for over 4 years and the 50 MHz blocks over 15 years - this is the duration of the allocation of frequencies. This is the duration of the frequency allocation, which may be extended if necessary.

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Source : Numerama