The final stage of the French 5G tender will be starting on 29 September, Arcep president Sebastien Soriano confirmed to national radio. The process is resuming after the delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and follows the completion of the first phase of the tender, in which Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile, Orange and SFR each acquired a 50 MHz block of 3.5 GHz spectrum.
In this final stage, the four network operators will bid for the remaining 110 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum available, in an auction that will see each block of 10 MHz selling for a starting price of EUR 70 million. Once the amount of spectrum allocated to participants is known, a new auction will be held to determine the position of the blocks on the band for each of the winners.
The amount of spectrum per operator is capped at 100 MHz, including the 50 MHz block acquired in the first phase of the tender. This limit, alongside the decision to auction blocks of equal size (10 MHz each), should keep a lid on auction bids and "give a chance" to all participants, as Soriano put it.
The Arcep president told the French press that he expects the bidding process to last two weeks at the most. He has also defended the decision to resume the auction in spite of calls from several fronts to implement a temporary moratorium on 5G deployments, most recently from a group of over 60 elected representatives.
In related news, Orange is rumoured to be preparing a mobile tariff refresh to offer 5G-enabled plans. According to iGeneration, the operator could introduce a new "unlimited" data plan from 08 October, compatible with 5G and priced at EUR 79.99 per month.
