After the award of the licences, expected in October or November, operators will be free to set their own roadmap for commercial launch. This represents a significant move from the original requirement laid out in July 2019, when Arcep announced an obligation on licence holders to introduce 5G services in at least two French cities by end-2020. Under the new rules, the licences will set two 'check point' dates in 2023 and 2028, at which operators' progress will be monitored.
The regulator described its changed stance as a response to the dialogue over the way forward that opened up with stakeholders following the auction delay. Earlier this month, Bouygues Telecom confirmed to Les Echos that it had made a formal demand to postpone the auction until end-2020 or early-2021, arguing that 5G networks would only start making a real difference after 2023.
While according freedom on 5G roadmaps, Arcep said that licence holders would need to meet obligations on coverage targets and minimum service levels relating to their LTE-A networks. As a result, operators will need to deliver LTE-A services with speeds of 240 Mbps or above across at least 75 percent of their mobile footprints by end-2022.
The country's four network operators have already secured a block of 50 MHz each in the first phase of the 3.5 GHz award process. In September, they will start bidding for the remaining 110 MHz of 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 each winner is known, a new auction will be held in October to determine the position of the blocks on the band for each of the winners.
Arcep to watch over marketing of 5G plans
The regulator intends to keep a close eye on how 5G services will be marketed to potential customers. To this end, it has unveiled a new collaborative project open to stakeholders including consumer associations and companies specialising in QoS measurements. Under Arcep's guidance, the project aims to facilitate the development of tools designed to inform consumers on the technical and commercial features of operators' 5G offers.
