Single Bidder for France's Fourth 3G License

­France's telecoms regulator, ARCEP has confirmed that just one application has been submitted for the country's fourth 3G license. As expected, the application was submitted by this deadline, by Free mobile, a subsidiary fully owned by the Iliad group.

ARCEP says that it will now examine the application to check that it meets the eligibility criteria. A previous bid for the license by Iliad was rejected by the regulator in October 2007.

It has been previously suggested by the regulator that if just one bidder emerges, then it expects to be able to award the license by the end of the year.

The country's three incumbent operators are seeking a review of the tendering process, stating that the lower license fee being offered could constitute illegal state aid for the new entrant. The regulator has set a reserve price of EUR240 million for the license, which compares with the EUR619 million paid by the current license holders. The fourth license is however for a smaller chunk of radio spectrum and is being offered in a market with three dominant 3G network operators.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the three incumbent operators market share at the end of Q1 '09 was: Orange (47%), SFR (36%) and Bouygues Télécom (17%).

On the web: Arcep - Mobile World

Posted to the site on 1st November 2009