Wednesday, April 29, 2009

France: Bouygues has lost its appeal to the Council o state over relinquishing of 900 MHz spectrumf

The French Council of State has rejected an appeal by mobile network operator Bouygues Telecom against telecommunication regulator Arcep's ruling that the three existing network operators must free up some 900 MHz frequencies to make room for a fourth 3G operator. The council found that there was no discrimination, as the three existing operators will be left with exactly the same amount of spectrum. The body acknowledged that Arcep imposed a different calendar on Bouygues Telecom than its existing rivals, but this was justified because its network carried less traffic. The council added that the regulator had informed the network operators as early as 2000 about the possibility of having to return some of their frequencies and had held comprehensive talks with them in 2006 and 2007. Bouygues did not propose an alternative timeframe. Finally, the council said that Bouygues' alleged risk of service degradation would be a consequence of the operator's technical and commercial choices that led to a slower rollout of its 3G network.


'Council of State rejects Bouygues' appeal over 3G spectrum'

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