Changes in France by Claudia Sonea

The French watchdog ARCEP has recently got a proposal for the fourth French 3G mobile telephony license. The proposal came from Iliad Group, which operates the Free brand. There are still some issues to be clarified before the State Council takes a decision concerning the license. Besides the operational specifications the problem concerning the rental charge and the license fee is still are to come to an agreement. Iliad Group wants to pay an annual fee for the license and not a single one of 619 milions euro. Another demand was to have access to 900 MHz frequency bands concomitantly to 2.15 GHz frequencies. Whether these demands will be accepted or not depends on the ARCEP. Although the fourth 3G mobile telephony has an action plan to launch itself on the market, there is still not sure that it will have this opportunity, at least not this year. No matter how prosperous it is for the corporation to go on the French telephony market, it is a long way to go and it will have to come to a compromise in issues concerning the payment of the license, because I don’t think the watchdog will accept the annual plan. Anyway, more than merrier! The competition grows, the prices will go down, more luring advantages for the buyers and the economy circuit will be fulfilled. I don’t see anything wrong until now, it will all benefit the French customers, so good luck to them. Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.

related story: http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/07/30/afx3967110.html

by Claudia Sonea for SigEx Telecom (http://sigex.com)

SigEx Telecom is quickly becoming the leading telebroadcasting communications provider allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share video clips through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, websites, blogs, video-mails and SMS. SigEx Telecom captures many add-on services for its clients generating royalties and fees in a broad spectrum of marketing services including public relations and promotions.