Superfast wireless window: Arcep issues its first superfast wireless licence in the Seine-et-Marne department

Paris, 25 May 2018

To bring superfast internet access to those parts of the country that have not yet been the beneficiaries of wireline network rollouts, stakeholders, and particularly local authorities, may employ superfast wireless access systems. These networks make it possible to provide very high-speed (at least 30 Mbit/s) fixed internet access with no data caps. They thus serve to complete the toolbox available to local players, to achieve rapid progress on superfast access network rollouts.

After having conducted trials with a number of local authorities, and several public consultations, Arcep identified 3410 - 3460 MHz band frequencies for these systems up to 2026, and in late 2017 created an allocation window for making them available to the interested parties.

Today, Arcep is issuing its first superfast wireless licence to the company Sem@for77, in the Seine-et-Marne department, and welcomes the efforts that public and private sector players have devoted to digital regional development and to reducing the digital divide. The company will use these frequencies to upgrade the public-initiative wireless internet access network managed by the Seine-et-Marne Numérique joint association. They will enable Seine-et-Marne Numérique and Sem@for77 to deliver superfast access to 142 municipalities that are currently without, starting this year.

Arcep continues to examine other frequency licence applications that were filed through the superfast wireless access windows, and which concern five departments in France.

What you need to know about 3.4 -- 3.8 GHz band frequencies

After having consulted with the sector's stakeholders, Arcep identified the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz frequency band as being the best suited to satisfying regional digital development needs, and keeping pace with current and future uses: superfast wireless access in the short term, with frequency licence periods that can extend up to 2026, then 5G for the medium and long term.