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Arcep publishes report regarding 3G footprint

French regulator Arcep has published an updated scorecard measuring the progress made in the white-spots programme (called 'zones blanches - centres-bourgs'), which aims to bring voice, SMS and 3G data coverage to rural communities still lacking these services. For the municipalities participating in the programme (accounting for approximately 1 percent of the national population), the proportion covered by 3G mobile broadband has continued to progress steadily, improving to 92 percent in July from 82 percent in April, but still short of the target of 100 percent set for the end of June. Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR have reported to Arcep that this objective has been met for the municipalities originally included in the programme, before the list of locations was extended in 2016 and 2017.

Network operators also aimed to provide at least basic voice and SMS services to all participating municipalities by the end of 2016, but coverage remained broadly unchanged at 92 percent in July. As noted by the regulator in previous reports, most of the municipalities without any coverage are still waiting for public authorities to install a tower and operators will have six months to provide the services from the time the tower is built.

Arcep also measures progress with the deployment of LTE services in sparsely populated areas, set as part of the coverage obligations attached to the 800 MHz mobile licences held by Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR. These areas contain 22,500 rural municipalities representing 18 percent of the country's population and 63 percent of its land mass. Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR were each required to reach 40 percent of the population in these areas by 17 January and all three exceeded their target by this date. Since then, SFR overtook its rivals and maintained the lead in July with 74 percent population coverage, ahead of Bouygues and Orange with 69 and 67 percent respectively. The 800 MHz mobile licences include a 90 percent coverage target to be reached by 17 January 2022.



Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/french-mnos-expand-3g-footprint-across-white-spots--1205614

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