Iliad on fourth licence odysseyThe Iliad Group, which offers broadband services in France under the banner Free, has submitted an application to the regulator Arcep for the country’s fourth 3G licence. According to AFX News, Iliad says the State Council has said that the government cannot rule on the financial terms of the concession until operational specifications are adopted. Iliad believes ‘the success of the fourth mobile operator’ is dependent on the winner being allowed to make a deferred annual payment of the licence fee instead of an up front one-off payment of EUR619 million. ‘Iliad believes that a single payment of the rental charge represents a barrier to entering the market,’ the company said. The operator is also calling for access to the 900MHz bands alongside 2.15GHz frequencies, and applauds the decision to allocate a 5MHz carrier in the 900MHz band from end-2009 to the operator chosen for the fourth licence.
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