Arcep expands 3G in GSM Spectrum (France)
The French telecoms regulator, ARCEP has published preliminary plans to allow the French overseas departments and territories to reuse their GSM radio spectrum for 3G services. The affected countries are Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Reunion.
ARCEP has received seven responses to a public consultation on the proposals which it held last year and have helped to confirm the soundness of the suggested scheme to govern reuse of the 900 MHz band for UMTS.
The Authority has established guidelines that define the framework for processing requests for frequency licences, as well as requests for changes to existing licences coming from mobile operators in the overseas markets.
This framework includes the ability to use the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz bands for UMTS, along with specific terms applying to their reuse that have been tailored to the particular situation in each department or collectivity.
On the matter of assigning new frequency bands to mobile and ultra high-speed mobile services in the overseas territories, work on the issue could begin in 2012 depending on the requests made by stakeholders. The terms set for allocating the 800 MHz band will take into consideration the state of competition in the overseas departments and territories.
France telecom to acquire Ezypt’s Mobinil
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: France Telecom got a green signal from Egypt’s regulator to acquire the assets of Egypt’s largest mobile carrier Mobinil. The decision puts an end to the dispute between France Telecom and Orascom
Telecom, other major shareholder in Mobinil.
Three offers ranging from EGP187/share, EGP237/share, and EGP230/share were made by France Telecom to buy Mobinil shares. The final offer that was accepted was 245 Egyptian pounds per share (€30.15).
Orascom Telecom is now left with two options, either to respond to the decision by selling all its shares of Mobinil and the holding company to France Telecom or objecting to the offer and challenging it through court or another arbitration round.
Meanwhile, the French Competition Authority fined France Telecom with €63 million, along with its Caribbean subsidiary, Orange Caraibe, following a complaint from Bouygues Telecom’s Caribbean subsidiary. In the complain, the telco is accused of thwarting competition in the mobile and landline markets in the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.
In other complaints it is also accused of offering fixed to mobile tariffs to corporate clients at rates that were below reasonable costs.
Digicel Haiti claims a million customers in eight months
Telegeography writes…Digicel Haiti, which launched in May last year and is part of the Digicel mobile group founded by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, has announced that it ended 2006 with over a million GSM customers. Digicel says it has invested USD260 million in Haiti, which it claims is ‘the largest investment ever made in the country by an international company’. It has already raced ahead of its rivals, TDMA/GSM operator Comcel and CDMA provider Haitel, despite both companies responding to their new competitor by cutting prices and launching new networks. Comcel hurriedly rolled out a GSM network under the Voila brand in early 2006, whilst Haitel is aiming to sign up data users to its CDMA2000 1x services, launched in late August 2006 (source: TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database).
During 2006 Digicel Group launched services in additional Caribbean markets including Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands and Bonaire, and acquired El Salvadorian mobile operator Digicel Holdings Ltd, U Mobile in Guyana, and Bouygues Telecom Caraibe, which extended its mobile footprint to Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. The group finished the year with over four million subscribers in 22 markets.
