French regulator to renew overseas licences

The French telecoms regulator Arcep has published a summary of its public consultation on the renewal of three GSM mobile licences for operators in overseas departments. The licences in question affect Digicel, Radiotelephone Society of Reunion (SRR) and Orange Caribbean, and are due to expire on 8 December 2009, 23 February 2010 and 14 June 2011 respectively. Under Article L. 42-1 of the electronic communications code, the regulator conducted a public consultation between 8 July and 24 August to consider relicensing the spectrum. The public consultation has concluded that the three GSM licences should be renewed with the same frequency allocations and a strengthening of obligations concerning the provision of service, coverage and quality of service. In addition, Arcep will, no later than 2011, reassess the use of the spectrum with a particular emphasis on the needs of 2G and 3G operators and with a view to reusing 900MHz spectrum for 3G services.