On March 15, 2022, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep) and the government jointly announced two new measures whose aim is to promote access for manufacturers and players ” verticals” (local authorities, universities, research laboratories, etc.) to 5G.
Three years of close collaboration around 5G for Arcep and the government
These new measures, led by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate for Industry, Cédric O, Secretary of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, and Laure de La Raudière, President of Arcep, follow the conclusions and recommendations of the industrial 5G mission, entrusted by the Government to Philippe Herbert.
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Since 2019, the government and Arcep have been working collaboratively on the subject of 5G. First of all, they opened a first counter intended for “vertical” players in order to develop private 4G/5G networks. The first 26 GHz band experimentation platforms for 5G were created the same year.
The following year, the call for projects “Sovereignty in telecommunications networks, within the framework of France Relance, in order to accelerate 5G applications” was launched. Thus, 21 experimental platform projects for 5G uses have been supported. At the same time, the two players had set up two obligations for operators in the context of the use of frequencies in the 3.4 – 3.8 GHz band:
- Provide suitable offers (in terms of coverage and performance) to economic players.
- Offer access to the functionalities offered by slicing. This allows operators to dedicate part of their 5G network in the 3.4 – 3.8 GHz band to “vertical” players.
In February 2022, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) updated its report, considering it unlikely that 5G would cause new health risks.
Two new measures to promote access to 5G for many players
The two new measures announced by Arcep and the government are as follows:
- A first measure aims to open an experiment desk in the 3.8 – 4.0 GHz band with a view to offering a new option to manufacturers and certain “vertical” players while supplementing the range of frequencies already accessible (such as the 2.6 GHz and 26 GHz bands). This counter will be open until December 31, 2022 and will be aimed at players who want to experiment with new use cases for 5G.
The industrial 5G mission considers that “ the proximity of the 3.8 – 4.0 GHz band to the 5G “core” band (3.4 – 3.8 GHz) allows manufacturers to immediately access a mature and varied ecosystem of terminals and of equipment, as well as a large amount of frequencies “.
- The second measure involves creating a portal to simplify access to the 2.6 GHz band for professional mobile networks. This portal replaces the application form previously in place.
The government specifies that this new tool will allow “ professional mobile network players to view the frequency resources available and the frequencies already allocated on a map, to request frequencies, and to follow the processing of their request by Arcep departments “.
Recently, Bouygues Telecom spoke about the end of 2G and 3G, in particular asking Arcep to intervene in this shutdown, considering that many players in the industrial sector had not yet started their transition from 2G/3G to 4G/5G.