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Review of WiMAX in France finds delays and missed deadlines
WiMAX license holders in France have missed commitments to launch services for a variety of business reasons, says Ovum analyst.
A compliance probe launched earlier this year by France's regulatory agency
found WiMAX deployment milestones in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band had not been met.
New commentary from market research firm Ovum's Julien Grivolas concludes that
countries with a developed broadband infrastructure, such as France, will
relegate fixed WiMAX services to communities where DSL and mobile broadband
services do not exist today. No differentiation in services and the high
cost of yet-to-be introduced mobile devices are reasons for this conclusion.
France's Regulatory Authority of Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP)
auctioned 3.5 GHz licenses in July 2006 for 44 regions. Some regional
services are commercially available, while no national network has been
launched. Monitoring by the regulatory body found in June that only 15% of
the promised 3,564 WiMAX broadcast sites were operational.
Bolloré Telecom, a new telecommunications operator that obtained 12 regional
WiMAX licenses in July 2006 for EUR78 million and later eight more licenses in a
transaction with a consortium led by TDF, has yet to realize its goal of
offering a nationwide network. Executives for the company commented that
delays in launching services are due to a lack of WiMAX Forum Certified
equipment for the 802.16e-2005 standard. Most French WiMAX operators
elected to wait for equipment based on the so-called "mobile" version of the
standard, despite general availability of industry certified radios based on the
802.16-2004 protocol for fixed and stationary deployments.
A French government study in March on urgent reforms, "The Commission Report for
the Liberation of French Growth", called for lifting mobility restrictions on
the 3.5 GHz spectrum. Presently, mobility services are prohibited in the
band. Recent regulatory policy changes in the United Kingdom cleared
similar usage restrictions for 3.5 GHz license holders. As of
mid-September, no certified products were available for 802.16e-2005 equipment
in the 3.5 GHz band. Nine of the country's 19 license holders have not
deployed any wireless sites leaving only three to meet or exceed obligations.
Another license holder, Altitude Telecom, announced in April that it was
doubling its network size to 600 WiMAX base stations this year due to increased
demand in its regions. The operator was receiving over 600 new subscriber
orders a month for business and residential services in mostly rural markets not
well-served by other telecommunications providers.
The low level of compliance in France requires all of its license holders to
proactively report on progress every six months with the next deadline looming
at December 2010. France has one of the region's more reasonable levels of
Internet access with 36.2 million users (~56% penetration), according to a March
study from Nielsen//NetRatings.
By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC
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