Disqus
Guess we knew Iliad Group’s FREE Mobile will participate in the auction for France’s 4th 3G license. However, we didn’t knew they will end up as the only candidate for the spot. Earlier we heard Virgin Mobile may also jump on board and bid for the portion of spectrum.
Whatever the case is, the country’s telecoms regulator, ARCEP, confirmed that FREE is the only company that submitted bid for the license. Now they [ARCEP] have to examine the application to check that it meets the eligibility criteria. I’m guessing it does since Iliad’s previous bid for the license was rejected by the regulator in October 2007 — i.e. one would hope they did their homework this time.
Earlier it was suggested that if just one bidder emerges, ARCEP may award the license by the end of the year.
For the record, France has three 3G license holders – Orange, SFR and Bouygues Télécom which hold 47%, 36% and 17% of the market, respectively.
[Via: CellularNews]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
