The Council of State has just rejected all the appeals filed by environmental and citizen associations against the decisions of the telecoms regulator (Arcep) concerning the procedure for allocating the first 5G frequencies to operators.
This decision “validates the procedure for allocating frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band and the authorizations issued in this band to the four mainland mobile operators (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free).
It therefore closes all the disputes relating to the said procedure ”, welcomed Arcep.
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The allocation last year of the first 5G frequencies to French operators brought in 2.8 billion euros to the state.
It is the operator Orange, which won most of the frequencies with 90 MHz of spectrum in the end, against 80 MHz for SFR, and 70 MHz each for Bouygues Telecom and Free.
Initially scheduled for April 2020 but postponed to October 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these auctions have enabled operators to acquire 11 “blocks” of frequencies, paving the way for the first 5G services to be marketed across the whole of France. territory.
Part of the hostile opinion
Before these auctions, the four operators had each obtained a block of 50 megahertz (MHz) in the frequency band from 3.4 to 3.8 gigahertz (GHz) on the electromagnetic spectrum at the fixed price of 350 million euros .
But 5G is arousing the hostility of a section of public opinion, politicians and NGOs, who question the interest of this new technology, citing risks to health or the environment.
To the point of having sparked a heated debate within the political class between calls for a moratorium on left-wing elected officials and environmentalists, and the scathing response of Emmanuel Macron who had joked about "the Amish model" preferred by the opponents of 5G.
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Macron defends 5G against "the Amish model"
Ultimately, the 5G that is starting to be deployed must offer higher speeds and connect everything that cannot currently be.
After the presidential election, the Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O announced in early July that the allocation of 5G frequencies in the high 26 GHz band will be implemented.
These frequencies do not allow the antennas to have a large geographical coverage, but on the other hand make it possible to achieve a very high speed and a very low latency.