All four French MNOs – Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile – have just launched 5G services in Paris, following approval by the local city council. The operators had been deploying the infrastructure in anticipation of approval so that they could hit the ground running in a country that has lagged behind other major European nations over 5G roll-out. The preparation was not too onerous in Paris since all the authorized 5G sites already served a mixture of 2G, 3G and 4G services.
SFR was first to launch 5G commercial services in Nice during November 2020, followed the next month by the three others. But the other big European countries had all launched 5G commercially over a year earlier, led by the UK, where Vodafone and EE announced services in May 2019. This was followed the next month by Vodafone’s launch of Spain’s first commercial 5G network in most major cities including Madrid and Barcelona, and of Italy’s first in five cities. Then in September 2019 Germany came on board as Deutsche Telekom turned on its 5G network in five cities.
The delay in France reflects perhaps more bureaucracy and certainly caution on the part of city authorities, as well as environmental concerns which could have delayed the Paris launch further with some activists lobbying for it be out back until later in the year. Testing for conformance with emissions thresholds is rigorous with more than 3,000 antennas assessed during 2019 and a further 4,800 up to just after the recent deployments, all by spectrum regulator ANFR.
The telecoms regulator Arcep is also more involved in the detail of deployment, trying to steer roll outs towards societal or economic goals. Operators are instructed in some cases to deploy cells around industrial sites, or areas where other forms of connectivity are sparse, in order to meet overall digital objectives. Arcep had stipulated that each operator must launch 5G services in at least two cities before the end of 2020 and must now deploy 3,000 sites by 2022, 8,000 sites in 2024 and 10,500 sites by 2025.
There are, as in most other countries, differences between the operators reflecting in large part the spectrum they have obtained. Orange already had 90 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band and so the telco was naturally focusing on those frequencies to provide decent coverage at high bit rates, with plans later to supplement services with 2.1 GHz frequencies.
Iliad subsidiary Free Mobile on the other hand uses frequencies in the 700 MHz band alongside the 3.5 GHz band, allowing a mix of more extensive reach in less populated areas with higher performance in some city areas. Bouygues, aiming for nationwide coverage by the end of 2021, is rolling out across both the 3.5 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands.
France is now moving ahead faster with site authorizations at the rate of around 2,000 a month. By March 1 2021, a total of 21,714 5G sites had been authorized, of which 12,310 were technically operational, according to ANFR. Of these the majority, 15,734 sites were authorized in the 700 MHz band for Free Mobile, of which 7,054 are technically operational.
Then 6,090 sites had been authorized in the 2.100 GHz band for Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR, with 3,261 are operational. In the 3.5 GHz band, 5,361 sites were authorized for Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile, Orange and SFR), with 1,995 declared technically operational. Some of these sites were shared by two or more operators, so individual totals add up to more than the cumulative total numbers of cells in each category.
It is not yet clear when the first French millimeter wave spectrum auctions will be held but they will almost certainly be in the 26.5 GHz – 27.5 GHz band.