The French government has taken new steps to promote access to 5G for manufacturers and vertical sectors, aiming to accelerate deployment of industrial 5G use cases in the country. This entails a change in the French stance on industrial spectrum, which had been set against private allocations to non-MNOs. Now, local industrial firms can apply to access frequencies in the 3.8 GHz to 4.0 GHz band until the end of this year, after an announcement by regulator Arcep. As part of this initiative, businesses in sectors including manufacturing, logistics, energy, health and smart cities will each be able to make use of a 100 MHz block in this band for three years to trial different use cases. The regulator suggested…