French Regulator Rejects Sole Bid for Fourth 3G License

France's telecoms regulator, Arcep has rejected an application for the country's fourth 3G license from Iliad subsidiary, Free Mobile - stating that the application did not pass the financial requirements. Iliad had tried to bid for the license by offering the defer the license fee of EUR620 million - which is supposed to be paid in full once the license is awarded.

The company was the only bidder for the license.

The Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde said she had "noted" the decision by Arcep to reject Free's application, but said in a statement that "All options remain open for the attribution of a fourth mobile telecoms licence,".

France currently has a population penetration level of just over 82% at the end of the first half of this year according to figures from the Mobile World database. Of the 50 million subscribers, an estimated 6.5 million are already using 3G services.

Posted to the site on 10th October 2007