France announces arrangements for GSM re-farming

France's mobile operators will be able to reuse the GSM bands for third generation services as early as next year under an arrangement which also covers access to the bands for the winner of a new 3G licence.

Existing mobile operators are generally keen to delpoy 3G in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands currently used for second generation services. As 2G is gradually phased out this makes for more efficient and cost effective use of spectrum and the better propagation characteristics of the lower bands mean fewer base stations and lower costs.

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