Closing the Year with a Bang: The French 800 MHz Spectrum Auction

The year closes with the 800 MHz spectrum auction in France where the regulator Arcep netted €2.639 billion for the 60 MHz made available. In September, Arcep raised €936 million from the sale of 2.6 GHz spectrum for a total of €3.6bn, about €1.6bn over the €2.5bn reserve price.

The three major operators, Orange, Bouygues and SFR, all won a 2×10 MHz license. SFR paid the most at €0.84/MHz-PoP, while Bouygues license came at €0.54/MHz-PoP. SFR has set an aggressive tone from the outset to ensure it got a piece of this prime spectrum after feeling pressure from the Greenfield operator Free Mobile. Fee Mobile will get access to SFR’s 800 MHz network in rural areas after its own 2.6 GHz network covers 25% of the French population.

France 800 MHz Spectrum Bandmap

Overall, prices for the 800 MHz band in France are just below those paid in Germany and much over the price paid in economically distressed Spain.

In all, this caps a big year for spectrum auctions which I don’t expect 2012 will beat in total value overall. Nevertheless, we can still look for the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz auction in the UK coming in the second half of 2012 and the 700 MHz auction in Canada, both of which will be very interesting to watch.