From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris

The French Consultative Commission for Telecommunications has asked the government to use part of the digital bonus – the spectrum liberated after analogue switch-off – to be used to improve internet access to the population. Guy Roussel, head of Ericsson France and chairman of the commission, said that the freed spectrum is a 'fabulous resource' and should not go entirely to the broadcasting and telecoms sectors.

The commission's recommendation was that part of the freed resource be used to provide high speed Internet on the move as well as in the home and in areas where optical fibre will not reach. “By 2012, heavily populated areas will have 100 Mbit/s, while the rural regions will have to be content with 512 kbit/s,” added Roussel.

Meanwhile, another operator, Alice (Telecom Italia) announced that it was going to invest in cabling France with optical fibre for consumer broadband. This brings the total to five after France Telecom, Iliad (Free), Neuf and Numericable.

Other posts by :

1. SpaceX outlines Starlink cellular delivery plan
2. NAB vs CTIA on C-band release
3. Laser terminals to operate at 100x faster
4. Starlink success in Spain, but South Africa proves difficult
5. RocketLab doubts over Mynaric bid
6. IRIS2 free for government usage?
7. Bank: AST SpaceMobile will orbit 356 satellites by 2030
8. SpaceX launches 600th rocket
9. Starlink: 10m customers and counting

Categories: Articles, Broadband