The French regulator ARCEP will have to approve the two-year extension, which would allow Free to roam on Orange’s network until 2022.
Background: In France, Free Mobile has been relying on nationwide roaming on Orange’s 2G and 3G network since 2011. At the time, the agreement was designed to allow a fourth operator in the mobile market while giving it time to build its own infrastructure. In January 2016, ARCEP requested the two parties to set out a timetable to phase out the agreement. Eventually, the two MNOs agreed to terminate it by the end of 2020.
The MNOs now ask for an extension: On 3 April 2020, ARCEP announced that it received an amendment to the deal, which extends the sunset period for Free Mobile’s access to nationwide roaming on Orange’s 2G and 3G networks up to 31 December 2022. The agreement includes incentives to encourage a reduction in the number of Free customers to use Orange’s network, and limits the upload and download speeds to 384Kbps for 2021 and 2022. The extension responds to a request from Free, which has been unable to catch up with the market standard of network coverage despite “very proactive rollouts”, and needs to have 2G coverage on par with that of other MNOs – something it is unable to replicate quickly due to a lack of spectrum and due to other operators’ use of 2G as a back-up technology under certain circumstances.
ARCEP will have to approve the extension: ARCEP will now examine the contractual amendment, in particular with regard to general regulatory objectives and to the guidelines on network sharing it issued in May 2016. Stakeholders have until 4 May 2020 to submit their comments.
