UMTS licences: a sensitive matter for Sophia

Sophia Antipolis is paying a lot of attention to the French UMTS matter. The science park in particular, as the whole Telecom Valley on the French Riviera, is very committed in third generation mobile phone technologies. However, the release of UMTS French licences, following the government's decision to lower the entry price, should re-launch an activity which is very affected by the economic slowdown. Any release in the matter will then be considered as very positive to the science park. Last news on the matter: Christian Pierret, the Industry secretary of State re-asserted the government's will to re-launch the call for tenders for the two licences left before December 31st during the inauguration of the telecom's week.

However, the president of the ART (Telecommunication Authority Regulation) delayed the release of the last two licences, a long time after presidential elections. He mentioned that results couldn’t be known before the beginning of autumn 2002 because of procedure delays. Also has to be set the percentage on the turnover that operators will have to pay according the new selected formula. Christian Pierret, mentioning that “high rates kill totals”, told about a range between 1 and 2%. Operators answered that the only example in this sector was Sweden, with a withholding of 0.15% in turnover…