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    HomeNewsDigital plan will boost France's competitiveness, says GSMA

    Digital plan will boost France’s competitiveness, says GSMA

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    The GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, has called on
    governments across Europe to emulate the "Digital Plan" unveiled by the
    French Government. By allocating part of the digital dividend spectrum to
    mobile broadband services, France is well-placed to improve its economic
    competitiveness by closing the digital divide between those with access to
    broadband and those without, it says.

    "The French government has acted decisively by allocating 72MHz of the
    spectrum freed up by the switchover to digital television to mobile broadband
    services, which will reach rural communities that can't be served
    economically by fixed-line broadband networks," said Tom Phillips, Chief
    Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA. "Radio signals in this
    spectrum band travel much further than signals in the higher bands, enabling
    future mobile broadband networks to reach as far as 2G networks do today. The
    rest of Europe should follow France's example as soon as possible."

    The French Government's decision to initially allocate the 790MHz to
    862MHz band for mobile broadband services will further encourage equipment
    makers to develop handsets and base stations for this frequency band, which
    the World Radiocommunication Conference has allocated to the provision of
    mobile broadband services in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

    The GSMA is calling on other European governments to also commit this spectrum
    band to mobile broadband services. Harmonisation of spectrum across countries
    provides manufacturers with the economies of scale necessary to drive down
    the price of mobile devices and makes it easier for people to continue using
    their handsets while traveling abroad, it says. The success of GSM is partly due to
    the harmonized allocation of spectrum by European governments. The Swedish
    and Finnish governments have already decided to make the 790MHz -862 MHz band
    available for mobile applications.