France provides spectrum in the 3.8 to 4.0 band to support industrial 5G

The French government and the telecom regulatory body, Arcep are inviting industrial players to submit applications for trial spectrum within the 3.8-4.0 GHz band, saying that the successful applicants will be granted three years of authorization to launch 5G pilots.

Every interested party can apply for up 100 MHz of trial spectrum until December 31. In addition to the private sector local authorities, universities, local authorities, R&D labs and similar participants can also apply to this initiative.

This is targeted at those who want to experiment new use cases for 5G: manufacturers, logisticians, people working in the health, energy, or even smart cities and the opening of this window completes the range of frequencies accessible to these players (2.6 Ghz TDD and 26 GHz bands)

As identified by the 5G industrial mission, the proximity of the 3.8 – 4.0 Ghz band to the 5G Core band (3.4- 3.8 Ghz) allows allows manufacturers to access a mature and diverse ecosystem of equipment and terminals, and a large bandwith.

This is the government’s response to suggestions given by the Industrial 5G Mission, who recently released an advisory report on the best way to accelerate 5G-related use cases in the nation’s industrial sector.