The French Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications (ART) has announced that it is inviting strictly technical experiments of new equipment operating in the 3,4-3,8 GHz band.

This follows the opening of the ART consultation on wireless local access (which lasts until 30 Sep 2004), on which T-REGS has reported extensively.

Equipment suppliers and telecommunications operators are invited to file applications with the ART, for conducting non-commercial technical experiments (for instance of equipment conforming to the IEEE 802.16d and ETSI HiperMAN standards which are supported by the WiMAX forum).

Such experiments will be authorised until 1 Sep 2005 at the latest, with an obligation to dismantle the equipment at the end of the experiment. The ART emphasises that the experimentation regime is NOT addressed to local authorities or commercial operators seeking to establish base stations, which could, at the end of the experiment, be converted into operative networks serving customers.

Parties wishing to conduct technical experiments are free to put forward the frequency resources they are applying for (geography, frequency range, capacity required, etc.). T-REGS is able to provide assistance in filing applications.

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