ANFR, the national frequency agency, has just published its latest observatory of mobile network deployments. According to the institution, operators are preparing to cross the threshold of 30,000 5G sites deployed in the territory. All generations of networks combined, France is home to a total of 58,369 operational sites.
5G continues to be deployed in France, and to take stock of the progress made, the National Frequency Agency (ANFR) publishes each month its monthly observatory of mobile network deployments. The opportunity for the institution to take stock of the number of authorized sites, sites declared technically operational and commercially open sites (ie one site offering access to mobile subscribers).
In fact and on September 1, 2021, the ANFR authorized the installation of 28,821 5G sites in metropolitan France, of which 17,559 are declared technically operational, that is to say that they emit radio waves. As the institution specifies, almost all of these 5G installations were carried out on pre-existing sites already used by operators to provide 2G, 3G or 4G. Trivial fact, only 3 sites in France only host 5G for the moment.
The milestone of 30,000 5G sites soon to be exceeded in France
As you may know, operators use three frequency bands to provide the latest generation of mobile network. 18,149 sites are authorized on the 700 MHz band. Free Mobile mobilizes as many sites as possible, which has chosen this band to deploy its network as quickly as possible, in particular thanks to Dynamic Spectrum Sharing technology which allows the operator to convert 4G antennas into 5G stations.
In July 2021, Free had also exceeded the milestone of 10,000 antennas and now displays 11,451 sites to his credit. Then, 10,462 5G sites were authorized on the 2100 MHz band (used by Bouygues Telecom, Orange, SFR and Outremer Telecom) and 5,172 are declared technically operational.
As for the queen band of 3.5 GHz (used by all the main operators), the ANFR has 11,880 authorized 5G sites, of which 5,182 are declared technically operational. Regarding 4G, the state institution specifies that 54,605 4G sites were authorized in mainland France on September 1, 2021 (50,068 are already in service).
As a reminder, at the end of August 2021, Arcep was concerned about possible interference between 5G networks and other French networks such as earth stations of the fixed-satellite service. Indeed, the telecoms gendarme recalled that the latest generation of mobile network and these stations shared the same frequency bands.
Source: ANFR
