France\'s industry minister says amount of spectruum available to any one bidder will be capped.

France\'s industry Minister Eric Besson said Wednesday the tender offer of France\'s fourth-generation mobile spectrum will be launched by the end of May and that there will be a limit imposed on how much one operator alone can bid for.

Besson said the total 30 megahertz of spectrum to be auctioned will be divided into four lots but that one operator alone ca\'t bid for more than 15Mhz.

France is\'t the first country to impose caps on how much spectrum one operator can acquire. Other countries, such as Spain, have also said they will impose caps to allow smaller operators also to acquire some spectrum and respect fair competition.

Besson said the government had rendered its recommendations for the 4G auction last week which should allow French telecoms regulator Arcep to launch the tender offer by the end of the month.