France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat (State Council), has rejected an appeal by Orange against an Autorite de Regulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes (Arcep’s) ruling of April 4, 2013 that authorized Bouygues Telecom to refarm the 1,800-MHz band for Long Term Evolution (LTE) use from Oct 1, 2013, as long as the company gives up some of its spectrum, Telegeography.com reports.

The Conseil d’Etat found that “Arcep took the appropriate measures to ensure equality between operators and that the conditions for effective competition were met, as required by the regulatory framework for introducing technological neutrality into the terms of frequency licences.” Arcep has welcomed the Conseil d’Etat’s decision.

Four mobile operators – Orange France (then FT-Orange), SFR, Free, and Bouygues Telecom – paid a total of 3.57 billion euro ($4.71 billion) for the allocation of 800-MHz/2600-MHz spectrum for 4G LTE services, at the end of 2011. Although rival operators SFR and Orange France opposed Bouygues’s request to use the 1,800-MHz spectrum for LTE, it was tentatively approved by Arcep, in March 2013, with the regulator stating: ‘We weren’t convinced the impact would be negative. It will incite all operators to accelerate the rollout of 4G services.’ And Bouygues was allowed to start providing 1800-MHz LTE from Oct 1, initially reaching some 40 million people, or 63 percent of the country’s population.

Subsequently, Orange denounced the 2011 4G tender, for a lack of transparency, since the operators were not informed at a time when the watchdog was also planning to authorize the 1,800-MHz frequency band for 4G use in 2013. Orange filed an appeal at the Conseil d’Etat against the regulator’s authorization in June 2013.