The Autorite de Regulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes (Arcep) has reportedly expressed reservations about the mobile network sharing deal involving domestic carriers SFR and Bouygues Telecom, signed back in January, Telegeography.com reports, quoting newspaper Les Echos. Arcep has previously said that network sharing proposals have not been ruled out in sparsely populated or “priority development” areas, but that they will be examined very carefully, on a case-by-case basis.

The regulator is said to be especially concerned about the network sharing deal giving SFR an unfair advantage over Orange and Free Mobile, in Long Term Evolution (LTE) coverage. Currently, Bouygues Telecom is the only operator that can use the 1800-MHz band for 4G services and got permission to operate 6,530 LTE-enabled sites (5,579 of them in service) on June 1, 2014, although only 1,495 of its 4,603 BTSs in the 800-MHz and 2.6-GHz bands are said to be operating. At the same date, Orange France had 6,393 LTE-enabled sites in operation, while SFR trailed behind with 1,675 of the 4G sites, and Free, with 1,380. Les Echos says that the Autorite de la Concurrence (Competition Authority) needs to hand down its decision on the deal by September 2014 and might impose ‘conservative measures’ on the Bouygues-SFR agreement, and allow LTE network sharing to run just two years, during which period SFR will be required to invest in its own LTE infrastructure.