The French government aims to raise EUR2 billion from next year’s auction of LTE spectrum, according to French industry minister Eric Besson.  The setting of a minimum price for the auction was still being discussed, Besson told Reuters, but the target was EUR2 billion in proceeds. “We are relatively confident. These frequencies are of very, very high quality.” Besson expects the government to call for bids by the end of January next year, or early February. He added the intention is to sell the spectrum in four lots: 2 x 10MHz and 2 x 5MHz. Last week, French telecoms regulator Arcep gave the go ahead for the country’s mobile operators to begin testing next-generation technology using 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum ahead of the auctions. Although not specified, LTE is expected to be the main focus of these trials.

Besson wants the auction winners to work hard once they have their spectrum in the bag. He wants 99 percent population coverage by at least two operators within 15 years. Germany’s spectrum auction earlier this year provides a benchmark against which to place Besson’s EUR2 billion projection. Germany raised a total EUR4.38 billion from a spectrum auction, although this did cover a broader range of frequencies than France. In addition to 800MHz and 2.6GHz, the German auction also included frequencies in the 1.8GHz and 2GHz bands. However, German operators jointly spent EUR3.55 billion alone on 800MHz spectrum.