PARIS (Reuters) - France's 5G telecoms frequencies auction will start this autumn, with licences expected to be given at the start of 2020, Junior Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Le Figaro on Thursday.
France's four main telecoms operators Orange, Bouygues Telecom, Altice Europe's SFR and Iliad regularly compete in costly spectrum auctions, which provide raw material for wireless carriers to develop networks.
"The government will fix the political framework in spring. Arcep (the telecoms regulator) will then establish the specific requirements, which will be certified in autumn," Pannier-Runacher told Le Figaro.
"The auction will then be launched with attributions at the start of 2020," she added.
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
