SFR announced that its 5G network will become available to 120 municipalities by the end of the year, including many locations within the country’s largest metropolitan areas. This follows the arrival of 5G in Nice on 20 November, coinciding with the introduction of a new range of mobile voice and data plans. The company said that local authorities in Bordeaux, Nantes and Paris had asked network operators to hold back on the activation of cell sites, delaying the launch of 5G commercial services.

In Paris, for example, the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo has launched a consultation on the deployment of 5G. As part of this process, a panel of 80 residents have been asked to consider the issues at stake and make recommendations that will be presented back to the capital’s council in mid-December.

While question marks remain on the roadmap for commercial deployment in certain areas, the country’s four networks are pressing ahead with preparations by requesting the necessary authorisations from spectrum agency ANFR. Across the board, nearly 1,100 permits have been issued for 5G cell sites in the 3.5 GHz band, which operators including SFR have started referring to as “true 5G.”

The ANFR said that it has also issued thousands of permits for 700 MHz and 2.1 GHz frequencies (11,770 and 5,000 respectively). As of 27 November, just over 15,900 cell sites across France had already received 5G authorisations for at least one band, all networks combined.

In related news, the agency recently announced that the eighth arrondissement of Paris has become the third location in the country where live data will be available on radio frequency (RF) exposure near 5G antennas. This follows the launch of a new RF monitoring project in Marseille and Nantes, unveiled in early May. The measures are collected multiple times per day from sensors made by ANFR’s partner Exem, which is also responsible for the live data tool accessible by the general public on the agency’s website.