By silicon.com, 17 August 1998 17:16
NEWS French mobile operators have denied they are facing problems of saturation and said they are in control of the situation. The claims came after a report last week suggested mobile services have become so congested that users in business areas of French cities are starting to have difficulty making calls. One operator, Cegetel, and its mobile branch SFR, explained that it has already started work upgrading equipment at 450 Parisian sites. Itineris, said it reached 4.1 million subscribers in July and experienced no complaints about connection quality. With more than 860,000 subscribers at the end of July, Bouygues Telecom claimed its DCS 1800 technology reduces the risk of saturation by allowing more communications on the same cell. The operator said it also plans to increase its investment in infrastructures. However, the French Association for Telecom and Telephone users (AFFUT) said it is receiving a greater number of complaints from mobile users. A spokeswoman said: "We don't keep any statistics, but it is clear there is more and more saturation, especially in the Parisian area." AFUTT has told mobile operators to extend free voicemail access as well. At the moment, Bouygues Telecom is the only one providing this service. The French telecoms regulator, ART, plans to publish a survey looking into the issue in the autumn.
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