France Telecom misses the boat on wireless licences

NEWS France Telecom has missed the application deadline for a wireless local loop licence. In total, 21 operators submitted bids to French telecoms watchdog ART, which is allocating two national licences and two regional licences in each of France's 22 regions. Having a wireless licence will enable operators to avoid leasing the local lines from France Telecom, which still owns the local loop, and will open up greater competition for Internet access. But the incumbent telco looks like it will miss out on the allocation due to take place in September, because the courier arrived two minutes late with its application. The telco said it intends to ask ART to consider the late application.