Axelle LEMAIRE creates an "innovation desk" within the National Frequencies Agency to support innovative projects using radio frequencies.
In order to provide guidance to innovative project leaders in accessing the frequency spectrum, Axelle LEMAIRE, Secretary of State for Digital Technology, wanted to set up a support service to facilitate their dealings with the various administrations. This "innovation desk", managed by the French National Frequency Agency (ANFR), is accessible from its website: www.anfr.fr.
In France, the digital economy, which accounts for 5% of GDP, is irrigating and transforming 80% of the economy. Radio frequencies are indispensable to many sectors: communications and audiovisual, all modes of transport, satellite networks, energy networks and smart meters, private or public security, national defence, etc. There is therefore a consensus on the increase in spectrum requirements.
Access to radio spectrum is a key issue for the economic development of many sectors of activity in France that contribute to investment and job creation in France.
The increase in mobile traffic is expected to be multiplied by a factor of between 13 and 25 between 2011 and 2017 and the development of new innovative services such as the Internet of Things with its multiple applications (smart cities, e-health, etc.) could result in fifty billion connected objects by 2020. With this Internet of Things, a multitude of new connected services and uses are emerging, particularly in the sectors of health, the environment, household equipment and intelligent city services. French companies are at the forefront in this field.
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In this context, the State must be in a position to support innovative spectrum users, who are often small players, particularly young start-ups from the French Tech sector, who do not always have the capacity to identify the right entry point within the various administrations responsible for frequency management.
ANFR's "innovation desk" will help guide innovative project leaders to the right contact, whether that contact is within ANFR, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, ARCEP or another agency. This initiative follows the proposals of the report by Joëlle TOLEDANOThe aim of the conference is to promote a more open and simpler radio spectrum policy, making recommendations in terms of the management of these frequencies to promote innovation and growth. It is also part of the drive to modernise frequency spectrum management, to make it more responsive and flexible.
Through this "innovation window", spectrum management should adapt to the emergence of new industrial players and respond to the agility and creativity of the French Tech ecosystems.
For Axelle LEMAIRE "Frequencies have become the fuel for a growing number of innovative services - from telemetry networks to connected objects - for which we are only at the beginning of history. The State, by modernizing its spectrum management, can sharpen this spirit of innovation..
