French telecommunications regulator Arcep said Tuesday that it had decided to sell two blocks of third-generation wireless frequencies to Vivendi SA's (VIV.FR) mobile operator SFR and France Telecom SA's (FTE) Orange brand for a total sum of EUR582.1 million.

SFR will acquire a 5 megahertz block of frequencies for EUR300 million, while Orange will acquire a 4.8 MHz block for EUR282.1 million.

The auction of the two blocks comes after Internet operator Iliad SA (ILD.FR) in January was awarded France's fourth third-generation mobile license.

Iliad made a bid for some of these remaining frequencies, but was unsuccessful.

All operators are in need of more 3G frequencies to boost their network capacity amid increasing usage of data-heavy services such as video via mobile phones.

-By Jethro Mullen, Dow Jones Newswires; 33 1 4017 1738; jethro.mullen@dowjones.com
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