The French national electronic communications and postal regulation authority (ARCEP), which had been appealed by Free, was called upon to consider the validity of the restrictions imposed by Orange for using the services initially planned for the fixed web traffic in order to rout mobile traffic.

Free claimed that the additional costs that Orange intended to charge for the hosting of equipment dedicated to mobile traffic and collect services for the flows arising from the mobile sites connected by optical fiber violated the principles of technology neutrality and the obligation to apply cost oriented tariffs.

The ARCEP agreed with Free’s position in its decision n°2015-0971 of July 28, 2015 and imposed to Orange to lift the restrictions on mutualization of services between fixed and mobile usage.

This decision should benefit other operators and facilitate the deployment of 4G networks.