It looks as though the French government has ignored the pleas of its TV regulator, the CSA, to take its hands off the 790-862MHz frequency band, the lower portion of which the watchdog wanted to reserve for digital TV post analogue switchoff.

Yesterday, prime minister François Fillon held a ministerial summit at which an updated version of France’s digital plan (France numérique 2012) was announced. The press release put out afterwards (NB, a PDF) reveals that Fillon signed a document just before Christmas mandating the allocation of the 790-862MHz sub-band to mobile broadband. As the CSA feared, this chops a sizeable chunk - 40MHz - off the UHF spectrum that was previously to have been reserved for TV-based services, which runs from 470-830MHz.

It’s possible that the CSA (and any other opponents) could have one more bite at the cherry. Fillon has asked ARCEP (the telecoms regulator) to put out to public consultation by the end of February “the conditions and the modalities of a joint request for proposals for the 780-862 MHz and 2.6GHz bands”, with the objective of attributing the frequencies by the end of this year (2.6GHz is another frequency destined for mobile broadband use).

Opponents of the measure probably wouldn’t be able to reverse that decision, but they could in their consultation responses request that bidders for the 780-862MHz slot be forced to take appropriate measures to protect TV services in adjacent UHF frequencies from interference, something UK regulator Ofcom has proposed in its own consultations about the Digital Dividend. This could be expensive to carry out in practice and could act as a possible ‘spoiler’ for new entrants.

Other measures announced yesterday by Fillon include the creation of a new government working-party on mobile TV, tasked to establish in concert with stakeholders, between now and the end of March, “a viable economic model for mobile TV, with a view to a rapid rollout of the corresponding infrastructures.”

The announcement represents a tacit admission by the government that the French DVB-H project has so far been a failure. ConnectedTV thought the original plans were a recipe for disaster because of their failure to require mobile TV players to meet any targets for comprehensive coverage or indoor reception. The government, however, seems to think that it’s the business model which is at fault - something ConnectedTV has also been banging on about for some time. Either way, it ain’t working.