Three operations in one day for coverage in white zones.
In early July, Circet’s Pompey team completed three helicopter lifting operations to install towers as part of the New Deal for Mobile.
The communes of Lusse, Lubine and Basse-sur-le-Rupt in the Vosges department had no mobile coverage from any operator. All three of them are also in locations that are inaccessible for cranes, which are usually used for lifting towers.
The full construction of a tower involves four main steps: excavation, building the concrete base, assembly piece by piece and lifting the tower. Here, the first steps were the same, but a Super Puma helicopter was used for lifting instead of a crane.
Link to the video made by the French Telecoms Federation (FFTélécoms): https://youtu.be/pnt80cBTriM
The New Deal for Mobile
In January 2018, the New Deal for Mobile was signed between the French Government, ARCEP (the agency responsible for regulating telecommunications in France) and the mobile operators. The aim of this regulatory program is to improve coverage in sparsely populated areas not covered by a mobile network, referred to as White Zones (or dead zones). The aim of this government-led program is to provide universal 4G access in order to close the digital divide in France, where some communes still have no coverage at all, from any operator, while someother areas already have access to 5G.