Summary

  • Arcep’s decision dated 12 February 2026 orders SFR to deliver service at 54 targeted mobile-coverage sites where it leads deployment and 27 fixed-4G extension sites. It gave six months from notification of the decision, with proof due 15 days after each deadline.
  • Arcep made the decision public on 19 October. The published order gives neither the notification date nor a later site-by-site completion tally, so readers cannot calculate the enforceable deadline from the page alone.

France gave SFR a six-month deadline to make promised coverage real. Then it made the order public eight months after signing it. The result is a peculiar public clock: its hands are visible, but its starting pin is not.

The Arcep announcement of 19 October released Decision 2026-0317-RDPI, dated 12 February. The formal notice concerns two New Deal mobile obligations. First, SFR was the lead operator for 224 targeted-coverage sites in the reviewed lists. Its September 2025 evidence showed 55 not in service as of 12 September; one went live on 30 September, leaving 54 in the order. Second, 27 of 50 sites in the fixed-4G extension list were not in service on 12 September. Nine of those had signed leases and work had begun at none. The two lists serve different programmes; adding them produces 81 ordered site obligations, not a proven count of 81 distinct geographic places.

SFR attributed delays to power connections, planning obstacles, objections from residents, technical work and difficult terrain. Arcep tested those explanations against the timeline of each site. For five targeted-coverage sites it found no supporting document at all; for many others the history of site searches, lease talks and works was too thin to assess diligence. It said planned requests to abandon some sites had not yet changed the legal lists.

The regulator likewise found the fixed-4G file insufficient: for the 27 unfinished sites, proposed solutions and schedules were often vague, and none had begun construction on the evidence before it.

The order requires SFR to provide mobile and high-speed mobile service in the 54 targeted areas, and fixed Internet over its mobile network in the 27 fixed-4G areas, within six months of notification. It requires evidence of compliance within 15 days after the respective six-month periods. That is a formal enforcement instruction, not a fine. The published order does not specify the day it was notified to SFR. Publication on 19 October cannot be substituted for that day; neither can the signature date of 12 February. The public record also gives no October 2026 progress tally. Calling these sites unserved today would turn 2025 evidence into a current measurement.

The harder governance question is simple. If a licence obligation is enforced by a deadline the public cannot date, local communities cannot easily check when the operator must answer. Arcep has the annexes listing the locations and the power to demand proof. A dated notice record and a later status update would let everyone else follow the same clock.

Sources