Radiocom 2000

Radiocom 2000 was the French mobile phone network launched in 1986[1] which gradually replaced the analogue "public correspondence" network. It is classified in the category of first generation mobiles (1G).

The network covered almost the entire territory. It was deployed by France Telecom Mobiles. The subscriptions offered could be regional: Île de France, Lyon region, PACA, Provincial and National. It was with Radiocom 2000 that the first notions of cellular telephony developed with, shortly after its launch, the appearance of the handover (ability to change cell dynamically, called "High Density Network", Réseau Haute Densité) and frequency allocation within a cell.

Operating in the 400 MHz frequency band, the network used digital technology for signalling and analogue modulation for voice. Frequencies were dynamically assigned based on need. Faced with growing subscriber demand, several frequency bands were used on the Radiocom 2000 network, in particular the 200 MHz and 160 MHz bands in the IDF, Lyon and Marseille regions as well as the 175 MHz band (specific subscription called "Radiocom 2000 VHF A/B") from 1990 in the northeast quarter of France.

To meet the demand for more capacity, from 1990, mobiles became dual-band 400/900 MHz, developed by Matra, Radiotel, and Sagem. Other manufacturers, such as Alcatel and Nokia also distributed similar handsets through their respective brands. The antenna was smaller than that of a similar terminal from the 1980s, but the terminal was still bulky and prohibitively expensive (device + subscription), with rechargeable Nickel-Cadmium batteries.

In 1988, it had 60,000 subscribers and more than 90% of the devices were installed on board vehicles. That same year, competition appeared with the launch of SFR, (a consortium comprising the Compagnie générale des eaux (41%), the Crédit lyonnais (19 %), the Compagnie de navigation mixte (8.6%), TDF (7.5%), Banexi (4%), Bell South (4%) and Racal (4%), using the NMT-F standard (Nordic Mobile Telephone). It was abandoned in favour of the digital GSM standard from 28 July 2000.