The idea was born after the signing of a sponsorship agreement between INSA Lyon's Telecommunications, Services and Uses (TC) department and Bouygues in October 2008; the objective was to support the class of 2008 (11th year) through their 3 years of studies (2008-2011).

Above and beyond the traditional actions planned, this sponsorship provided an opportunity to have access to a pilot radio station.

This opened up new educational and research programmes!

This is the first radio-telecom station to be set up and made available to an engineering school in France by a mobile telephone operator; it required the support of stakeholders from both Bouygues Telecom and INSA Lyon. The station has been integrated into the department's "radiocommunications" platform and will provide a broader base of operations, notably during practical assignments. Among other things, it will enable radio tests including service quality measurements, indoor/outdoor coverage measurements, the analysis of radio settings etc. Basically, it provides exercises in "real-life situations" using a production network hitherto inaccessible to students. It will also benefit certain aspects of the work done by one of INSA Lyon's research labs, the Centre for Innovation in Telecommunications and Service Integration (CITI).