Remote ID in France

Last reviewed: 2026-10-05

What is Remote ID? How the technology works: the standards, what a broadcast contains, and Bluetooth vs Wi-Fi transmission.

France applies the same EASA drone rules as the rest of the EU, supervised by the French civil aviation authority (DGAC). On top of them it keeps a national obligation that predates the EU rules: the signalement électronique, a Wi-Fi signal from drones of 800 g or more, introduced by the French drone law of 2016. The two systems exist side by side, and many drones in France have to broadcast both. See the EU page for the European rules; this page covers what is specific to France.

Two signals, two purposes

	EU Direct Remote ID	French signalement électronique
Legal basis	Regulations (EU) 2019/945 and 2019/947	Law no. 2016-1428, decree no. 2019-1114, order of 27 December 2019
Who must broadcast	Class C1, C2, C3 in the open category, and the specific category	Every drone of 800 g or more, with some exemptions (below)
Identifies	The operator (FRA operator number)	The aircraft (a unique device identifier)
Purpose	Flight safety and privacy	Public security: lets police tell a lawful flight from an unlawful one
Transport	Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, European standard ASD-STAN EN 4709-002	Wi-Fi beacon in a French format

The DGAC is explicit that the European system comes in addition to the national one. A class C2 drone of 1 kg, for example, needs both.

The signalement électronique

The technical format is set by the order of 27 December 2019. The device is on board the drone and broadcasts an unencrypted Wi-Fi beacon (2.4 GHz; channel 6 for add-on beacons) from take-off to landing, at least every 3 seconds or every 30 metres. The data is packed as type-length-value fields, with positions in WGS 84 and SI units. It contains:

a unique identifier — either a 30-character French format (a three-letter manufacturer code, a model code and a serial number) or the international serial number format ANSI/CTA-2063;
the drone's position and height;
the take-off point;
its ground speed and course.

It can be built in by the manufacturer, added by a firmware update, or fitted as a separate add-on beacon, which may be shared between several drones of the same owner. The owner must enter the identifier on AlphaTango; a drone that flies without the signal, with incomplete data, or with an identifier that does not match its registration counts as "non-cooperative", and the owner or pilot can be fined.

It is not required for drones flown indoors, tethered drones, state and police drones, and model aircraft flown within visual line of sight by members of a recognised federation (FFAM or UFOLEP) at a published model-flying site.

AlphaTango: two different registrations

Both registrations are done on the DGAC's AlphaTango portal, and they are easy to confuse:

Operator registration (EU rule): anyone flying a drone of more than 250 g, or a lighter one with a camera, in the open category. It gives you the operator number of the form FRAxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xyz. The FRA… part is what the drone broadcasts in its EU Remote ID; the three characters after the hyphen are a private code you enter only in the drone, and are not broadcast.
Aircraft registration (French rule): the owner registers each drone of 800 g or more, valid for five years, together with its signalement identifier. A lighter drone must also be registered if it carries a signalement device; the DGAC notes this is notably the case for class C1 drones in the open category.

Infodrones

Infodrones is the law-enforcement database behind the French system, created by an order of 7 April 2022 and run by the Gendarmerie. It brings together the signal data received from drones (position, height, take-off point, course, speed, time), the aircraft identifiers and their status (valid, suspended, reported lost or stolen), and the identity of the pilot, operator and owner. Police, gendarmes and the intelligence services can consult it; data is kept for one year.

This is the link the broadcasts themselves do not make: a Remote ID or signalement broadcast never contains a name or address. Only the authorities can connect the identifier to a person.

What you can see with DroneScout

DroneScout receives the EU Direct Remote ID broadcast on Android and iPhone and shows each drone live on a map: FRA operator number, serial number, position and height, course and speed, the pilot's position or take-off point, and an emergency status. Which transports your phone can receive varies — see the FAQ — and DroneScout Bridge closes that gap for both platforms.

DroneScout does not currently show the French national signalement électronique. A drone of 800 g or more without a class label, such as an older model with an add-on beacon, may broadcast only that French signal, and will then not appear in DroneScout.