|
Swiss 3G bidders dwindle
|
 |
November 10, 2000: 10:51 a.m. ET
Deutsche Telekom, Telenor, Hutchison shun Switzerland's cell license auction
|
LONDON(CNNfn) - Switzerland's auction of four next-generation mobile-phone licenses was thrown into doubt Friday as three companies that had been expected to bid for licenses decided to shun next week's auction, narrowing the field of contenders to just five companies.
Deutsche Telekom AG, Norway's Telenor Mobile Communications AS and Hutchison 3G Europe have all decided not to take part in the government auction, which is due to start Monday, officials and company executives said.
Cablecom Management AG had said Thursday it wouldn't participate in the auction. All four of the companies dropping our of the process had earlier registered their intention to take part.
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
We are considering if we have only four companies, if we will start the formal auction or if we will award licenses at the start price of 500 million Swiss francs ($880 million).
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Roberto Rivola
Spokesman
Swiss Communications Office |
|
Swiss government telecom officials were consulting with their lawyers on whether to call off the auction if another registered bidder withdraws from the event.
"We are considering, if we have only four companies, if we will start the formal auction or if we will award licenses at the start price of 500 million Swiss francs ($880 million)," said Roberto Rivola, spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office for Communications.
Deutsche Telekom, which had been set to bid via its mobile-phone unit T-Mobile International AG, said it was not interested in a license in Switzerland, where it doesn't have a mobile phone customer base.
"We are not participating. We are checking the market now," Deutsche Telekom spokesman Hans Ehnert told CNNfn.com. "Our strategy is to participate for licenses where we have mobile services."
Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) shares fell 0.7 percent, or  0.28, to 39.90 in Frankfurt.
Rivola said that Telenor Mobile and Hutchison 3G Europe, owned by Hong Kong telecom-to-property conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., had also dropped out. None of the companies gave the Swiss regulator office any explanation of why they were not participating in the auction, he said.
The remaining five bidders are DSpeed AG, France Telecom's 85-percent owned Orange Communications, Sunrise Communications AG, Swisscom AG and Team 3G, a company backed solely by Spain's Telefonica SA after Finland's Sonera and Australia's One.Tel pulled out.
In other European auctions of UMTS licenses, Germany raised 51 billion ($43 billion) in August and Britain reaped 38 billion in April. Italy's auction raised about 12 billion, far less than expected, after Blu, a mobile-phone operator partially owned by British Telecommunications PLC (BT-A), withdrew from the auction after two days of bidding amid disagreements between BT and its Italian partners. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
