The EU Telecoms Council met yesterday to consider industry concerns
over the recent third generation (3G) licence auctions. The
suggestions included extending the period of the licences and
calling for co-operation between operators to build the 3G
networks.
There is concern that too much money has been paid for the
licences, leaving insufficient funds to build the networks. In the
UK, network operators paid the government a total of £22.5
billion.
A suggestion that the governments should refund some of the
costs to the operators has already been rejected on the basis that
it would penalise those operators without licences because they
dropped out of the bidding when the price became too high.
Hans Snook, former chief of Orange, has told BBC Online that he
does not expect to see 3G fully in place until 2004, two years
later than expected, but adds that he thinks 3G will become
profitable for operators. He said that the price paid for the
licences “will ultimately be seen as conservative once the true
potential of these networks is realised.”
