The Danish government is expected to issue a tender for DCS 1800 licenses this spring, and low service prices are expected to be one of the major criteria in determining which company will win the mobile telephone permits.
Minister of Research and Information Technology Frank Jensen intends for Danish mobile service operators to offer the least expensive wireless digital voice service in the world by 2000. “That’s his policy goal,” stated Feinn Petersen, head of the regulatory division of Denmark’s National Telecom Agency.
Included in the upcoming legislation will be considerations regarding the license tendering process, DCS 1800 service and providers, roaming and infrastructure issues, said Petersen.
Candidates for new Global System for Mobile communications licenses will be judged primarily on the service rates they intend to charge customers and projections for achieving substantial coverage, said Petersen. Other measures are yet to be determined, he added. Licensed parties will be required to pay a minimal annual license fee to compensate for NTA’s administrative costs.
The tendering process will last about three months, followed by three months of evaluation, estimated Petersen. Plans call for winners to be selected and licensed late this year.
The new GSM networks will operate at 1.8 GHz, the frequency band allocated by many European countries for personal communications networks.
Up to five nationwide licenses could be issued, said Petersen. The NTA also will consider licensing regional operators, in which case fewer nationwide operators would be licensed. Foreign parties can own any portion of a bidding entity or apply for a license as sole owner, said Petersen.
Denmark’s current cellular penetration is between 12 and 14 percent, with about 800,000 customers, said Petersen, adding that the number of digital GSM customers has surpassed the number of analog users.
Tele Danmark and Sonofon are Denmark’s current cellular operators. The Danish government owns 51 percent of Tele Danmark. Remaining shares are held by individual investors and traded on the New York Stock Exchange, said Petersen. Sonofon is the network name for Dansk Mobile Telephone, based in Denmark. BellSouth Corp. is a minority partner in Dansk, as well as Great Northern Telephone Co. and others.
Denmark’s telecommunications market is prepared to officially deregulate by July 1.
