The Finnish government moved swiftly to award four third-generation mobile phone licenses. All
four companies plan to use the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s chosen 3G standard, the Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System.
Industry group The UMTS Forum announced the Ministry of Transport and
Communications’ decision, saying the ministry’s decision to appoint four national 3G operators paves the way for
Finland’s government to allocate two 15-megahertz paired frequency spectrum plus an additional 5-megahertz unpaired
spectrum per operator.
The ministry chose the four entities from 15 bidders. Saunalahden Serveri Oy, a Finnish
Internet service provider, submitted two bids-one proposing cdma2000 technology and the other proposing UMTS
technology. Neither was chosen.
The UMTS standard includes wideband Code Division Multiple Access
technology, designed to evolve from Global System for Mobile communications systems and a hybrid of Time
Division Multiple Access and CDMA technology.
The ministry awarded the licenses to a Finnish consortium
comprised of 41 regional telecommunications companies, Oy Radiolinja AB and current operators Sonera and Telia.
