Germany
WorldCom, Vivendi and Talkline, an SBC Communications and Tele Danmark joint venture, formally pulled out of the German auction for third-generation licenses, scheduled to begin 31 July. U.K. operator Orange also backed out of the Group 3G consortium, which also includes Telefonica and Sonera, due to Orange’s acquisition by France Telecom. The French operator is bidding through German company Mobilcom, in which it acquired a stake earlier this year.
Japan
The Japanese government on 30 June granted third-generation (3G) licenses to three carrier groups: NTT DoCoMo, J-Phone Group and DDI Group. NTT DoCoMo is scheduled to launch its 3G services based on wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) in May 2001. J-Phone will launch its 3G service also based on W-CDMA in third-quarter 2001. DDI Group, which is merging with IDO and KDD in October, plans to begin its 3G service based on 1X Radio Transmission Technology (1XRTT) in third-quarter 2002.
Poland
The Polish Ministry of Telecommunications said all procedures regarding the country’s Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) licenses will start in the fourth quarter of this year. In principal, the ministry is planning to award three UMTS licenses during the last quarter of this year in an official auction. One UMTS license will be given to incumbent operator TPSA by direct grant. According to Adam Pytlik, director of the Undersecretary Office in the ministry, the income from the licenses is estimated to be between 3 billion Polish zloty (US$682 million) and 8 billion zloty (US$1.8 billion).
South Africa
Andile Ngcaba, director-general for communications in South Africa, stated the spectrum for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) technology is being cleared, and new developments will be in the pipeline within the next 18 months. The timing of when to issue the licenses is still to be debated. South Africa is a member of the UMTS Forum and plans to be one of the first countries in Africa to introduce the technology.
