STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Three companies formed a consortium to apply for a Swedish Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service third-generation license.
The companies are Swedish private equity firm Ratos; Nomura International plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of investment bank The Nomura Securities Co. Ltd.; and Teracom, a network operator for transmitting and broadcasting radio, television, telecommunication and information services.
The consortium said it intends to create an open network, selling network capacity to third-party operators with the aim of increasing the range and number of service and content providers when UMTS is launched in Sweden.
“Since we have been offering wireless broadband services for some time, this investment in UMTS is a natural step for Teracom,” said Valdemar Persson, president of Teracom.
“Our nationwide infrastructure for radio, television and various information and telecom services will be extremely useful in this project.”
Ratos and Nomura will provide financial and strategic expertise to the consortium. Nomura recently was involved in the U.K 3G auction.
The consortium also reported initiating a cooperation with Ericsson for the operation and maintenance of the UMTS infrastructure.
