BIENNE, Switzerland-The auction of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Switzerland ended quickly last week, with only four companies bidding on four licenses, raising $120 million for the government.
Swisscom; dSpeed, the combined diAx and Sunrise Telecom; and Team 3G, a consortium including Telefonica, Sonera and One.Tel, all paid the minimum $29.3 million each for their licenses. Orange plc paid $32.3 million, only about $3 million more than the minimum set price.
The auction was restarted Dec. 6 after being postponed in November. The Swiss regulator halted the auction, which then had five participants, when Tele Danmark took control of two of the bidders-diAx and Sunrise-and merged them, leaving only four companies to bid for the four concessions.
The Swiss Federal Office of Communication announced the last week of November the auction would resume Dec. 6.
Ten applicants originally were involved in the process. However, Deutsche Telekom AG, Hutchison Whampoa plc, Norway’s Telenor and others pulled out before the process began.
The $120 million for the Swiss coffers pales in comparison with the nearly $46 billion raised in Germany and $34 billion paid in the United Kingdom for UMTS licenses earlier this year.
