GREECE
Greece has awarded three Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses, one less than it had planned, when a fourth bidder failed to emerge. The country’s three incumbent operators, CosmOTE, owned 59 percent by OTE; Panafon Vodafone, owned 55 percent by Vodafone Group; and Stet Hellas, whose shareholders include STET Mobile Holdings, Telecom Italia Mobile and Verizon, all received a UMTS license. The starting price was $126 million, and CosmOTE and Panafon each bid about $48.90 above that price, while Stet bid $22.30 above the minimum price. All three companies now proceed to the next stage of bidding for additional UMTS spectrum. The country is also auctioning second-generation spectrum next week. Infoquest was cleared to bid for UMTS spectrum but is expected to bid only for 2G frequencies.
INDIA
Canadian equipment vendor Nortel Networks said it has closed its research and development lab in India. The lab focussed on low-growth legacy products, but the company wants to focus on next-generation and high-growth projects, it said.
RUSSIA
Vimpel Communications (VimpelCom), a Russian wireless provider, plans to implement Amdocs’ end-to-end billing and customer relationship management solution. “There is enormous opportunity in Russia for future developments, and we see the VimpelCom implementation as the forerunner to Amdocs’ expansion within this growing market,” said Simon Cassif, president of Amdocs Europe.
CHINA
The Ministry of Information Industry has said it will commence a large-scale field trial to test its technology, Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) in October. The ministry expects the technology to be launched in 2002, a year after the trial begins. The country also will conduct a trial with IP networks from the end of this year in hopes of a commercial launch in 2003.
