OXFORD, United Kingdom—The Italian government has told its five third-generation (3G) license holders that it has no plans to follow the French government’s example of reducing the license fees or making the license conditions any more favorable.
The operators were reported to have asked the Italian government for incentives to scrap existing second-generation (2G) cell phones in the hope that consumers would then move to 3G handsets, extend the 3G licenses to 20 or 25 years from 15 years, ease the restrictions on network deployments and provide longer tax breaks for the losses caused by the introduction of 3G services.
However, the government rejected all these requests and has informed Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), Omnitel Vodafone, Wind, Ipse and Hutchison 3G that current government finances cannot allow any of these moves. Last year, Italy collected e11.2 billion (US$10 billion) on the 3G license sales that would provide its bidders valid licenses for 15 years beginning on 1 January, 2002.
The recent action by the French government to cut initial license fees from nearly e5 billion (US$4.5 billion) to e619 million (US$551.7 million) and extend the license period from 15 years to 20 years, has incensed other European governments and telecom regulators.
