OXFORD, United Kingdom—The calls for urgent changes that were recently made by Europe’s leading mobile operators about the alterations to their third-generation (3G) license conditions look likely to be rejected by commissioners within the European Union (EU). Brussels-based insiders claim that a draft memo says any modifications to the original 3G licenses would be counter productive and also dismissed the request to extend the life of the licenses to assist cell-phone operators to deploy the networks.
Only last month, nearly 20 chief executive officers (CEOs) from Europe’s leading cell-phone operators met with Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen to ask the commission to help with removing 3G deployment issues, such as local planning approvals for mast sites, and to review the position over their lack of ability to trade spectrum with each other.
However, bureaucrats within the EU have concluded that the requested changes would have comparatively little impact on restoring the financial institutions’ confidence in the cell-phone sector and has instead called on national governments to apply for EU structural funds to help finance the development of broadband Internet access. When any announcement is made regarding the requests, the EU is expected to also detail new regulatory powers it is scheduled to gain that would enable it to overrule national telecom regulators.
Representatives from the mobile industry are reported to be lobbying EU commissioners by explaining that some 3G license holders are “going bankrupt,” but given the tools they could sort out the problems themselves.
