THE HAGUE, The Netherlands-Bids in the Dutch Universal Mobile Telecommunications System auction topped $1 billion at the end of bidding Thursday, 10 days and 258 rounds into the sale of five licenses.
The prices are far below the final U.K. UMTS license prices, which topped a total of $34 billion in May.
KPN Mobile B.V. and Libertel N.V. held the highest bids of about $379 million each for licenses A and B, respectively. The next-highest bid of $126 million from 3G Blue B.V. was for license D. 3G Blue is a consortium composed of incumbent Ben Nederland and Deutsche Telekom.
Versatel 3G N.V., the only non-incumbent in the race for a license, held the highest bid of $117 million for license E. Dutchtone Multimedia B.V., controlled by France Telecom, bid $116.3 million for license C.
KPN Mobile topped the Netherlands’ fifth incumbent, British Telecommunication plc’s Telfort, for license A during the 10th-day bidding. The six companies are competing for the five licenses after two companies-Hutchison 3G Netherlands and Nogenta Swedish Acquisitions-bowed out prior to the auction’s start on July 6.
The auction will continue until one participant does not place a new bid.
