Telia says 3G bid rejected on false assumptions

date: 29th December 2000, source: FT.com

Telia, the Swedish telecommunications operator that was unsuccessful in the country's third-generation mobile phone licensing round, on Thursday claimed that its rejection was based on false assumptions.

The company is the first leading national carrier not to have been awarded a 3G licence in its home country.

It said on Thursday it was going to launch a formal appeal next month against the decision by the PTS, the state telecoms agency. This will be made during the first week of January.

"We think we have a strong case," said Cecilia Giertta, Telia's press director.

"Telia's analysis shows that we meet the PTS's technical requirements by a wide margin," the company said in a statment. It claimed that a technical analysis carried out in response to the failure of its application showed that there was nothing wrong with its proposal.

"There is therefore no reason for Telia to revise its originally proposed concept."

The PTS rejected Telia's bid on the grounds of technical feasibility.

It said Telia was not planning enough base stations to provide sufficient coverage for Sweden's scattered population.

Sweden's plans to provide its citizens with broadband access are more ambitious than most other countries in Europe. Companies competing for licences had to make a commitment to provide coverage for at least 99.98 per cent of Sweden's population by 2003, giving Sweden the best 3G coverage in Europe with even people in remote rural areas benefitting.

Two local rivals - Tele2, the mobile arm of NetCom, and Europolitan, majority owned by Vodafone of the UK - were among the winners of the four licences on offer.

Telia maintained on Thursday that the authorities had only considered the total number of base stations that applicants planned to build and failed to take into account either the height of aerials or their positioning.

"Telia has effective aerial heights of up to 400 metres. Aerials on the continent are normally 15 metres," it said. That meant it was more than capable of providing a high-quality nationwide network.

Investors were, however, unimpressed by the company's optimism. Telia's shares fell to a record low on Thursday to close at SKr47.20, down more than 4 per cent on the day.

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