Canada's TIW Won't Bid In Belgium's 3G Auction

date: 01st February 2001

Canadian telecom group Telesystem International Wireless on Wednesday confirmed that it won't bid for one of four Belgian third-generation mobile telephone licenses.

A TIW spokesman said the company decided against bidding because of the high prices for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS, licenses in Europe.

Industry observers said there's a risk that Belgium's auction won't attract four bidders, and that only the three incumbent operators - Belgacom unit Proximus, France Telecom's Mobistar NV and KPN Orange Belgium NV - will take part.

French utility Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and partner Telefonica of Spain are also considering bidding. However, the companies last week pulled out of France's auction of four 3G licenses, and it's unclear whether they will bid in Belgium. The other possible contender is Vivendi SA's SFR unit of France.

Each 3G mobile telecom operator will get 25% of the available bandwidth. If only three companies bid to set up a 3G mobile network, the remaining quarter of bandwidth won't be allocated. It would be left free until another interested party surfaced in the future.

The minimum price for a license has been set at EUR150 million, but the government hopes to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion during the auction.

The government said interested operators need to submit applications Feb. 8 for the auction, which is expected to start March 7.

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