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KPN To Sue Over 3G Cost
January 24, 2003 - source: BWCS
Telecoms group KPN is considering a lawsuit to try to win back
taxes it claimed it was forced to pay as part of its expensive 3G
licence win in Germany. According to reports in the Dutch press,
country’s largest telecoms operator is also said to be preparing
to go to court against the Dutch government to win back VAT it paid
on its successful domestic 3G licence bid.
In 2000, KPN, part-owned by Japanese mobile giant DoCoMo, paid
out euros 8.4 billion for a German 3G franchise and a further euros
540 million for the right to offer next generation mobile services
in the Netherlands. Despite having launched a Japanese style i-mode
service in mid-2002, the operator is some way from beginning commercial
3G operations in either Germany or Holland.
Neither the Dutch nor the German government was in any mood to
offer any concessions however. According to the Netherlands’ administration
it will not refund any money. The government claims it did not charge
VAT on the licence fee as it was acting as a public body. If it
is forced to hand out rebates the total sum to all licence winners
could amount to over euros 400 million. The German finance ministry,
in an equally uncompromising statement, said it saw no grounds for
paying out tax rebates on licence fees.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, KPN CEO, Cees van
den Heijkant claimed that when KPN finally launches 3G services
it will target business users much more than consumers. In order
for this to work, he argued, corporate customers will need to feel
“Comfortable with the prospect of unlocking their closed information
technology networks to allow outside access to them via mobile phones
and notebook computers.” The way for mobile operators to overcome
this is, according to Heijkant, for them to work closely with systems
integrators and equipment companies on what he calls “the tunnel”
– from the handset, back to the corporate network.
So far, KPN is happy to address the consumer market for mobile
data services with its i-mode services in Germany, Belgium and the
Netherlands. The company currently has around 200,000 i-mode users
Heijkant reported. By the end of 2003 KPN predicts it will garner
just over one million such customers. The company has around 400
registered i-mode sites and a further 7,000 unofficial ones.
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