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BLG advice 3 in the run up to commercial 3G launch
March 10, 2003
Hutchison 3G UK, trading as 3, is beginning the commercial rollout
of the UK's first 3G service. Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's Commercial
and Technology Group have worked closely with 3 in the last 18 months
assisting them to bring their 3G network, products and services
to the market.
In May 2000 the UK Government awarded five licences to run third
generation wireless services. 3 had the benefit of the largest of
these licences at the lowest cost. The 3 licence was set aside for
a new entrant with a view to increasing competition in the market
and included a guaranteed right to enter into a roaming agreement
with one of the four existing "2G" players.
BLG advised 3 on a diverse range of IT and IP disciplines in the
run up to commercial rollout, including data protection and privacy
issues, outsourcing of support and distribution logistics, acquisition
of location enabled applications, EU legislation, encryption and
security, supply, support and maintenance agreements of hardware
and software and most especially the negotiation of a series of
major commercial contracts with key suppliers of software and services
to 3. BLG also advised 3 on health and safety issues and TUPE, insurance
issues and product liability.
More than 75% of BLG's 25 strong Commercial and Technology Group
have been heavily engaged on this project since 2001. The team comprised
lead partners Simon Shooter and Kit Burden, partners Rosemary Norton
and Bridget Treacy, and associates Shanthini Satyendra, Sam Okoli,
Creole Palmer, Nicola Fulford, Toby Crick, Prini Patel, Justin Godbolt,
Amy Hunter, Duncan Pithouse and Jenifer Swallow. IT Litigation partners
Tim Strong and Andrew Horrocks have also advised on the project.
Simon Shooter commented:
"Hutchison 3G UK entered the highly competitive mobile telecommunications
market as a blank canvas, with no benchmarking for such state of
the art technology. This represented unchartered waters both for
3 and us. This is an exciting time as we see the convergence of
data and voice-based technologies, with m-commerce activity to follow
in due course. From a legal perspective, the regulatory environment
often lags behind technological advances, a factor which is highlighted
in a project such as this. As a result, much of the project on which
we advised was at the cutting edge."
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3G Motorola A920
