UK government said no to refunding 3G licensing cost

date: May 30, 2001

Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer) during a Labour Party election news conference on Wednesday said that Britain had been fair in its auction of 3G mobile licences and would not return the £21billion to the five companies who paid for them.

"We're not going to change our policy. It was a market-driven exercise. People bid in the normal way for this, and people paid the price they were prepared to offer.''

The auction last year sold five licenses and brought in £21billion for the UK government- well above analysts' forecasts and making a major contribution to the UK's 37 billion pound net cash surplus in the financial year to end-March 2001.

Brown said the telecommunications spectrum sold for use by 3G mobile devices was a national resource and should not be given free.

"We did the right thing, because this was a national asset. The spectrum was there, and people were prepared to bid for it,'' he said.

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