Orange Extension rejected
September 30, 2002
The Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) decided today
to reject Orange's application to extend the deadline of its 3G
rollout. They said the reasons given by Orange were not sufficient
to change the terms of the obligations.
Orange had wanted to extend the 99.9% coverage of the population
deadline to 2006 instead of 2003. The extension is needed due to
delays in granting building permit and legal challenges by firms
that did not win 3G licenses in Sweden. All these add to the rollout
delay.
The PTS stated that the coverage obligation was a decisive decision
for granting a 3G license to Orange. If Orange had not agreed to
the coverage target during the beauty contest, then they would not
have got the license.
Swedish operator, Vodafone, today submitted an application to the
PTS also regarding amendments to the terms of conditions. They want
to extend the rollout of its UMTS network by 2 years.
Jon Risfelt, President and CEO of Vodafone, said, "We still believe
wholeheartedly that 3G will be very important for Sweden's growth
and we see it as crucial that Sweden should have access to 3G. But
because of the processing times of the Swedish municipalities and
Armed Forces, it is impossible for us to attain our target by the
end of 2003. The end of 2005 is a more realistic target."
The result of the Orange application will certainly put a dent
in the Vodafone application.
Granting permits for building radio masts has taken longer then
expected and will almost certainly delay the rollout of 3G network.
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