Telcos gearing up for Gallic telephony
License auction could bring gov't needed funds
Jean-Marie Messier, chief of Vivendi, 49% owner of pay TV giant Canal Plus, acknowledged in Paris that he has withdrawn his bid for Germany’s licenses, saying that the government’s “extremely costly” auction system “penalizes new entrants.”
Deutsche Telekom chief executive Ron Sommer confirmed that his group will seek a license in France for a UTMS phone system, whatever the conditions Paris sets up for acquisition.
In an interview in the French press, Sommer criticized the French government for considering a hybrid system of granting licenses, which, he says, would favor national operators over companies from abroad. The British opted to auction off licenses to the highest bidders, as have the Germans.
Until recently, the French were considering a system known as a beauty contest, in which licenses are awarded according to what services the companies will be providing rather than on how high they bid. Now the French government is leaning toward a system halfway between the two, which requires an upfront fixed price to get a license, plus annual fees. It will decide how to award the licenses next month.
Speculation is high that the three French mobile-phone operators, Vivendi, France Telecom and Bouygues, will clinch three of the four licenses, with the fourth going to a new applicant.
The windfall from the sale of licenses is likely to go toward bailing out the badly strapped government pension system.
The U.K. government took in some $30 billion in the auction of third-generation phone licenses, a full seven times higher than the figure initially expected. The German government could make up to $55.5 billion in its upcoming auction.
