Telecom Ministry extends deadline for UMTS Licenses
The Telecommunications Ministry has announced an extension of the deadline
for selling the relevant documentation to potential bidders for the euro
650 million UMTS third generation mobile telephones licenses until Friday.
Ten such documents have already been sold in an exercise that began on
Tuesday after a delay caused by a legal opinion from While & Case
confirming that the Telecommunications Regulatory Office (URT) has the
right to order Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators who
will own the licenses to access their networks to the roaming needs of
their competitors. Unofficial sources confirm that the domestic GSM
operators Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), Polkomtel,and PTK Centertel, the
operators of ERA GSM, Plus GSM, and Idea, respectively, have all filed
bids. The other domestic players lined up for licenses are NFI Jupiter and
some affiliates of BRE Bank group. Foreign entities including Telefonica
of Spain and Turkey's national operator are also bidding. The daily
Rzeczpospolita has learned that PTK Centertel will probably not continue
in the tender, leaving its parent company Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.
(TPSA) as the bidder, since TPSA could easily acquire cheap financing for
the venture, also relieving Centertel of the obligation to provide roaming
service to new operators appearing on the market.
