By Tony Hallett, 27 April 2000 10:30
NEWS The auction for third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences in the UK has ended, with NTL Mobile dropping out. The final standing has Canadian outsider TIW taking the coveted Licence A - reserved for a newcomer - for £4.38bn. The existing four network operators win the other four licences after 150 rounds of bidding over more than six weeks. The final line-up of licences, operators and bids reads: (A) TIW, £4.38bn, (B) Vodafone, £5.96bn, (C) BT3G, £4.03bn, (D) One2One, £4.00bn, and (E) Orange, £4.09bn. Vodafone won Licence B, the most valuable - due to its higher capacity - an existing operator was allowed to bid for, after a tricky tussle with BT. A total of £22.48bn will go to the UK Treasury, which had originally expected no more than about £5bn. Full story to follow.
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