Bidders make first move in Italian UMTS auction

NEWS The Italian UMTS auction began today as participants placed their opening bids. To date, eight bidders have entered the race for an Italian licence. They included current Italian telecom stalwarts Telecom Italia Mobile, Vodafone controlled Omnitel, Italian-Franco telco Wind and Blu. New entrants include Hutchinson Whampoa controlled Andala, Telefonica led Ipse, Tu Mobile consortium and Alcatel backed Anthill. Operators are required to start bidding at L2tr (£1.3bn). There will be ten rounds of bidding with offers increasing by five per cent of the fifth highest bid in the previous round. The Italian Telecommunications Authority has placed a cap on raising bids so that the maximum offer can be no more than 50 per cent of the lowest bid of the previous round.