By Ron Coates, 30 May 2001 15:06
NEWS France tomorrow starts the hunt for two telcos brave enough to endure the French regulator and take up the two unfilled 3G licences. After last January's beauty parade cum auction left the country out-of-pocket, with only two operators and no competition, Jean-Michel Hubert, France's telecoms regulator, will be expected to do better this time. But he faces immense problems. Last year's allocation of licences was staged in such a way as to ensure France's three 2G operators, France Telecom, Vivendi's SFR and Bouygues, won licences. However, subsequently Bouygues followed other bidders by pulling out unable to afford the licence - leaving two vacant licences. Robin Duke-Woolley, analyst at Schema, said: "It was a complete disaster. They need two more operators. And they're unlikely to get them unless the price is right. Auction is now a discredited process, so they'll need another beauty parade. "But if they make the price low enough to attract anyone, the two current operators will turn around and demand the same terms - they're not going to make any money out of that." Unfortunately for Hubert, the companies he would hope to attract are queuing up to pull out. Cash-rich energy group Suez has already announced that it won't touch 3G anywhere. Telefonica doesn't have the money to go it alone and while Deutsche Telekom needs French exposure, it would not chase it as the expense of its German 3G roll-out.
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