Murdoch's One.Tel bows out of mobile licence auction

NEWS Australian firm One.Tel - which is backed by Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer - has joined the four other casualties of the UK's 3G mobile licence auction. With total bids now a whisker short of £13bn, the company decided it did not want to spend more than £2.5bn on a licence. Analysts had already suggested it was likely to quit after having already used up one of its bidding waivers. After 102 rounds, licence B remains the most expensive, at £2.98bn, with Vodafone leading the field and BT only showing occasional interest. In the driving seat for the other four licences are WorldCom (for the coveted licence A), Telefonica, TIW and One2One.