By Suzanna Kerridge, 10 January 2001 17:27
NEWS He claimed France's own beauty contest should be delayed until a full investigation into the allocation process. At a meeting this week with EU telecoms commissioner Erkki Liikanen, Bouygues alleged that the French UMTS process could breach community law. Per Haujaard, EU telecom spokesman, said: "Bouygues alleged that the procedure chosen by France is in direct violation of the licensing directive of the EU, which states that any allocation of scarce resources should be done with transparency, pro competition and in a non discriminatory fashion. He did make certain suggestions about what should be done and we have taken these into account." However, Haujaard said no action will be taken until the European Commission has fully analysed the implications of the request. Rival telco, France Telecom, which is partly government owned, has said it is prepared to pay the FF32.5bn entry fee to the French UMTS beauty contest. A spokeswoman said: "All the operators have known for a long time how much the price is and when the government announced the price we said we would pay it." However, Bouygues is not alone in its stance - German telco Versatel has also filed a formal complaint with the European Commission citing similar allegations around the German UMTS auction. Nigel Deighton, analyst at Gartner Group, claimed the days of exorbitant prices is at an end. He said: "It seems the operators have finally come to their senses and do not want to go into an all out bidding war. The governments are realising that they cannot make people pay up front for a relatively unproven service."
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