EIRCOM shareholder Telia was one of 10 candidates which submitted applications yesterday for four third-generation universal mobile telecoms system (UMTS) mobile phone licences in Sweden, where authorities have rejected a lucrative auction system in favour of giving the licences away for free.
Sweden's Post och Tele styrelsen (PTS) said it would award the four UMTS licences for free on the basis of the quality of the application, in a so-called "beauty contest", by November 30th. A similar competition will be run in Ireland early next year.
"We received 10 UMTS applications. They are all standing at the starting line ahead of our examinations of the bids. They are all equal in the name of the law. We will need three months to examine these bids," PTS general director Mr Nils-Gunnar Billinger said after yesterday's application deadline expired.
Unlike current mobile telephone networks, the next-generation systems will employ advanced technologies that will permit users to view video and access the Internet from mobile units.
The "beauty contest" selection process contrasts with the auction method used to attribute mobile licences earlier this year in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, in which the permits are sold to the highest bidder, generating billions of euros for state coffers.
The British and German auctions brought in far more money than had originally been expected.
