MobilCom prepared to pay up 11-12 billion euros o win one of the five German UMTS licences.
asia.dailynews.yahoo.com
BERLIN, April 20 (AFP) -
MobilCom, the third-biggest independent telephone company in Germany, is confident of winning one of the licences for the new generation of mobile phones up for auction in the summer, the group's chairman Gerhard Schmid said on Thursday.
Together with its "strong" partner, France Telecom, MobilCom was "well-equipped" to win one of the five German UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) licences on offer. And the two would be prepared to put up 11-12 billion euros (10.6-11.5 billion dollars) to pay for a licence, Schmid said in an interview on German public television, ZDF.
A report to be published in next week's edition of the newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, said that the German government expected to net around 25 billion euros from the sale of the licences.
France Telecom recently acquired a 28.5-percent stake in MobilCom, establishing a long-sought foothold in the German telecom market.
France Telecom and MobilCom set up a joint venture, MobilCom Multimedia, especially to bid for the UMTS licence.
If MobilCom Multimedia's bid is successful, MobilCom will become sole owner of the new company, in return for which France Telecom will receive 18.6 million MobilCom shares. |
