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To: marginmike who wrote (46927)	11/2/1999 12:21:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

3G Licenses> Monday November 1, 10:26 pm Eastern Time Papers name potential buyers of UK mobile licences LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - MCI WorldCom Inc (NasdaqNM:WCOM - news) (NasdaqNM:WCOM - news), Britain's NTL(NasdaqNM:NTLI - news) and Japan's NTT DoCoMo are leading contenders in the auction for Britain's third generation mobile phone licences, the Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday. The paper quoted a source familiar with the number two U.S long-distance telephone giant WorldCom as saying the firm was looking at all the legal and market conditions to establish a business plan. On Monday the British government said it would auction five new licences for third generation mobile phones, which will offer state-of-the-art services like Internet access and shopping and video conferencing. Industry Minister Patricia Hewitt said potential bidders should finalise preparations for an auction in March next year. Applications must be in by January 12, 2000. The government has set reserve prices for the five licences which total 500 million pounds ($820 million). The Daily Telegraph newspaper said that in private Vodafone has said it was prepared to pay over 500 million pounds for the licence and fierce international bidding could see costs rise as high as 1.0 billion pounds. Industry sources said existing operators Vodafone (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L), BT Cellnet (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L), Orange (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L) and One2One were bound to be interested in bidding. The Guardian newspaper said consortiums could also emerge for the new licences. It also named Britain's Virgin [VA.CN], BSkyB (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BSY.L) and telecoms group Energis(quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: EGS.L)as other interested parties. ($1 equals .643 Pound)