- UMTS: The Czech MFDnes daily reports today that the Ministry of Finance and the Telecommunications Office will propose to the Cabinet that the first round of the UMTS tender (held in August) be canceled and re-run. The objective would be to offer a price acceptable to the existing cellular operators (around CZK 3.3 bil. per license, says the paper) and to raise CZK 10 bil. for the government budget. The government had sought CZK 6.7 bil. for each license in August; two operators (Cesky Telecom’s Eurotel and Ceske radiokomunikace’s RadioMobil) bid for licenses conditional on substantial modifications to payment and roll-out conditions, the third incumbent operator did not bid at all at that price. This latest move suggests that the government is willing to reduce the total license price in exchange for receiving the license fees now (and not over a longer period of time) and this is positive for the two telecom stocks. The government should discuss the proposal in the second week of September.
(Jiří Soustružník)