UMTS decision on Cabinet agenda today

Today, the Czech government is scheduled to decide on a proposal for allocating UMTS licenses. The transport ministry proposal envisages giving three UMTS licenses for a fixed fee to the three existing cellular operators and awarding a fourth to a newcomer in a tender. Such a solution would, in our view, be relatively favorable for the three incumbent operators (both Ceske Radiokomunikace and Cesky Telecom have a cellular subsidiary). The fixed price that the incumbents would pay has not been suggested, but the 2001 budget envisages CZK 20 bil. revenues from the UMTS licenses, implying some CZK 5 bil. (USD 125 mil.) for each license. The licenses should be awarded next year.

(Ondřej Daťka)