Austrian mobile operator Mobilkom Austria is considering legal action over Slovakia’s handling of a tender on a third mobile license, while another failed bidder, Slovak private equity group Penta Investments, has filed an appeal with the supreme state attorney asking for a revision of the tender awarded to Telef³nica O2 Slovakia.
Penta participated in the tender in consortium with Czech alternative operator Radiokomunikace under the name B Four. Penta spokesman Martin Danko told CBW that Penta filed the appeal because it’s convinced that the tender wasn’t conducted in accordance with the law (see CBW online news, Aug. 24, 2006). The Slovak Telecom Office (Tš SR) named Telef³nica O2 Slovakia the winner Aug. 2. Radiokomunikace declined to comment on the issue. “The tender wasn’t fair and transparent,” Danko said. The committee for evaluating the bids was composed of members who had clear conflicts of interest, he alleged. Furthermore, the committee members were changed during the tender – which is illegal – and the importance placed on each criterion wasn’t announced beforehand, Danko said. In its complaint, Penta also alleges that the Tš SR didn’t fulfill formal requirements when asking for bids and announcing the winner.
“The only way the [Slovak] telecommunication office can solve such serious accusations with dignity is to either cancel the tender or publish details of the applicants’ offers along with criteria and its quantification,” said Penta investment director Marek Ondrejka in a news release issued late Aug. 24. Penta is confident that its offer was the best and is ready to have its bid publicly compared to those of the other applicants, the press release said.
The Tš SR had stated that within four weeks of announcing the tender result it will issue the right to use the frequency spectrum to the winner, during which time the detailed license conditions and rollout plans will also be specified.
Last week, Mobilkom Austria asked the Tš SR not to allocate the GSM, UMTS and FS frequencies to Telef³nica 02 Slovakia and called on the regulator to repeat the tender for the third mobile license. “In our opinion, the tender wasn’t in accordance with the [Slovak] electronic communications law,” Erich Gnad, the company’s international operations department chief, told Slovak news agency SITA, adding that it wasn’t transparent or in line with standard norms.
The Slovak capital group Eco-Invest, which bid in a consortium with Mobilkom Austria, plans to use all options available under Slovak law to protect its interests, the group said in separate press release.
Telef³nica O2 Slovakia offered Sk 150 million (K?? 111 million/€ 3.97 million) for the 20-year license. B Four offered Sk 400 million and Mobilkom Austria Sk 250 million. The license includes the right to use frequencies GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 Mhz, UMTS and FS 29 GHz to provide telecommunication services in Slovakia – but experts warn that Slovakia won’t be an easy market for a new entrant. Apart from the relatively high mobile penetration, over 80 percent, in a fairly small market of 5.4 million people, any new third mobile operator will be taking on established mobile operators Orange Slovakia, a unit of France Telecom, and T-Mobile Slovakia, controlled by Deutsche Telecom. Orange Slovakia and T-Mobile Slovakia have 2.5 million and 2 million customers, respectively. Besides taking on the competition, the new entrant will have to invest an estimated € 1 billion over the next three years on roll out and network building, which won’t be easy due to the Slovakia’s generally hilly landscape and the Tatra mountain range, with peaks more than 2,500 meters high.
Source- http://www.cbw.cz
Technorati : Austria, Mobile, Mobilkom, O2, Slovakia, Telefonica
Ice Rocket : Austria, Mobile, Mobilkom, O2, Slovakia, Telefonica