Sonera to delay German 3G launch

Finnish telecommunication company Sonera said Sept. 20 its German subsidiary Group 3G would seek a delay in the launch of third generation mobile phone operations in Germany.

Spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta was responding to remarks from Matthias Kurth, head of the German telecom regulator, who said the agency might be prepared to discuss a softening in the rules covering the launch of third-generation, or 3G, mobile phone services if operators were having technical difficulties meeting their obligations.

"That sounds excellent, because everybody knows that there is a technological delay with 3G. It is hard to start providing services when there are no handsets," Karasvirta said.

"Also, the 3G technology in general is at such a low level that it is not yet possible to provide commercial services," he said, adding that Group 3G would "of course" apply for a delay.

But he stressed that Sonera itself had not sought a postponement to the network roll-out and was not planning to do so on the basis of the Kurth statement. "However, in general, we see it as a sensible idea that there might be a reason to postpone the build-out requirements due to the technological delay," the Sonera spokesman added.

Under German regulations, operators must have UMTS services up and running and accessible to at least 25 percent of the population by the end of next year and 50 percent by 2005 - requirements objected to by many operators.

Sonera and partner Telefonica S.A. paid the German government 8.4 billion euros for their UMTS license in 2000, of which Sonera's share of 4.3 billion euros was written down completely on July 25.

Sonera and Telefonica have frozen their German joint venture but the Group 3G venture still holds a 3G UMTS license.