The Swedish PTS has put a temporary stop to Orange’s plan to sell its UMTS spectrum license to a joint venture between TeliaSonera and Tele2. The JV, Svenska UMTS-nat, holds a spectrum license already and agreed to purchase the license from Orange last December for only SEK50M, saying at the time that it needed the additional license to meet anticipated demand. The PTS said it is concerned that the two carriers already hold a dominant position in Sweden’s cellular market and that further concentration of licenses would reduce competition in what it characterized as a weak market. The regulators said they will issue a final decision next month. (Orange pulled out of the Swedish market when the PTS refused to alter the terms of the spectrum license to allow a slower rollout of 3G services; the UMTS licenses were awarded in a ‘beauty contest’ rather than by a spectrum auction.)
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