Germany might launch second UMTS mobile phone license auction next year

The German government is considering launching their second auction of UMTS third-generation mobile phone licenses in 2008.

The government made a staggering 50 billion Euros in the first auction which took place in 2000.

Bundesnetzagentur chief Matthias Kurth said in a statement on these plans: “The new frequencies are particularly attractive.” They are likely to auction those frequencies that had not yet been allocated.

Market analysts believe that the huge prices paid by telecom companies in the market for the first set of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) licenses was somewhat responsible for the subsequent slump in the prices of telecoms shares.

It also possible led to the collapse of a number of mobile phone companies. Kurth defended the plan by saying that mobile service providers want to offer services that can send and receive data at similar speeds to broadband fixed line networks. He added: “For this, network operators naturally need a new spectrum of frequencies.”

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