Italian UMTS auctions blast off

The Italian UMTS race started this morning with six contenders bidding for five licences.

The Andala consortium and Franco-Italian company Wind were the first entrants to bid in the beauty contest - upping the entrance fee from E2.06bn (£1.2bn) to E2.17bn (£1.26bn). Telcos expected to bid include BT's Blu, Vodafone's Omnitel, Telecom Italia Mobile and a consortium of 12 companies headed by Telefonica, IPSE 2000. The licence allocation process will run daily with bids written on paper as well as on computers. Bidders must raise the offer by at least five per cent above the lowest bid on the table but it must not be raised by more than 50 per cent of the lowest current bid. The Italian government is hoping to raise E24.52bn (£14.74bn)