News Burst: German auction beats UK record

Six companies, including BT, emerged with German 3G licences Friday in what is now officially the world's most expensive spectrum auction.

In the auction £28bn was raised with each firm paying around £4.5bn each for their slice of the German 3G market. Alongside the 90 percent BT-owned Viag, the other winners were E-Plus Hutchison (a consortium made up of KPN, NTT and Hutchison), Group 3G (Sonera and Telefonica), Mannesman Multimedia, T-Mobil (the subsidary of Deutsche Telekom) and MobilCom Multimedia (part German and part France Telecom).

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Over twenty billion pounds was bid for the five third generation (3G) mobile phone Wireless Technology licences on offer from the British Government. Go to AnchorDesk UK with Tony Westbrook for the news comment.

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