Share and share alike in 3G market to cut costs

Telcos burdened by the high costs of 3G licences are turning to shared agreements in the hope of reducing the additional costs of establishing networks.

Germany is the first 3G licensed country to look into the feasibility of sharing, with the country's telecoms and post regulator investigating the legality of such agreements. Mobile service providers hope any such accord among their traditionally fierce rivals could save between 20 and 40 per cent of network set up costs - particularly in rural areas where the six German licence holders believe it would be especially uneconomical to develop six independent networks - favouring the notion of shared broadcasting stations. Last year, Deutsche Telekom, BT through Viag Interkom, Dutch KPN through E-Plus, Mannesmann, MobilCom and the 3G Group bought the German UMTS licences at auction. From http://www.silicon.de