The Austrian Telecom Control and Licensing Authority is seeking comments from operators on how to award third-generation licenses.
The Austrian government said it has not yet decided on how many licenses it will award or whether licensees will be allowed to choose other standards besides the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System standard adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. European Union countries must license at least one standard to UMTS to allow for pan-European roaming.
The U.S. Commerce Department has noted that licensing only UMTS would appear inconsistent with Austria’s World Trade Organization obligations and conflict with the U.S. position that supports multiple 3G standards. The U.S. government has repeatedly warned the EU that mandating only the UMTS standard would violate WTO obligations.
The Austrian Telecom Control hopes to auction licenses by the end of 2000, with commercial launch set to commence in the first quarter of 2002. Austria has set aside 2 x 40 megahertz in the 1900 MHz to 1980 MHz and 2110 MHz to 2170 MHz bands. Comments are due next month.
