No Appeal - 3G UMTS License Terms

Vodafone Sweden will not be appealing against the decision of the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) about leaving the terms and conditions applying to Vodafone Sweden's UMTS license unchanged.

Inset is Jon Risfelt CEO Vodafone Sverige AB who is quoted below.

"We have not seen an improvement in the handling of planning permission by the municipalities and we stand by our assessment that we will be unable to complete the construction of our UMTS network by the end of December 2003. Nevertheless, we have decided to monitor events carefully as they unfold and see whether the measures outlined by PTS in its decision actually help to speed up the handling of planning permission and frequency issues," says Jon Risfelt, President and CEO of Vodafone Sweden.

In September, Vodafone Sweden applied for changes to the terms and conditions applying to its UMTS license. Vodafone Sweden requested a two-year postponement to the end of December 2005 of the deadline on providing 99,98 per cent population coverage in its UMTS network. In its application, Vodafone Sweden referred to the sluggishness of a number of Swedish municipalities in handling planning permission and to the slowness of the Swedish Armed Forces in handling frequency issues.

In its decision not to change the terms and conditions applying to Vodafone Sweden's UMTS license, PTS claims that several measures implemented by both PTS and the Swedish Armed Forces will improve the handling of both planning permission and frequency issues.

"Although we do not share PTS's view that these measures will speed up the process of granting the requisite permits, we have decided to give PTS the benefit of the doubt. This is why we will be carefully following developments in the near future. If the situation does not improve, we will probably be submitting a new application at a later date," says Jon Risfelt.

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