ComReg withdraws Smart's 3G licence offer

BigCon

I wonder what conditions they failed to meet:

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0214/smart.html

February 14, 2006 07:48[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
Smart Telecom says this morning that communications regulator ComReg has withdrawn the offer of the country's fourth 3G licence, awarded last November.
In a statement, Smart says it was notified last night by ComReg that it believed the company had failed to meet certain conditions of its original offer. It said accordingly, that it no longer intends to award the licence to Smart.
'The company strongly refutes the grounds on which ComReg purports to take this action and it has received legal advice throughout the process which supports this view,' this morning's statement from Smart says. 'As such the company is initiating legal proceedings to enforce the award of the licence,' it added

Smart says it has approached talks with ComReg in an open and constructive manner. It says it is therefore 'surprised and disappointed' by the 'unlawful' actions of ComReg.
The 3G licence provides for a minimum of 53% coverage to be achieved by 2011. This is equivalent to coverage of the five major cities of Ireland. Vodafone, O2 and 3 Ireland hold the existing licences.
[/FONT]

Dellas

I think Smart are trying to run before they can walk!!! A lot of companies do this, they try to expand too fast. I dont think Smart are ready to offer a good alternative to present mobile companies. Their telecom service is not too hot either. I used to be with them for my home phone and they were very bad.

chrislad

Maybe Meteor will be able to get it, after they were turned down in favour of SMART. I never understood why they were turned down. They're the fastest growing mobile company, and having been just taken over by eircom, I can see them getting bigger and better.

Elmo

Maybe Meteor will be able to get it, after they were turned down in favour of SMART. I never understood why they were turned down. They're the fastest growing mobile company, and having been just taken over by eircom, I can see them getting bigger and better.

Smart was award 4 of 5 licences. The fifth licence is there for Meteor when ever meteor are ready to take the licence.

Dellas

Looks as is Smarts not taking it lying down!!!!!



Following Tuesday's announcement that ComReg had withdrawn the 3G licence offer from Smart Telecom, Smart has released a statement saying that the High Court has granted it an interim injunction, ex parte, restraining ComReg from awarding the 3G licence to any other party until further order by the High Court.

chrislad

Elmo wrote:

Smart was award 4 of 5 licences. The fifth licence is there for Meteor when ever meteor are ready to take the licence.

Hmmm, are you sure? I was pretty certain that Meteor were refused the licence.

Elmo

Hmmm, are you sure? I was pretty certain that Meteor were refused the licence.

I assumed that they would have got a licence regardless since they are the 3rd mobile operator, but it seems that Smart where offered the licence over Meteor and Eircom.

I would assume the eventually all mobile operators with be 3G? Yeah?

chrislad

You would assume as that makes sense

Guess the people who give out the licences don't have common logic.

Every network will be 3G eventually, but not until coverage is nationwide, or close to it. Personally, I wouldn't use 3G until the coverage is good and it's more affordable.

I remember when picture messaging was the same, when Vodafone were charging 1.50 or so a message. It was never used until they had a free offer for a month or two, and then when it was reduced to 50c a message.

20 Times 20 Times

I'd imagine it will be a while before meteor apply for that 3g licence ? Maybe its there for another operator to come and take ? When they eneter the market i cant wait until orange/virgin/Fones4u/ etc etc come into play. This will mean a good time for the consumer !

chrislad

Sarge wrote:

I'd imagine it will be a while before meteor apply for that 3g licence ? Maybe its there for another operator to come and take ? When they eneter the market i cant wait until orange/virgin/Fones4u/ etc etc come into play. This will mean a good time for the consumer !

Meteor have already applied. They lost out to SMART Telecom. They have applied again already for the next licence.

dub_skav

Elmo wrote:

Smart was award 4 of 5 licences. The fifth licence is there for Meteor when ever meteor are ready to take the licence.

There are only 4 licences available in Ireland. That is why SMART applied for an injunction - so that the final licence cannot be awarded to somebody else while they appeal.

jack nance hair

As far as I can remember there have been two licence 'auctions' in Ireland. The first was a few years ago where one A type and two B type licences were awarded. As we know, 3 got the A licence and O2 and Vodafone both got B licences. The other runner at the time was Orange. Meteor did not run. From what I can remember, 3 and Orange both applied for A licences only, while O2 and Vodafone applied for both (the differences between the two were to do with coverage expectations - it was fully expected that either O2 or VF would get the A licence, but probably due to the fact that 3 only applied for an A licence, they got it), leaving Orange out in the cold and a spare B licence going a begging, which went up for grabs last year. Meteor, Eircom and Smart all applied, and Smart won. Interestingly, at the time they applied there was speculation that Meteor was going to be bought out and the two frontrunners to do this were Smart and Eircom. Will certainly be interesting to hear what happened in this Smart case.

akn

I read in Mobile News a few Months back that Meteor were going to challenge the Smart Licence as it was given to Smart before Eircom took Meteor over and they want 3G

jesus_thats_gre

jack nance hair wrote:

As far as I can remember there have been two licence 'auctions' in Ireland. The first was a few years ago where one A type and two B type licences were awarded. As we know, 3 got the A licence and O2 and Vodafone both got B licences. The other runner at the time was Orange. Meteor did not run. From what I can remember, 3 and Orange both applied for A licences only, while O2 and Vodafone applied for both (the differences between the two were to do with coverage expectations - it was fully expected that either O2 or VF would get the A licence, but probably due to the fact that 3 only applied for an A licence, they got it), leaving Orange out in the cold and a spare B licence going a begging, which went up for grabs last year. Meteor, Eircom and Smart all applied, and Smart won. Interestingly, at the time they applied there was speculation that Meteor was going to be bought out and the two frontrunners to do this were Smart and Eircom. Will certainly be interesting to hear what happened in this Smart case.

I think you are confusing Orange's application for the second GSM license that Esat Digifone got back in the 90's..

Vodafone applied for both an A and B license. Three went for the A license and O2 went for the B license.

There is only 4 3G licenses, 1 of which is available at the moment. Smart will likely appeal the decision and I presume set about rectifying the reasons for the license offer being retracted by Comreg..

I imagine that Eircom/Meteor really want the 4th license but who is to know.. Eircom could be perfectly happy to operate as an MVNO in the 3G area..

jack nance hair

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

I think you are confusing Orange's application for the second GSM license that Esat Digifone got back in the 90's..

..

Yeah - my mistake. I knew that it didn't add up. But weren't Orange involved in the bid for the licence that Meteor eventually got (after Orange sued the regulator?)

BuffyBot

Yes, Orange did bid for Meteor's licence, and there was a lot of legal wrangling after they were rejected, which delayed Meteor's launch.

jesus_thats_gre

Yeah wasn't sure if they went for the third GSM license or not..