ELEVEN COMPANIES TO BID FOR UMTS LICENCES IN GERMANY.

Germany's telecommunications regulator announced on 31 May that 11 companies and consortia have been authorised to participate in the bidding for operating licences for third-generation mobile telephony services (UMTS). Bidding is to open on 31 July. The eleven candidates include MobilCom multimedia, controlled by Germany's MobilCom and France Telecom, which acquired a 28.5% stake in MobilCom at the end of March for Euro 3.74 billion. France's Vivenditelecom International is among the names released by the German Regulator, despite Vivendi Chairman Jean-Marie Messier having indicated on 17 May that he had decided not to participate in the auction.The four operators already present on the German mobile telephony market have also been selected to participate in the auction: Deutsche Telekom, Mannesmann/Vodafone, Viag Interkom (in which Germany Viag and British...