Swiss Regulator Provisionally Extends GSM Licenses
Switzerland's Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) has provisionally extended the GSM mobile telephony licences of Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom, which expire at the end of May 2008, until 31 December 2013 at the latest. This is intended to bridge the delays in the renewal of the three expiring GSM licences which have arisen as a result of appeals procedures.
Legal action was brought before the federal administrative court against the procedure for renewal of the expiring GSM licences proposed by ComCom in spring 2007 and this is causing delays in the current licensing procedures.
ComCom has provisionally extended the current licences since it cannot be expected that a legally enforceable decision will be taken by the time the current GSM licences expire on 31 May 2008. This action is being taken as a precaution, i.e. in order to safeguard mobile telephony services for the Swiss population and businesses after 31 May 2008. As soon as a legally enforceable decision has been made concerning the outstanding appeals, ComCom says that it will determine how to proceed.
The regulator says that the provisionally extended licences will have to be replaced as quickly as possible by new licences which take better account of technological developments.
In February 2007, ComCom had taken a decision in principle to renew the expiring licences of Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom for approximately 5 years.
In order to ensure that all three licensees can also operate UMTS within the technically advantageous 900 MHz range (UMTS900), ComCom decided that it would amend the allocated frequencies as well. Orange will therefore receive additional 900 MHz frequencies, to the detriment of Sunrise and Swisscom. This is offset in the 1800 MHz frequency range, where Orange must give up frequencies to Sunrise and Swisscom Mobile.
Posted to the site on 9th April 2008