Germany's multi-round auction of third-generation mobile phone licences starts its second week today, with bids totalling over DM12 billion (£4.8 billion) already more than halfway towards the government's revenue target.
The German Finance Minister, MrHans Eichel, revealed in an interview in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag that he has pencilled in some DM20 billion in expected proceeds from the sale.
"We have forecast DM20 billion in revenues (from the auction) in the federal budget - that's also a well-founded estimate," he said. Mr Eichel also dismissed analysts' projections that revenues could be far higher. Proceeds of the sale would be used to pay down debt, reducing government interest payments by DM1.2 billion per year. The savings would be used for education and transport, he said.
After the first five days and 66 rounds of the auction, the seven competitors from Europe and Asia for the 4-6 UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) licences on offer have bid a total of DM12.34 billion.
Most analysts expect German cellphone groups Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobil, Mannesmann Mobilfunk, E-PlusHutchison, BT-backed Viag Interkom and France Telecombacked reseller MobilCom to win licences.
The two consortia deemed outsiders are Swisscom-backed debitel and Group 3G, a consortium of Finland's Sonera and Spain's Telefonica.
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