Ireland’s Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulations (ODTR) has said that it will not change the terms of the 3G licenses it has awarded. The announcement has been made despite the European Commission’s efforts to persuade regulators to be more lenient as 3G license holders face financial strains.
The decision by director Etain Doyle follows complaints from O2 and Vodafone about the structure of the competition to award the licenses. It is claimed that competition made them make aggressive bids with overly ambition network rollout deadlines.
Ms Doyle maintains that the 3G license competition was designed to give companies the opportunity to outline their own conditions and she remains confident that 3G services will be launched in Ireland by 2004.
