Despite being pressed by GTE Corp – and the other international members of the consortium, Vodafone Group Plc and Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd – to stand firm, South Korea’s Sunkyong Group, run by an in-law of President Roh Tae-woo, yesterday handed back the licence it was awarded to run the country’s second cellular telephone network in the face of the charges of nepotism. Sunkyong said it had informed its partners of the decision. The Communications Ministry is now expected to award the contract to the runner up consortium led by Pohang Iron & Steel Co with Pacific Telesis Group Inc, Qualcomm Inc and Mannesmann AG. Our consortium was a clear winner based on merit, GTE, which has 10% of the consortium, said. Hutchison said it was waiting to see if the ministry will invalidate the whole procedure, or say that Sunkyong cannot withdraw.
