The four licensees are to be: Hutchison-backed HI3G Denmark, TDC Mobile International, Telia Mobile and Orange. All four of these companies are to pay the lowest of the winning bids, $118 million, more than double the $57 million reserve price.
The regulator has also confirmed that there was a fifth bidder: Norway’s Telenor. Telenor was to bid in partnership with BellSouth, its co-shareholder in Denmark’s second-biggest carrier Sonofon, but the US company declined to bid.
Telenor claims it withdrew from the auction as the price was getting too high. Companies like BT and KPN may second this viewpoint, since they are suffering from crippling debts after purchasing 3G licenses across Europe at vast expense. Despite that lesson, it seems at least four companies believed the opportunity for a Danish 3G license was worth the price tag. After all, the total cost of all the Danish licenses was just $472 million, less than 2% of the $33.6 billion raised in the UK auction.
