The German postal ministry says the E1 licence to operate the second private cellular telephone network will now be awarded next month: there are two consortia contending, E-Star, lead by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and E-Plus, lead by Thyssen AG: the ministry had planned to award the E1 licence before year-end, but the resignation of long-serving postal minister Christian Schwarz-Schilling on December 14 threw that timetable into disarray; a leak to Reuter in mid-December suggested the E-Plus bid was considerably better in expertise, performance, business planning and degree of coverage; Thyssen holds 28% of E-Plus with Veba AG, 28%, BellSouth Enterprises Inc, 21% and Vodafone Group Plc with the other 16%.
