The merchant bank NM Rothschild has been appointed by the British Government to sell licenses to new mobile phone frequencies. The licenses are for third generation mobile phones, which will have the capability for high speed internet access and video-phone capabilities. The Government is due to announce the exact plans for the auction which is rumored to be for three licenses, and held within a year, in a report due out in March, with services launched in 2002. The existing mobile network operators Vodafone Group Plc, Orange Plc, One2One and Cellnet mobile communications Ltd are said to be interested in bidding for licenses. In a move that will enable the operators to start partnering up for the network hardware, the final third generation mobile phone standard is due to be ratified at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute today.
