The company says that it has no plans to exploit the licence beyond laying land-lines to by-pass other operators to link its cell sites, a licence awarded to Vodafone Group Plc by the UK Department of Trade & Industry yesterday allowing it to offer fixed services alongside its existing cellular business, and to offer some international services, makes the company a more tempting takeover target for a carrier such as AT&T Co that wants to play big in the UK market. Vodafone noted that it applied a number of years ago for an amendment to its mobile licence to allow it to develop fixed links. One of the main reasons for applying for the licence amendment in the first place was that we would be able to build fixed links within the body of our own mobile network, the company told Reuter. The land links between mobile base stations and exchanges are leased from other operators. The mobile communications field is our field and we have no plans whatsoever to start building fixed networks it insisted.
