Smart Telecom sold for €1 as it loses 3G license

By on October 31, 2006 in News, Operators

Link: BreakingNews.ie: Smart sold for €1 after High Court rejects 3G licence bid

Been following the Smart Telecom saga? Alex caught this story and sent it over.

It has been a dramatic day for Smart Telecom after the High Court has turned down its claim for a 3G mobile phone licence and the company was then bought by one of its shareholders for €1.

Here’s hoping they can keep it moving, eh?

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Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.
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  • http://www.itaggsolutions.com steve procter

    oh bugger, I would have given them at least £10!! After all, look at the huge revenue potentials of 3G…

    steve

  • shawpy

    Ewan,

    I am not one of the fans of 3G anyway, but with Brendan Murtagh taking over liabilities (Euro 45M) as well as assets I think he may well have a plan for its future : http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=18476-qqqx=1.asp

    Smart Telecom can do many things commercially in its market and I am sure the people working there need the good support of somebody like Brendan to look after their interests and ensure that they remain gainfully employed and that Smart can move on and become stronger from this. Do not forget that this is about people/workforce as well as a company, they have put in the effort in building the business and we need to respect what is happening when somebody bails out a company.

    Back to 3G. 3G is just wireless spectrum that just so happens to be licensed [expensively]. My thoughts are towards the unlicensed spectrum, for example Wimax at 5.2/5.3 GHz which in many countries is unlicensed, allowing disruptive companies to come in and offer services similar to Wi-Fi but with more bandwidth and less overhead costs.

    OK, so what has this got to do with mobile phones? Well, look at some of the manufacturers now moving toward WiFi plus GSM/GPRS/3G enabled phones allowing freedom for the customer and the slew of technology companies, who are, at this current time working on WiMax enabled tech. for mobile devices and you have the makings of a bit of disruption to the licensing fees paid by the big boys for a bit of spectrum.

    The customer does not care about wireless frequencies, they care about – will Vodafone charge me £3 for a video on my phone or do I go and use wireless gootube and see the video on my Wimax enabled GPRS phone for free.

    Food for thought……………………..

    PS Ewan, do you have an equity card?……………………………… Worth getting one with a voice like that :0)

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