Sweden moves quickly on 3G
The Swedish government is confident that it can have third generation (3G) mobile phone Internet services operational within three years following the auction of its radio spectrum allocations. The 3G technology will allow for faster and better mobile connection to the Internet. Swedish telecommunications agency Nils Gunnar Billinger said that the auction should lead to Sweden having the best coverage in Europe by 2004. The four winners in the auctions were Europolitan, Netcom/Tele2, HI3G Access and the Orange Sverige consortium. The move follows the adoption by the European Commission of a communication of the key results of the World radio communications conference 200 (WRC-2000) held in Istanbul at which the European Union secured sufficient radio spectrum to make Community initiatives viable. The allocations decided at WRC-2000 related not just to 3G mobile communications, or UMTS as it is called in Europe (Universal mobile telecommunications system), but also to satellite radio navigation (GALILEO) and satellite broadcasting.