Greece sells three 3G licences

No bidder emerged for Greece's fourth 3G licence

The Greek government has sold three third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences, raising a total of 485m euros (£294m; $414m).

The successful bidders were the country's three existing mobile operators, CosmOTE - a joint venture between Greece's OTE Telecoms and Norway's Telenor - Panafon, a Vodafone subsidiary, and Telecom Italia's Stet Hellas.

The amount raised was less than hoped, because no bidder emerged for the fourth licence.

The government aims to top up its telecoms earnings by some 80m euros next week, when it is due to auction four packages of second-generation spectrum, used for existing GSM mobile traffic.

The three incumbents have been cleared to bid for the 2G spectrum, and will be joined by Infoquest, a Greek technology company.

Tricky time for telecoms

The 3G auction came at a difficult time for European wireless operators, most of which are battling high debts, slower growth and investor concern over the heavy investments required by the technology.

Almost 60% of Greeks have mobile phones

Analysts said the Greek mobile market has good potential for operators, but opportunities for stellar growth seem to have passed.

About 60% of Greeks already have mobile phones, roughly on a par with the European average.

Analysts said CosmOTE had recently overtaken Panafon as the country's number one operator, having about 37% of the market.

The Vodafone subsidiary has about 35% while Stet Hellas has about 28%, they said.