Ofcom Warns O2 To Fulfill 3G License Coverage Obligation

UK regulator Ofcom issued mobile operator O2 with a warning today that if it fails to meet the terms of its 3G license to cover 80 percent of the country's population by the end of June 2008, it will cut the operator's license short by five months to August 2021???potentially costing the UK's number one carrier ??40 million ($79.43 million). In 2000, O2, then part of BT (NYSE: BT), paid ??4.03 billion ($8.02 billion) to roll out high-speed mobile networks; it currently covers 75.69 percent of the population, a shortfall of approximately 2.5 million people. Under the terms of the license which lasts until the end of 2021, O2 and the other license holders, which today include Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), Hutchinson, T-Mobile and Orange, agreed to cover 80 percent of the UK population by the end of 2007. O2 is the only network to have not met its license obligation (release).