Want a deadline extension and lower signal strengths
TeliaSonera, Tele2, 3, and Vodafone have asked Sweden’s National Post and Telecom Agency to alter their 3G licence terms.
The operators are after two, related, concessions from the ministry – that they be allowed to build sites with lower signal strengths and to slow down the pace of population coverage.
The operators say that reducing the strength of the pilot signal would enable them to build out fewer sites. They have cited environmental and cultural concerns, rather than financial contraints, as the principle rationale for this.
They have also proposed that the timetable for population coverage be stretched so 3G coverage is available to 7,000,000 people by 31 December 2004, 8,000,000 people by 31 December 2005, 8,500,000 people by the 31 December 2006 and 8,860,000 people by the 31 December 2007.
The current terms from PTS stipulate that construction should have been completed by 31 December 2003. All the operators have already stated that these requirements cannot, and indeed have not, been met. Despite that, they jointly claim in their statement that there no other country has implemented such a comprehensive expansion of 3G as Sweden.