Swiss delay 3G auction

Switzerland has postponed its planned auction of four next-generation mobile phone licences after the withdrawal of candidates left only four bidders in the race.

The auction for third-generation licences was set to start this morning, but the Swiss federal office of communications said it has decided to postpone the sale while it investigates the withdrawal of candidates.

The Swiss government said the postponement follows news that two of the five contenders for the licences have announced plans to merge. The number of bidders has already been reduced to five from 10 following the withdrawal of key players last week.

Swiss telecoms company Sunrise Communications, of which BT is a major shareholder, and Diax Holdings announced plans to merge on Sunday under the direction of Tele Danmark. The Sunrise bid for a licence was then withdrawn, leaving just four bidders in the race.

In a statement the Swiss Federal Communications Office (Bakom) said it will investigate whether there were "any indications that unlawful agreements were made" after the number of bidders in the auction dropped to match the number of licenses on offer.

The four remaining companies in the race for the licences are dSpeed AG, an associate of Diax Holdings, Orange Communications SA, Swisscom AG, and Team 3G (Telefonica).

Bakom said it will examine whether to proceed with the auction with only these companies or allocate the licences to the four remaining bidders. Decisions on the next steps should be made by December.

In the UK, the auction of next-generation licences attracted heavy criticism after it generated bids of more than £22bn.