COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Nov. 6, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) -- Today, the Dutch third generation mobile consortium between Belgacom, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobil and Tele Danmark has been finally established.
On July 24th, the consortium acquired a Dutch UMTS license. After approval by the European Commission, the transaction has been concluded today, and the partners involved have signed the final agreement in The Hague.
Tele Danmark and Belgacom have contributed their existing Dutch mobile company Ben to the consortium and T-Mobil have contributed the fee for the Dutch UMTS license (EUR 375m) and the financing of the establishment of the UMTS network etc. The total value of T-Mobil's participation is approximately EUR 1.1bn.
The ownership structure afterwards is as follows; 50% plus one share are owned by Belgacom (35,3%) and Tele Danmark (14,7%), while T-Mobil owns 50% minus one share. After a period of 2 years, T-Mobil has an option to buy 2 additional shares.
The consortium will operate the business under the name Ben.