The companies bought 3G licences form the UK government in May
2000, 3 months before Vodafone and Orange did so. During this
period, Vodafone had been in the process of buying the German
company Mannesman. At the time, Mannesman had owned Orange which
was then sold by Vodafone to France Telecom.
BT and One2One both paid in the region of £4 billion for their
3G licences, the later payments by Vodafone and Orange amounted to
£6 billion and $4.1 billion respectively. Thus, BT and One2One are
claiming for interest on their payments amounting to £1 billion per
day and claim that the UK government had given Vodafone and Orange
an unfair competitive advantage.
These claims however did not stand up in court in October 2000
nor on appeal earlier this year. Today the companies were refused
leave to take their arguments to the House of Lords but have stated
an aim to present the case to the higher authority of the Law
Lords.
