Li Ka-shing spits dummy over UK auction rules
Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa, which controls the mobile-telephone operator 3, has spat its dummy over what it believes is unfairness ahead of the GBP5 billion (HK$60 billion) auction of airwaves in Britain next year.
Worried that Vodafone Group and O2 - the mobile-phone companies that dominate the British market - will have an unfair advantage, 3 has threatened to pull out of the market unless the auction rules are changed.
It has made representations along these lines to Ofcom, the regulator that is drawing up the auction rules, and Ed Vaizey, the communications minister.
3 was launched in 2003 and remains the smallest of Britain's mobile-phone operators.
The company lost GBP20 million in the first half of last year (on revenue of GBP686 million), which was an 87 per cent improvement on the previous comparable period.