The employers body has called on the Government and the telecommunications regulator not to auction the next round of mobile phone licences. IBEC has called on them to opt for they called a "beauty contest"-type selection process instead. According to Tommy McCabe of IBEC, the recent auctioning in Britain of the third generation mobile phone licences may have netted the British exchequer £22.5bn, but has also caused serious alarm both for telecommunications users and service providers. Mr McCabe said that taking large amount of funds from service providers up front for a licence would result in insufficient funds being available for future development in the sector.
