Dutch operator KPN is returning some of its UMTS spectrum to the government, from 15 September. The incumbent has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to withdraw the licence for frequencies that its subsidiary Telfort won in 1998 and 2000 in the DCS1800 and UMTS bands. This comes after KPN lost a court case against spectrum authority Agentschap Telecom (AT) on 13 July, when the Rotterdam Court of Justice upheld the EUR 5 million fine imposed on KPN for failure to comply with the roll-out obligations in Telfort's licences. The maximum fine was set at EUR 40 million. KPN moved the Telfort 3G customers to its own network after acquiring the mobile operator, in order to reduce its network development costs. Telfort will still hold on to some frequency rights in the 1800 MHz which have no roll-out obligations. The AT welcomed the decision and said it will decide on redistributing the Telfort spectrum to the market in conjunction with its planned auction of 2.6GHz spectrum next year.
