A blow for 3G in UK?

KPN Mobile (The Netherlands) announced that after careful consideration, it has informed Hutchison 3G (branded as "3" in UK and the rest of the world) that it will not grant a shareholder loan of �150 million.

KPN Mobile considers that the request for funding as issued by Hutchison 3G in March 2003 is a purely voluntary invitation to fund. KPN Mobile is under no legal obligation under its Shareholders' Agreement with Hutchison Whampoa Limited to meet this request. In September 2002 KPN Mobile announced that it will make no further investments in Hutchison 3G unless required to do so under its Shareholders' Agreement with Hutchison Whampoa Limited.

KPN Mobile owns 15% of "3", NTT DoCoMo (Japan) holds 20%, and has already stumped up the �200m requested of it, and Hutchison Whampoa said it would increase its own loan to �800m from �650m to make up the difference.