[UPDATE]
Spanish mobile giant Telefonica Moviles has requested a deduction of EUR 1 billion VAT from the German government for the UMTS licence, Spanish daily Expansion reported. Through its joint venture with Finnish operator Sonera, called Quam, Moviles won a German 3G license in 2000. The German finance department has rejected the claim, explaining that the VAT was included in the price of EUR 8.4 billion, Telefonica Moviles and Sonera paid, the paper wrote without citing sources. German magazine DMEuro reports that the German Finance Bureau for large corporations is investigating if the VAT was included in the license price. If Quam wins this claim, it means that the German federal governement would have to pay EUR 6.968 billion to all six German mobile operators with an UMTS license and the federal budget has made no provisions for this, reports the magazine.
