5 years ago: DTI wins 3G roaming battle

15.10.1999: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has won its appeal against the High Court, giving it the right to enforce a roaming condition for mobile operators in their bid for third generation licences.

The ruling will allow a new entrant to the market to piggyback on the existing operators' networks. The court had ruled in August that it was unlawful for the DTI to impose changes to operators' existing licences without going through the Competition Commission.

However, in its appeal case, the DTI told the judges: "We are only asking operators to accept the conditions if they want to be a successful bidder for the next generation of licences - the operator can choose to consent."

15.10.2004: With the dust long on the auction since settled and the ink on the huge cheques long since dried, there's still a lot of mileage to be had out of third generation. Five years ago, 3G was just a talking point, now it's only just making it out in the big wide world as a grown-up technology.

While the mobile operators are still fighting the powers that be for a slice of their tax back on the auction, 3G services proper are starting to launch - Vodafone has announced it will be pushing its first bevvy of third generation handsets towards consumers in time for the Christmas spending boom.

What's proving somewhat more of a success, however, is 3G data cards. All the major operators - Vodafone, 02, Orange, T-Mobile - have all got their offerings on the market and are now starting to put the tech cherries on the cake with niceties like roaming agreements and Mac compatibility.

If the analysts are to be believed, data cards will be the next 3G cash cow for the operators - IDC is predicting that 5.7 million of them will be sold in 2008, compared to the 1.2 million currently owned.