Five companies will take part in next week’s mobile phone frequency auction, the economic affairs ministry said on Friday.

In March, nine companies had said they planned to take part in the bidding, the ministry said earlier.
The ministry declined to say which companies had dropped out. There have been rumours that some potential bidders, such as cable companies UPC and Ziggo, may have joined forces.
The Dutch mobile phone market is currently dominated by KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

New players
Also on Friday it emerged KPN and Vodafone had gone to court in an effort to get the auction postponed. They are unhappy that the process includes provisions to make sure at least three new players enter the Dutch market, the Telegraaf said.
But the court in Rotterdam rejected their applications, without giving any reason, the Telegraaf said.