In the year 2000, the Swedish Telecom regulator “Post&Telestyrelsen” (PTS) granted in a “beauty contest” four licenses for operation of 3G mobile networks. Through this process, the licensees committed themselves to cover 8.860.000 inhabitants of the Swedish population. In order to verify the coverage and confirm compliance with the license requirements, PTS, developed a test procedure in close collaboration with the licensees.

The present paper gives an overview of the considerations behind the design of the test method and presents some preliminary results. Today all Swedish 3G operators comply with the licence requirement and it is concluded that a method for verifying the requirement accepted by the licensees is an important tool for successful licensing of spectrum and fulfilment of licensing obligations.