BRITISH Telecom has followed last week's announcement of plans to restructure, by revealing it is to sell its 34 per cent stake in Swiss telecoms consortium Sunrise for £460m.

But the sale, announced ahead of the planned auction of third generation mobile phone licences, has caused the Swiss Government to postpone indefinitely the sale of licences due to a lack of competition.

BT is selling the stake to Danish telecom group TeleDanmark, which is also today buying a 70 per cent share in diAx, another bidder for a Swiss licence.

A BT spokesman said: ''We had an opportunity to sell our stake at an attractive price, at a time when we want to consolidate our operations and focus on the high-growth business market in Switzerland.

''Switzerland has always played an important role for us, and we intend now to make the most of its position at the heart of Europe and its unique business environment.

But Swiss officials followed the announcement by postponing the planned 3G mobile phone auction - due to start yesterday - indefinitely, citing the significant change in the structure of those bidding for licences over the past week.

Last Wednesday, Vodafone announced it was spending 4.5 billion Swiss francs (£1.8bn) in Switzerland's former phone monopoly and biggest telecoms company, Swisscom. On the same day, Orange was doubled its stake in Swiss firm Orange Communications, snapping up an additional 42.5 per cent stake in the group.

Initial projections had suggested the Swiss auction would bring in between two and three billion Swiss francs, although these forecasts had already been significantly dampened by disappointing results in other countries.

lIndustrial regulator Oftel revealed yesterday plans to force BT to extend how it works with rival networks, in a move that could bring widescale US-style unmetered access to the internet a step closer