Tuesday October 24, 10:43 am Eastern Time
Qwest sees no urgent need for more wireless airwaves
NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q - news) said on Tuesday it may not enter the upcoming auctions of U.S. wireless telephone licenses since it already has enough airwaves to handle its customer growth expectations for the next three to four years.
Telephone and data services company Qwest gained a wireless telephone business in 14 states from Minnesota to Washington through its recent acquisition of local telephone company U S West Inc.
``We're going to be very prudent on whether we jump in,'' Qwest Chairman Joe Nacchio said, referring to auctions of spectrum, or airwaves.
``I'm not going to jump in on spectrum auctions when I see the kind of prices that I thought were irrational in the U.K. and Germany and I'm sure the U.S. players will be equally irrationally,'' he said.
Britain reaped $33.3 billion from Europe's first auction of new-generation UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) wireless licenses in April. Germany raised $45.2 billion in its auction.
Two U.S. wireless telephone license auctions, scheduled for December and March, could fetch a total of $45 billion to $56 billion, analysts said.
Denver-based Qwest said it has enough wireless spectrum to build its wireless customer base from 800,000 subscribers at the end of 2000 to about 4-5 million customers over the next few year.
If it enters the auctions, Qwest would consider bidding only on licenses to bulk up its home territory, instead of expanding into the rest of the country, Nacchio said. Qwest said it doesn't currently need a coast-to-coast wireless network. |
