MobileOne's Data Sales Growth Slowed By Phone Delays (Update3)
By Natalia Olynec
Singapore, June 7 (Bloomberg) -- MobileOne Asia Pte. pared estimates for growth in data traffic amid concern bids from Maxis Communications Bhd. and Regional Wireless Co. for Singapore's No. 2 mobile-phone company will fall short of expectations.
Traffic that includes e-mail with photographs attached and Internet chats among cell phone users will take five years to account for a quarter of revenue, MobileOne Chief Executive Neil Montefiore said. The company, which expected to meet the target this year, blamed slow development of new handsets.
``We're scaling back our predictions,'' Montefiore said in an interview. ``There have been several delays in terms of handsets.''
Neither Maxis nor Regional Wireless, a venture between Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. and Telstra Corp., have disclosed how much they are prepared to spend for MobileOne. The Asian Wall Street Journal reported they offered about $1.2 billion for the company, less than MobileOne had expected.
Granted, some analysts said MobileOne's original revenue forecast for data and Internet traffic -- services that mobile phone companies are counting on to boost revenue as other charges fall -- was too high.
``The previous number was extremely aggressive,'' said Bertrand Bidaud, director of Asian telecommunications research at Gartner Group Advisory Ltd. ``It would not have been used as a benchmark for valuation of MobileOne by the bidders.''
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., the island's largest cell- phone company, said in September it expects data traffic to rise to between 15 percent to 20 percent of sales for SingTel mobile in two years.
Montefiore said so-called third-generation mobile-phone services that allow high-speed Internet access and video over mobile phones will only be widely commercially available by the end of 2003. He said predictions of the service being introduced by next year are unrealistic.
A transitional service with Internet access that's faster than current systems, called General Packet Radio Services, or GPRS, will be available at the end of the year, Montefiore said.
MobileOne is owned by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation Ltd. in Singapore and a joint venture between CyberWorks and Cable & Wireless Plc of the U.K.
Wendy Mae Poon, a spokeswoman for Keppel Corp., declined to comment on the Asian Wall Street Journal report. MobileOne spokesman Chua Swee Kiat also declined comment.
Merrill Lynch & Co. is advising Cable & Wireless and CyberWorks. SPH and Keppel T&T hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to find buyers.
Keppel shares, down 4 percent so far this year, fell 1.7 percent to S$1.13. The benchmark index fell 12.4 percent this year.
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