Doesn't sound like the European carriers will be buying cdma2k - ever! Where will growth come from? Of course, the answer is that it won't come - aggressive replacements rates won't materialize and third world countries will progress very slowly in this time of capital scarcity... jmho. rob
<font color=Green>MMO2 takes a big hit on its 3G licenses
<font color=Gray>By John Walko -- CommsDesign.com -- May 21, 2003 (7:15 a.m. EST)
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LONDON — MMO2, British Telecom's former mobile subsidiary, lost $16.7 billion (£10.2 billion) for the year ended March 31, mainly as the result of a $9.7 billion (£5.9 billion) write down in the value of its 3G licenses.
It also wrote down other acquisitions made during the heightof the telecommunications boom, including losses made at the Dutch mobile operations it sold earlier this year for about $41 million (£25 million).
The decision to write down the value of its 3G licenses, mainly those in Germany and the U.K.—which previously showed a value of about $16.4 billion (£10 billion) on the company's balance sheet—is likely to put pressure on other mobile operators such as Vodafone and Orange which have so far resisted writing down the value of their licenses.
The fourth U.K. operator, T-Mobile, has already slashed the value of its 3G licesces both in Europe and the U.S. Elsewhere in Europe, Dutch group KPN has written about $9.8 billion (£6 billion) off the value of its 3G licences in Germany, Belgium and the UK. Spain's Telefonica and Sweden's Sonera have also been forced to admit the value of the licenses was not as high as they paid for them.
Despite the huge losses, MM02 remained upbeat about its ongoing operations, saying underlying earnings growth marginally beat expectations. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year were $1.4 billion (£859 million), almost double what it earned in the corresponding period last year.
The company said its average revenue per user target growth of 4 to 8 per cent had been achieved with average revenue per user in the U.K. up 6.9 per cent to $406 (£247) for the year and 12.3 per cent to $360 (£219)in Germany.
Analysts still expect MM02 to dispose of its loss-making German operations, which for months have been the subject of intense takeover speculation.
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