World Wide Wireless Communications, Inc. Announces Agreement to Establish
World Wide Wireless-Europa
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1998--World Wide Wireless Communications, Inc. (OTC BB:WLGS) agreed
today to join with German investors-entrepreneurs in establishing World Wide Wireless-Europa to be headquartered in Munich,
Germany. The agreement was signed in that south German city on Nov. 15, 1998. In addition to a DM500,000 (approximately
$US300,000) investment by the German investors in WLGS, the German group will issue WLGS 29.9% of the shares of the
European affiliate. In exchange for those shares, WWW-Europa will receive consulting and other services from WLGS and will
purchase certain equipment and other services through WLGS in the United States and elsewhere. WLGS has secured the
commitment of other investors for up to an additional $US500,000 in connection with the European operations. The target date for
initial service in Germany is July 1, 1999. Spectrum acquisition and licensing is the immediate priority of WWW-Europa and
efforts have already commenced in this regard. Recent events in Germany have demonstrated the overwhelming need for high
speed, efficient and inexpensive Internet service in that country and throughout the European Union and beyond. The
establishment of high speed wireless service should assist Internet users in Europe to avoid the notoriously slow and
expensive telephone-based Internet system now in use.
The Wall Street Journal Europe reported in today's edition on the distressingly high cost of telephone Internet connections in
Germany and elsewhere in Europe but nonetheless noted expectations that Internet use in Germany would jump from 19.6 billion
minutes in 1998 to 28.4 billion minutes in 2002. Despite these impressive figures, the high cost of telephone-based Internet
connections in Germany means that, as of 1998, there are only 18.3 Internet-connected computers per 1,000 people in that
country as compared to 104.3 per 1,000 in well-wired Finland. The appearance of wireless, less telephone-dependent Internet in
Germany should pave the way for a much more rapid growth in German Internet usage than previously projected. World Wide
Wireless Communications believes that the European market is ripe for the company's high speed wireless service. There are
many fewer options available for Internet users in Europe and yet the current system is so deficient in providing efficient and
reasonably priced service to customers that Internet users have recently staged well-publicized protests against the combination
of low speed and high price. After establishing its initial operations in Munich, cities such as Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Berlin are
prime additional possibilities, along with expansion to other EU countries and to Eastern European nations such as Poland,
Hungary and the Czech Republic as well. Peter Eberhard will become the president of the European affiliate and brings 20 years
of management experience in Germany to the company. Dagmar Sturm, who became familiar with World Wide Wireless
Communications while living in the United States, will become vice president.
CONTACT: World Wide Wireless Communications, Inc.
Douglas Haffer, 415/956-9190 |
