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Technology Stocks : Ericsson overlook? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (4257)	8/21/2000 4:28:26 PM
From: A.L. Reagan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5390

Re: UMTS bidders will have to build networks ASAP. Mannesmann plans $4.6 billion in infrastructure spending The Associated Press FRANKFURT, Germany (August 21, 2000 10:47 a.m. EDT nandotimes.com) - Mannesmann AG, Germany's leading mobile telephone operator, plans to spend $4.6 billion for infrastructure on top of the $7.36 billion it is paying for licenses to operate next generation mobile phones in Europe's biggest market. Mannesmann chairman Juergen von Kuczkowski said Monday the company wants to maintain its No. 1 position in the German mobile telecommunications market by stepping up the tempo in laying out a new network that can handle the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System standard. Expected to hit the market sometime between 2001 and 2003, the UMTS standard has a transmission speed nearly 40 times the existing GSM standard, allowing mobile phones to be used more like computers with the capacity to access the Internet and even display video. Mannesmann, the German subsidiary of British telecom giant Vodafone AirTouch PLC, was one of six companies that won licenses last week to launch the next generation mobile technology in Germany. Combined, the companies spent $46.2 billion on the licenses. But companies will incur additional costs in updating their networks to accommodate the technology. Kuczkowski said his company hopes to roll out UMTS service by the end of 2002. While Kuczkowski said Mannesmann had expected huge layouts to remain competitive in the UMTS market, he would not say when the company expects to recoup the combined costs of $11.96 billion. He called acquiring a license and maintaining its lead in the German market an "obligation." Mannesmann is currently the country's No. 1 mobile phone player with roughly 15 million customers and sales last year of $4.6 billion.