Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (2404)	8/24/2000 12:20:41 PM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Respond to of 196499

U.K. wireless Internet auction snubbed by Atlantic By Richard Baum, Reuters 23 August 2000 Britain's government on Tuesday invited companies to bid for licences to provide wireless Internet links for desktop computers and received an immediate snub from the group that pioneered the technology in the UK. Atlantic Telecom Plc said it would not participate in the so-called broadband fixed wireless auction because it did not need additional spectrum and had better things to spend its money on. The company did not directly attribute its move to the government's decision to take bids on the licences rather than pick winners, but Atlantic had previously said it may not participate because it was unhappy about the way auctions pushed up prices. The government is auctioning 42 licences to run 28 gigahertz broadband fixed wireless services, which use dishes on top of buildings to link nearby offices and homes to the Internet. The auction will start on October 16 and could last three weeks, a government statement said on Tuesday. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has set a total reserve price of 78.3 million pounds ($116.4 million) for the auction, which is not expected to raise anything like the 22.5 billion pounds bid for third-generation mobile phone licences in April. Steve Trowbridge, telecoms analyst at SG Securities, said an auction for a national licence in Switzerland raised just 120 million pounds. He said the economics of the licences were questionable for Internet service providers targetting small and medium companies - Atlantic's market. One analyst said the set-up costs for the high-frequency licences would be about 5,000 pounds per customer compared with Atlantic's current costs of 400 pounds using lower frequency spectrum. One of the intended advantages of the technology, which Atlantic introduced in the UK with the backing of Marconi Plc, is that it should be cheaper than digging up roads to lay telecoms cables. Susy Atkinson, corporate affairs spokeswoman for Atlantic, said the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company had all the licences it needed to provide a broadband service. "We feel the capital that we have is best used to develop our existing licences... Our previous licences have been won on the basis of beauty contests." A DTI spokeswoman denied Atlantic's snub was a blow to the auction. "The reason we're having an auction is that demand is likely to exceed supply," she said. Atlantic shares, which tumbled to a 13-month low of 250 pence during the day, cut their losses after it said it would skip the auction. The stock closed down a milder 4.9 percent at 299.5 pence.