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To: Cooters who wrote (91302)	1/5/2001 9:06:40 AM
From: Cooters	Respond to of 152472

Australia's Mobile Customer Growth Jumps in Dec Qtr --From AOL.-- Cooters Sydney, Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's largest mobile phone companies recorded faster customer growth in the three months to Dec. 31, compared with the previous quarter. Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd., which is seeking a buyer for its assets, said it increased its mobile customers by 11 percent to 3.4 million in the three months to Dec. 31. Optus, Australia's No. 2 mobile operator behind Telstra Corp., added 338,000 new customers after cancellations were taken into account, reflecting a buoyant Christmas sales period, the company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. Telstra added more than 340,000 customers, only slightly more than Optus, or about 8 percent on the previous quarter, said Telstra spokesman Tim Scott, taking the company's total customers to about 4.7 million. Telstra was ``surprised'' its growth exceeded that of Optus because it was focusing on getting existing customers to spend more rather than attracting new customers, said Scott. Other mobile operators, including Vodafone Group Plc's Australian unit, Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Ltd. and One.Tel Ltd. haven't yet released figures. Optus's increase was ahead of some analysts' expectations. Still, analysts said they would reserve their judgment on the figures until they received more information from the company about how much new customers were spending. ``We need to see the split between pre-paid and contract customers,'' said John Parker, a Sydney-based wireless analyst at Salomon Smith Barney Inc. Sydney-based Optus, 53 percent owned by London's Cable & Wireless Plc, put its assets up for sale last year because its parent wants to concentrate on corporate customers. Optus shares rose 5 cents, or 1.3 percent, to A$3.88 ($2.21). Telstra shares increased by 13 cents, or 2 percent, to A$6.73. Optus said a high proportion of pre-paid phone sales were expected during the quarter. Still, ``the majority'' of sales were to ``higher-value'' contract customers, it said. Optus said its customer loyalty had strengthened. The number of its customers lost during the quarter, known as the ``churn rate'', fell to 16 percent from 20 percent previously. In September, mobile customers will be able to retain their numbers if they switch phone companies. Paul O'Sullivan, head of Optus's mobile unit, said the company ``sees that as a huge opportunity to go on the attack.'' Reported bidders for Optus's assets include London's Vodafone Group Plc, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc., Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Telecom Corp. of New Zealand. Jan/05/2001 0:39 ET

To: Cooters who wrote (91302)	1/5/2001 9:21:21 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 152472

Re : Korea / "banned" / "SK has to" / "fined 1 billion won each" / "the government stopped" / etc. All of this interference with normal micro-economic forces would make Al Gore proud to be a government official ... Jon.

To: Cooters who wrote (91302)	1/5/2001 10:50:37 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Well, it looks like Cabi was right....Korean cell-phone sales did slow down. Two positives....this is the first month that SK Telecom gained subs. We can hope that this is a result of 1x sales. Also, Japan looks better than expected. If anyone wonders why I think that the Verizon numbers suck....take a look at the numbers from Bill Hunt's post. Message 15128347 Here are the YoY increase in subs for two countries that already had larger penetration rates than the US. France 44% Germany 83% Incredible.... Slacker