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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (365)	2/19/2001 1:29:45 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

Seven Firms Pay A$830 Million to Bid for Australian Spectrum By Mathew Carr Sydney, Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Seven companies have paid A$830 million ($440 million) for the right to bid for a licenses in the government's high-speed wireless spectrum auction slated for next month, government officials said. Six of the seven lodged sufficient funds to bid for one of the four national licenses available, the Australian Communications Authority said. Previously, it was unclear how many of the seven bidders wanted national licenses as opposed to smaller parcels of spectrum. Australia's three largest mobile carriers Telstra Corp., Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd. and Vodafone Pacific Pty all said they would bid, as well as an Australian unit of Telecom Corp. of New Zealand, the telecommunications regulator said. Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Ltd., 58 percent- owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., also said it would bid, as did 3G Investments (Australia) Pty., a unit of San Diego- based Qualcomm Inc., the ACA said. CKW Wireless Pty., a unit of San Jose-based ArrayComm Inc., a wireless and Internet technology company, indicated it plans to bid for a small amount of spectrum, the ACA said. The ACA, which asked bidders to pay up to A$280 million as an ``eligibility payment'' and entry fees if they were interested in buying a national license, will soon set reserve prices for the spectrum. The government has budgeted to raise A$2.6 billion from the auction of telecommunications spectrum in the year to June 30, 2001. Some analysts expect the sale will garner half that amount. quote.bloomberg.com

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (365)	2/19/2001 5:22:24 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

M1 sees greater profit gain in 2001 from data service By Bloomberg, Singapore.CNET.com Monday, February 19 2001 11:20:18 AM SINGAPORE--MobileOne Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore's second-biggest cell phone company, said it expects a sizeable gain in profit even as it faces greater competition and spends more on new networks. The higher earnings will come from data and services instead of traditional voice calls. Last year, the company's pretax profit more than doubled to S$79 million in 2000 from S$29 million a year ago. M1's sales rose 43 percent to S$570 million. "The market will continue to grow and in terms of revenue, we're looking at non-voice to be the revenue driver," Neil Montefiore, M1's chief executive, said in an interview. "Doubling of profit year on year isn't sustainable for long but certainly, we're hoping for substantial profit growth in the next year." He declined to give detailed numbers. Mobile phone operators are increasingly turning to data and other services to compensate for falling prices in voice calls. They're also building new networks that will enable high-speed Internet access on cell phones. M1 is expected to spend as much as S$1 billion for such a license and network, commonly called third-generation mobile services or 3G. Becoming popular Such services are gaining popularity. On Valentine's Day, for example, M1 saw a record of 3.7 million text messages sent by its more than 700,000 customers, beating New Year Eve's 3.5 million messages. In the past six months, non-voice services saw a 20 percent to 25 percent gain in revenue. "That's more than one message per person, which makes you think some Valentines have more than one girlfriend or boyfriend," he joked. "Singaporeans are falling in love with short message system." That's important as the company faces more competition as a third player, StarHub Pte Ltd, entered the Singapore market in April. M1 said it maintained its 35 percent market share with StarHub's entry and as rival Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. introduced a series of promotions. Getting users hooked on to such text services on cell phones also sets the stage for future services when newer networks are set up for faster Internet access. For now, M1, like most operators, is giving away the text messaging services for free for the first 300 or so messages each month. "They want people to get used to it so that when 3G is launched, consumers are familiar with using the phone key pad for text," said Rachel Miu, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Singapore Pte Ltd. M1 is owned by Cable & Wireless Plc in the UK, Hong Kong's Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd, Singapore Press Holdings Ltd and Singapore's Keppel Telecommunications and Transportation Ltd. Copyright 2001, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. Related Stories singapore.cnet.com