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

To: foundation who wrote (31663)	1/24/2003 9:29:56 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197054

KPN To Sue Over 3G Cost (24/01/2003, BWCS Staff) Telecoms group KPN is considering a lawsuit to try to win back taxes it claimed it was forced to pay as part of its expensive 3G licence win in Germany. According to reports in the Dutch press, country’s largest telecoms operator is also said to be preparing to go to court against the Dutch government to win back VAT it paid on its successful domestic 3G licence bid. In 2000, KPN, part-owned by Japanese mobile giant DoCoMo, paid out euros 8.4 billion for a German 3G franchise and a further euros 540 million for the right to offer next generation mobile services in the Netherlands. Despite having launched a Japanese style i-mode service in mid-2002, the operator is some way from beginning commercial 3G operations in either Germany or Holland. Neither the Dutch nor the German government was in any mood to offer any concessions however. According to the Netherlands’ administration it will not refund any money. The government claims it did not charge VAT on the licence fee as it was acting as a public body. If it is forced to hand out rebates the total sum to all licence winners could amount to over euros 400 million. The German finance ministry, in an equally uncompromising statement, said it saw no grounds for paying out tax rebates on licence fees In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, KPN CEO, Cees van den Heijkant claimed that when KPN finally launches 3G services it will target business users much more than consumers. In order for this to work, he argued, corporate customers will need to feel “Comfortable with the prospect of unlocking their closed information technology networks to allow outside access to them via mobile phones and notebook computers.” The way for mobile operators to overcome this is, according to Heijkant, for them to work closely with systems integrators and equipment companies on what he calls “the tunnel” – from the handset, back to the corporate network. So far, KPN is happy to address the consumer market for mobile data services with its i-mode services in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The company currently has around 200,000 i-mode users Heijkant reported. By the end of 2003 KPN predicts it will garner just over one million such customers. The company has around 400 registered i-mode sites and a further 7,000 unofficial ones. bwcs.com