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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pat Hughes who wrote (56871)	11/6/1998 10:49:00 AM
From: H.A.M.	Respond to of 61433

StarHub said the contracts were awarded to the companies partly on the basis of their "future-proof" technologies and their "proven track record" in meeting demanding timelines. ____________________________________________ Singapore's StarHub raising S$900 mln in funding SINGAPORE, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Singapore's StarHub consortium, which awarded Singapore $350 million in contracts on Friday, said it plans to raise S$900 million in funding over the next 10 years for its telephone networks. "At the moment we are finalising the banking arrangements and this will take a few more months," chief financial officer Henry Lim told Reuters after the contract awards. "It will be arranged as project financing, as a term loan we can call in the course of 10 years," he said. StarHub Pte Ltd, a direct rival to Singapore Telecoms <TELE.SI> and will provide Singapore's second-fixed line network and its third mobile phone network, is planning to spend about S$2.6 billion over the next seven to 10 years in the infrastructure for its fixed and mobile phone services. Lim said the investment would be funded partly by equity and bank financing from domestic and international financial institutions. He gave no further details. SatrHub's first parcel of contracts saw tenders being awarded to Nokia <NOKSa.HE>, Lucent Technologies <LU.N>, Ascend Communications Corp <ASND.O>, Cap Gemini <CAPP.PA> and Sweden's Ericsson <LMEb.ST>. Nokia's contract for an integrated voice and mobile network was worth S$100 million. Nokia officials told reporters in Singapore the company was keen to participate in future tenders with StarHub. "We are talking about building a long-term partnership here," said Sari Baldauf, president of Nokia Telecommunications. StarHub said the contracts were awarded to the companies partly on the basis of their "future-proof" technologies and their "proven track record" in meeting demanding timelines. The consortium declined to give a breakdown of the value of the five contracts. Apart from the Nokia contract, Lucent Technologies won the contract to supply a nationwide transmission network and access layer. Ascend Communications won a contract for an IP-based data network, while Cap Gemini was awarded a contract for support systems in billing, customer care and operational system integration. Ericsson won the bid for network management and operational support systems. StarHub Senior Vice President, Commercial and Service, Graham Moore said the tender had seen the participation of many world-class companies. A StarHub statement said the tender drew 38 bids. Moore said the first tranche of StarHub's investments would take the company up to its planned operational launch date on April 1, 2000. It was likely to conclude thes worldwide search for a chief executive officer soon and would be making an announcement in the next month or two, he added. The Starhub consortium also includes Singapore Power, British Telecom <BT.L> and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp <9432.T>. 07:18 11-06-98