<< Sonera says all 3G options remain open
By Brett Young, Reuters
13 July 2000
Finnish Sonera said on Wednesday all its partnership options remained open in the wake of the alliance between Dutch KPN , Japanese NTT DoCoMo and Hong Kong's Hutchinson Whampoa .
The three announced a link-up which will span Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and possibly Italy in an attempt to grab a slice of the third-generation mobile license pie.
"When it comes to our earlier announcements that we are looking for partners there is no change," Sonera spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta told Reuters.
"In general I think that whatever alliances are announced... it does not mean that after this any of these groups would be closed," he added, declining to comment on whether Sonera would consider joining a group like that of KPN/DoCoMo/Hutchison.
Analysts said that while there are still a number of big players in Europe with whom Finland's largest telecom operator could work, the news of the three-way grouping heightened the need for Sonera to latch on to a larger ally.
Sonera has said earlier it has been in talks with the world's top 10 mobile telecom service groups about consolidation and could be in serious merger talks by year's end.
"Certainly KPN was one possible partner for Sonera, and you could get the feeling that (Sonera) is standing still," said Jussi Hyoty, analyst at FIM Securities in Helsinki.
"There is some slight pressure here (to form alliances), because size matters and it is far better to have a solid group to participate in," he said.
The partnership was another step in the consolidation of the global telecom market, and aims to help offset high costs of European Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) licenses
Sonera currently holds third generation licenses in Finland and in Spain and is part of a group bidding in Germany. It has indicated interest in a Swiss 3G license and pulled out of the British 3G auction due to the soaring bids.
Karasvirta reiterated that Sonera would look into all 3G license opportunities, but declined to comment on whether it had been in talks with partners for two of the larger upcoming auctions in France and Italy.
Third generation mobile phone systems will support higher data transmission rates and allow for Internet, video and other multimedia applications.
Sonera's shares were up 2.4 percent at 51.70 euros at 1352 GMT on a positive Helsinki bourse , with brokers saying the share was being boosted by speculation stemming from the KPN/DoCoMo/Hutchinson alliance. >>
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