Sonera Steps Back From 3G

date: October 22, 2001 - source: BWCS

Finnish telecoms group Sonera has announced a dramatic scaling back of its European 3G investments as part of a radical shake-up of its corporate strategy. In announcing its financial results for the nine months to 30 September Sonera stated that it would be capping investment in its 3G operations in Germany, Italy and Spain in an effort to reduce its risk exposure.

As announced earlier this month Sonera will not invest any further funds in Group 3G, its German joint-venture with Telefonica Moviles. The company had hoped that its Spanish partner would acquire some all of Sonera’s stake in Group 3G but Telefonica has so far refused to do so. In Italy and Spain Sonera will only meet its minimum requirements for investment in its networks in line with the conditions laid down in its 3G licences. The company is committed to investing €200 million over the next ten years in its Italian 3G venture IPSE.

Last week Sonera’s Spanish 3G consortium, Xfera, announced that it would be putting its network rollout on hold having been refused a licence to begin offering second generation cellular services by the Spanish government. Sonera must invest €300 million in Xfera by 2004 and the Finnish telco has also indicated that it may be forced to pay its share of any financial penalties levied against Xfera by the government for failing to meet its 3G rollout schedule.

Top Sellers at our online store

1.	NEC e606 on 3
2.	Orange Nokia 7250i
3.	O2 Samsung A800
4.	NEC e808 on 3
5.	Motorola A920 on 3

last updated: January 12, 2004

Visit our online store, click here

3 phones

3G Motorola A920
Available Now! Superb full colour touch- sensitive screen with a built-in digital camera for Video Calling.
Buy now from Free

M-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services
ISBN: 0470847751

This book discusses 3G services from the view of what is needed for the service to provide value to the user, what is the value proposition for the user, how will money be made out of delivering the service, and discussions on how revenue sharing propositions might work to benefit content providers and network operators. 3G operators should take note of this highly recommended book.

buy it UK | USA

3G Books to Read!

top