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Saturday, September 6, 2003

Alcatel to spend $52 mn on 3G in Malaysia

Reuters
Kuala Lumpur, September 3

French telecommunications company Alcatel will invest more than 200 million
ringgit ($52 million) in Malaysia to develop applications for
third-generation (3G) mobile technology, a report said on Wednesday.

The money will be spent over five years to develop applications with local
partners, the company's executive vice president Ron Spithill was quoted as
saying by Malaysia's Bernama news agency.

"It will be the centre of our mobile broadband activities for this region,"
Spithill, who is also Alcatel's head for Asia Pacific, said of Malaysia.

Third-generation technology delivers high-speed Internet access, data and
video downloads to cellphones, but the technology has been slow to roll out
in many countries after operators paid billions of dollars for service
licences.

Malaysia, where one in three people own a mobile phone, has licensed two of
its biggest operators, Telekom Malaysia and Maxis Communications, to start
building 3G networks.

Telekom plans to spend four billion ringgit over 15 years to roll out
Internet connections over mobile phones and wireless devices. Maxis's parent
is due to begin pilot 3G coverage at end of this year and plans to
eventually spend 3.5 billion ringgit.

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