Hutch Tel in $655 mln Vietnam mobile phone venture http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=telecomm&storyID=nHAN230904
Wednesday 24 May 2006
HANOI, May 24 (Reuters) - Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. (2332.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (HTX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday announced a contract with a Vietnamese firm to jointly invest more than $655 million in a mobile phone network in Vietnam.
A company statement carried by the official English-language Vietnam News daily said the 50/50 venture would build, develop and operate a third-generation mobile communication network using CDMA-2000 technology over the entire country.
Hutchison and unlisted Hanoi Telecommunications Joint Stock Co. will, over 15 years, provide value-added services over the cellular mobile network such as fax, data transmission, Internet access and wireless services.
A company official told Reuters without elaboration that the venture would launch services in August, a slight delay from a previous schedule aimed for the first half of this year.
The emerging markets mobile phone arm of conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (0013.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) operates networks in Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Macau, Sri Lanka, Paraguay and Ghana.
Vietnam's telecoms sector posted revenues of $2.3 billion last year, a rise of 9.5 percent from 2004. Revenues were expected to expand 15 percent this year to $2.64 billion.
The country of 83 million people had 17 million telephones at the end of March, 59 percent of them mobile phones.
S-Fone, a joint venture with a South Korean consortium, is so far the sole mobile network provider using CDMA technology in Vietnam, with around 420,000 users.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.