Canadian operator pulls out of UMTS tender after failing to find partner
Telesystem International Wireless (TIW), the Canadian mobile phone operator, will not participate in the Polish UMTS license tender, according to Patrick Tobin, TIW's business development director for Europe.
"We couldn't find Polish partners compatible with our long-term plans," he said, adding that TIW talked to most of the Polish companies that are seeking a domestic or foreign telecom company to pair up with, including Raiffeisen Bank, Polpager-Polsat (known as 3G) and the Polish Post Office (PPO). Under Poland's telecom law, any foreign company intending to offer telecom-related services must form a consortium with majority Polish ownership.
"It's an expensive proposition and a long-term proposition, and we could not find a Polish partner that would (meet those terms)," Tobin said. TIW representatives met with the Communications Ministry about three weeks ago, but had not met any ministry employees since then, he said.
In Central and Eastern Europe, TIW has stakes in the Czech mobile operator, Cesky Mobil, which began its commercial operations earlier this year, and in the Romanian operator MobiFon, which obtained a license for mobile service in 1996.
When asked how TIW's non-participation in the Polish UMTS tender would affect the company's regional strategy, Tobin said it was a different subject, and that there would be other opportunities for TIW to invest in UMTS licenses in the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.
The Communications Ministry was not surprised by the Canadian operator's decision because it knew TIW had problems forming a consortium to raise the money for a license, said Przemyslaw Sypniewski, an adviser to Communications Minister Tomasz Szyszko. The ministry still expects to receive six to eight bids for the five licenses it will grant, although no companies or consortia have placed official bids yet, he said.
"We have information that three or four consortia with the participation of foreign companies are being built," Sypniewski said, but he declined to provide names. The three Polish cellular operators, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (Era GSM), Polkomtel (Plus GSM) and PTK Centertel, would reportedly participate on their own in the tender, he said.
Earlier this month, Hong Kong-based telecom Hutchinson Whampoa decided not to place a bid for a Polish UMTS license. With the pullout of both Hutchinson and TIW, the remaining foreign operators that have purchased the tender documentation include Turkey's Turkcell and Rumeli, Spain's Telefonica, and Italian mobile operator TU Mobile.
