This kind of bail out grizzling is pretty standard in business/politics
no? companies rail against "big government" until it gives them a
handout. (particularly ironic in this case is that government itself
that is the debt owner)
Witness the US steel industry - currently asking the US government for
some $13bn to cover the cost of pensions they offered employees over the
years, but now "can't" cover. This industry, already protected by
tariffs that should make the WTO and IMF blush.
Large companies mess up and then come crying to the government - happens
all the time (remember Chrysler or Bull Information systems or any
number of "national champions".
The question is, will European governments go for it? Antitrust
exemptions seem more likely than let-offs.
Irrational exuberance is surely exactly what happened isn't it? If these
firms had viable business models to support the massive debt incurred
they wouldn't be asking for help now..."ummm. How do we pay for the
infstructure once we buy the license?" seems a pretty rational question
to ask.
Is this offtopic? Hope not. From the European perspective there seems
little hope of an "i-mode" service appearing any time soon.
And that is where poor investments from NTT come in - KPN and other
foreign investments look like so much money down the drain
From: "Michael Turner" <leap@gol.com>
Subject: Re: Mobile telecoms and "wealth creation".
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:57:37 +0900
From: "JAPON.NET" <web@japon.net> (Vincent Luna)
> Technically:
> Well, I am not sure how many auction winners have fully paid for the
> licenses (ie. French,Spanish telcos) so this is an ongoing
> evaluation...
Last I looked, a number of Euro providers were appealing for clemency on
payment, and getting antitrust exemptions on sharing of what would have
been competing 3G infrastructure.
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Received on Mon Dec 10 13:25:28 2001