Press Release from Europolitan Holdings AB
PTS's (The Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency's) proposal threatens Swedish IT development "PTS's proposal, whereby today's network operators would be forced to allow competitors to use their network capacity in exchange for administratively determined fees, poses a threat to investments in new technology and undermines Sweden's long-term development potential in the fields of IT and telecoms." This was stated by Tomas Isaksson, President of Europolitan Holdings, at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday. "At one stroke, this proposal will radically alter the conditions under which we and our competitors have invested billions in new infrastructure. The implementation of a proposal with an obvious retroactive impact would undermine confidence in Sweden as an investment country." Sweden currently has three competing network operators. This is a large number relative to the size of the population. The range of services is leading edge in international terms, and prices are clearly competitive compared with other developed markets. "Sweden is currently at the initial stage of introducing the next generation of mobile telephony. Experiences of the GSM systems have taught us that strong infrastructure competition benefits market penetration and leads to competitive prices. If we now give PTS an administrative pricing function and introduce a regulated division between network and service operators, this will inhibit competition in the long term, as well as the development of new mobile technology." In its formal reply to PTS's proposal, Europolitan has pointed out several legally questionable points in PTS's proposal. "The change in the legislation would be of a retroactive nature and would in several respects conflict with both Swedish and European legislation." Stockholm 29 April 1999 For further information please contact: Tomas Isaksson, President and CEO Ulf J. Johansson, Chairman of the Board Tel: +46 8 678 09 50 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/04/29/19990429BIT00620/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/04/29/19990429BIT00620/bit0002.pdf