Newly established consortium, a strong candidate to UMTS licences

Newly established consortium, a strong candidate to UMTS licences Tele1 Europe (NASDAQ: TEUR, Stockholm Stock Exchange: TEUR) initiates a major investment in third generation mobile telephony. Together with the US mobile network operator Western Wireless and Rix Telecom, they are establishing a joint venture in order to win one of the UMTS licences which will be awarded in Sweden during the autumn. The consortium will form a separate company, financed from own funds, supplier credit and loan financing. Together the three partners have extensive expertise and the necessary financial strength to guarantee a rapid rate of development for the intelligent infrastructure. Besides Tele1 Europe developing a broadband network in the Nordics, investing over SEK 1 billion this year alone, the UMTS application will widen the company's Nordic offer. Western Wireless owns and operates a mobile network covering 19 states in the USA, representing 25 % of the total surface area of the country. Western Wireless will participate in the consortium through its subsidiary, Western Wireless International, which also has wireless operations in nine other countries. The consortium aims to begin construction of the network in early 2001. Access has already been arranged to a large number of locations where the technical equipment can be installed. By designing the network in accordance with an "Open Network" principle, the consortium is also encouraging other market players, service providers, to use the network. - Our consortium consists of market players who have leading-edge expertise in many fields as well as commercial and technical strengths. This will provide us with an excellent basis from which to achieve success. We will be working together on service and product development. At the same time we will also welcome a number of external market players who will not need to own the network itself. These players will be able to provide and sell their own services under their own brands with full freedom, for example, to set their own prices. We are still in negotiation with a number of interesting market players, both telecom operators and content providers, comments Christer Palmgren, responsible for Tele1 Europe's investment in mobile services. This project continues Western Wireless's investment programme in Europe and is the company's first step into the Nordic market. - The members of the consortium will own and invest in the UMTS network jointly. Western Wireless has substantial experience and expertise in developing and operating mobile networks in the USA and nine other countries. Tele1 Europe has extensive experience as a computer and telecommunications operator and enjoys a large customer base in Scandinavia targeted at the business market. It has a - broadband network which is large enough to meet the consortium's requirements, states Brad Horwitz President at Western Wireless. Rix Telecom, who is focusing on the consumer market, will expand from providing fixed net telephony and Internet services to offer mobile services. - The customers of Rix Telecom demands a future oriented supplier who is in the forefront of new developed new mobile services. Through this newly established consortium, Rix Telecom will be able to provide the Swedish households with a price worthy alternative on mobile services, comments Fredrik Bonde, General Manager at Rix Telecom. Share ownership: Tele1 Europe and Western Wireless own the majority in the consortium with equal shares. Further information, please contact: Tele1 Europe Holding AB Tele1 Europe AB Christer Palmgren, director mobile services Pelle Hjortblad, General Manager Phone: 46 8 5631 00 92 Phone: +46 8 5631 01 10 Mobile: +46 701 81 00 92 Mobile: +46 701 81 01 10 E-mail: christer.palmgren@tele1europe.se E-mail: pelle.hjortblad@tele1europe.se Western Wireless Scott Alderman, Vice President Phone: +1 425 586 8161 E-mail: scott.alderman@wwireless.com Rix Telecom Rix Telecom Fredrik Bonde, Managing Director Sergio Luciani, VP Mobile Services Phone: 0706-561738 Phone: 070-2371937 E-mail: fredrik.bonde@rixtelecom.se E-mail: sergio.luciani@rixtele.com About Tele1 Europe (NASDAQ: TEUR, Stockholm Stock Exchange: TEUR) Tele1 Europe is a fast-growing data and telecommunications operator with operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The group's business concept is to offer broadband solutions for data, telephony and the internet to large and medium-sized business and organisations in the Nordic countries. Tele1 Europe is currently the only Nordic data and telecommunications operator investing in local access networks with broadband capacity. This construction is taking place in the nine largest cities in the Nordic countries. The access networks, which are linked together with a long-distance network, will be Europe's fastest "motorway" for data and Internet traffic with an initial capacity for customers of up to one gigabyte. http://www.tele1europe.com About Western Wireless Corporation Western Wireless International Corporation ("WWI") a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation (WWC). WWC is a leading provider of wireless services in the United States, serving 930,500 customers in 19 states as of June 30, 2000. It is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: WWCA) with a market capitalization of $4.0 billion. WWC's markets cover over 25 percent of the U.S. landmass and an aggregate population of around 9 million. WWC's management team has had one of the most successful track records in the industry over the last 18 years, beginning with the founding of McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless); WWC has built one of the fastest growing and best performing cellular businesses in the United States and previously led the introduction and expansion of GSM technology in the United States. In February 1999, WWC spun-off its GSM operations into a separate company, VoiceStream Wireless. WWI is a leading provider of wireless communications services into international markets. Since 1996, WWI has built and launched wireless networks in Iceland, Latvia, Georgia, Croatia, Ghana and Haiti and is currently constructing nationwide cellular networks in Ireland, Cõte d´Ivoire and Bolivia. In total these systems are licensed to provide wireless services to over 65 million people. www.wirelessintl.com Please find more information about Western Wireless in attached file. About Rix Telecom (Göteborg List: RIXT) Rix Telecom is a data and telecommunications operator working on the fixed network, with the emphasis on serving private customers. In the space of a short time, a combination of marketing measures has placed Rix Telecom amongst the largest Swedish telecoms companies in terms of the number of customers administered. Rix Telecom has its head offices in Göteborg, Sweden. www.rixtelecom.se ATTACHMENT: Western Wireless Corporation Western Wireless Corporation ("WWC") is the parent company of Western Wireless International ("WWI"). WWC is a leading provider of wireless services in the United States, serving 930,500 customers in 19 states as of June 30, 2000. It operates the largest rural cellular network in the United States under the Cellular One® brand name, as shown in Exhibit 1. WWC is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: WWCA) with a market capitalization of $4.0 billion. WWC's markets cover over 25 percent of the U.S. land mass and an aggregate population of around 9 million. WWC brings the following expertise to its subsidiaries: * WWC's management team has had one of the most successful track records in the industry over the last 18 years, beginning with the founding of McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless); * WWC has built one of the fastest growing and best performing cellular businesses in the United States; * WWC led the introduction and expansion of GSM technology in the United States; and * WWC has been an industry leader in securing financing for the implementation of new wireless networks. Exhibit 1: WWC Cellular Markets [REMOVED GRAPHICS] Beginning in 1994, WWC was one of the most active acquirers of licenses in the broadband PCS spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"). Between 1994 and 1999, WWC, through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, acquired 180 PCS licenses covering approximately 89.4 million persons. WWC chose the GSM technology standard to build its PCS networks and was the first company awarded a PCS license through the FCC auctions to launch commercial service. WWC renamed its PCS business VoiceStream Wireless ("VoiceStream"), operating under the VoiceStream® brand name. On May 3, 1999, WWC "spun off" VoiceStream into a legally separate business. Although WWC had operated VoiceStream separately from WWC's rural cellular operations since VoiceStream's inception, the spin-off established VoiceStream as a stand-alone public entity (Nasdaq: VSTR). Today, VoiceStream is the largest GSM operator in the United States. WWC's website address is www.wwireless.com. Western Wireless International Corporation In 1996, WWI was formed in order to pursue new license opportunities in markets outside of the United States. Since 1996, WWI has built and launched wireless networks in Iceland, Latvia, Georgia, Croatia, Ghana and Haiti and it is currently constructing networks in Ireland, Côte d'Ivoire and Bolivia. In total, WWI is licensed to provide wireless services to over 65 million people. By the end of June 2000, WWI's operating companies served over 480,000 mobile subscribers. WWI provides substantial technical and management expertise to each of its operating companies. A description of each WWI operating company follows in Exhibit 2. Exhibit 2: Overview of WWI Operating Companies Licen Licensed Mobilesed Launch Country Company ServicesTechnology Pops Date (mil) Western Europe Ireland Meteor Cellular/PCSGSM 3.7 4Q 2000 Cellular, Iceland TAL GSM 0.3 Mar-98 ISP Central and Eastern Europe Latvia BaltCom Cellular GSM 2.4 Mar-97 Georgia MagticomCellular GSM 5.4 Sep-97 Croatia VIP-Net Cellular GSM 4.8 Jul-99 Africa Ghana Westel Various GSM 18.5 Feb-99 Côte Comstar Cellular GSM 14.6 4Q 2000 d'Ivoire Latin America and the Caribbean Bolivia NuevaTelPCS GSM 8.0 4Q 2000 Cellular, Haiti COMCEL TDMA 7.5 Sep-99 Payphones, Paging ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/08/21/20000821BIT00050/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/08/21/20000821BIT00050/bit0002.pdf