HK finally taps Taiwan telecoms
Hongkong Telecom and Hutchison Telecom last night won consolation prizes in Taiwan, grabbing a piece of the island's newly liberalised paging market.
HK Telecom partnered computer company First International to win one of two national licences, while the Hutchison-backed Southern Telecom group snared a licence for south Taiwan.
Both companies had bid unsuccessfully for a share of the US$900 million cellular mobile market earlier this month.
A third Hong Kong company, ABC Paging, is a part of the Express Link team which won in northern Taiwan.
A fourth, Star Paging, which teamed up with Pacific Telecom, bid unsuccessfully for a national licence, while Singapore Telecom, which had lost out in the cellular licence tender, lost out yet again.
The awarding of eight licences by the Taiwan Ministry of Transportation and Communications was the latest step in the island's deregulation, with the plan to fully liberalise telecommunications by 2001.
HK Telecom missed out on a cellular licence in controversial circumstances earlier this month.
It was publicly attacked over the 8 per cent of its capital held by Beijing-backed Citic Pacific, and ultimately finished well out of the running. Newspaper articles originating in Hong Kong and printed in Taiwan claimed HK Telecom was out of the running for the licence because of its 'red capital'.
Officially, direct investment by the mainland is forbidden in Taiwan.
Ironically, HK Telecom in July became the first mainland-invested company to win approval from Taiwan authorities, taking a 26 per cent stake in the value-added networking company Taiwan Telecom in partnership with the KMT-owned Central Investment Co.
HK Telecom's role in First International Paging Services (Fips) will be as specialist consultant.
Fips chief engineer Wang Kui-sheng said HK Telecom had not taken an equity stake but would advise on marketing, promotions and operations.
Mr Wang said Fips would invest more than NT$600 million (about HK$167 million) to build the nationwide network, which would be based on the Flex system.
