bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Despite market scepticism, Hutchison Whampoa on Monday began signing up third-generation (3G) mobile subscribers in Sweden.

Hutchison's 60 per cent owned HI3G Access is offering handset discounts between 31 per cent and 39 per cent for subscribers who sign up before June 10.

The cost of the handsets, selling for between 3,500 kroner (about HK$3,377) and 5,695 kroner, will be rebated in two years.

The joint venture with Swedish Investors will offer high-speed services under the '3' trademark.

'We are the first to provide mobile video communications, and others will follow us,' HI3G Access chief executive Chris Bannister said.

He was speaking after an executive of Sweden's second-largest mobile operator painted a bearish picture for the 3G business, saying that it was not likely to become profitable until 2010.

'How 3 will succeed in making customers change operators and quickly reach profitability, I don't understand,' Tele2 chief executive, Johan Jarnheimer, was quoted as saying in a Swedish newspaper.

'But maybe they see something that we don't.'

HI3G's lowest priced package offers 450 minutes of voice calls, 50 movie clips and 50 minutes of movie calls for 349 kroner a month.

A higher priced package offers 1,250 minutes of voice calls, 100 movie clips and 50 minutes of voice for 679 kroner.

Hutchison has now launched 3G service in six countries - Italy, Britain, Australia, Austria, Sweden and Denmark.

In Britain, it had secured 20,000 subscribers, adding customers at a rate of about 200 per day, the Financial Times reported. Hutchison declined to verify the figures.

Its 88 per cent-owned subsidiary H3G Italia said that it had 50,000 users in Italy as of last month, with 150,000 registered for use.

Hutchison management has indicated it hopes to achieve one million subscribers in both Britain and Italy by the end of this year.



Hutchison starts 3G mobile sales in Sweden