POLISH RAILWAYS SEEK PARTNER FOR UMTS LICENCE BID
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WARSAW, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Poland's debt-burdened state railway,
PKP, is seeking a partner with which to bid for a third-generation
mobile phone licence, the firm said on Wednesday. PKP is to put an
advertisement in influential daily Rzeczpospolita on Friday, giving
details of PKP's contribution to a UMTS bid. "We don't have the money
to invest in the UMTS licence ourselves, but we have other things
to offer a possible partner, such as our fibre-optic network," Stanislaw
Plewako, the deputy head of PKP's telecoms arm told Reuters. Plewako
said that PKP may also decide not to participate in a bidding consortium
and simply lease its faclities to one of the winners after the tender.
PKP has formed a telecoms company, NG Koleje Panstwowe (NGKT), with
Britain's National Grid Company to offer long-distance telephone
services. NGKT management has said it is considering giving up its
long-distance licence to concentrate on data transmission. But Plewako
said problems at NGKT were not behind PKP's decision to seek another
telecoms partner, adding that the British firm would be welcome to
join with PKP to jointly bid for a UMTS licence. Poland plans to
give out five third-generation licences by the end of this year and
wants to invite bids in early October, from which the state expects
to gain at least 14 billion zlotys. PKP, Poland's largest employer,
debts of 6.3 billion zlotys ($1.45 billion) and several energy suppliers
threatened to cut its power supplies earlier in August unless it
repays some of its liabilities.
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

From:  Jeffrey Dobek     Date:  Thu Aug 24, 2000  12:17 pm

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