Telenor CEO: Sonofon To Be No. 2 Danish Operator In 05

AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)--Telenor ASA (TELN), Norway's former monopoly telephone company, Wednesday said it expects its Danish mobile operator, Sonofon, to gain market share in the fourth quarter of 2004.

"And we expect Sonofon to become the No. 2 operator in Denmark sometime in 2005," Telenor Chief Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas told a conference call, following the company's third-quarter earnings release.

Telenor saw its third-quarter fixed-line retail sales drop 9% in Norway.

Baksaas explained that decline, which was higher than expected, by saying that fixed-to-mobile substitution in Norway was "far higher than predicted, especially helped by young people."

The CEO also said that the company will make a bid for a third-generation mobile network license in Hungary, in an attempt to acquire one of the two available licenses.

Telenor operates its Pannon GSM mobile phone unit in Hungary, which has around 2.6 million subscribers.

-By Joon Knapen, Dow Jones Newswires; 31-20-6260770; joon.knapen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 27th October 2004