Hutchison Details 3G Launch Plans

Responding to reports in The Sunday Times, Hutchison Whampoa has said that it does expect that calls will be dropped on occasions, but that it's network would be no different to any 2G network in that regard. The newspaper had said that Hutchison's 3G networks would suffer excessive dropped calls until the middle of next year.

"There will be dropped calls but we don't think dropped calls are a problem since every network has dropped calls," said Hutchison's managing director Canning Fok. He said the main problems would be during the handover from its 3G network onto the roaming partner's 2G network. Hutchison has signed national 2G roaming agreements to provide national coverage while it builds its network infrastructure.

He did confirm that the networks would commence trials with around 10,000 subscribers from October, a month later than originally expected. Fok also said that the company expects to launch with 3,500 cell sites in the UK market, and about 2,200 cell sites in Italy.

Meanwhile, Ireland's Sunday Business Post has reported that Hutchison has no plans to buy the local GSM operator, Meteor. Hutchison spokesperson, Nora Wong told the newspaper that the company saw its advantage in being a pure 3G operator with no 2G "baggage". She did not formally and directly rule out a Meteor takeover, however, saying that her firm made it a "practice not to comment on market speculation".'"

Posted to the site on 30th July 2002