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Czech Eurotel To Launch CDMA450 Internet Svc In May
Friday March 12, 1:11 pm ET


PRAGUE (Dow Jones)--Czech mobile phone operator Eurotel Praha spol SRO said Friday it will launch a high-speed wireless Internet service in May and seek ways to market the product jointly with parent company Cesky Telecom AS (BAATELEC.PR).


"We've made a decision to roll it out," Eurotel General Director Terrence Valeski said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

"We continue to look for complimentary opportunities with Cesky Telecom in terms of sales and marketing," Valeski said.

The new service based on code division multiple access, or CDMA450, has been a bone of contention between Eurotel and its parent company. Cesky Telecom's officials worry that Eurotel's CDMA service would damp the demand for Cesky Telecom's own fixed-line broadband Internet service based on asymmetric digital subscriber line, or ADSL, technology.

The CDMA issue has also highlighted problems Cesky Telecom and Eurotel have been facing as they seek to bring closer their management teams and offer complimentary products, following the 100% consolidation of Eurotel by Cesky Telecom last year.

According to Cesky Telecom spokesman Vladan Crha, no decision has been made on the launch of the CDMA450 service by Eurotel. "It hasn't been approved by the ( Cesky Telecom) supervisory board yet," Crha said.

Valeski downplayed the differences over the CDMA450 service between Eurotel and Cesky Telecom. The launch of the CMDA450 service is part of the approved Eurotel business plan for 2004, Valeski said.

"That isn't holding us up. We're moving forward with it," he said.

Valeski also said he remains confident that the CDMA450 service will add value to the joint portfolio of products offered by the Cesky Telecom group.

"My hope is that there are complimentary aspects of both companies that actually do that they compliment one another and give the customer a lot of value-creating options," he said.

Eurotel is currently operating both digital Global System for Mobile Telecommunications, or GSM, and analogue Nordic Mobile Telephony, or NMT, networks. The NMT network operates in the 450 megahertz bandwidth for which Eurotel is the only license holder in the Czech Republic.

Last year, Eurotel began testing a CDMA 450 MHz service by converting a portion of its NMT network.

Eurotel currently has about 47,000 users of its slow-speed wireless Internet service over the GSM network and it sees the new CDMA service as a way to expand the popular wireless Internet connectivity.

The CDMA service will offer higher data transfer speeds compared with the GSM service and will be tailored for users seeking a broadband-quality Internet connectivity in the areas where no such Internet service is available via fixed lines or television cable, Valeski said.

Eurotel Website: http://www.eurotel.cz

Cesky Telecom Website: http://www.telecom.cz

-By Leos Rousek, Dow Jones Newswires; 420-221-085-272; [e-mail]

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040312/1311000663_2.html