Telecommunications experience, a plan to charge low fees and a promise of $400 million won Oe-Call a Global System for Mobile communications digital cellular license in Austria, according to Waltraud Augesky, commercial specialist for the United States Embassy in Vienna, Austria. Oe-Call is a consortium lead by DeTeMobil GmbH and Siemens AG Oesterreich.
Austria’s Ministry of Public Economy and Transport decided the Austrian- and German-owned group was best qualified among a small handful of applicants to operate a GSM cellular network. Austrian news sources said Oe-Call’s bid far exceeded the bids of other contenders.
Oe-Call will operate its network at 900 MHz. Service is expected to begin this summer, with plans to reach 50 percent coverage by the end of the year and 80 percent coverage in 1997, reported Augesky.
Deutsche Telekom’s cellular arm DeTeMobil GmbH, based in Bonn, Germany, owns a 25 percent stake in Oe-Call, while Siemens AG Oesterreich, of Vienna, holds a 19.8 percent stake. The consortia’s supporting partners are members of the banking, insurance and publishing communities. These include Vienna banks Bank fuer Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG, with 19.5 percent, EA-Generali AG, with 9.1 percent, and Munich, Germany-based bank Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale, holding 7.5 percent. A Vienna daily newspaper, KronenZeitung, holds 10 percent and Bundeslaender Verischerungs AG insurance company holds 9.1 percent.
Oe-Call was awarded a 15-year license with the option to operate five more years. The new operator has but one competitor, the Austrian government-owned Post and Telegraphenverwaltung.
The PTV currently operates Total Access Communications Service analog and GSM digital cellular systems. The PTV claims more than 300,000 subscribers on those networks, which equals about 4 percent penetration. In order to create a level playing field, PTV also must submit $400 million to the ministry. Neither operator will be charged an annual fee, noted Augesky.
Austria’s license award came more quickly than some expected. Applications were due Oct. 13, but that same day an impasse on budget matters lead Austrian parliament to dissolve itself, placing the licensing process on hold. Nevertheless, elections were held last month and the government met its objective to license an operator before the end of 1995.
