The Winners: The Meteor consortium comprises US group Western Wireless International, which holds a 60 per cent, RF Communications an Irish-based company holds 30 per cent and the Walter Group, a consultancy firm in the US holds 10 per cent. The Walter Group has been involved in guiding telecoms consortiums through a number of licence bids
Western Wireless International is a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation which has 645,000 subscribers in the US. It has won licences in Lativia, Georgia, Ghana and Iceland. It had revenues of $380.6 million (£280 million) last year and losses of $265 million.
RF Communications is run by Mr Sean Finlay and employs about 20 people. Its main business is outside Ireland where it builds broadcast facilities for television stations as well as building MMDS systems. It is currently installing 11 MMDS systems in Libya. According to Mr Finlay the company made an operating profit of £1 million last year and its turnover was £2.7 million in the first quarter of this year.
He said the group would raise the money through bank borrowings. He expects the company to make an operating profit in year four and that the system will be substantially completed by 2001.
The Losers: Orange operates a mobile phone systems in Britain and the North and is involved in bids for licences all over Europe. Yesterday it was part of a consortium which successfully bid for a mobile licence in Holland. It has more than 1.2 million customers and its turnover in 1996 was £619 million. Its shareholders are Hutchinson Whampoa who own 49 per cent and British Aerospace who own 5 per cent. The remainder is held publicly.
