Mobile phone giant Vodafone today attempted to douse speculation it had decided to launch a $30 billion-plus bid for US rival AT&T Wireless, reiterating it was still weighing its options.
Repeating a statement made earlier in the week, Vodafone said it continued to monitor developments in the US market and "is exploring whether a potential transaction with AT&T Wireless is in the interests of its shareholders".
A bid deadline for AT&T Wireless, the third-largest US wireless operator, has been set for tomorrow. The US group put itself up for sale last month after receiving an offer from a US rival following a series of lacklustre results.
AT&T Wireless, which is 16-per cent owned by Japan's NTT DoCoMo, has already received an informal, all-cash bid of about $30 billion or $11-per-share from Cingular, the number two wireless group controlled by SBC Communications Inc and BellSouth Corp.
In a separate statement, Vodafone said it was launching a high-speed, third-generation (3G) data card for lap tops in Europe.
The company said the data card would support data rates of up to 384 kilobits-per-second and would be available in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK over the next four weeks.
Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone company by revenue, plans to launch long-delayed third-generation (3G) phone services such as videophones in Europe around October, although analysts have said they do not expect enough quality 3G phones to be available for the mass market before early 2005.