The Hutchison Microtel Ltd unit of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, British Aerospace Plc and Barclays Plc was talking on Friday about its plans to win big in the UK Personal Communications Network market, and surprised observers by saying that it intended to invest at least UKP200m more than it had previously suggested, in other words UKP700m by the end of the decade, and added that total investment could ultimately reach UKP1,000m. If we don’t address consumers across the country from day one, we are ignoring the most fundamental basis for making mass-market mobile communications a reality, Microtel managing director Malcolm Way told a conference in Vienna, castigating Mercury One-2-One for its limited regional launch earlier this month. Even the latest mobile service launch has been unable to escape the 1908s legacy which associates mobile phones with a narrow privileged group of users in the south east of the country, Way told the conference. A Microtel spokesman said the venture is already running a network which is carrying calls and being extensively tested and that at launch early next year will have more than 50% national coverage, serving the country’s major population centres and the links between them. By the end of next year Microtel will have 70% cover.From the figures we’ve seen, One-2-One will have 24% cover at the same time we have 50%, Microtel told Reuter. From Day One it’s got to be available to a mass market across the country, he said.
