His comments were clearly an attempt to ease fears among nervous stockholders in the Hong Kong-based conglomerate that the 3G operation in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong will lead to enormous losses. A shortage of handsets led to a late roll-out of the technology, cutting its advantage over existing operations such as Vodafone Group Plc that are about to launch their own 3G services.
Hutchison has been tipped as a possible bidder for mmO2 Plc as a way to increase its subscriber base, but Fok said it had no interest in buying second-generation mobile operators.
