Good News For Callplus, Slingshot And Consumers!

Pre-Xmas conclusion to auction is good news for CallPlus, Slingshot and consumers!

Auckland, Tuesday 18th December 2007 CallPlus are delighted to be the successful bidder for the rights to use 30MHz of nationwide 2.5GHz spectrum, a critical spectrum band for deployment of WiMax technology, in the spectrum auction which concluded today.

"The conclusion of the Governments 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz spectrum auction ahead of Xmas is good news for consumers and competition in the telecommunications industry" says Martin Wylie, CEO of CallPlus and Slingshot.

"The government is to be congratulated for the approach taken to the Spectrum auction through establishing rules to ensure the spectrum went to a variety of new players who plan to build alternate networks, creating competition for the ultimate benefit of consumers".

"In the past we have seen scarce spectrum being dominated by the larger incumbent operators. However by allocating a reasonable amount of spectrum and placing limits on the amount of spectrum that can be held by any one player the larger telecommunications companies were unable to bid the price up to uneconomic levels and dominate the auction" Wylie continues.

Everyone should be happy with the outcome as the design of the lots has meant that the needs of the CallPlus and others, who are looking to deploy wireless access voice and broadband solutions to homes using WiMAX, are accommodated as well as mobile operators looking to provide faster mobile broadband using the alternative Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

Its good to get the auction concluded ahead of Xmas so that there is certainty around that component of our plans. Early in 2008 we plan to expand our WiMAX services into the Auckland area as well as going into Telecom's exchanges with our own equipment as part of Local Loop Unbundling - its shaping up to be an exciting year ahead with consumers being the winner.

ENDS

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