Orange, the mobile phone company controlled by indebted France Telecom, has said backing out of Sweden and Denmark always remained an option if it failed to resolve thorny issues there.
But Orange International executive vice-president, Mr Michael Latimer, said Orange was confident Swedish regulators would meet at least some its requests to delay the launch of third-generation (3G) services - and that shareholders in Denmark were likely to fall in line.
Orange has asked Swedish regulators to relax Europe's toughest network rollout requirements and allow the company to postpone national 3G services by three years to end-2006, partly because of technology glitches and changes in market conditions.
"Before I give [Swedish regulators] any ultimatums, all we are asking them to do is consider the situation," Mr Latimer said.
He added that although a three-year delay was "fair and reasonable", it was not Orange's best offer. "We'd be happy to sit down again and discuss anything less than that, or look to see if more is reasonable. But let's get other \ views too.
"There is no more reasonable and pragmatic country in the world that Sweden.
"We're very confident we will be able to have a dialogue and that all operators will participate... [Quitting Sweden] is not our preferred option"
After Spain's Telefonica Moviles and its Finnish ally Sonera abandoned international, 3G operations in July, speculation has mounted that other operators, which have seen debt levels soar and shares crash after spending more than €100 billion on 3G licences, may follow suit.
But although Orange told Swedish regulators that demand for 3G services such as mobile data had proved "virtually non-existent", Mr Latimer said Orange remained fully committed to 3G in Europe and expected a mass market by end-2003/2004.
Orange is hoping to build a seamless 3G network between its Swedish and Danish operations. But its Danish plans have run into problems amid a lengthy shareholder dispute that is eating into management time ahead of a planned 3G launch in the third quarter of next year.
The discussions hinge on how much debt and equity is needed to finance the company over the next three to five years.
Orange, with a 54 per cent stake, appears under pressure to shoulder more than its share of the cost. - (Reuters)
