to change tender conditions
Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel - June 14th, 2001 - Partner Communications Company Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTNR) announced today that the Ministry of Communications informed the Company of the intention of the Tender Committee to change the conditions of the tender to grant additional licenses for mobile telephone services, based on an allocation of frequencies that enables operation of 2G and 3G technologies and expansion of the spectrum allocated for the existing mobile telephone operators to provide 3G spectrum as well as additional 2G spectrum.
The most significant changes the committee is considering are first, the separation at the multi-round simultaneous bid process between 2G and 3G spectrums, so that a bidder will no longer be required to submit proposals for bundled 2G and 3G spectrum.
Second, payment of a license fee for 3G spectrum, and for two bands of 2G spectrum will be 60% of the price suggested within 45 days of the announcement of the winning bids, and 40% of the price suggested no later than December 31st 2003.
The intention of the Tender Committee is to change the reserve price, which was previously set at 400 million NIS for combined 2G and 3G spectrum, so that the minimum price for a band of 2G spectrum will be set at 180 million NIS, and for a band of 3G spectrum at 220 million NIS.
The submission date of the basic application to participate in the tender has been set to August 21st 2001.
Partner Communications Company Ltd. is the only Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, mobile telephone network operator in Israel. The Company commenced full commercial operations in January 1999 under the international Orange Brand name and, through its network, provides quality of service and a range of features to over a million subscribers in Israel. Partner subscribers can use roaming services in 80 countries using 208 GSM networks. The Company shares are quoted on NASDAQ under the symbol ptnr and on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol pccd.