Oslo, Norway, and New York, USA, February 20, 2009
Access Industries Acquires ice.net's Norwegian Operations
- Access plans to revitalize ice.net for long-term success
Access Industries, a U.S.-based industrial group, announced today that it has acquired ice.net in Norway. The acquisition will ensure continuity of service to ice.net's Norwegian customers. Ice.net provides mobile data services in Norway.
"Our agreement to purchase ice.net's Norwegian business lays the groundwork for Access' return to the Scandinavian telecommunications market," said Jörg Mohaupt, head of media and telecoms at Access Industries. "We are committed to revitalizing the business into a world-class telecom company. In a time of global economic uncertainty, Access is able to provide the resources needed to continue improving ice.net's operations and bolster the important services it provides to customers. We believe that ice.net provides a unique offering in terms of network coverage and speed, especially for customers who live or work outside the main urban areas."
Access plans to invest in the growth of ice.net's Norwegian business. Access is confident that ice.net's underlying business is strong and is determined to ensure that the company will continue to offer its customers differentiated, high-quality mobile broadband and telephony services.
"With Access‘ support, we can ensure that ice.net's customers will experience no disruption in services and will experience significant improvements due to additional investments in our infrastructure," said Robert Eckert, Executive Director, ice.net Norway. We are particularly pleased to have secured the backing of our largest equipment supplier ZTE, which is supporting our network expansion and operations. ZTE has been an outstanding partner in building the business and will be instrumental in its continued success."
With the successful purchase of ice.net's Norwegian business, Access is also looking closely at the possibility of acquiring similar businesses in Sweden and Denmark to benefit existing customers and to advance Access' goal of revitalizing and expanding the company's operations throughout Scandinavia for long term success.
Access is an experienced investor in both the Scandinavian market and the broader telecommunications market. Access is currently an investor in Acision, the world's leading provider of converged mobile messaging solutions for text and multimedia messaging and was an investor in Bredbandsbolaget in Sweden, an early pioneer in offering broadband to households and one of the first companies to offer broadband speeds of 10 MB/s and higher.
About Access Industries
Access Industries is a privately held, U.S.-based industrial group with long-term holdings worldwide. Access was founded in 1986 by its Chairman, Len Blavatnik, an American industrialist. Access' industrial focus spans three key sectors: natural resources and chemicals; telecommunications and media; and real estate. (www.accessindustries.com).
About ice.net Norway
Ice.net Norway was established with the objective to deploy and operate premium grade mobile telecommunications networks for Mobile Telephony, Mobile Broadband, Fixed Wireless Telephony and Machine-to-Machine services. The business is based on the unique advantages achieved by combining CDMA2000 3G technology with radio transmission on the low frequency 450MHz and 410MHz bands. The networks offer cost-effective access to advanced services with close to total geographic coverage at a fraction of the investments of the current 3G operators. Ice.net Norway has sister companies in Denmark and Sweden. (www.ice.no)
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