Cesky Telecom has won a contract to provide data services to the Czech Post Office; the size of the contract has not been announced. Some 1,700 CPO branches, or half of the total, should be linked to the CPO’s private data network by the end of this year, which means that the contract should boost Cesky Telecom’s revenues and (likely) also profits in this fiscal year. This is positive news but, without any information on size of the deal, we do not expect much response from the stock.
Separately, a Cesky Telecom vice president suggests in an Hospodarske noviny interview published today that Cesky Telecom should complete the digitalization of its fixed-line network in time for the launch of call-by-call service on the market in July 2002 (allowing customers choice of operator per call as per the Telecommunications Law). Neutral.
(Ondrej Datka)