O2 bathes in speculation

NEWS The company formerly known as BT wireless has denied most of the rumours circulating in the press about the future of the demerged company. BT has denied reports on the Bloomberg newswire that 3G has been delayed. A BT Wireless spokesman said: "Peter Erskine [BT Wireless chief executive] merely confirmed that there have been some technical glitches, which have already been reported, and confirmed that the launch will take place between late 2002 and early 2003, which has always been the schedule." However, a BT Cellnet spokesman who was not familiar with Erskine's statement said that the official launch date was still late 2002. Likewise, the company has moved to quash speculation about the amount of debt the spun-off company will be saddled with. The official figure is between £0 and £2bn, which will take it close to the level of debt Orange was left with after it was spun off by France Telecom. The Financial Times has reported a lower figure of £1bn attributed to anonymous sources. One thing was certain - BT's German wireless arm, VIAG Interkom has appointed former Deutsche Telekom director Rudolf Groeger as its new CEO, effective from the start of October. BT Wireless has confirmed that it will be rolling out its new company name mmO2 in Germany. Whether the new name of the company will be effective in Germany or not remains to be seen. However, the mmO2.de domain name is listed as the property of one Gerhard Poepl of Munich. BT Wireless has paid Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Media an undisclosed sum for www.o2.com, but it would not confirm whether the company planned to make him an offer for mmo2.de.