Access Industries subsidiary Ice.net has secured NOK 1.5 billion in loans to invest in high-speed mobile broadband services, according to Teknisk Ukeblad (TU) on its website. It gained spectrum in December's 800 MHz auction under the name Telco, and will work under the moniker Ice Communications.
TU said Ice Norway CEO Eivind Helgaker was restrained in his comments to the website about the significance of the funding, saying only that following the auction, it has exciting alternatives before it, and has full finance in place.
TU said the boards of Ice Communications and Ice Norway will be led by Ingvild Myhre, who founded Network Norway and who is chairwoman of the board of AINMT Scandinavia Holdings, the Ice parent company. TU said the loan was arranged by Pareto, Swedbank and DNB, and the lenders are chiefly from Scandinavia, the UK and US.
TU considered what Ice might spend the NOK 1.5 billion on. It pointed out that Ice has a national mobile broadband network using the 450 MHz band but currently has no infrastructure in place for the new frequencies in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. It also needs to expand its customer base, TU remarked.
