Unifon Was Preawarded One of the PCS Bands Licenses at

the Northern Area Buenos Aires, Argentina (PROTEXT) - Today, Unifon waspreawarded one license for the northern area of the countrycorresponding to the PCS tender, for which it shall pay 56million dollars. Eduardo Caride and Luis Malvido, CEOs of Telefonica deArgentina and Unifon, respectively, were the individuals incharge to make the offer, during the meeting held on this purposeat "Eva Peron" room of the Secretariat of Communications (SECOM)where two bidders out of the three prequalified Joint Venturessubmitted their offers. Unifon, due to the fact that it made the best offer, wasentitled to choose the band -- the two 40 MHz bands in questionwere "A" and "B" -- and it chose "B." Besides, the bid for PCS licenses corresponding to Area III(southern area) took place; two operators were preawarded andthey shall jointly pay 89 million dollars. Due to the fact that Unifon is the actual operator of thecellular phone service at that area, it shall have access to 20MHz of PCS at the southern area, having to pay the 50 per cent ofthe average price obtained in the auction, which shall amount to22.25 million dollars. This license shall allow Unifon to extend its service to themain cities of the northern area of the country, turning thecompany in a new option in mobile phone services. On June 16, the Temporary Joint Venture (UTE) comprised byUnifon and Personal was awarded the "B" band corresponding to thePCS tender for Federal Capital and the Great Buenos Aires (AMBA),paying for this the amount of 350 million dollars. Next June 28, the preawarded companies of the PCS bands at thethree areas of the countries shall sign the definitiveagreements. Telefonica Comunicaciones Personales - TCP TCP is the operator of Grupo Telefonica de Argentina providingcellular phone services at ten provinces of the southern area ofthe country, by using its trademark Unifon. From its beginning, in March 1996, it invested more than 400million dollars, having at present 300,000 customers and aservice penetration of 4.5 cellular phones per 100 inhabitants.ots Original Text Service: Grupo Telefonica Internet:http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Norma Barbieri or MaximilianoZorzi, both of Comunicaciones Corporativas of Unifon, +54-11-4-819-4376, +54-11-4-819-4377, +54-11-4-819-4378, or fax, +54-11-4819-4393, or Prensa@unifon.com.ar Web site: http://www.unifon.com.ar

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