TA Index rebounds slightly: TA30 TELECOM STOCK INDEX FEB 16-MAR 15, 06

Telecom Asia, April, 2006

The TA Index rose 1.7%, or 22 points, as most Asian stocks rallied from losses the previous period. Gainers outnumbered decliners 19 to 11.

The top gainer was Singapore-based Pacific Internet, surging 20.4% on news that the Nasdaq-based ISP has received a merger offer from VoIP service provider MediaRing, which launched an unsolicited bid for Pacific Interent in February that had valued the Singaporean company at about $110.6 million. Pacific Internet has appointed BNP Paribas Peregrine (Singapore) to assist its board in evaluating the offer by MediaRing.

Among other major movers, Globe Telecom in the Philippines rose over 14%, after the company decided to postpone a plan to bill IDD calls based on the second instead of the present one-rain are charging model. South Korea's Dacom and Hong Kong-based APT Satellite also closed higher, up 13.5% and 12.5% respectively, reversing previous losses.

On the downside, Indosat sank over 10%, due to market fears of poor 2005 earnings. Indosat's rival, Telekom gained 1.6% on expectations that the government would ask the incumbent to put aside 60% of its 2005 net profit for dividend payments.

Hong Kong mobile operator SmarTone ended moderately lower, dragged down by the drop in its first-half net profit due to its 3G investment and concerns about increased potential competitive threats arisen from recent M&A activities in the market.

Rival PCCW and Hutchison were also lower with the former dropping 0.9% while the latter lost 1.2%--its second consecutive monthly loss.

Meanwhile, China Telecom slipped 5.8%, while China Mobile, China Unicorn and China Netcom all moved higher.

In Australia Optus rose 2.3% despite speculation that it was in talks to buy the local business of its network partner Vodafone Australia. Rival Telstra, by contrast, stumbled 5.4% to a record low on concerns about the Australian incumbent's ability to maintain a A$0.28 share dividend going forward.

The market in Japan also closed mixed, with NTT gaining 2.9% while rival KDDI closed slightly higher. NTT DoCoMo, which bought half of allfiliate NTT Communication's 14% stake in PLDT, declined 2,3%.

Company               Country   % change

1 Pacific Internet      US        20.4
2 Globe Telecom         PH        14.1
3 Dacom                 KR        13.5
4 APT Sat               HK        12.5
5 Samart Telecom        TH        11.7
6 AIS                   TH         4.2
7 PLDT                  PH         3.7
8 China Mobile          HK         3.2
9 NTT                   JP         2.9
10 SingTel Optus        AU         2.3
11 Chunghwa Telecom     TW         2.1
12 China Netcom         HK         1.9
13 SingTel              SG         1.9
14 Telecom NZ           NZ         1.8
15 Telkom Indonesia     ID         1.6
16 China Unicom         HK         1.6
17 KDDI                 JP         1.2
18 Taiwan Mobile        TW         0.7
19 Korea Telecom        KR         0.4
20 PCCW                 HK        -0.9
21 Hutchison            HK        -1.2
22 FarEastone           TW        -1.9
23 NTT DoCoMo           JP        -2.3
24 SK Telecom           KR        -2.8
25 Telekom Malaysia     MY        -5
26 Telstra              AU        -5.4
27 China Telecom        HK        -5.8
28 Shinawatra Sat       TH        -6.2
29 SmarTone             HK        -8.5
30 Indosat              ID       -10.1