On Thursday, 13th January, the Company held a press conference, followed by an inaugural dinner to commemorate the rollout and the handing over of the first Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN equipment under the recently announced order to Hayes (Bangladesh) Limited, as importer/distributor for supply to PeoplesTel, Bangladesh for a minimum of US$66 million. The dinner was attended by the Governor of Penang, the Minister for Energy, Water and Communications (Malaysia), the Chairman of Telekom Malaysia, Senior Management of local telecommunications companies and Ambassadors from 11 Nations. The addresses at the dinner included many aspects of the role that Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN equipment can play in bridging the digital divide in developing countries. The Company has posted on its website (www.caperangewireless.com) clips from the various speakers and the following excerpts are considered to be of interest to shareholders so they can get a better understanding of the role that the Company is playing in providing rural and suburban telecommunications in developing nations. Dato’ Salim Cassim, the Chairman of Cape Range Wireless Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., in his opening speech gave background on the effort by Cape Range Wireless to achieve its current success. He also expressed his utmost gratitude to Telekom Malaysia for providing Cape Range Wireless with access to their facilities on Langkawi, enabling not only the testing to be conducted, but also the ability to show potential customers the product in a live national network. The equipment installed on the islands of Langkawi have continued to operate uninterrupted for several months now and last week, following a request from a school, Cape Range Wireless connected the school to the network, free of charge as a service to the community. Mr TIM Nurun Nabi, the Managing Director of PeoplesTel stated that the criteria for choosing Cape Range Wireless’s ARCADIAN system is due to its technical aspects, ease of operation and maintenance costs, and affordability to the people of Bangladesh. Due to its low cost, People’s Tel would be able to provide urban-quality services to rural areas at 50% of the normal tariffs charged by other telecommunications companies. Mr Nabi stated that the first 10,000 lines will be installed by the end of March 2005 and he further advised that the second phase of the Bangladesh order will be approximately US$320 million in value. Mr Nabi also stated that he hoped, through the synergy with Cape Range Wireless, to send a strong message to other developing nations that if a developing country such as Bangladesh can afford to provide telecommunications services to rural and suburban areas, and still make a profit, through the use of the Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN system, then it should be possible for most other developing countries to provide similar services. The Minister of Energy, Water and Communications advised that he is committed to ensuring that Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN equipment, which is home grown in Malaysia and manufactured in Penang, the home state of the Governor of Penang, is promoted throughout the developing world as a solution of choice to solve the digital divide. The Minister noted that in Malaysia, broadband is currently available to only 0.6% of the population versus countries such as Korea with 66%. The Minister reconfirmed that USP Funds of approximately US$250 million are available to groups seriously wishing to offer telecommunication services, such as those available with Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN equipment. The Minister offered Cape Range Wireless a commitment to make these funds available as well as the appropriate licenses, so as to provide every community in Malaysia with access to a computer. As he was successful in “selling” Malaysian palm oil to the world during his previous tenure as the Minister for Primary Industries, he will promote Cape Range Wireless ARCADIAN to the world. “You can bet your life, Ken (Ken Margon, Managing Director of Cape Range Wireless),” he said in his speech, “I’ll be your super-salesman. I’ll go around the world like I sold palm oil, and I will make sure that everyone will now forget about palm oil, but will now have more ARCADIAN systems.” Following the meeting, a number of Ambassadors from African and Asian countries have organised visits by the relevant authorities of their countries to visit the Langkawi installation.
Yours faithfully
RON WISE Chairman
About Cape Range Wireless: Cape Range Wireless Ltd designs, manufactures and sells carrier class telecom equipment for the rural and remote markets. It is a cost efficient solution for voice, fax and broadband Internet access to remote communities including home subscribers, schools, medical clinics, Internet centres and payphones. It is developed to be easy to deploy and maintain in remote areas. Cape Range Wireless is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange and is headquartered in Malaysia.
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