Though most analysts agree that HKT is making all the right moves, there is vigorous disagreement over whether its stock is fully valued. But Mr. Kapoor is wary of Singapore Telecom in the longer term. Expected competition next year in Singapore, he says, has not been fully reflected in the stock's price. That will change with competition beginning late next year or early 2001. Of the major Asian markets, the least enthusiastic toward new technology is Thailand.
Analysts say the state monopoly talks a good game about promoting IP telephony but little gets done.
Of course, no fixed-line phone company can afford to ignore cellular technology, especially in countries such as the Philippines, where many people who have never had a phone line leapfrog to a mobile phone. In Manila's more prosperous neighborhoods, Richard Moe, an SG Securities analyst, marveled as dozens of young people on the street used their mobile phones to send messages, using a free service the operator provides to attract subscribers. The best the old telecom companies can do is to be nimble and cost-effective as they ready for battle.