http://www.telecompaper.com/ Business information about the telecom industry, an extensive overview of telecom-related articles http://www.telecompaper.com/images/Logos/logotph40w225.gif http://www.telecompaper.com/ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717485 (Telecompaper) British Sky Broadcasting Group has sold 404.3 million ITV shares, or 10.4 percent of ITV, in accordance with Sky's agreement with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Sky placed the shares with Morgan Stanley Securities at GBP 48.50 per ITV share, representing a total of GBP 196 million. Sky intends to retain its residual 7.5 percent stake in ITV for the medium term. BSkyB bought a 17.9 percent stake in ITV in 2006 for GBP 940 million, effectively blocking cable operator Virgin Media from buying ITV. The matter was referred to the Competition Commission in 2007, and in 2008 BSkyB was ordered to cut its stake to below 7.5 percent. Since then, it has been through a series of appeals, all of which it lost. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717485 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:26:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717477 (Telecompaper) Tele2 reported fourth-quarter sales down 1 percent from a year earlier to SEK 9.889 billion. The company attributed the fall to the sale of its fixed-line operations in Norway earlier last year. EBITDA improved slightly to SEK 2.188 billion from SEK 2.162 billion a year earlier, as improvements at the fixed broadband activities were offset by higher spending for the expansion in Russia. Net profit rose to SEK 865 million from SEK 690 million. Capex declined to SEK 1.017 billion from SEK 1.328 billion, and free cash flow juimped to SEK 1.653 billion from 704 million a year earlier. Tele2 increased its dividend to SEK 3.85 per share from SEK 3.50 and said it wall pay an extraordinary dividend of SEK 2.00 per share based on proceeds from divestments last year. The company said its renewed focus on mobile was paying off, led by growth in Russia and the Nordic markets, while its Western European markets were showing a turnaround in performance. Customer growth jumped to 887,000 net additions in the quarter, from 298,000 a year earlier, for a total base of 26.579 million at year-end. Mobile led the way with 1.045 million new customers, of which 25,000 were mobile internet subscribers. The increase was supported by the launch of services in ten new regions in Russia during the period, where Tele2 added 1.149 million new customers. The fixed broadband customer base fell by 10,000, mainly due to a reclassification of customers in Austria, while the loss of fixed-line telephony subscribers slowed to 148,000. Tele2 said its sharp focus on costs will continue in 2010, and the company forecast an annual capex budget of SEK 4.6-4.8 billion. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717477 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:09:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717482 (Telecompaper) Mexican media group Televisa has requested the antitrust agency CFC's approval to acquire a stake in the local unit of mobile operator NII Holdings. The Federal Competition Commission has been notified by both companies of their intention to undertake this acquisition, an unnamed person within the FCC told Dow Jones Newswires. According to the same source, the CFC has 30 days to approve or deny the acquisition. NII Holdings, which operates in Latin America under the Nextel brand name, had around 2.9 million customers in Mexico at the end of September 2009, and a mobile market share of 3.6 percent. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717482 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:05:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717430 (Telecompaper) Jordan Telecom Group posted a 3.7 percent increase in net profit for 2009 to JOD 104 million as it captured market share in mobile and data services. The group, in which France Telecom owns a 51 percent stake, said revenue fell 0.3 percent to JOD 400.1 million. Its fixed-line, internet and data services subscriber base rose 9.2 percent to 2.75 million as of December 2009 compared with a year before. The statement showed revenue from Jordan Telecom's fixed and internet services fell 1 percent in the year to JOD 219.1 million, while revenue from mobile unit Orange rose 0.6 percent to JOD 181 million. Jordan Telecom has nearly 2 million mobile subscribers or over 30 percent of the Jordanian market. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717430 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:56:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717452 (Telecompaper) Russian and CIS operator Vimpelcom has launched its exchange offer to holders of VimpelCom shares and American Depositary Shares (ADSs). The new company Vimpelcom Ltd will offer depositary shares representing VimpelCom shares (DRs) or a nominal cash amount in exchange for VimpelCom securities. Following the exchange offer completion, VimpelCom plans to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kyivstar, in exchange for VimpelCom DRs. The offer is part of the plan to merge Telenor and Alfa's holdings in Vimpelcom and Ukraine into a new company, Vimpelcom Ltd. While Telenor and Alfa have committed their holdings in Vimpelcom to the offer, the deal is dependent on 95 percent of Vimeplcom shares tendered in the public offer. Telenor and Altimo expect to complete the deal by mid-year. Under the proposals, Alfa will own 38.5 percent and Telenor 38.8 percent of the new company. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717452 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:14:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717408 (Telecompaper) Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) saw its combined regional mobile customer base rise to 285 million at end-2009, an increase of 23 percent, or 52 million, from a year ago. Bharti (India) added 8.4 million mobile customers in the quarter, up from 8.1 million a quarter ago. Its mobile customer base grew to 118.9 million. Indonesian operator Telkomsel saw its mobile customer base grow by 25 percent, or 16.3 million from a year ago, to 81.6 million. Following two quarters of negative net additions as it churned out lower quality prepaid customers, Globe (Philippines) added 117,000 customers in the quarter. Globe had 23.2 million mobile customers at 31 December 2009, down 5.9 percent or 1.5 million, from a year ago. In Thailand AIS grew its mobile base to 28.8 million, up by 4.7 percent or 1.3 million. Warid (Bangladesh) grew its customer base by 11 percent, or 1.9 million, to 18.8 million, and PBTL (Bangladesh) gained 7.7 percent, or 139,000 more mobile customers, bringing its total customer base to 1.9 million. In Australia Optus added 164,000 postpaid customers, resulting in the postpaid customer base exceeding 4 million. During the quarter, Optus tightened its churn policy for customers who remained inactive after various recharge campaigns, and deactivated 272,000 prepaid customers. This resulted in a decline of 145,000 Optus prepaid customers with total prepaid customers of 4.2 million at the end of the year. The number of 3G customers increased to 3.34 million, an 8.7 percent increase from a quarter ago. In its home market SingTel gained 81,000 new customers in the quarter, bringing its total mobile customer base to 3.2 million, an increase of 8.1 percent from a year ago. The operator added 36,000 new postpaid customers, up from 30,000 in the previous quarter. SingTel gained 45,000 prepaid customers. SingTel's total 3G mobile customer base grew steadily by 65,000 in the quarter to 1.41 million. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717408 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:18:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717382 (Telecompaper) South Africa-based media group Naspers and Russian internet-investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) are in talks to merge their Polish online networks Gadu-Gadu and Nasza-klasa.pl, according to Russian business daily Kommersant. Nasza-Klasa.pl is Poland's leading social network with 27 million registered users, while Gadu-Gadu is an instant messaging service with 7 million users. Naspers, which owns Gadu-Gadu outright, is reportedly doing due diligence on Forticom, the DST-owned social network operator that bought a 75 percent stake in Nasza-Klasa.pl for USD 92 million in 2008. Naspers and DST already co-own Russia's top portal Mail.ru, together with Tiger Global. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717382 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:58:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717377 (Telecompaper) Kabel Deutschland launched its Docsis 3.0 broadband internet service, offering speeds of up to 100Mbps. The service is initially available in Hamburg and will spread to Munich, Berlin and Hanover within six months. The cable operator expects to eventually roll out Docsis 3.0 across its entire network. Customers can choose form two bundles of internet and phone service at 60 or 100 Mbps. The 60Mbps service costs EUR 32.90 per month for the first 12 months, and then increases to EUR 39.90. The 100Mbps will sell for EUR 42.90 per month in the first year of a contract and then rise to EUR 49.90. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717377 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:53:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717341 (Telecompaper) The European Commission has approved a record number of broadband projects since the adoption in September 2009 of the guidelines for the assessment of broadband projects under EU state aid rules. Aiming to support economic recovery and the long term competitiveness of Europe, the guidelines provide an overview on how the EU member states can support broadband networks without distorting competition in the single market. Since September 2009, the EC has endorsed nearly EUR 300 million of public funding to support the deployment of broadband networks. These projects allow to channel public funds to areas where private operators have no commercial incentives to invest and stimulate competition and choice for consumers by ensuring open access of all service providers to the subsidised networks. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717341 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:02:00 +0100 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717316 (Telecompaper) Orange Tunisia made the first call over its 3G network on 4 February at an event attended by government ministers and journalists, writes Tekiano. The official technical inauguration of the network meets the new operator's obligation to have the network up and running within six months of obtaining its licence last August. The commercial launch of the mobile network is expected in April. The company told attendees that a pilot service will begin with employees of ISP Planet on 18 March, followed by a commercial launch a few weeks later. Orange's numbers will start with 5. The operator announced that its network would offer video telephony, mobile TV via WAP and video surveillance services. Customers with UMTS dongles will have a guaranteed minimum bandwidth of 1 Mbps. The operator aims for its 3G network to cover 98 percent of the population by the end of 2011. Discussions are underway for Orange Tunisie to secure the distribution licence for the Apple iPhone in Tunisia. On the broadband front, Orange Tunisie expects to start providing services by unbundling 61 Tunisie Telecom exchanges at the start of 2011, rising to 93 two years later. It will also operate an over 400 km fibre backbone. Orange Tunisie plans to invest TND 1 billion by 2015 and to have over 1,500 employees by the end of 2010. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=717316 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:23:00 +0100