Textio

China – Vodafone sold its stake in China Mobile for USD 6.6 billions

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:54 +0000

[economic times] Vodafone, the world’s largest telecommunications operator by revenue, said on Tuesday it sold its 3.2 per cent stake in China Mobile for $6.6 billion. The sale was part of Vodafone’s new strategy to exit non-strategic minority investments, which analysts and investors believe have weighed on the company’s overall value in recent years. Vodafone [...]

Thailand – Operators to be fined THB 166,667 per day for failing to provide mobile number portability

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:52 +0000

[bangkok post] The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will start imposing a daily fine of 166,667 baht on each of the five telecom companies from Friday for failing to offer mobile number portability (MNP) service. The fine will be charged on a double-scalable method each month, meaning the fine will be 333,334 baht in the second [...]

Thailand – Only three firms met the pre-bid qualification for the 3G auction to be conducted by the NTC

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:50 +0000

[bangkok post] In a huge, shock surprise, the three biggest yuppiephone companies were the only survivors in the pre-bid qualification for the country’s first three third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences; in the biggest anti-climax since the failure of the national team to reach the World Cup, Advanced Info Service, Dtac and True Move strode into [...]

Australia – the NBN was a key to convincing independents to back ALP

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:47 +0000

[the australian] Labor’s $43 billion National Broadband Network helped save it from a first-term defeat, convincing two independents to back Julia Gillard. Under a deal struck with Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, Ms Gillard has promised to prioritise the roll-out of the NBN to country people ahead of those in major cities. The Prime Minister [...]

India – Official asked law ministry for advice on CAG’s proposed audit of spectrum "scam"

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:43 +0000

[times of india] Less than a month before he became CVC, P J Thomas had, in his earlier avatar as telecom secretary, signed a note seeking law ministry’s opinion on whether CAG can audit 2G spectrum scam on the ground that it was all about policy formulation. The note dated August 12, along with the [...]

Italy – Swisscom has bought the last remaining shares to take full control of Fastweb

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:42 +0000

[reuters] Swiss phone company Swisscom AG said on Wednesday it had launched a takeover offer for the shares of its Italian Fastweb unit it does not already own and aims to delist the company. The Swiss operator said the “full takeover will give Swisscom greater strategic and operational flexibility”, without elaborating. Swisscom, which owns 82 [...]

India – Vodafone lost its case in the Bombay Court, requiring it to pay for its purchase of Hutchison

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:39 +0000

[financial express] A court in India has dismissed a petition filed by Britain’s Vodafone against the country’s tax department, saying the department does have jurisdiction over tax bills in cross-border mergers. The petition is dismissed, one of the judges said in the ruling. The IT authority’s order cant be held to lack jurisdiction, he said. [...]

UK – regulator has allowed 3G operators to increase power of transmission, improving data throughput

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:30 +0000

[isp review] Ofcom has approved a request by all five of the UK’s primary mobile operators (Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Three) to increase the maximum in-band power limit for 3G mobile spectrum licences from 62dBm per carrier to 65dBm. The move could improve voice capacity, Mobile Broadband internet data throughput and in-building signal availability. [...]

India – Vodafone considering an appeal to the Supreme Court on its tax liability for acquiring Hutchison

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:29 +0000

[business-standard] Vodafone today said it is seeking legal advice to challenge the Bombay High Court order that dismissed its plea against the Income Tax (I-T) department’s Rs 12,000 crore demand in tax and penalty on the company’s acquisition of of Hutchison Telecom in a deal of about Rs 50,000 crore. Reacting to high court order [...]

Australia – NBN will cost significantly less than AUD 43 billion, 3,000 km of fibre has already been installed

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:48:17 +0000

[computer world] The National Broadband Network (NBN) will cost “significantly” less than the proposed $43 billion price-tag, according to the head of the company responsible for the fibre rollout in regional ‘blackspot’ communities. Nextgen networks was awarded the $250 million NBN regional backbone blackspot deal to rollout over 6,000 kilometres of fibre to regional areas [...]