Russia’s second biggest operator, VimpelCom, has merged with Egypt-based Orascom Telecom and investment vehicle Weather Investments, creating the world’s fifth largest mobile telecommunications carrier by subscribers.
Russian operator Vimpelcom and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom are reported to be close to finalising a deal to merge their telecoms assets. The merger would propel the newly created entity into the top ten largest mobile operators worldwide. The deal would also include Weather Investments, majority owned by Orascom chief Naguib Sawiris.
UAE operator Etisalat’s offer for a 46 per cent stake in Zain is a move that makes a lot of sense in terms of advancing Etisalat’s own expansion plans, according to analysts at Informa Telecoms & Media.
There are still titbits of the Nortel carcass to be had, with Ericsson this weekend striking a bargain to acquire the Canadian firm’s Multi-Service Switch business (MSS), boosting its presence in the CDMA market.
Mobile messaging provider Synchronica has acquired Canadian firm iseemedia for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition expands Synchronica’s reach into India, where iseemedia’s customers include mobile operators Tata and Reliance Communications and ISP Indiatimes Mail. The company has also developed document streaming technology, which it claims reduces bandwidth consumption when downloading email attachments by up to 90 per cent, whcih will be integrated into Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway.
Telekom Austria is to acquire 100 per cent stakes in the Bulgarian cable operators Megalan Network AD and Spectrum Net AD through its Bulgarian subsidiary M-Tel. Telekom Austria will pay €83m for the stakes.
A report in UK broadsheet The Sunday Times on September 12th claimed that Vodafone has placed a £7bn (US$10.78bn) price tag on its 44 per cent stake in French mobile carrier SFR. The report follows a reorganisation to Vodafone’s structure late last week, in which certain assets were left out of new portfolios, with management given a remit to “maximise shareholder value” from them.
US handset vendor Motorola looks set to increase its development of the Android platform with the recent acquisition of software and web application developer 280 North.
Finnish handset giant Nokia said Friday that it has acquired US-based mobile analytics firm Motally for an undisclosed sum. The firm has a platform for in-application tracking and reporting, designed to enable developers and publishers to optimize the development of their mobile applications through increased understanding of how users engage.
German chipset manufacturer Infineon has confirmed that it is close to reaching a deal over the sale of its Wireless Solutions division, for which Intel is thought to be the best match.
US carrier Sprint this week launched WiMAX in a handful of new metropolitan areas amid speculation that the firm is also considering an LTE strategy that could pave the way to a merger with T-Mobile USA.
The combined entity formed by UK mobile operators Orange and T-Mobile will be called Everything Everywhere, it was announced on Tuesday. We’re not sure about the name but both the Orange and T-Mobile brands will be maintained – a wise decision.
Apple added another string to its bow this week with the acquisition of a mobile search service which pitches itself as a “virtual digital assistant”.
PC giant HP has emerged as Palm’s saving grace, agreeing to pick up the struggling handset vendor for $1.2bn in cash.
ComCo, the Swiss Competition Commission has ruled that the merger of France Telecom’s Orange Switzerland with competitor Sunrise, owned by Denmark’s TDC, will not be allowed to go ahead. The regulatory authority said that the merger would give the firm too dominant a position in the Swiss market.
Distribution is one of the most important and yet overlooked factors determining success or failure in the African mobile market.
It is inevitable that the African market will go through a period of consolidation. Governments have distributed new mobile licenses liberally and profited as a result. So too have the consumers in most markets. Competition has led to a greater choice of provider and lower pricing, although not necessarily high quality.
Mobile operators in Africa are fortunate. Unlike in some of the world’s more developed markets, trust and familiarity are associated with many operators. The very fact that in many cases the mobile handset has empowered individuals means that mobile consumers often have a great affinity with the mobile operator brand.
In a marketplace in which operators are not just fighting for a share of a user’s communications wallet but for a share of that user’s entire spend, it is important that a new operator is able to offer something directly relevant to the addressable market.
Globally the prospects for WiMAX may have dimmed somewhat in the past couple of years, partly as a result of the strong growth of HSPA, which is often seen as a rival to WiMAX, and partly as a result of a lost appetite for network spending. But Africa still offers WiMAX technology a home.
What role will consumers expect telcos to play when COVID-19 is behind us?
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BBC tries to shame Vodafone into zero-rating Bitesize https://t.co/KLrHwJx5WG #ContentApplications #Operator
20 January 2021 @ 17:41:02 UTC
With calls for 5G and telecoms in trouble, it's time to reconsider company infrastructure https://t.co/ETcbf5z9Xr hhttps://t.co/oT89FRabB9
20 January 2021 @ 16:41:32 UTC
Nokia helps Mobily slice up its customer base on fixed wireless https://t.co/nrqGdpHhqM #5G #FWA
20 January 2021 @ 12:29:32 UTC
