CommsUpdate
TeleGeography's free daily email summary of the world’s top telecom news stories.
15 Mar 2013
WIRELESS
Arcep gives green light to Bouygues for 1800MHz LTE
French telecoms regulator Arcep has said that it will allow Bouygues Telecom to refarm spectrum in the 1800MHz band, currently used for 2G GSM services. The decision means that the... more
Viva launches LTE to all customers
Following the launch of a limited Long Term Evolution (LTE) network last year, Viva Kuwait has announced that its 4G service is now available to all customers. The cellco says... more
Tesco, Telefonica O2 CR to launch MVNO service
The UK-based retail chain Tesco has reportedly inked a deal with Telefonica’s Czech mobile operation to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in the country. Reuters cites a... more
Digicel Bermuda launches new pre-paid plan
Mobile operator Digicel Bermuda has launched a new offer for its pay-as-you-go customers, dubbed the ‘Digicel Prepaid Daily Plan’. The new plan offers users a voice call, SMS and data... more
NT sets May launch date for new convergent billing system
State-owned fixed and mobile operator Nepal Telecom (NT) has set May 2013 as the date it will roll out a new convergent real-time billing system in the country, allowing subscribers... more
Roshan bags USD65m loan for 3G rollout
Telecom Development Company Afghanistan, which operates under the ‘Roshan’ brand name, has secured funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support the rollout of its 3G network, Afghan news... more
New players call for fresh spectrum auction
New entrants to the Costa Rican wireless market Movistar and Claro – subsidiaries of LatAm giants Telefonica and America Movil (AM) respectively – have called for the government to auction... more
21 March new deadline for multi-band auction documentation
Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has revised its timetable for the upcoming mobile licence auction in the 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands. The TRA intends to provide registrants with... more
CSL goes misty eyed over cloud services
Hong Kong cellco CSL sees great opportunities in the cloud segment, with a string of recent launches of its own cloud services driven by 4G LTE mobile service take-up on... more
Regulator assigns 900MHz, 1900MHz, 1700MHz/2100MHz spectrum
Uruguay’s telecoms regulator, Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones (URSEC), has awarded mobile spectrum to the country’s three wireless network operators, following a tender process for frequencies in the 900MHz,... more
BROADBAND
NBN Co selects Visionstream for fibre rollout in eastern states
NBN Co, the company overseeing the construction and management of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), has awarded a contract to Visionstream, a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings Limited, for the rollout... more
Denmark eyes minimum upload speeds of 30Mbps
The Danish government has outlined 22 initiatives aimed at improving mobile coverage and broadband services, reports Telecompaper. Arguably the most eye-catching proposal is the government's bid to achieve a minimum... more
35% of Guadeloupe residents have ‘degraded’ broadband, 3% have no internet
According to a recently published study by online journal www.franceantilles.fr 35% of Guadeloupe residents suffer from a so-called ‘degraded’ broadband service, while 3% of the population remain ineligible. The website... more
FastIraq selects Epsilon for last mile connectivity
Epsilon Telecommunications, a provider of global managed wholesale telecoms networking for carriers and service providers, has been selected by Iraqi network operator FastIraq to provide international connectivity and local access... more
Ciena upgrades SEACOM, FA-1 South submarine networks
Mauritius-based submarine cable network operator SEACOM has selected Ciena Corporation’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and OneControl Unified Management System for the upgrade of its undersea fibre network across the Southern and... more
WIRELINE
Orange to increase line rental across overseas territories from June
According to Dom-Tom ADSL, a website focusing on telecoms activities in the French overseas territories, France Telecom-Orange’s regional subsidiaries in the French West Indies region and Reunion and Mayotte in... more
CORPORATE/FINANCIAL
Ziggo pays EUR18m for Esprit Telecom, paper says
Dutch cable operator Ziggo has purchased smaller rival Esprit Telecom for a cash consideration of around EUR18 million (USD23.3 million) from the Detron ICT & Telecom Group, Telecompaper reports without... more
Vivendi cancels GVT sale plan
The Wall Street Journal reports that French media to telecommunications conglomerate Vivendi has put on hold its plan to sell its Brazilian operation, Global Village Telecom (GVT), throwing a spanner... more
Batelco in talks to acquire a stake in Globalcom
Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) has begun talks with Reliance Communications (RCOM) to purchase a stake in the latter’s submarine cable arm Reliance Globalcom, the Economic Times reports, citing Batelco chief... more
Airtel plots Nairobi IPO to meet local ownership requirements
Airtel Kenya plans to sell at least a 15% stake to local shareholders through the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in order to meet long-standing local ownership limits stipulated by the... more
AccessKenya 2012 revenues up 9%
Internet service provider (ISP) AccessKenya has reported revenues of KES1.90 billion (USD21.9 million) for the twelve months ended 31 December 2012, up 9% from KES1.74 billion in 2011. The telco... more
Credit Suisse sells MegaFon shares for USD48m
According to Bloomberg, Credit Suisse Group has placed 1.55 million depositary receipts in Russian mobile giant MegaFon, selling a stake worth about USD48 million. In November 2012 MegaFon successfully completed... more
Videotron's cable broadband revenues up 10.6%
Quebec-based quadruple-play cableco Videotron, part of the Quebecor group, has reported its annual results for 2012, in which total revenues grew by 8.4% to CAD2.64 billion (USD2.57 billion) and operating... more
MISCELLANEOUS
MTN tax evasion case dropped
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has withdrawn a case against South African-backed MTN Uganda accusing the operator of tax evasion. IT News Africa writes that the charges were dropped... more