Telefonica’s increased control on Telecom Italia dismissed by the shareholders
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Shareholders of Telefonica in the Telco consortium that holds a major stake in Telecom Italia rubbished the reports of the plans to sell their shares to Spanish incumbent. The dismissal came amidst the reports in an Italian newspaper that the three shareholders have agreed to sell their shares in the Telco group to Telefonica, although no formal agreement for the same has been reached.
It was also reported that Assicurazioni Generali, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca would sell for either €2.2 per share or €2.6 per share. While the former is the price following the group’s recent devaluation, the latter is the price initially written on their balance sheets when they joined Telco in 2007.
If the report would have been true, Telefonica could have gained the control of Telco’s stake in Telecom Italia, which now stands at 22.4%, following Benetton’s withdrawal last year.
Aircel keenly interested in Indian 3G auction
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The stiffening of the competition in the fast growing Indian telecom market has made the telecom operator Aircel highly interested in the upcoming 3G auction. This will help the company to offer premium-priced multimedia capabilities such as email and video on their mobile phones and the high-speed services that the bandwidth allows is expected to attract users willing to pay a premium.
74% of the company is owned by Malaysia’s Maxis Communications Bhd and the balance 26% stake in Aircel is owned by India’s Apollo Hospitals group. The company operates in 18 of India’s 22 telecom service areas.
Aircel’s talks are on with three companies to sell its tower operations; however, the names of the companies are not disclosed. The deal may be finalized in six to eight weeks. Bharti Infratel, which is the tower arm of Bharti Airtel Ltd., American Tower Corp., and Wireless TT Infoservices Ltd are some of the companies reported by the media to be interested in buying Aircel’s towers.
Viettel eyes 60% stake in Teletalk (Bangladesh)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vietnamese telecom operator Viettel has shown interest in a tie up with Teletalk, a Bangladeshi state-owned mobile firm. According to Bangladeshi Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, Teletalk has received a proposal from Viettel for a partnership; however, the talk of the deal has not yet started.
Viettel is eyeing 60% stake in Teletalk for USD300 million while a government committee is scrutinizing the plan to give a ‘positive nod’ to the sale of a majority stake to Viettel.
Nexus One smartphone unveiled by Google
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nexus One, Google’s first mobile phone has been launched by the company along with its own web store to market the device. The online cost of the device will be USD 529 while a subsidized version for USD 179 will be offered by T-Mobile USA with a two-year service plan.
The CDMA version of the phone developed by Google will be soon offered by Verizon Wireless in the US. Besides, the handset will also be launched shortly in the UK and other European markets in 2010.
Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and a 3.7-inch Amoled touch screen are some of the exclusive features of HTC made Nexus One. Besides, this 130g, 11.5mm phone also features a 5 megapixel camera with auto zoom, GPS, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, a 4GB memory card expandable to 32 GB, trackball navigation, HSPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Android 2.1 operating system runs the phone along with the full range of Google services installed, access to the Google Market, speech recognition for voice commands and integrated messaging and contacts list.
Online orders will be taken from the US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore initially and the company plans expand its web store to more countries in future.
