Safaricom may see “dip” in revenue: CEO
Kenya’s biggest mobile-network operator, Safaricom Ltd., has declared that it is not going to lose market leadership and will readily keep margins while competitors lower call charges.
The stock grew as much as 4.1% before dealing 2% higher in Nairobi.
According to Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph, the biggest company by market value in Kenya, Safaricom may report a “dip” in revenue but profit will be little changed in the fiscal year to March 2011 after Bharti Airtel’s Zain Kenya unit, Essar Telecom Kenya Ltd. and Telkom Kenya Ltd. lowered prices in August. Margins are blessed and rivals’ call rates are not sustainable.
Safaricom saw a profit of US$190 million in the year through March, and the median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is for net income in fiscal 2011 to rise 21%
According to Aly-Khan Satchu, an independent analyst based in Nairobi, the media blitz by Zain had scared everybody. The company is at the tail end of the overreaction by investors and it is rebounding from here.
France Telecom dismisses TeliaSonera acquisition rumors
France Telecom SA once again made it clear that it has no plans to acquire Swedish telecoms operator TeliaSonera AB.
According to the spokesperson for the company, there are rumors on the market that France Telecom is interested in a merger with TeliaSonera. They are totally unfounded. France Telecom showed interest in acquiring the Swedish operator in 2008, but no agreement was reached. The French company no longer has such plans.
Qtel’s Nawras plans to raise $608Mn in IPO
Oman’s Nawras, the second largest Mobile operator in Oman and a company controlled by Qatar Telecommunications has announced that it is planning to raise up to $608 million.
According to the company, Nawras has set a price range of 702 baisas to 902 baisas for a share and the book-building process for the sale will start on Sept. 15 for a period of one month. The sale will raise US$471 million to US$608million. Retail investors will initially subscribe at the higher end of the range. Any refunds will depend on the final pricing and allocation of shares to investors.
The IPO is the first in Oman this year and the seventh in Gulf Arab countries after six from Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy. Final share price for the IPO will be determined on October 24 and the shares will be listed on the Muscat bourse on October 27. Morgan Stanley and BankMuscat are handling the bookrunning process. Nawras could become the fifth-largest listed company on the Muscat bourse when it starts trading on October 27, with a market capitalisation of up to OR586m.
According to Chief Executive Officer Ross Cormack, Nawras is in touch with 150 institutional investors across the Middle East and Europe. The Omani phone provider plans to sell 30% of the shares to institutional investors and the rest to retail investors.
Russia, Vietnam collaborate for trial LTE. Over $400 Mn to be invested in total..
If reports are to be believed, Russian company Antares has signed a deal with Vietnam Data Communications to build a trial Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Vietnam. Antares is planning to invest a total of US$2 million in the 4G network.
Vietnam Data Communications will take the relevant license, and will take the responsibility for network equipment, which will apparently be supplied by China’s Huawei.
According to CEO of Antares, Andrey Glukhov, testing of 15 LTE base transceiver stations will begin in Hanoi on 20 October, and will run for a period of two to three months.
According to Glukhov, in the next phase, the firm will invest US$ 27 million in the establishment of a joint venture controlled by Wagner. Although under Vietnamese law foreign firms are, at present, restricted to owning no more than 49% of a local company. The company is sure it will be able to resolve the issue. In total, Glukhov estimates that the LTE network will require a total investment of US$400 million.
MTN, Telkom interconnect dispute to be heard by the regulator, ICASA (South Africa)
The telecoms regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) will hear an interconnection agreement dispute between Telkom SA and MTN today.
According to Paseka Maleka, the spokesman for the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), apparently there’s a party that doesn’t want to ink the agreement. The authority also wants to get transparency.
According to ICASA, it had received notification on June 23 from Telkom of a dispute with MTN after they failed to agree on the terms and conditions of interconnection.
The matter was referred to ICASA’s complaints and compliance committee (CCC) for hearing and adjudication
Taiwan to spend over $219 million on 4G technology
Taiwan is planning to spend around US$219.3 million over the next four years to increase the growth of telecom technologies. The project is approved by the Council for economic Planning and Development, the island’s top economic planning body.
According to Chou Chung-pin of the Industrial Development Bureau, an agency under the economic ministry, part of the money will be used to encourage local private companies to develop key parts for the WiMAX network.
The companies concerned with the projects will have to give up to 80% of the cost, with the balance covered by funding from the government
T-Mobile pays $380,000 for settlement to Columbia
T-Mobile has paid US$380,203.76 as the terms of settlement to the Columbia City Council.
According to the City Attorney Fred Boeckmann, the settlement came as part of a class action lawsuit that several Missouri cities first filed in St. Louis County several years ago.
According to reports, the suit aimed to collect back taxes from T-Mobile and many other wireless phone companies. Missouri municipalities have had a longstanding dispute with wireless phone companies over whether these companies are subject to the same business license taxes as landline telephone companies.
According to City Communications Director Toni Messina, the Missouri Municipal League, a group that lobbies for and represents its member cities, helped earn five or six settlements in several cities. Missouri Municipal League carried the water on this in several cities.
According Boeckmann, Cities throughout Missouri have reached settlements not only with T-Mobile, but with other major carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. The St. Louis County circuit court must accept the settlement at the Oct. 19 hearing, before the more than $380,000 will be released and added to Columbia’s general fund.
Google Instant announced. Mobile version coming this fall. (VIDEO)
Google’s logo was trying to depict what Google might announce today. As one typed, the Google logo turned from a dull grey to a coloured logo as one typed letters in search. Clever portrayal!
The news is out and Google instant hopes to save the world almost 3.5 Billion seconds! Google Says that Google Instant can save two to five seconds per search, and if everyone uses it globally, it could save 3.5 billion seconds a day.
There is search-as-you-type, i.e search results appear as you type! Google says instant is NOT THAT! Google Instant is search-before-you-type.
Search is now an AJAX application for Google. It’s traditionally been an HTML experience. Google sends autocomplete requests to servers, and its servers then reply with both predictions and search results.
Given that it is hugely browser dependent, the impact of this could be huge for Mobile searches, where keying in each letter is an exercise. We look forward to seeing a Mobile version of this launched sooner rather than later.
Update: Google has announced that the Mobile search will be launched this fall. 
The testing address for the Mobile version is here: http://jmt20.google.com/m?sky=psy
This link is straight from the presentation at the Google event today and was lifted by tc. Thanks Techcrunch!
Telekom Malaysia to sell 15.4% stake in MEASAT
Telekom Malaysia has decided to sell its 15.4% stake in satellite operator MEASAT Global Bhd. for MYR 252.1 Million to billionaire Ananda Krishnan, a famous Malaysian businessman and the Sole Proprietor of MAI Holdings Sdn Bhd, Chairman of Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd & Maxis Communication Berhad.
According to Telekom, the sale represents an opportunity to monetize its investment, adding that proceeds raised from the sale will be used for working capital purposes.
Ananda offered to takeover minority shareholders for US$ 1.349 (MYR 4.20) per share in July this year. Telekom’s approval increased the chances of Ananda’s move to take the company private.
MEASAT was incorporated as Malayan Tobacco Company Limited in 1956 but later due to a reverse take-over exercise by MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd in 2002, the company changed its name to MEASAT Global Bhd to reflect the core business of MEASAT Group as the owner of Malaysia’s sole licensed regional satellite system.
Telefónica Chile to invest US$2.5 billion
Telef³nica Chile has announced that it is planning to invest US$ 2.5bn over the next four years in rolling out a nationwide Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network covering over 700,000 homes.
The first phase of the project will be done in the Biobo region covering more than 50,000 homes, including cities like Talcahuano, Los ngeles, Chill¡n and Concepci³n.
According to C©sar Alierta, President of Telef³nica Chile, with this investment, Chile will be right at the cutting edge of technology and will be equal to countries like South Korea and Australia, which now have high-speed fibre-optic networks on a massive scale. The company has symbolically decided to start in Concepci³n as it will visit the region in the days after the recent earthquake, and what they saw there affected them deeply.
This new network will be able to deliver speeds of around 40 Mbps and 100 Mbps, more than three times higher than those currently available on the market.
