Prixtel to launch ADSL services at end-March (France)
French MNVO Prixtel’s chairman and founder David Charles has announced that the company will be launching an ADSL service at the end of the month. With this move, it will become the first French MVNO to launch such service, although bigger rivals, such as Virgin Mobile France have announced plans.
Prixtel, which had 100,000 mobile customers in the middle of 2010 and uses the SFR network, is expected to work with the same operator for its triple-play and quad-play services. It reportedly added 12,000 of the 52,300 new MVNO customers in the third quarter of 2010. In addition to converting its mobile users to fixed-line, the operator aims to increase its overall customer base to 250,000 by the end of the year.
Pricing and other information on the ADSL service is due to be released on 30th March.
STE plans new national data network (Syria)
The Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) is reportedly planning to build a new national data network (NDN). The NDN will be capable of carrying more than one million broadband connections, including a high number with ADSL technology.
According to reports, the telco is currently working on upgrading the current data network with the addition of 40,000 new portals to increase its capacity to 140,000, 90,000 of which are already in service.
Furthermore, STE is working hard to implement a new Regional Cable Network project with Jordan and Turkey. The move is part of a planned shift to next generation services which aims to provide advanced audio/ video and internet services through a modern fibre-optic system.
Virgin Mobile drpos mobile TV plans in France
Virgin Mobile will reportedly not launch mobile TV services as planned in France in the autumn, but instead will bring a quad-play package to market in September.
According to reports, the company, which already operates as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in France is planning to launch Virgin Box, which will offer fixed-line, Internet and TV services. The launch will take place on “la rentr©e”, the day the French return to work after the summer holidays.
As yet the company has not released details of whose ADSL network it will use to carry the services, nor has it provided more information on the box itself.
Meanwhile, Virgin Mobile has admitted that its plans to roll out DBV-H mobile TV services at a similar time this year will now not go ahead due to an increase in taxes.
According to reports, amongst other reasons, the service has been mothballed due to an increase in VAT on television services; Virgin Mobile stated that it had built its business plan for the service based on the lower rate. The MVNO also pointed to the lack of agreed standards for mobile TV.
As a result, the French press is expressing concerns over the viability of mobile TV in France altogether, pointing out that much now rests on the capabilities of 3G mobile networks to carry TV content and the ability of operators to shoulder the costs.
SLT boosts broadband speed (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the island’s biggest fixed line operator, has revealed that it has increased broadband speeds for customers after upgrading its international internet capacity and improving links with service providers.
The international internet backbone capacity serving SLT broadband customers has been increased by 30% and now data transfer speeds of over eight gigabits per second.
According to the company, SLT has improved its direct connectivity to global ISPs in Asia, Europe and USA as well as to the high rating social networking, web application and video service providers to offer improved internet and broadband experience to Sri Lankan customers.
It added that the changes in bandwidth control have increased the average data rates enjoyed by their customers by more than 200%, resulting in vast improvements in access to information and application performance. As a result of these changes its total internet traffic volume increased by more than 30% in just one month.
According to Greg Young, Chief Executive of SLT, the company’s customers have told them that they wanted improvements and they have responded positively with significant speed and quality improvements to cater to the exploding broadband demand for faster data speeds.
SLT added more than 80,000 new broadband (ADSL) customers during this year, connecting people from all parts of the country.
Telkom SA 1H EPS falls 5.3%
South African telecommunications company Telkom’s normalized headline earnings per share from continuing operations decreased by 5.3% to 265.7 cents for the six months ended September.
Normalized basic earnings per share from continuing operations decreased 6.8% to 260.2 cents per share.
According to the company, revenue declined 5.4% to US$2.50 billion. Voice revenue decreased 19% to US$980.35 million and data revenue increased 15% to US$795.64. ADSL subscribers increased 16% to 699,368.
FRANCE TELECOM: successfully closes its EUR 1 billion bonds tender offer and issues a 10-year bond for EUR 750 million
France Telecom successfully closes its EUR 1 billion bonds tender offer and issues a 10-year bond for EUR 750 million
The tender offer for bonds launched by France Telecom closed on 18 November with EUR 1.963 billion of orders received representing a high hit rate of 36% of the total targeted bonds (4.625% January 2012, 4.375% February 2012 and 7.25% January 2013).
In line with its initial objective, France Telecom has limited the amount of bonds bought back to EUR 1 billion (EUR 160 million due January 2012, EUR 416 million due February 2012 and EUR 424 million due January 2013).
Moreover, France Telecom has finalised the refinancing of this EUR 1 billion tender with the placement today of a EUR 750 million 10-year bond. This placement followed that of 16 November of a GBP 250 million 40-year bond swapped into EUR at 4.46%.
The conditions for this placement are as follows:
Currency Format Term Notional Coupon Re-offer spread
EUR Fixed rate January 2021 750 million 3.875 % m/s + 85 bp
This tender offer and the two new placements were carried out in line with the liability management strategy initiated by the Group one year ago with, in particular, the early redemption in September 2010 through a make-whole call of its 7.75%-USD bonds, which were due to reach maturity in March 2011. In total, this debt optimization strategy represents a volume of more than EUR 5 billion of bonds as of today and allows the Group to continue to take advantage of very low interest rates while extending its average debt maturity, which has now been increased by 0.6 years.
BNP Paribas, Cr©dit Suisse and Soci©t© G©n©rale acted as bookrunners of the EUR bond issue while BNP Paribas and Soci©t© G©n©rale acted as dealer managers of the tender offer.
About France Telecom
France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, had total sales of 44.8 billion euros in 2009 (33.7 billion euros for the first nine months of 2010). At 30 September 2010, the Group had a customer base of 203 million customers in 32 countries. Orange, the Group’s single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates, now covers over 131 million customers. At 30 September 2010, the Group had 144.5 million mobile customers and 13.3 million broadband internet (ADSL, FTTH) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.
With its industrial project, “conquests 2015″, Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development
France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.
For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.
