BT sells 5.5% stake to Tech Mahindra (UK,India)
British Telecom (BT) Group has completed the sale of 5.5% (US$99.30 million) stake in Tech Mahindra. Following this sale, BT will have about 24.4% share holding in the joint venture. The sale accounts to about 6.9 million shares.
According to BT, Tech Mahindra remains a key supplier to BT and, while further sales may be considered in the future, BT expects to continue to have a shareholding in Tech Mahindra for some time.
Tech Mahindra which is formerly known as the Mahindra British Telecom (MBT) is a joint venture between the Mahindra Group and BT Group with Tech Mahindra holding 44% and BT holding 39% of the equity.
BT and M&M established a joint venture that became Tech Mahindra in 1986. Since that time, the Indian-listed business has grown to post annual revenues of above US$1 billion.
British Telecom to increase China operations
As per the managing director for British Telecom in the region, Kevin Taylor, British Telecom (BT) is planning to build more service centers in China, the world’s biggest mobile phone market, and to employ 300 staff in the Asia-Pacific region in the next 11 months.
According to Kevin Taylor, the company considered to expand their business in China partly due to it has more than 80% customers are investing in Asian countries, such as China.
Taylor made the remarks after his company’s British rival, Vodafone Group, announced on Sept 8 that it will offload its entire 3.2% shareholding in China’s biggest carrier, China Mobile, for $6.6 billion. The move is part of the company’s new push to shed its minority assets around the world. In addition, BT will strengthen its partnership with China Unicom (Hong Kong)
According to Chief Information Officer Clive Selley, on Sep. 11; BT announced that it will meet officials from China Telecom Corp Ltd to explore potential cooperation.
BT’s China operations are focused on serving business users, especially multinationals’ operations, which need globally networked services, such as virtual private networks.
BT vs Mobile operators: Latter wins (UK)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: If a T-Mobile customer will call a Vodafone customer, certain amount will be charged from you under the name of mobile termination fees, an extra charge for receiving the call from outside the network. But if you are a BT subscriber, the cost isn’t shouldered by you but by the network operator. This issue has been taken up by the UK regulatory body OFCOM. British Telecom (BT) is the largest land-line operator in the UK.
The first attempt to fix this problem was made in the year 2007 and in this April, OFCOM announced that mobile operators would have to reduce the amount they charge for a termination. But BT has appealed against this proposal citing it to be too little, too late and asking that more drastic cuts should be introduced.
BT’s appeal has been rejected by the court according to which it has no power over OFCOM – and OFCOM doesn’t seem prone to changing its mind. British Telecom (BT) is the largest land-line operator in the UK. With mobile becoming a preferred mode of communication when compared to landline phone, it has been opined that OFCOM’s preferential treatment to mobile operators is nothing to be surprised of.
India’s RCOM global asset sale generates little interest
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: India’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) offered its global assets for sale more than a month ago but has not yet received much interest for the package.
The initial late-January deadline for bids has already been extended by RCOM; still very few potential purchasers have stepped forward.
The three main units that are reportedly up for grabs are: California-based Yipes Holding, which provides high speed data network access to customers in US metros; Vanco, a British telecom services provider the Indian telco purchased in 2008 for USD77 million; and FLAG, which RCOM acquired in January 2004 for USD211 million. FLAG undersea network operates some 65,000km of undersea fibre-optic cable that is utilized for broadband operations across the world.
However, RCOM has denied that it is looking to sell any part of its global unit Reliance Globalcom.
BT, China’s ZTE sign contract to develop mobile TV handsets
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) – China’s ZTE Corporation and British Telecom (BT) Movio, the wholesale mobile entertainment service of BT PLC, have signed a contract to cooperate in developing handsets for mobile TV and digital audio broadcast (DAB) digital radio services, ZTE said in a statement on its website.
Under the agreement, the two firms will deliver multi-mode third generation (3G)/DAB-IP handsets which will allow mobile operators to deliver television and radio alongside existing 3G streamed services.
‘By using DAB-IP, mobile operators can move immediately to deploy mobile TV services and seize the lead in what is set to be the next major battleground for subscribers,’ said He Shiyou, senior vice president of ZTE Corporation and General Manager of the Handset Division.
Through the partnership, ZTE will become the first vendor worldwide to support DAB-IP technology in its 3G handsets, the company said.
Source- http://www.forbes.com
Technorati : 3G, BT, ZTE Corporation
Ice Rocket : 3G, BT, ZTE Corporation
