Chunghwa plans Cambodia launch (Cambodia)
Chunghwa Telecom of Thailand plans to cooperate with Vietnamese operator Ciettel to offer telecoms services in Cambodia, according to Chairman and CEO Ho Chen Tan. ‘Chunghwa Telecom is working with Viettel to offer telecom services in Cambodia,’ Ho Chen told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview on the sidelines of a telecom conference in Hanoi. The telco currently owns a 30% in an internet data storage joint venture with Viettel and appears keen to further the relationship. Viettel, which is run by the Vietnam Ministry of Defence, is the only Vietnamese telecom company to have received permission to operate telecom services in Cambodia.Viettel was granted a 30-year GSM concession in December 2006 with 1800MHz spectrum; it has reportedly spent around USD27 million on new infrastructure, and hopes to launch services by the end of 2008.
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Vodafone frontrunner for stake in TM international – report (UK)
Vodafone has emerged as frontrunner to acquire a 25 percent stake in Telekom Malaysia’s internetional business, according to a report from the UK’s Times. TM International has stakes in mobile operators in nine Asian countries, including Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh, as well as Malaysian operator Celcom. In total it has 32 million subscribers. TM has received interest from a number of operators and private equity firms for a stake in the operation. It expects to complete the spin-off and a stock market listing of TM International by mid-2008. A stake of 25 percent is expected to sell for up to USD 3 billion. TM already has a marketing deal to sell BlackBerry services with the Vodafone brand. In response to the report, Telekom Malaysia issued a statement to the stock exchange saying it does not comment on speculation.
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Vodafone tipped to take stake in Telekom Malaysia’s RegionCo (Malaysia)
British broadsheet The Sunday Times is reporting that Vodafone is the frontrunner to buy a strategic 25% stake in the soon to spun-off wireless arm of Telekom Malaysia. Six weeks ago TM’s board announced it would radically reorganise its business in 2008, spinning off its domestic wireless arm Celcom and its international businesses to create a stand-alone unit (dubbed RegionCo) worth in the region of MYR28 billion (USD8.2 billion). The new company will comprise Celcom, as well as the group’s stakes in Excelcomindo (Indonesia), Dialog (Sri Lanka), TM International (Bangladesh), MobileOne (Singapore), Spice Communications (India), Telekom Malaysia International (Cambodia) and Mobile Telecommunications of Esfahan (Iran). Under the new set-up RegionCo will focus on overseas expansion in high growth markets, as a pure-play wireless operator. ‘In anticipation of a sale, TM has been courted by a range of foreign operators and private-equity firms,’ the Sunday Times said. Vodafone already has a branding deal with Celcom.
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TM decouples to produce a regional mobile player (Malaysia)
The Telekom Malaysia Group (TM) has announced the demerger of its cellular unit, Celcom, from the group’s fixed voice and broadband business. TM says this is to permit greater transparency, accountability and management focus.
Celcom will be absorbed into Telekom Malaysia International’s (TMI) umbrella of mobile assets in ten countries across the region, which is to be headed by current TM Group CEO, Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar.
The regional and mobile-focused holding company RegionCo will comprise TMI and Celcom and will then be spun-off from Telekom Malaysia Berhad and be listed separately during the first half of 2008, possibly with a strategic foreign partner from the US, Europe or the Middle East.
TMI has made various acquisitions in recent years and it now owns stakes in several mobile operators across the region including PT XL (Indonesia), Dialog Telekom (Sri Lanka), Aktel
(Bangladesh), M1 (Singapore), Spice (India), TMI (Cambodia) and MTCE (Iran). The listing of TMI will allow the company greater flexibility in obtaining financial resources for expanding its regional mobile business.
TM or FixedCo is to be headed by Zamzamzairani Isa and has been identified as a participator in the Public-Private Partnership project to roll-out high speed broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. The ecost of the xercise is believed to amount up to RM15.2 billion, with 33 per cent being contributed by the Malaysian government.
Besides touting FixedCo as focusing on domestic broadband growth, TM released a statement saying that FixedCo remains focused in enhancing international connectivity within the region. This , it says, will help establish Malaysia as a regional Internet Protocol hub, serving as a digital gateway for Southeast Asia. FixedCo is described as the second largest ISP in south east Asia.
TM is also leading the Asia-America Gateway consortium and it is building an IP hub in collaboration with Verizon, both are due to be operational before the end of the year. With these two facilities in place, Malaysia will be able to peer with Tier 1 ISPs in the region, besides as well as encouraging content hosting in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
However, an anonymous source comments, It would appear the AAG will fall under RegionCo (and Wahid) given the separations of the Lines of Businesses.†Other observers note that the separation of fixed and mobile businesses seems to be bucking the trend of fixed and mobile convergence seen so often elsewhere in the world.
TM says, All FMC benefits can still be realised through arms-length agreements post-demerger.†However, splitting Celcom from TM may inevitably pose challenges for TM in attempting effectively to bundle fixed, broadband and mobile services, particularly via integrated sales, branding and customer support.
Further details such as group debt allocation between the two new entities, capital management strategies and expected capital expenditure have yet to be made public but are expected by the first quarter of 2008. When reached for comment, Dato’ Shazalli Ramly stated, “I am the status quo… still CEO of Celcom…so it’s business as usual.â€
Both RegionCo and FixedCo remain state-owned with stakes of 40 per cent held by Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian government’s investment holding arm.
NTT DoCoMo establishes office in Vietnam (Vietnam)
Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has established an office in Hanoi, Vietnam. DoCoMo will use the Hanoi office to explore business opportunities, and strengthen relationships with government officials and corporate executives in the Vietnamese market. The office, operated by a staff of four, will also have oversight for Laos and Cambodia. This is the company’s fourth overseas office, joining existing facilities in Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore.
The rural revolution(Vietnam)
In the remote agricultural province of Lao Cai in Vietnam a few shared community phones are being replaced with high-speed WiMAX broadband connections and VoIP telephony for thousands of residents. In rural Cambodia, a new 3G/UMTS mobile network is being deployed for delivery of high-bandwidth wireless services, including live streaming of mobile TV channels. In rural India, farmers can monitor crop prices and place orders for goods electronically by visiting broadband “community centers” that are taking root around the country.
All are examples of a “rural revolution” enveloping less-developed countries in Asia and around the world, made possible by advanced telecommunications technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G. This revolution is bringing high-speed Internet access and next-generation telephony to millions of users who previously had little or no access to even the most basic telecoms services. Local service providers, working in partnership with large multinational telecoms companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Nokia-Siemens and others, are stretching the boundaries of the telecom grid to encompass even the most distant and remote areas. Often, they are also working with national and regional government officials who view the new services as a way to bolster economic development and empower local citizens.
“There’s a big digital divide developing between cities and rural areas in many countries,” explains Nathan Burley, an analyst with Ovum based in Melbourne. “Governments are becoming aware of this digital divide, and they are trying to connect the unconnected.” At the same time, Burley adds, many operators face customer market saturation in urban areas, so they are pushing out into rural regions to capitalize on new growth opportunities. Large telecoms vendors face much the same challenge as developed markets mature. And there are plenty of places to turn for economic development funds, especially for projects in remote rural regions.
“We are starting to see increases in [rural telecom] deployments,” says Phillip Marshall, VP of enabling technologies for Yankee Group. “In the lion’s share of cases, the primary drivers are political initiatives to bridge the digital divide, municipal and local government initiatives, and support from economic development funds like the World Bank and USTDA (the US Trade and Development Agency).”
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Altimo buys Sotelco
According to a report by C.News, Russian investment company Altimo, part of the powerful Alfa Group, has bought a 90% stake in Sotelco, a Cambodian GSM-900/1800 and WiMAX licensee. Altimo has not reported the price it paid, nor the seller’s name. According to a person familiar with the situation, Altimo will resell the stake to its mobile operating arm Vimpelcom. Little is known of Sotelco; it is though likely that it was granted its wireless concession only recently and has not yet become operational. At present there are three wireless operators in Cambodia: CamGSM (owned by Millicom International Cellular), Cambodia Shinawatra (owned by the Thai Shin Corp) and Telekom Malaysia International Cambodia.
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FASTTAKES: Hutchison, Essar, Satyam Computer
Hutchison Telecom signs a deal to use NEC’s mobile Internet platform for Hutchison’s i-mode service in Hong Kong. The NEC platform is an integrated solution composed of subsystems such as gateways, mail server systems and portal systems which incorporate multi-operator functions, NEC said.
Essar Group discloses that it is planning to launch mobile services in Cambodia as part of a joint venture. The firm said however that some issues still have to be sorted out,†like the allocation of spectrum, and license application.
Satyam Computer and Oracle Asia Pacific announce a strategic alliance that will help enterprises in the Asia Pacific region jumpstart business intelligence (BI) implementations. According to industry analyst, the market for BI in Asia platform market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.6%.
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Telekom Malaysia to acquire stake in Spice
In a bid to enter India’s attractive telecommunication market, Malaysia’s biggest telecom company, Telekom Malaysia Bhd. has said it is in ‘preliminary discussions’ with India’s Spice Telecom Ltd. to buy a stake in it. The move comes barely a month after its rival Maxis bought a stake in Tamil Nadu’s Aircel. Telekom Malaysia’s wholly owned unit, TM International Sdn. Bhd., is currently in preliminary discussions for a stake. This is consistent with TM’s continued interest in India, which would complement its other South Asian investments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Telekom Malaysia has investments in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Telekom Malaysia missed a chance to enter the lucrative Indian telecommunications market when regulatory requirements forced it to abandon an earlier deal to buy India’s Idea Cellular Ltd. With growth in Malaysian mobile market set to see a dip, both Telekom and its rival Maxis is looking a broad for further expansion.
