Hong Kong

Hutchison plans to delist from HKSE on May 25 (Hong Kong)

On 03.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been planned by Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd. on May 25. The company is also planning to delist itself from the New York Stock Exchange on June 4.

The moves will be implemented if parent company Hutchison Whampoa Ltd gets approval from a local court and shareholders to take the telecom services provider private for US$545 million.

Hutchison Whampoa and Hutchison Telecom will hold an extraordinary general meeting on the plan May 12, after a court meeting.

According to Hutchison Whampoa, a conglomerate controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, in January it had offered to take 60.4%-owned unit Hutchison Telecom private for HK$2.20 a share, to gain more control over how to restructure unprofitable telecom assets.

STT to buy stake in U Mobile & VNPT

On 03.12.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Malaysian cellco U Mobile stake will be taken up by Singapore Technologies Telemedia. The announcement for the strategic partnership agreement will be made by the two companies on Monday.

NTT DoCoMo and KTF were the earlier partners of U Mobile which exited the company and now ST Telemedia is widely expected to become the latest foreign investor in U Mobile.

10% stake in VNPT Global, the offshore arm of Vietnam’s VNPT Group has also been announced by ST Telemedia.

However, financial terms of the deal are still not disclosed. VNPT Global operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, USA and the Czech Republic.

Tagged with: ASIA • Czech Republic • Hong Kong • Malaysia • NTT DoCoMo • Singapore • Singapore Technologies Telemedia • ST Telemedia • USA • Vietnam • VNPT

Hutchison Telecom’s customer base reaches 12.8m

On 03.05.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an annual growth of approximately 98% on a like-for-like basis, 6.3 million customers has been added by Hong Kong based Hutchison Telecom, taking its customer base to approximately 12.8 million. The relaunch of the operators business in Vietnam and ongoing expansion of the network coverage in Indonesia paved the way for this massive expansion in the subscribers’ numbers.

Larger Indonesia operation and the revenue generated by the newly launched GSM services in Vietnam led to the rise in the revenue by 2.7% year-on-year to US$239 million. With the disposal of the Group’s entire indirect stake in Israel’s Partner Communications, ¬the net profit for the year increased from US$239 million to US$817 million.

According to Dennis Lui, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Telecom, 2009 saw the Group unlock significant shareholder value again and the company has created, maximized and delivered value for its shareholders over the five years since listing – an achievement that has been based on pursuing carefully chosen opportunities with a measured approach. Mr. Lui also revealed that Hutchison will continue to work on building out its principal growth markets to a fully competitive state.

Hutchison Whampoa, a majority shareholder in the company is currently in the process of being taken off the stock market.

Tagged with: ASIA • GSM • Hong Kong • Hutchison • Hutchison Telecom • Hutchison Whampoa • Indonesia • Israel • operator • Partner Communications • Vietnam

SmarTone’s revenue falls and EBITDA rises by 7% (Hong Kong)

On 03.05.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 7% year-on-year decrease in the total revenue for the six months ended December 31, 2009 has been released by Hong Kong-based cellco SmarTone. Lower handset and accessory sales, and a 2% decline in services revenue brought the revenue to USD233 million.

As a result of the reduction in interconnection charges and cost control measures, 7% growth in the EBITDA has been recorded while the net profit increased by 112% to HKD111 million. 8% rise in the customer numbers has also been recorded, reaching to 1.231 million as of December 31, 2009. Out of this, 70% were post-paid customers.

Post-paid churn rate improved to 1.5% from 2.0% and blended ARPU fell by 7% to HKD214 in the six-month period compared to HKD230 a year earlier. The trend reflects continued downward pressure on local tariffs and lower roaming revenue.

23% year-on-year increase has been witnessed in data service revenue and it accounted for 33% of service revenue in the period under review. The HSPA+ network is already complete till 28.8Mbps, increasing the network speed to 42Mbps in 2010. This will pave the way for 80Mbps and even higher speeds with the implementation of 4G LTE services.

3G license was awarded to SmarTone in September 2009 and the country will start enjoying the 3G network in 2010.

Tagged with: 3G • 4G • ARPU • ASIA • EBITDA • Hong Kong • Net Profit • SmarTone

Google scraps unveiling event of Nexus One in Beijing

On 02.25.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A regional event to show software developers its first smartphone, the Nexus One in China has been scraped by Google.

An event introducing the sleek touchscreen phone to software developers in Hong Kong and Taiwan will be held next week, but Beijing will be excluded from the list. It is viewed as Google’s second move following the threatened pull-out from the China. Earlier, citing problems of censorship and a hacking attack, Google threatened to shut its Chinese Google.cn portal and pull back from China.

Shortly after that the launch of two mobile phones in China which use its Android platform were also delayed. Many staff at Google’s China operations is worried about their jobs due to the recent standoffs.

Google is currently looking to fill dozens of jobs, including sales, business development and research and development in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to a job post on its website.

Tagged with: Android Platform • ASIA • Beijing • China • Google • Guangzhou • Hong Kong • Launch • Nexus One • Shanghai • Taiwan

Bharti keen to enter African market by buying Zain’s African assets

On 02.17.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: By seizing on a potential $9 billion deal with Kuwait’s Zain, Bharti Airtel appears determined to wade into a market loaded with poverty, promise and major legal tussles but the deal if completed, would catapult the company into the ranks of major telecom operators in Africa. Thus Bharti would have significant footholds in two continental markets- India and Africa.

While Zain appears to be keen seller, Airtel too expects to get a head start over those trying to buy scattered operations or acquire licenses in different African countries.

However, Bharti isn’t the only telecom operator eager to enter the African market. $2.5 billion has been bid by a consortium involving China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd for the former state telecoms monopoly in Nigeria.

Tagged with: Africa • Airtel • ASIA • Bharti Airtel • China • China Unicom • Hong Kong • India • Kuwait • Nigeria • Zain

ChinaTel wins $640m in investments for WiMax roll out

On 02.11.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: $640 million in investments has been won by California-headquartered ChinaTel Group to back its plans to build Wimax networks in China. Excel Era Limited, Hong Kong Investment Company would take 36% stake in the company besides making an investment of $480 million.

Canadian-based investor Isaac Organization will tip in $160 million for a 12% holding. ChinaTel will have received $241 million by March 1, with the balance of $399 million to be paid by June 1 and the investments value of the operator is at $1.33 billion.

According to ChinaTel CEO George Alvarez, the fresh capital would enable the company to speed the deployment of a Wimax network for Chinese operator CECT-Chinacomm and the rollout in 12 cities would be completed by June 2011.

Tagged with: ASIA • California • China • Chinacomm • ChinaTel • Hong Kong • operator • WiMAX

Telefonica’s stake in China Unicom to be raised

On 02.10.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: From a current holding of 8.37%, Telefonica has expressed its desire to raise its stake in China Unicom (Hong Kong). According to Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta, both the companies will do it little by little as they already know each other, trust each other, and that opens new possibilities.

Besides China Unicom, the synergies with Telecom Italia are also working out very well, and the company seems to be satisfied with the current situation.

Tagged with: ASIA • China • China Unicom • Hong Kong • Telecom Italia • Telefonica

Telefonica to raise stake in China Unicom

On 02.08.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telefonica SA has revealed that it wants raise its current stake of 8.37% in China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. According to Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta, the synergies with Telecom Italia SpA are working out very well, and that the company is satisfied with the current situation.

Earlier it was reported that Telefonica was planning to bid for Telecom Italia, in which it now only holds an indirect minority stake.

Tagged with: ASIA • China • Hong Kong • Telecom Italia • Telecom Italia SpA • Telefonica • Telefonica SA

Telstra’s CSL brings 3.5G back in Hong Kong

On 02.08.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The mobile broadband war on Hong Kong is now spreading its wings to fixed-line sector with two telcos betting on 3.5G as a DSL substitute.

The trend was started by SmarTone-Vodafone with its Home Broadband and Phone service, leveraging its HSPA network against PCCW’s voice/fixed-broadband package. This was followed by Telstra-owned CSL which made a similar move with Next G Lifestyle Home Broadband under its one2free brand.

Both the service offers a wireless gateway that uses 7.2-Mbps HSPA as the last mile link and the customers can connect to the gateway either via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable besides plugging in analog phones for voice calls.

Tagged with: 3.5G • ASIA • China • Gateway • Hong Kong • HSPA • SmarTone-Vodafone • Vodafone