www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The negotiations between the Indian biggie Bharti Airtel and South African giant MTN are likely to continue further as both operators extend the deadline to 30 September. Despite the fresh delay, Sunil Mittal, the Bharti Group’s chairman and managing director, has said that he remains positive that a deal can be reached, while also refuting claims that Bharti was under pressure to sweeten the deal. Commenting on the development Mittal noted: ‘We are not really looking at sweetening the deal… There are no contentious issues over the deal structure. During discussions, there will be adjustments to what was announced earlier, but that is not the area of focus. We are looking at administrative issues, the process of seeking permissions and working towards a scheme of arrangement acceptable to all.”
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: BSNL, the state-owned telco, has reportedly said that it is in the final talks for telecommunications infrastructure sharing with other service providers and expects to finalize deals soon.
The operator hopes to generate nearly $207 million of revenues in a year from infrastructure sharing. “The master sharing agreement (MSA) for sharing of BSNL towers is in the final stages with some telecom operators and likely to be finalised very soon,” BSNL said in a statement. “With a huge asset base of more than 40,000 towers across the country, BSNL hopes to generate 10 billion rupees of revenue within one year from the infrastructure-sharing business,” it added.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain Saudi Arabia, the new entrant in the country, is about to close a deal for $2.5 billion loan, a spokesman for its parent company Zain reportedly unveiled. “This is a two-year murabaha (Islamic financing),” the spokesman said. Al-Rajhi Bank 1120.SE and Banque Saudi Fransi are leading the refinancing facility, Zain said.
The facility has been oversubscribed since its launch in April and priced at 425 basis points over LIBOR, Zain said. This will receive a 6 months of extension at the behest of the borrower and will be used to fund the expansion of Zain Saudi Arabia’s network.
The murabaha will replace a previous one worth 9.4 billion riyals ($2.51 billion) which is to mature on Aug. 12, he said.
Zain SA has stated that it has agreed with the banks to postpone from July 27 to Aug. 12 the maturity of the previous murabaha.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sprint Nextel, the USA based mobile operator, has reportedly said that it will purchase Virgin Mobile USA in a deal worth $483 million, including Sprint’s current 13.1 percent stake.
Sprint has also decided to retire all of Virgin Mobile USA’s outstanding debt when the deal closes, which is expected in the Q4′09 or in early 2010. It said it expects Virgin Mobile’s debt to be no more than $205 million net of cash and cash equivalents by Sept. 30.
Virgin’s public shareholders will be given Sprint shares equivalent to $5.50 per Virgin Mobile share, subject to a collar of 1.0630 to 1.3668 Sprint shares per Virgin Mobile share.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: BSNL, the state-owned mobile operator, has selected ITI Ltd. to supply subscriber identity module, or SIM cards. The deal signed is worth INR66.14 million and under the deal, ITI will supply 4.63 million SIM cards by the end of September.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a Ugandan Newspaper (Daily Monitor), Vivendi, the French entertainment group has reportedly won the bid for Zain Africa. The bid made by Vivendi was $12 billion, sources reveal. Although the officials for both the companies have declined to comment, the sources closely reviewing the deal, unveiled that it has been completed.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:Telefonica, the Spanish telecom firm, has inked an exclusive agreement to sell Palm Pre, first in Spain, then in the U.K., Ireland and Germany when the device is launched in Europe in time for the winter holidays. “Europe continues to be an important region for Palm, and we’re proud to work with O2 and Movistar to spread the excitement Palm Pre has already ignited in North America,” Palm Chief Executive Jon Rubinstein said in a statement.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: BSNL, the state owned telco, has inked a deal with NTT Communication Corporation for customizing its enterprise offerings and solutions.
Under the MoU, both organizations will jointly explore their strengths and expertise, so that customized offerings/solutions can be given to their enterprise customers, BSNL said.
BSNL intends to provide complete telecom and IT solutions to the enterprise customers with guaranteed service level agreement, it said.
“Through this joint relationship, BSNL intends to bring the global best practices and products to enterprise segment customers,“ it added.
Both the firms, as per the deal, will would strengthen the discussion for expansion of service area, concrete provision of quality assurance; prompt service delivery, enhancements of the operation and maintenance formation.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alcatel-Lucent Managed Solutions India (ALMSI), a JV between French telecom solution provider and Reliance Communication, the Indian mobile operator are close to inking 2-3 deals in as many months.
“The JV was formed initially to cater to the network operations need of Reliance Communications (RCom) alone. Now, we also plan to focus on business development opportunities in India and abroad,” Alcatel-Lucent India Head Vivek Mohan said.
Mohan added that the company was close to strike two-three deals in the network operation space, which might be announced in the next two-three months.
Though the details of the deal remain undisclosed, the source close to the development revealed that an agreement with Telecom New Zealand is round the corner.
Alcatel holds a 67% share in the JV whereas RCom holds the rest of 33%.
Sandip Biswas, Head of Managed Services, RCom said that the joint venture, at the time of its inception exactly one-year ago, had targeted to clock $500 million revenue over a period of five years.
“Now, we have increased it to $750 million and hope to even go past that target during the remaining period of five years,” Biswas added.
In its first year of operation, Biswas revealed that the JV has registered just over $100 million revenue which is likely to rise in the current year given that Reliance Communication was expanding its operations. Revenue from other prospective clients were also expected.
“The JV had started with CDMA and GSM operations and maintenance of five circles. Subsequently, we expanded the base to all 23 circles where RCom has operations,” he said.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After the reports, of Vodafone eyeing the T-Mobile acquisitions, doing the rounds yesterday, today the new buzz in town says it’s Orange which is in talks with T-Mobile on sealing a deal.
According to an industry source, the owners of both the mobile operators are in talks of forming a joint venture in UK mobile market and Vodafone is just trying to gatecrash the talks.
A combination between Orange and T-Mobile would create a Britain’s biggest mobile phone player — with a 37% market share.