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India’s Bharti Airtel may buy South Africa’s MTN

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on May 7, 2008
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It would be the biggest thing to pass between India and South Africa since Mahatma Gandhi moved from one country to the other. This week it emerged that Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile-phone operator in India, is holding “exploratory” talks to buy South Africa’s MTN, the biggest operator in Africa.

According to the Financial Times, Bharti has indicated it would be willing to pay about $19 billion for 51% of the company. That would make it the heftiest overseas acquisition ever made by an Indian firm, more than Tata Steel paid for Corus, a British steelmaker, and seven times the amount India invested in the whole of Africa over the ten years to 2004.

The deal would unite the leading companies in the world’s two most promising…

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Ultra-fast broadband plan ‘waste of money’ - New Zealand govt.

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on April 23, 2008
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While Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka awaits public comments on its ‘National Backbone Network’ proposed to be installed mostly as a fully government owned infrastructure to provide islandwide broadband links, New Zealand Government says it would be a huge waste of taxpayer money to put $1.5 billion into ultra-fast broadband access.

New Zealand’s National Party leader John Key announced the ambitious plan to put broadband into every home and business through fibre cables over the next six years if his party wins the next election. Mr Key said that with the fibre network he wanted, people would be able to use the internet at lightning speed - essential if the country was to increase productivity and remain internationally competitive.

But Communications Minister David Cunliffe saw nothing but…

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Nokia’s new 3G Handset 6212 optimized for Mobile Payments

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on April 16, 2008
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6212_classic_01_tn.jpgNokia is positioning its new 6212 handset as a mobile payment device, with users storing credit card information on the device and accessing accounts online directly from the handset. The phone can be set to allow payment only after the user enters a secondary passcode to authorize it. Such e-payment options may require a service subscription with a carrier or merchant, as well as the installation of a secure payment application, Nokia said.

The Nokia 6212 classic will be available in the third quarter in parts of Europe and Asia; its estimated price is 200 euro or $316.

Read the full story in Informationweek here. 

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IT firms to leave India?

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on April 3, 2008
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Blueshift is one of the currently India based companies looking to move to neighbouring countries like Malaysia or Singapore where they believe it would be cheaper to operate.

“The corporate tax regime in this country is a tough 33% whereas when I look at neighbouring country Singapore it is only 18% at the highest level,” says Blueshift’s chairman Sankaran P Raghunathan.

“In fact, most of us have to pay only 7.5%. That’s a huge difference.”

Mr Raghunathan is also concerned at the way costs are rising in Chennai.

“Some 10% of our revenues are spent on rentals here,” he says.

“We pay more than $1 for a square foot of office space here. In Kuala Lumpur the same costs us less than $1 and I get class A infrastructure.”

Read the…

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China Telecom, after seeing negative growth, buys Beijing Telecom

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on April 3, 2008
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China Telecom, China’s largest fixed-line phone provider, has announced plans to buy regional phone operator Beijing Telecom for $793m.

The government-controlled former monopoly, which still owns about 70 per cent of China’s fixed telephone lines, has struggled to cope with a rapidly evolving market and competition from mobile phone operators.

“Due to intensifying mobile substitution, China Telecom experienced negative growth in access lines in service for the first time [in 2007], and voice business revenue decreased by 7.9 per cent from 2006,” the company said in a statement.

Charice Wang, an analyst at research firm Ovum, explained that China Telecom has been facing strong competition from China Mobile as customers switch to mobile services under increasing fixed-mobile substitution.

“China Telecom’s traditional voice business has been [declining in] recent years,”…

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Media Coverage on Mobile Benchmarks

by
Nirmali Sivapragasam
on March 26, 2008
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23/03/08: Mobile phone service costs in Sri Lanka are cheap, even for the poor (Sinhala), Ravaya, Sri Lanka

25/03/08: Mobile is cheaper in Sri Lanka, even for the poor, The Daily News, Sri Lanka

Two recent studies have found that Sri Lanka is among four countries that offer the most affordable mobile services to the poor in emerging Asia and the world.

The first study conducted the LIRNEasia, a regional policy and regulation think tank, has found that the costs of using mobile telecom services are among the lowest in South Asia for all types of users. For the low user, essentially the poorer user, the average monthly cost of using a mobile in Sri Lanka is as low as US$ 3.83 per month if using prepaid. Sri Lanka…

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Pure BOP play in Sri Lanka increases EBITDA by 52.5%

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on March 19, 2008
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At last report, Hutch Sri Lanka had an ARPU of around USD 3.

Sri Lanka Hutch subscribers double in 2007 - LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

Subscribers of the Sri Lanka mobile unit of Hutchison Telecom doubled to more than a million in 2007, while revenue growth topped 50 percent, the group said in a statement.

Total subscribers had increased by 104 percent to 1,141,000 in 2007 while revenue measured in Hong Kong dollars grew 52.4 percent 189 million dollars (2.6 billion Sri Lanka rupees).

“Our Sri Lankan operations performed well in 2007 fuelled by our continued network expansion during the year and a series of efforts to enhance our sales and distribution network in the country,” the company said.

The company said earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization was 52.5…

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Bandwidth price drops changing Internet dynamics

by
Abu Saeed Khan
on February 28, 2008
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The cost of international capacity between the US and Asia has dropped dramatically in the past ten years. In 1996, US$10,000 would buy a 64kbps IPLC between Asia and the
US. The same money buys a STM-1 (155Mbps) circuit in 2006.

Dramatic drops in the price of international capacity as a result of market deregulation in the Asia Pacific is resulting in a shift in the dynamics of Internet traffic, according to a presentation at the APRICOT conference in Taipei this week. Read more.

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Europe in the lead of anti-trust law

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on February 28, 2008
.

Microsoft Gets Record Fine and a Rebuke From Europe - New York Times

The European antitrust regulator imposed a record $1.35 billion fine against Microsoft on Wednesday in a ruling intended to send a clear message to the world’s largest software maker — and to any other company — of the dangers of flouting Europe’s competition rulings. Neelie Kroes, Europe’s antitrust regulator, expressed irritation with Microsoft, saying it had not complied with a 2004 ruling.
Related
Times Topics: Microsoft Corporation

The size of the penalty, which surprised lawyers and legal experts, was a clear assertion of the power of the European Commission and its main antitrust regulator, Neelie Kroes, who is its competition commissioner. She has emerged from a lengthy legal battle with Microsoft as possibly the world’s most…

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Bharti Airtel may be re-drawing plans for Sri Lanka

by
Nirmali Sivapragasam
on February 26, 2008
.

Indo-Asian News Service (IANS)

Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, which had announced its entry into the Sri Lankan mobile phone sector with much fanfare last year, is experiencing delays and may well be re-drawing its investment plans for the island country, says a Sri Lankan telecommunication expert.

Rohan Samarajeewa, former head of Sri Lanka’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC), told IANS that while there was no doubt that Bharti Airtel was committed to operating in Sri Lanka, it had altered its timetable and could well be scaling down its original investment plans.

The reasons for the delay in starting the operations were in the realm of speculation, Samarajeewa said. But he did point to a possibility of difficulties in getting frequencies from the TRC, as it is generally recognized…

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Liberalisation key for next billion Internet users: OECD

by
Abu Saeed Khan
on February 21, 2008
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An OECD report, Global Opportunities for Internet Access Developments, says that the next billion Internet users will be very different from the first billion and governments in developing countries, where these users will come from, must adapt strategic regulatory and investment policies to lower access costs.  

“The characteristics of these new Internet users will be vastly different from the first billion users,” the report concludes, adding that the majority of the new Internet users will be accessing the Internet on wireless networks and will have incomes of less than US$2 per day.   

While the report sees encouraging signs from developing markets that have adopted market liberalisation and who are now starting to enjoy the employment, micro- entrepreneurial and social development benefits of increased competition, there…

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Mobile investment boom in India foretold

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on February 20, 2008
.

Telecom sector to see funds bonanza, tariff cuts - Business News - News - MSN India - News

India’s booming mobile services market will see investments of over Rs 100,000 crore (around $24 billion) by 2010, the fastest investment ramp-up seen in any telecom market globally even as analysts predict a bruising battle that will see tariffs fall sharply.

The investments include between Rs 48,000 crore and 60,000 crore ($12 billion to $15 billion) from six new telecom players (including Reliance and Tatas’ proposed GSM mobile services) over 12 to 24 months to create capacity for 250 million more mobile subscribers.

This fresh investment will be over and above the estimated Rs 48,000 crore ($12 billion) being put in by incumbents like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular, Bharat…

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Orascom wins a 3G license in North Korea

by
Abu Saeed Khan
on January 31, 2008
.

In what can only be described as a surprise announcement, Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) says that it has been granted a 3G phone license in North Korea.  

Orascom says that it intends to invest up to US$400 million in network infrastructure and license fee over the first three years. OTH intends to cover Pyongyang and most of the major cities during the first 12 months of operations. Read more.

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Competitors slam SingTel

by
Abu Saeed Khan
on January 24, 2008
.

Competitors to SingTel in its domestic market have sharply criticised attempts by the carrier to gain regulatory relief in business, government and some wholesale markets.  

The IDA solicited industry feedback on the attempt by SingTel to shed various competition, wholesale supply and published tariff obligations on a range of business, data and wholesale products as well as to all business and government customers billing over $250,000 annually.  That feedback has been uniformly negative. 

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BSNL plans India’s largest IPO, to raise over US$ 10 billion

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on January 15, 2008
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State-owned telco BSNL on Monday said it plans to launch India’s biggest IPO to raise over US$10 billion. “The company is valued at well over US$100 billion. We are looking at offloading up to 10% stake, subject to government approval,” BSNL finance director S K Saxena told reporters. When asked about the development, telecom minister A Raja said: “The government is considering it (an IPO). The department of telecom (DoT) will discuss the issue and take a final decision soon”.

BSNL has an equity base of Rs 5,000 crore, which translates to a shareholding structure of 500 crore shares at a face value of Rs 10 each. BSNL executives said this would not be a disinvestment, but a dilution of stake by the government through the…

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