Virgin Chile gets IFC funding for MVNO project

Virgin Mobile Latin America (VMLA) has signed a USD11 million debt funding agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, to fund its Chilean mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) venture, Virgin Mobile Chile. The debt facility is intended to provide the necessary capital to accelerate the MVNO’s development in the Chilean market, where it has already signed up 65,000 customers since its launch less than four months ago, reports Cellular News. ‘IFC's confidence in our VMLA leadership team and the Chilean market strategy is an excellent endorsement for our pan-regional business plan,’ commented Pete Macnee, VMLA President and CEO, who added: ‘We are working toward our second launch in Colombia later this year and look to extend our relationship with IFC as we build our business.’ VLMA and the IFC are also in talks about partnering to develop mobile services in a number of Latin American countries including Brazil and Colombia

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OVETEL Virgin Chile gets IFC funding for MVNO project

Sprint share price surge prompts intense M speculation

The recent rise in Sprint Nextel's share price has stoked market speculation that the company could either become a takeover target, or work towards the acquisition of a smaller rival, Fierce Wireless reports. On 13 August Sprint shares closed at USD5.05, the first time the company’s stock has topped USD5 in more than a year. However, the website notes that some of the speculation seems ‘somewhat outlandish’, with Google Inc, Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics all named by third-party sources as potential suitors for the carrier; none of the firms have ever given a clear-cut indication that they are interested in acquiring a wireless carrier

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OVETEL Sprint share price surge prompts intense M&A speculation

Turkish anti-trust board confirms Turk Telekom, TTNET probe

According to Reuters, the Turkish Competition Authority (Rekabet Kurumu) has opened an investigation into fixed line incumbent Turk Telekom and its broadband unit TTNET, relating to anti-competitive broadband pricing strategies. The regulator reportedly reached its decision after receiving complaints suggesting that TTNET has introduced a range of broadband tariffs that are ‘destructive and excluding competitors from the market’. The authority has not offered any indication of a time-line relating to its decision

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OVETEL Turkish anti-trust board confirms Turk Telekom, TTNET probe

Airtel to extend fibre-optic network

Airtel Nigeria plans to increase the total length of its fibre-optic transmission network by 2,000km to 6,000km in a bid to improve the quality of its services, local newspaper Leadership cites the company’s managing director and CEO, Rajan Swaroop, as saying.

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OVETEL Airtel to extend fibre-optic network

Telecom Cambodia sees 5% drop in 1H12 sales

State-owned fixed line incumbent Telecom Cambodia has reported a 5% year-on-year drop in revenues to USD14.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2012, company director general Lao Saroeun told Xinhua News. Saroeun said that revenue was negatively affected by tough competition in the telecoms sector, with sales derived from local and international telephony, voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services, internet access including ADSL, fibre-optic cable services and interconnection and transit fees. ‘We are strengthening our service quality and offering competitive prices to customers in order to re-grow our revenues in the second half of this year,’ he added.

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OVETEL Telecom Cambodia sees 5% drop in 1H12 sales

Rostelecom pinpoints LTE launch in North Caucasus in 2013; regional mobile rebranding nearly complete

Russian telecoms giant Rostelecom has revealed that it plans to launch its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the North Caucasus federal district in 2013, PrimeTass news agency reports. Last month Rostelecom was awarded frequencies in the 791MHz-798.5MHz and 832MHz-839.5MHz spectrum bands in Roskomnadzor’s long-delayed auction; Russia’s self-styled ‘Big Three’ mobile operators Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), MegaFon and Vimpelcom also scooped frequencies in adjacent bands. Each recipient is obliged to commence offering commercial LTE services no later than 1 January 2012, and offer 4G technology in all towns with at least 50,000 residents by 2019.*In other news, RBCnews.com reports that Rostelecom intends to complete the full rebranding of its assorted mobile businesses in 22 regions across Russia by 17 September 2012

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OVETEL Rostelecom pinpoints LTE launch in North Caucasus in 2013; regional mobile rebranding nearly complete

Smart to launch commercial LTE service on 25 August

Smart Communications Inc, the mobile arm of Filipino telecoms giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), says it will start operating a full-blown commercial 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service on 25 August.

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OVETEL Smart to launch commercial LTE service on 25 August