British Telecom (BT) could challenge an Internet alliance between Vodafone AirTouch and Vivendi announced just before Vodafone AirTouch’s takeover agreement with Mannesmann in February, the Financial Times reported. The deal may be incompatible with existing contracts among the involved companies. The report said the agreement, which hands Vivendi control of Cegetel, Vivendi’s wireless communications company, is incompatible with contracts among Cegetel and its main shareholders, including BT. BT owns 26 percent of Cegetel. Under the Vodafone AirTouch/Vivendi agreement, Vodafone AirTouch agreed to sell Vivendi an additional 7.5 percent of Cegetel. Vodafone AirTouch and BT also are in a battle for control of Airtel, Spain’s third-largest wireless service provider.
France
France Telecom announced several wireless data initiatives, including General Packet Radio Service and Wireless Application Protocol-based services. The carrier announced the first phase of GPRS service was rolled out in northern France on its Itineris network. In addition, Itineris will launch a range of wireless Internet services based on WAP in May.
Germany
France Telecom announced it will take a 28.5-percent stake in Germany’s MobilCom, which provides mobile, wireline and Internet services, for about US$3.6 billion. The German company has about 2 million wireless subscribers. In connection with the deal, the companies said they will create a joint venture to bid for one of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses to be auctioned this year by the German telecom regulatory authority.
United Kingdom
The European Commission (EC) gave conditional approval to the US$177.6 billion merger between Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann. Under the EC’s terms, competitors must be given access to the merged entity’s networks, and U.K. operator Orange and its subsidiaries must be demerged. Several companies, including France Telecom, Telef
