NORWAY
Norway is expecting to raise between $2 billion and $2.7 billion in the initial public offering comprising 21 percent of state-owned Telenor. Shares will begin trading on Dec. 4 on the Oslo Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq index.
NETHERLANDS
KPN Telecom announced its equity and bond issue will raise $4.76 billion in part to fund third-generation expansion. The company said $3.4 billion will come from an equity offer and the rest from an issue of subordinated convertible notes. KPN raised $4.4 billion in September through a bond issue. The company’s high debt ratio has recently been under scrutiny by the financial community.
IRELAND
Nokia said it will supply Esat Digifone GSM base stations to upgrade and expand its dual-band network throughout the country. Esat Digifone is a new customer for Nokia. Deliveries have begun, and the expansion will be completed by the end of the year.
UNITED KINGDOM
The GBA Operators Focus Group launched to enable the Global Billing Association to address immediate problems facing billing managers. The immediate need for a mechanism to enable measurement of quality billing procedures was identified, and meeting attendees began developing a template for operators to measure basic elements regardless of operation size.
SWEDEN
Swedish company Aspiro said it signed an agreement with a Dutch information technology company for handling all its short message service traffic. The Dutch company distributes information about discos and nightlife to mobile-phone users. The Dutch company’s SMS traffic will be handled by Aspiro’s operation center in Kariskrona, Sweden, through the two-way nonexclusive agreement.
DENMARK
SignalSoft Corp., a U.S.-based developer of wireless location services, said Dutch mobile operator Libertel selected its technology to develop and deploy location-based services. Libertel plans to provide location-based information to its 3 million mobile customers.
