Hutchison Whampoa in talks to acquire Telefónica’s O2
Hutchison Whampoa is reportedly weighing the purchase of Telfónica SA’s United Kingdom unit, O2. Hutchison is reportedly considering paying as much as $13.6 billion for O2. Sources report that the plans are in early stages and that no deal is imminent.
Hutchison, which owns mobile operator Three, is also reportedly considering merging its Italian mobile unit with a local rival, but no names have been released. O2 and Three, if merged, would become the largest mobile carrier in the U.K. with more than 31 million subscribers.
Report indicates China Mobile may start deployment of TD-LTE nanocell devices in 2015
Digitimes Research reports that China Mobile will likely deploy commercial nanocell networks in the second half of 2015. The report indicates that the networks will be deployed in order to meet the growing demand for TD-LTE.
China Mobile has set up around 650,000 TD-LTE base stations in major cities throughout China. The carrier is expected to focus on construction of indoor TD-LTE infrastructure by deploying nanocell in the second half of 2015. China Mobile has already finished trials in more than 10 major cities, and is currently testing nanocell devices supplied from several different vendors. China Mobile currently has more than 80 million TD-LTE users.
SK Telecom expanding investment in big data
SK Telecom announced it will increase its investment in big data platforms in order to diversify its revenue streams in the “Internet of Things” era.
Executives said the big data investment will allow the carrier to understand the IoT era and specifically how it is revolutionizing financial services.
NTT DoCoMo develops face-to-face translation service for iPhone
NTT DoCoMo has launched Jspeak, a smartphone voice translator application for tourists visiting Japan. The application uses the Android operating system and can translate Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Indonesian.
The app will be free for users until May.
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