OXFORD, United Kingdom-Carrefour, the giant French hypermarket firm, has appointed KPMG to advise it on plans to become a mobile virtual network operator. The company is reported to have approached the three mobile operators in France and was said to have conducted in-depth discussions...
If your mother is like mine, she probably told you to share when you were a child. Sharing is a good thing, at least in the eyes of most moms around the world.Some mobile operators are about to discover what it is like to...
BosniaFive companies bid for the third GSM license in Bosnia. The companies include Croatia's Hrvatski Telekom, in which Deutsche Telekom has a 35-percent stake; Turkey's Rumeli; and privately owned Zeptel Communications. Two other small local companies also submitted bids. The price of the license...
DUBLIN, Ireland-The cost of building individual third-generation (3G) networks has been described as a noose around the neck of European mobile operators already struggling with huge debts. But several 3G license winners could gain at least a stay of execution in the form of...
NEW YORK-Carrier network sharing, which made headlines this month in Europe with regard to third-generation wireless, is nothing new and will not hurt the prospects of equipment providers, executives of L.M. Ericsson and Nokia Corp. said June 13 at CIBC World Markets' "Communications Food...
NEW YORK-To celebrate World Environment Day, a group of telecommunications carriers, equipment vendors and industry associations formed the Global e-Sustainability Initiative last week, an alliance billed as the first of its kind."Modern telecommunications, a major theme of this year's international World Environment Day celebrations,...
WASHINGTON-The new Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to change the tone of telecom policy debate in Congress, but is unlikely to immediately have a major legislative impact. That may well change in time, however.With Democrats assuming control of the Senate for the first time since...
HELSINKI, Finland-European wireless operator Sonera Corp. sold 17.4 percent of its interest in VoiceStream Wireless Corp. to Germany's Deutsche Telekom for approximately $319 million.Sonera said it would use the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt. Sonera also said it plans to sell...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), angered by the Federal Communications Communication's approval of the VoiceStream Wireless Corp.-Deutsche Telekom AG merger last week, said he will introduce legislation that would force the German government to drastically reduce its stake in DT by year's end and ban...
The stock market is up. The Dow is back over 10,000, but no one really knows why. Ignore it.The stock market, especially technology stocks, has been changing faster than Colorado's springtime weather. One minute Lucent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc. are fighting off reports...
NEW YORK-Rural carriers, with operating histories often many decades old, appear poised at the forefront of the strategy for long-term growth based on bundled or converged services.Seeking to be the one-stop-shop location for their customers, these companies have in place or have plans to...
WASHINGTON-The Bush administration last week said it may impose sanctions on Columbia, Mexico, South Africa and Taiwan for telecom trade violations and accused five European Union nations and Japan of erecting illegal barriers to their telecom markets."Telecommunications trade agreements, particularly in the World Trade...
SAN FRANCISCO-Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of Alcatel, and Deutsche Telekom have announced Contact Routing Solutions, a range of managed services for customer contact centers. The companies said the new solution will give businesses the benefits of centrally managed, integrated voice and Web-enabled...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Personal communications services provider Powertel Inc. reported its customer base exceeded 1 million customers during the first quarter.The carrier, which was the first PCS carrier to offer commercial service in 1996, currently serves 34 metropolitan markets covering more than 25 million people...
WASHINGTON-Congressional opponents of the proposed $30 billion acquisition of VoiceStream Wireless Corp. by Deutsche Telekom AG have struck again, just weeks after VoiceStream was successful in getting members of its congressional delegation to urge support for the deal."In recent days, a series of comments...
WASHINGTON-Despite concerns that mounting losses at Voice-Stream Wireless Corp. and Deutsche Telekom AG could threaten a transatlantic merger whose value has plummeted since its announcement last July, signs still point to completion of the deal early this spring.Indeed, there is growing pressure on the...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Having paid so much for their licenses, prospective third-generation (3G) mobile operators in Germany, as in other European countries, have been working hard to convince the financial markets and the rest of the industry that they will make a decent return on their...
Two of the country's largest wireless operators saw their stock prices jolted last week, as financial and performance concerns continued to plague the telecommunications market.Nextel Communications Inc.'s stock fell to a 52-week low of $20.62 per share last Tuesday, continuing its fall following the...
A variety of wireless operators released fourth quarter results last week, including national carrier VoiceStream Wireless Corp., regional operator Western Wireless Corp. and flat rate, local calling provider Leap Wireless International Inc.VoiceStreamVoiceStream, which is in the midst of a takeover by Germany's Deutsche Telekom,...
WASHINGTON-The European Union warned the United States not to block Deutsche Telekom AG's planned purchase of VoiceStream Wireless Corp., threatening a transAtlantic trade fight if federal regulators give into objections raised by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and others."The European Community and its member states...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is not as partisan as many outside the commission may believe, said one of the Republican commissioners last week."There isn't an R camp and a D camp and they try to duke it out," said FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.Furchtgott-Roth made...
PRAGUE, Czech Republic-During the 11 years since the fall of communism in Central Europe, the region's countries have rapidly embraced mobile telephony, including the ubiquitous GSM networks now blanketing the region. And operators are beginning to plan for next-generation mobile telephony in countries where...
MELBOURNE, Australia-The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) will hold the keenly awaited auction of third-generation (3G) spectrum in the 2 GHz radio-frequency band in early March.The new 3G mobile services are expected to combine popular communications forms, such as mobile phones, the Internet and computers,...
FRANKFURT, Germany-A group of U.S. investors launched a $3 billion class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against Deutsche Telekom AG claiming the company misled them in its takeover bid for VoiceStream Wireless Corp.The shareholders said they...
