NEW YORK-After first admonishing all attendees to turn off their cell phones, William T. Lake, a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, D.C., convened a recent Practising Law Institute conference on Telecommunications Convergence with these remarks."Convergence is a word used without knowing what...
PARIS-France Telecom announced it will take a 28.5-percent stake in Germany's MobilCom, which provides mobile, wireline and Internet services, for about $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...
MADRID, Spain-A Vivendi-led consortium and Spain's three incumbent mobile phone operators won Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Spain. The third-generation licenses were awarded through a selective tender process.The Xfera consortium plans to invest about $4.8 billion in its 3G network during the next...
ANKARA, Turkey-The Turkish government announced the time frame for auctioning two new wireless telephone licenses. The tender for two Global System for Mobile communications licenses is scheduled for March, Reuters reported. Each is expected to bring $650 million.The government also plans in April to...
DENVER, United States-While Vodafone AirTouch recently advanced its merger with Germany's Mannesmann AG, the company indicated it may look to fill in its footprint with some smaller acquisitions.In particular, the company has been closing in on a bid for a stake in Spain's second-largest...
ISTANBUL, Turkey-Hoping to cash in on the Turkish government's intention to issue official tender documents to select a third and fourth mobile operator, France Telecom S.A. has teamed up with several Turkish businesses to compete for a Global System for Mobile communications 1800 license.Those...
The European Commission said it will extend its investigation into the proposed merger between MCI WorldCom and Sprint Corp. by another four months.MCI WorldCom and Sprint last fall agreed to a $130 billion definitive merger that will combine the second- and third-largest U.S. long-distance...
CAIRO, Egypt-Orascom Telecom, which owns stakes in Egypt's largest mobile provider, agreed to buy 80 percent of Telecel International, a pan-African telecommunications company that holds 12 Global System for Mobile communications licenses in Sub-Saharan Africa. The deal is worth $213 million and is the...
While Vodafone AirTouch plc last week advanced its merger with Germany's Mannesmann AG, the company indicated it may look to fill in its footprint with smaller acquisitions.In particular, the company has been closing in on a bid for a stake in Spain's second-largest mobile...
Although some rumblings continue over Geoworks Corp.'s licensing program for Wireless Application Protocol technology, WAP-related announcements continued making news at last week's GSM World Congress in Cannes.Phone.com Inc. announced it formed a WAP interoperability testing lab, a software upgrade preview center and the latest...
After resisting a hostile takeover attempt by Vodafone AirTouch plc for more than two months, Germany's Mannesmann AG last week agreed to a revised friendly offer just days shy of the Feb. 7 deadline for Mannesmann shareholders to vote on the hostile bid.Mannesmann's supervisory...
CANNES, France-France Telecom unveiled new features for its Itineris Global System for Mobile communications system at the GSM World Forum in Cannes.The company announced it will propose roaming coverage for its Itineris GSM cellular customers via the Globalstar satellite system.The company said Itineris customers...
United KingdomBritain-based Marconi plc announced it has sold its Network Components & Services business in Europe and China to Viasystems Group Inc. for $115 million in cash. The sale of NC&S, a component manufacturer for the telecommunications industry, is part of Marconi's strategy to...
France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom made significant moves to part ways last week with France Telecom agreeing to purchase Deutsche Telekom's and Sprint Corp.'s stakes in the Global One joint venture for a total equity value of $3.88 billion.The move ended a struggling and...
WARSAW, Poland-The Polish government said it will begin a new tender for a stake in the country's Telekomunikacja Polska SA in early January after rejecting last week an offer by France Telecom to buy a 25- to 35-percent stake in the state-owned telecom operator.SBC...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-While the use of mobile communications in Europe continues to grow beyond everyone's wildest expectations, the latest bid of $140 billion by Vodafone AirTouch plc for the Mannesmann empire has caused many a jaw to drop in stunned amazement.This record-breaking bid has...
BANGALORE, India-While the Indian cellular industry generally has been battling rough weather recently, one cellular operator in the country has adopted a strategy that seems to have paid off: focusing on quality rather than numbers. The carrier, BPL Mobile, may use that same strategy as...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Telemobil, Romania's NMT 450 operator, is facing stiff competition from three GSM operators, each of which have both strong financial backing and national coverage. Similar to the experience of other NMT 450 operators in Europe, whether Telemobil will survive depends on how it...
LONDON-The U.K. government said France Telecom must fully divest its holdings in Crown Castle before proceeding with its planned investment in NTL, a cable company. Crown Castle International Corp., based in Houston, provides infrastructure and network support services to the wireless communications and radio...
In a bid to strengthen its position in the wireless industry and expand its influence overseas, Internet infrastructure provider InfoSpace.com announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire wireless Internet portal Saraide Inc.According to the agreement, InfoSpace.com will issue about 2.4 million shares of...
ATLANTA-BellSouth Corp. became the first U.S. operator to enter the European wireless industry's recent merger and acquisition frenzy by exercising its right of first refusal to acquire 100 percent of E-Plus, Germany's third-largest mobile operator. As part of the deal, The Netherlands' KPN Telecom...
MANAGUA, Nicaragua-Privatization of state-owned telephone companies is moving ahead in the two Central American countries hit hardest by last year's Hurricane Mitch.Reuters reported three applications have been submitted for the sale of a 40-percent stake the Nicaraguan Telecommunications Co. (Enitel), and six companies are...
PARIS-French cellular operator Cegetel will work with Nortel Networks to develop third-generation services based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services standard, according to the equipment maker. The deal is subject to Cegetel's success in obtaining a license for UMTS radio spectrum in France.Nortel Networks...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc acknowledged speculation circulating last week that it was interested in making a bid for Germany's Mannesmann AG and hinted that a future tie-up of the two could occur."Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann are long-standing partners in three of Europe's largest wireless markets...
