Mobile operator round-up: T-Mobile, Telefonica, take-overs and Tehran

Here’s the round-up of mobile operator moves, deals and mergers that have caught our attention from around the world, both from today and over the weekend.

Telefonica and China Unicom

Spanish based operator Telefonica is announcing a huge co-investment with Chinese operator China Unicom. The deal would see each company invest €1 billion in each others operations. This would see Telefonicas total stake in China Unicom raise to almost 8%, while the Chinese operator would gain less than a 1% share total in Telefonica. This deal is seen by many as a way to stand up to the powerful Vodafone / China Mobile alliance. Between them, Unicom and Telefonica have over 500 million people on their networks.

Via Rethink Wireless

T-Mobile would prefer Orange deal

Deutsche Telekoms attempts to make it’s UK operation, T-Mobile, profitable again has been the thing to watch in the UK in recent weeks. As we discussed last Friday, the eventual outcome of the deal could substantially the face of UK mobile operators. It is now being reported that T-Mobile itself would prefer to enter into a deal with French operator Orange. It seems the reason is that Orange is happy to contemplate a merger, with competitors Vodafone and O2 both offering full buy-outs at prices that Deutsche Telekom is unhappy with. The result would be merger between the two companies, with Orange playing Big Spoon.

Via Bloomberg

Iran tries again for third mobile operator

Things haven’t been going so well for Iran when it comes to mobile operators. When it issued a tender for a third mobile operator last December, it was picked up by Etisalat – and then put back down again amid complaints from Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology that Etisalat had failed to give the ‘necessary guarantees and licence fees on time.’ Since then, both Zain and MegaFon have turned down offers to claim the tender.

However, the newly appointed Communications Minister, Reza Taqipour, has declared that the license will be issued yet again, claiming that foreign investors are interested in it.

Via Tehran Times

Alcatel-Lucent helps Dutch network create open GPON network

Dutch operator OONO is one of the The Netherlands pioneers for high speed fibre-optic cable GPON networks. Alcatel-Lucent has helped it build an “open” GPON network for a single apartment building in Rotterdam. OONO has provided the network, over which the 154 residents can access the network of their choice.

Via Trading Markets

Zain is on the verge of deciding who to sell majority stake to

African operator Zain is incredibly close to announcing who it will sell shares of the company to. Restrictions on how much of the company could be sold were removed last week, so that foreign companies can now buy a controlling interest in the company. Sources close to the deal say that Zain is contemplating selling 46% of the shares at almost €7 per share – putting the overall value of the sale at close to €14 billion.

Indian operator Reliance Communications, long rumoured to be interested in the purchase, has strongly denied any involvement in talks with Zain.

Via Bloomberg

950 Ghanaians to be kicked from Vodafone

As Zain contemplates a huge sale, things look less shiny in Ghana. It is looking like Vodafones operation in that country will be forced to lay off almost 1,000 employees before the end of the year. Over 900 employess have gone on voluntary redundancy since last year, when then Ghana Telecom was taken over by Vodafone.

Via Peace FM