Tag Archives: telefonica
Spain’s Telefonica hits back at AT&T takeover claims
Not even a whisper of acquisition, it insists
Spain’s Telefonica has slapped down rumours that American giant AT&T had mounted a surprise takeover bid, but that the government had blocked the move. According to El Mundo newspaper, the friendly bid had been for some €70 billion ($93.5 billion) and €52 billion debt. AT&T has made no secret that it wants to expand beyond US shores, and even Britain’s Vodafone has been speculated as a possible target – with a bid possibly made in conjunction with fellow American operator Verizon Communications. Continue reading
Posted in Financial, Vodafone, at&t, mobile news, o2, telefonica
Tagged El Mundo, Inditex, Santander, telefonica, Vodafone
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BT hunts new mobile partner in wake of £200m 4G splurge
Former subsidiary O2 could even be in the frame
BT‘s surprise entrance in Britain’s recent 4G auction may have had a hidden agenda, it has emerged, with news that it wants to team up with a mobile partner in a renewed drive into the sector. What’s more it may even join forces with O2, the operator it sold to Spain’s Telefónica 12 years ago. When Ofcom put the super-fast spectrum up for sale earlier this year [2013], BT paid almost £200 million for its chunk of the airwaves, bidding aggressively and ending up with more than it needed to boost just its Wi-fi coverage. Continue reading
Posted in 4G, Financial, Vodafone, mobile news, o2, telefonica
Tagged BT, internet tv, o2, telefonica
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Telefónica goes for fast handset upgrade with O2 Refresh
Rating: Abandon your handset before it becomes retro
It seems that Telefónica/O2 in the UK has finally woken up to the dangers of 24 month contracts which it needs to offer in order to remain competitive with its rivals. 24 months might make sense to accountants but it makes little sense to consumers. In terms of technology, an Internet year equates to three months. So by the time today’s contract subscribers have reached the end of their contract, their smartphones is seven years out of date. To counteract this, O2 has launched a new tariff aimed at enabling customers to get the latest phone whenever they want. It’s called O2 Refresh and GoMo News suspects that rival operators will be watching closely to try to evaluate the effectiveness of this new tariff. Continue reading
O2 revenues continue to spiral down
Britain’s second biggest mobile carrier O2 witnessed an 8.5 per cent drop in revenues in Q4 2012, despite signing up 282,000 new customers over the period – more than either of its main two rivals.
It’s the second successive drop for the carrier, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, which blamed the Q3 drop on customers delaying renewal of contracts ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5 launch. Continue reading
Posted in Everything Everywhere, Vodafone, mobile news, o2, telefonica
Tagged deutsche telekom, EE, o2, Q4 2012 sales, telefonica
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ZTE throws weight behind Firefox OS
Rating: Bringing smartphones to the masses
ZTE used its Press conference at MWC 2013 to throw its weight fully behind the Firefox OS from Mozilla. The clear intention is to flog [sell] smartphones to those who currently can’t afford them – especially in developing countries. The move was introduced by He Shiyou, head of the mobile devices division with Chinese telecoms manufacturer. The first example will be the ZTE Open which will also be the first handset to support the Mozilla Firefox mobile OS and is backed by Tier One MNO, Telefonica. Continue reading
Posted in Firefox, Mobile OS, Mozilla, ZTE, mobile news
Tagged Colombia, firefox, mozilla, Open, spain, telefonica, Venezuela, ZTE
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Tenth of EE stores for the chop
Merging of T-Mobile and Orange brands to blame
EE is to close at least one in ten stores within the next three months following the merging of its former T-Mobile and Orange brands. The re-branding in October 2012 cost EE a rumoured £50 million, but it has left it with more stores on the High Street than it needs. The company, owned jointly by Spain’s Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom, now says it will shut 11 per cent of its existing 700 stores, though the locations have not been named. A question mark similarly hangs over frontline staff, though EE says some will be offered work at alternative stores though it’s thought managers’ job, in particular, will be at risk. Continue reading
Posted in Everything Everywhere, mobile news, orange, t-mobile, telefonica
Tagged Deutsch Telekom, EE, orange, t-mobile, telefonica, UK stores
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Bango and Telefónica Digital announce a global mobile payments partnership
Press release
January 17th 2013. Bango (AIM: BGO), the mobile payments and analytics company, and Telefónica Digital have announced that they have signed a Global Framework Agreement. The two companies will partner globally to create an enhanced direct-to-bill payment experience for mobile app stores. The partnership will combine Bango’s frictionless payment experience with Telefónica’s BlueVia Payment APIs, connecting over 314 million chargeable customers worldwide to the Bango Payments Platform. Continue reading
No plans to float Britain’s O2, insists Telefonica
Despite making a bundle from doing just that with O2 Germany
Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica has ruled out the possibility of floating its UK subsidiary, O2, on the London market. Recently, Telefonica itself has struggled to make a profit and has resorted to taking its O2 Germany unit public as part of a move to reduce its €56 billion (£46.5 billion) debt. However, Telefonica’s CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete has dismissed the idea that he would do likewise with the UK operation, claiming the German and British businesses were very different. Continue reading
Britain’s EE geared for possible flotation by end 2013
French and German owners need the cash
The parent firms of Britain’s largest mobile group, EE, have revealed they could soon float part of it off, following similar moves by Russia’s MegaFon and Spain’s Telefonica recently. Gervais Pellissier, deputy CEO of France Telecom which owns EE jointly with Deutsche Telekom, has disclosed an IPO could take place at the end of 2013, although he says the parent companies would remain majority shareholders. Continue reading
Posted in Everything Everywhere, Vodafone, mobile news, o2, orange, t-mobile, telefonica
Tagged deutsche telekom, EE, france telecom, Gervais Pellissier, IPO, Megafon, orange, t-mobile, telefonica
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Russian phone giant Megafon aims to raise $2bn on London market
IPO follows similar cash-raising move by Spain’s Telefonica
MegaFon, Russia’s second largest mobile phone company by customers, is likely to float on London’s stock market this year in a bid to raise $2 billion through the listing of a fifth of its shares. The company, owned by Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov, is said to have already been given the green light for the IPO which will also see it simultaneously listed on the Moscow exchange. It is expected to make a formal statement on the IPO in the next few weeks with the deal taking place either later this month or early December, before capital markets wind down for the end of the year. Continue reading
Posted in mobile news, telefonica
Tagged Alisher Usmanov, IPO, Megafon, russia, telefonica
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O2′s revenues slump, but boss insists video chatting is way forward
That’s assuming there’s no network blackout
Revenues of Britain’s second largest mobile network O2 plunged more than five per cent in Q3, latest trading figures reveal. The demise of its fortunes, partly attributed to customers delaying renewal of contracts ahead of Apple’s iPhone 5 launch, was much bigger than that of O2′s biggest rival EE. The Telefonica subsidiary – which earlier this year suffered an embarrassing 24 hour blackout – gained 110,000 more customers on the same period last year, thanks to a rise in contracts as people switched away from pay-as-you-go, but its turnover was down 5.4 per cent to £1.4 billion compared to EE’s 1.5 per cent fall in Q3. Continue reading
Posted in 4G, Everything Everywhere, iphone, mobile news, o2, telefonica
Tagged EE, iPhone 5, o2, Ronan Dunne, telefonica
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Telefonica jettisons chunk of German O2 offshoot to reduce own debts
IPO is Europe’s biggest this year
Spain’s Telefonica aims to raise around £1.2 billion when its spins off nearly a quarter of its German O2 operation later this morning [30th October 2012]. Shares in the the Frankfurt-listed company are expected to trade at €5.60 per share, though some analysts have criticised the price as too high compared to other phone operators. The IPO is Europe’s biggest initial public offering this year and is needed to help shrink Telefonia’s €58 billion debt pile.
O2 is Germany’s smallest mobile operator with roughly 16 per cent of subscribers, trailing Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Dutch group KPN’s E-Plus. Continue reading
Posted in Everything Everywhere, mobile news, orange, t-mobile, telefonica
Tagged EE, germany, o2, orange, t-mobile, telefonica
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Ad recognition increased by 130% says madvertise
Rating: It’s all about rich media & cross-media
As something of a first, madvertise has revealed the findings from a study into advertising effectiveness study for a rich media campaign. The study was undertaken in Germany in collaboration with Interrogare. Hence references here are to Telefónica’s O2 Germany not the UK. The study analyses the effects of advertising on mobile rich media campaigns. It covered rich media, interactive ads, video,and non-standard banner formats. One of the most amasing discoveries was that ad recognition increased by 130 per cent. This followed a campaign by O2 (Germany) which ran the campaign alongside the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III. The aim was to promote the launch of a new tariff. Madvertise claims O2 integrated the ‘mobile’ channel into its entire cross-media advertising strategy. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile Ad&Mktg, o2, telefonica
Tagged madvertise, o2, rich media, telefonica, Tino Krause
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O2 network down again but no compensation forthcoming
Over two million O2 customers hit by new network problems will not be compensated, the Spanish-owned company has confirmed.
Despite O2 claiming it had fixed outage problems that occurred on Friday, many people were still reporting problems connecting to the network the next day [13th October 2012]. Continue reading
Discount war looms as iPhone 5 debuts
Today’s iPhone 5 launch could push European carriers into a profit-bruising war by forcing them to offer customer discounts on Apple’s latest smartphone, analysts believe.
with the new iPhone expected to sell 10 million units this month alone, the mobile industry is geared for a mass pre-Christmas rush. But individual operators are also faced with the dilemma of whether to subsidise the new handsets or watch as rivals, who are willing, steal business from them. Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Vodafone, iphone, mobile news, telefonica
Tagged discounts, iPhone 5, telefonica, Vodafone
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