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March
Egypt’s National Telecom Regulatory Authority has delayed the deadline for applications for two new licences until April 15
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The Brazilian government wants Telebrás to manage a programme to build a national fibre network to improve broadband access
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A group of New Zealand entrepreneurs are planning a cable to increase the country’s capacity to California and Australia
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Verizon’s capex will be about $17 billion in 2010, with a strong cash flow, mainly from Verizon Wireless, according to CFO John Killian
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Belgium is offering a fourth licence for 3G services and is expected to follow with licences for LTE and WiMax capacity
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Ciena, headed by Gary Smith, is to raise $250 million to fund its purchase of Nortel Networks’ metro ethernet unit
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Private equity company Abry Partners is to buy US cable and broadband operator RCN for $531 million plus $730 million debt
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Tata Communications, headed by Srinath Narasimhan, and Qatar Telecom are to extend the Tata Global Network into the Gulf
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Nokia Siemens Networks and Juniper are working together to offer security systems for fixed and mobile networks
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Vivendi is hoping to secure mobile frequency spectrum for its new Brazilian acquisition, GVT
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NTT is using wholesale provider TTK to deliver its services to customers across Russia
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Belgian cable operator Telenet plans to invest in LTE technology for its own mobile network
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The European Commission has started a public consultation on updating the EU’s law on whether broadband should be included in universal access rules
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The Federal Communications Commission is expected to ask for $25 billion, double earlier estimates, on its US national broadband plan
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Mike Quigley of Australia’s open-access company has announced the first five areas where it will build fibre-to-the-home fibre networks
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The Australian federal government has taken an equity stake of $89m in the first state rollout of its national broadband network
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Ericsson is to supply VDSL2 equipment to TeliaSonera so it can boost its copper network in Sweden, Denmark and Norway
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February
Aircel, which operates in 18 regions of India, will use proceeds from sale of its towers to expand into five more zones to give nationwide coverage
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UK cable company Virgin Media is increasing its broadband speed from 50 to 100 megabits a second
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Emirati operator Du, which made a $143m profit in 2009, plans to invest $587m in enhancing its network in 2010
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Genband has won control of Nortel’s carrier VoIP business for $182 million after no other companies bid in an auction
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Telekom Austria is to merge the businesses of its fixed and mobile operations in its home country, aiming at €100m annual savings
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YTL, headed by Wing Lee, is about to launch a nationawide WiMax network in Malaysia
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The Philippines telecom regulator will allow existing 3G licence holders to bid for the country’s last 3G licence
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Telefónica is to increase Brazilian investment from $1.2 billion in 2009 to $1.9 billion this year
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The government of Peru is planning a $260 million package to stimulate rural investment in mobile telecoms
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Nokia Siemens Networks is to supply and manage mobile operations for Aircel in India in three areas
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Australia’s minister for broadband, Stephen Conroy, has launched the first construction work on the country’s planned National Broadband Network
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Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs is to work with Telecom Italia’s labs on LTE developments such as picocells
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Alcatel-Lucent is to take over network operations and 3,000 staff of Bulgarian operator BTC
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CDMA operators China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless plus CDMA vendor Qualcomm have finally joined the GSM Association
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The French analyst company says telecoms equipment sales were down 2% in 2009 and handset sales were down 4%
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Verizon Wireless expects to launch LTE services in 25-30 US cities by the end of 2010
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Ericsson’s new CEO Hans Vestberg has announced that the company is launching its own white label app store, as a service to operators
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The GSM Association has won support from 20 operators for an initiative to allow voice calls and roaming over LTE
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The mobile industry is faced with a Titanic-like iceberg of data which could sink many of them by 2015, says NSN’s new CEO, Rajeev Suri
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BT Wholesale is launching a content delivery network to allow ISPs to offer guaranteed quality to consumers
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ISPs are struggling to cope with consumers’ demand for online video. In the UK, BT is responding by launching its own wholesale content network for video.
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The Brazilian government is planning to invest over $10 billion in state-owned telco TeleBras
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France Telecom is to invest €2 billion in fibre networks to homes in Paris and 15 other French cities
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Google is planning to build a limited number of broadband networks in US cities, operating at up to one gigabit a second
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The annual Connectivity Scorecard shows that Sweden has overtaken the US and other Scandinavian countries dominate
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Mobile operators will invest $72 billion in capital expenditure for broadband technologies during 2010, according to the GSM Association
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SingTel’s Australian business, Optus, is refusing to sell its hybrid fibre coax network to the state-controlled National Broadband Network
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Reports from the UK suggest BT is considering plans to open up its cable ducts to rival operators
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Globe Telecom in the Philippines is to spend nearly $500 million in 2010 on expanding its mobile and broadband activities
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Software-defined radio has allowed Telstra’s Hong Kong mobile operator to run 2G and 3G services on the same infrastructure
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Operators in India can save $1.5 billion in 2010 alone from tower sharing, with many companies saving around $300 million each
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UAE operator Du is to spend heavily to expand its network, while agreeing a network sharing deal with rival Etisalat
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A US-based private equity company is to invest $300 million in an Indian operator of mobile phone towers
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US operator Leap Wireless, which sells under the Cricket brand, has appointed advisers to seek a buyer
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January
AT&T is responding to increased demand for its US wireless network — largely from iPhone usage — by committing $18 billion on network improvements
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New Zealand’s incumbent operator is suggesting an alternative solution to the government proposal for a national fibre-to-the-home project
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Manoj Kohli, CEO of Indian operator Bharti Airtel, is seeking bids to take part in a joint venture that will manage its intercity optical fibre network
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The Mexican state electricity utility is to sell off spare fibre capacity on its grid to competitive telecoms operators in the market
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Millicom’s Tigo mobile business in Ghana is to sell 750 of its towers to a specialist infrastructure company, Helios Towers
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The Indian government says that winners of next month’s 3G auction will be able to refinance their licence fees with a long-term overseas loan within a year
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Mobile bandwidth auctions to mark beginning of competition in Costa Rica
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As operators struggle to tune up their backhaul networks to deliver data to smartphone users, Tellabs CEO Rob Pullen believes they can save money by moving to ethernet connections
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Carphone Warehouse in the UK is considering building its own optical fibre network in competition with BT and other operators
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Nextel Mexico, owned by NII in the US, is to bid for 3G spectrum in the country’s forthcoming auction
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The Opposition parties in Australia’s federal parliament have come out against the government proposals to break up Telstra
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AIS, part-owned by SingTel, is to spend $335 million on expanding its network in Thailand in 2010, reaching 15-22 extra cities
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Deutsche Telekom is seeking regulatory approval for wholesale prices for access to its optical fibre network
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The French government is to offer telecoms operators low-interest loans in order to stimulate the growth of fibre to the home
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XConnect is offering a free three-month trial of a new peering service to operators providing high-definition voice services
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Bell Labs president Jeong Kim wants to preserve the freedom that will allow his researchers to continue to deliver disruptive technology
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GTL, an Indian telecoms infrastructure company, is to buy Aircel’s mobile phone towers for $1.8 billion, beating four others to the deal
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According to sources, Singapore Telecommunications is to sell 25% of its Australian operator, Optus, raising around $3.7 billion
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The Indian government has cut from four to three the number of 3G licences that will be auctioned next month
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Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs believes networks should use only 1,000th the energy they do today, and has set up a consortium with 15 other organisations to carry out the necessary research
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Clearwire International, headed by Barry West, has announced plans to build a WiMax network covering the Spanish city of Malaga
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Australian operators Telstra, Optus and Vodafone Hutchison are expected to bid for 4G spectrum to be auctioned by the government
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Indian telecoms operator Aircel is launching its own app store and is selling its 17,000 telecoms towers
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Huawei expects global contracts to rise from $30 billion to $36 billion in 2010, a rise of 20% — though slower than the previous year’s 36% growth