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September
The seven winning bidders in India’s 3G auction have been allocated spectrum, and the government has set a roll-out timetable
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Three of Thailand’s three operators are to bid for 3G licences, while a fourth opts to create an MVNO
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August
Zain is expected to be one of the competitors for the third mobile licence in Syria, along with Turkcell and STC
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Huawei and ZTE appear to have won Indian government approval to sell equipment to local operations, say reports
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Orascom and Wind in Europe, the Middle East and north Africa may merge with VimpelCom and Telenor’s operations in Russia and eastern Europe, say reports
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Alcatel-Lucent says it is expecting the first of a number of Indian orders for broadband equipment to arrive in 2011
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There’s an increasing pace of deals between operators, banks and mobile money specialists as the industry seeks to win a share of a fast-growing business
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July
Bharti Airtel, which has paid $10.7bn for Zain’s African operations, plans to bid for 22% of Zain Zambia not included in the deal
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Etisalat has named Alcatel-Lucent to expand the Tigo network in Sri Lanka that it bought for $207m in 2009
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Industrial group Essar is considering selling part of its stake in Vodafone India through an IPO or the whole 33% to Vodafone
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MTN’s CEO Phuthuma Nhleko says the company will sell stakes in the business to a black investment operation and to staff who suffered apartheid discrimination
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The high court in Bangladesh has stayed an order from the regulator banning the operations of five VoIP companies
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CEO Manoj Kohli announces plan for ex-Zain unit
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MainOne links Ghana and Nigeria with western Europe
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MTN, Bharti Airtel and 20 others bid for third licence
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Indian operator buys Mumbai-based company
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June
Telefónica has added $1bn to the price but Portugal Telecom still says no
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Operators should be able to offer customers discounts on services at different times of day or on certain cellsites, says Telcordia’s CEO
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Indonesian operator in infrastructure deal
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Zain Kenya, now owned by Bharti, has become the third Kenyan operator to win a 3G licence, following Safaricom and Telkom Kenya
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A combined company will own 80,000 mobile phone towers across India, shared by 10 operators
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China Telecom is to connect with Nepal Telecom using an optical fibre cable, improving the landlocked country’s international connections
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Colombian operator UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones has won the country’s spectrum auction and plans to start mobile broadband services
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Bakrie Telecom in Indonesia is to merge its CDMA operations with those of Telekomunikasi Indonesia
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Indian oil and gas company Reliance Industries is to compete against former sister company Reliance Communications after buying a broadband operator
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Regulatory hurdles in Algeria mean MTN has dropped its bid to buy five operations from Orascom Telecom
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Orascom chief Naguib Sawiris is negotiating to sell its Algerian subsidiary to South Africa-based MTN for $7.8bn
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Telefónica has increased its bid for Portugal Telecom’s share of Brazil’s Vivo from €5.7bn to €6.5bn
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FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is advising his Indian opposite number on broadband strategy
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May
América Móvil boss Carlos Slim and 13 other companies are competing for 3G capacity in Mexico’s spectrum auction
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Idea Cellular which has won 3G licences for 11 districts in India, is to raise debt of $528 million from international lenders
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Indian group Bharti Airtel has raised $1.78bn in loans in order to pay the Indian government for its 3G spectrum by the end of May
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World Cup sponsor MTN has a two-year deal with Motorola to improve its network performance
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BSNL is restricting tenders for GSM network expansion to Western vendors and has excluded Huawei and ZTE, CEO Kuldeep Goyal says
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Yota has dropped plans to expand its WiMax operations in Russia and will use LTE instead, the company says
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Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular are the provisional winners of India’s 3G auction
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India’s home secretary GK Pillai is to meet officials from ZTE in the continuing dispute with Chinese makers of telecoms equipment
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There’s about to be a shakeout in the rapidly developing broadband market in Brazil, following Vivendi’s takeover of GVT after a hotly contested battle with Telefónica
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There’s about to be a shakeout in the rapidly developing broadband market in Brazil. Octavio Sampaio looks at how the two will fight it out
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Reports from Indonesia suggest that the government wants to adopt LTE in its 4G strategy in place of WiMax
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South African mobile operator Cell C has given Nokia Siemens Networks a contract to upgrade its network
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Telefónica is bidding €5.7bn for Portugal Telecom’s stake in Brasilcel, which would give it control of Brazilian operator Vivo
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Indonesian operator Indosat is raising $500m in a bond offering and has launched 42 megabit HSPA+ using equipment from Ericsson
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Indian operator Aircel has grown from two regional operations to a nationwide network in a few years, tripling the number of customers in a plan to become a ‘pocket internet’ service. CIO Ravinder Jain explains how he ensured the IT systems could meet the demand
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A total of 19 companies, including France Telecom Orange, have taken the first stage leading to bidding for a third mobile licence in Mozambique
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France Telecom has launched Tunisia’s first 3G network in association with a local group, Investec
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Indonesian mobile operator Bakrie has raised $250m to repay existing loans and to fund further capital expenditure
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April
Former Sprint and Clearwire executive Wing Lee is offering $1 million in prizes to stimulate applications and devices for his new WiMax network
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Huawei and ZTE are among Chinese equipment makers whose products have been banned from Indian networks, in a government ruling
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Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to revive former telecom monopoly Telebras and is considering setting charges of $131 a month for one megabit service
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The world’s largest operator, China Mobile, has awarded ZTE a contract to build an IMS core network on which it can run converged fixed and mobile services
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Tamin Telecom has won Iran’s third mobile licence, after two earlier attempts to award the licence to Etisalat and Zain were withdrawn
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IT companies and network operators will be competing for contracts from Bharti Airtel to run its newly acquired African networks
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Consolidation continues in emerging markets as MTN plans to buy Orascom operations in four African countries
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The mobile industry will play an important part in the development of emerging markets, says Alexey Reznikovich
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The mobile industry will play an important part in the development of emerging markets, says Alexey Reznikovich
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Telenor and Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group have consolidated their peace deal by completing the merger of VimpelCom and Kyivstar
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The Brazilian government is reviving a project to let Telebras manage its broadband internet programme for the poor
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Thailand’s telecoms regulator NTC has appointed commissioner Natee Sukonrat to examine ways of licensing WiMax and other wireless services in 2011
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Reports say that two companies have bid for licences to supply cable, voice and internet services in competition with Telecom Egypt
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The Indian government, now running a 3G auction, is planning to follow it with an auction of spectrum for 4G
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TIM Participacoes, the Brazilian mobile operation of Telecom Italia, will invest $1.42bn in 2010, up from last year’s $1.23bn
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Vladimir Putin’s Russian government is considering taking a stake in Sistema’s Indian operation, MTS India
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China’s minister of industry and information technology, Li Yizhong, wants to expand the number of 3G customers from 16m to 150m by next year
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India’s auction of 3G licences starts today, with six mobile companies competing for three allocations and expected to pay $11bn between them
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State-owned CAT Telecom in Thailand is to buy out Hutchison’s CDMA operation in the same country for $232m
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France Telecom’s new CEO Stéphane Richard says that the company plans to spend €7 billion on acquisitions in Africa and the Middle East
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The Palestine Authority is planning to offer a third mobile licence in 2013, Mashour Abu Daqqa, the territory’s telecoms minister has announced
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The Libyan government is planning to sell 5% and then 40% stakes in two mobile operators, Libyana and Al-Madar
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Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph is asking Kenya’s regulator for approval to start testing 4G services
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March
China Mobile and China Unicom have ordered equipment worth $1.8 billion from Ericsson for mobile network upgrades
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Serbia’s telecoms minister Jasna Matic is planning to sell half the state’s 80% holding in incumbent operator Telekom Srbija
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The owner of Indonesia’s Telkomsel is considering spinning off its CDMA operator, Telkom Flexi, into a separate company
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Industrial group Videocon is targeting 100 million users in three years for its new Indian GSM services
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A deal to sell Zain’s African operations, except for Sudan and Morocco, should be signed in the next few days, says Zain
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Carlos Slim’s América Móvil has raised a further $4 billion in a debt sale, on top of $1.4 billion earlier in March
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Saudi Telecom has awarded Alcatel-Lucent a contract for LTE trials in the second half of 2010
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Telefónica and two Mexican media groups, Grupo Televisa and Megacable Holdings, will work together to bid for access to the Mexican electricity company’s dark fibre
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Wang Jianzhou, chairman and CEO of the world’s biggest operator, says the company is ready to invest in businesses in Asia and Africa
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MobiTel in Cambodia has signed a network expansion deal worth $200m with Huawei
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Eight companies have entered India’s auctions for licences to offer 3G and fixed wireless broadband
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Qualcomm’s Indian head Kanwalinder Singh says the company will bid for broadband wireless licences in India
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CEO Srinath Narasimhan is re-investing the cash from that wholesale voice in wireless networks and value-added services in India and other emerging markets
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The National Council on Privatisation in Nigeria is looking again at plans to sell Nigerian Telecommunications
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The Indian-Russian company which runs MTS mobile services in India is looking to raise $400m of debt
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Carlos Slim’s América Móvil has raised $1.17 billion in debt to finance purchase of fixed-line operator Telmex Internacional
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Just 18 months since Cable & Wireless rebranded and united its 13 Caribbean operations, the new Lime is to purchase new broadband technology
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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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Standard Chartered, Barclays and a number of other banks are discussing loans to Bharti to buy Zain’s African business
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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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Nokia is looking at plans to make mobile phones in Argentina, adding to its nine worldwide plants including two in Latin America
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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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Cofetel, the Mexican regulator, is reviewing initial bids for two sections of spectrum, with final bids due in May
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The biggest shareholder in Egypt-based Orascom is to lend the company $225 million free of interest
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The Brazilian government is planning to invest over $10 billion in state-owned telco TeleBras
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MTN of South Africa and local operator Globacom are shortlisted for a 75% stake in the Nigerian state-owned incumbent
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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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Saad Al Barrak has resigned from his position as deputy chairman and group CEO of Zain, though he will continue to be CEO of the Saudi Arabian operation
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With investment from Saudi Telecom and Malaysia’s Maxis, Axis has started to build its market in Indonesia, explains CEO Erik Aas
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Essar, the company that owns 33% of Vodafone’s Indian operation, is planning to invest $2 billion in up to seven African mobile businesses
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January
The Indian government has turned down a plan that would give Telstra a majority stake in its local offshoot and is reviewing plans by other investors
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Etisalat has settled a dispute with the government of Pakistan over the amount owed for a stake in incumbent operator PTCL
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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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Former Microsoft executive Süreyya Ciliv has been steering Turkcell to become one of the most innovative operators in Europe
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Mobile bandwidth auctions to mark beginning of competition in Costa Rica
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The Indian government is claiming that SingTel was offering international long distance services without a licence
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Telefónica is to invest $1.5 billion in expanding its optical fibre network through the Andean districts of Peru
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Google has told China Unicom, Samsung and Motorola that it will delay the launch of Google-branded Android handsets in the Chinese market
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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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BSNL, the Indian government-owned operator, is asking for state aid, a freeze on interest payments, and preferential purchasing by regional and national government bodies
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As the world enters a period of economic instability there is a pressing need for mobile network operators to identify new horizons of growth
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Carlos Slim is planning to bring together his Mexican fixed, mobile and international phone companies with a $21 billion offer by América Móvil for Telmex and Telmex Internacional
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The Russian government is postponing plans to invest $677 million in Indian operator Sistema Shyam, which is controlled by Russian group Sistema
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China Unicom, one of China’s three telecoms operators, is integrating its fixed and mobile operations and reorganising its business
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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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Huawei plans to hire 5,000 research and development staff in Bangalore in an expansion of its R&D centre costed at $500 million
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Li Ka-shing’s Hong Kong industrial giant Hutchison Whampoa is offering $542 million to acquire the shares in its mobile telecoms offshoot, HTIL
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Zain has launched its mobile banking service, Zap, in Niger, Sierra Leone and Malawi, adding to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
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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
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Telkom Indonesia is to raise $214 million to help fund its planned $2 billion capital expenditure for 2010, according to CEO Rinaldi Firmansyah
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There will be a further delay in India’s auction of 3G bandwidth, now set for February 2010
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Egypt’s Mobinil plans to raise $273 million with the issue of bonds to expand its network
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Russian investment group Altimo was five minutes late to bid for Zambia’s Zamtel but has been confirmed as a bidder