The Croatian subsidiary of operator group Telekom Austria, Vipnet, has tapped up cloud services provider Neostratus to provide a fully customisable, white-labelled public cloud platform for the operator to provision and manage a range of messaging, communication and collaboration solutions.
Operator group Telekom Austria is stepping up its M2M service offering internationally with a platform supplied by software provider and system integrator Comarch.
Operator group Telekom Austria has deployed a converged voice network using technology provided by Chinese kit vendor ZTE. The group has also built a commercial 100 gigabit transport network in Central and Eastern Europe, the first section of which, from Zagreb to Osijek and Ilok in Croatia, is already in operation.
Operator group Telekom Austria has announced that it will offer a range of Vodafone’s consumer services to its subscribers in Austria and Croatia.
The Croatian subsidiary of operator group Telekom Austria, Vipnet, has obtained 20 MHz of the country’s 800 MHz frequency spectrum for a total of HRK150m (€20m). The operator bought a paired frequency block of LTE-FDD spectrum in a bid to address the country’s digital dividend.
Incumbent operator Telekom Austria this week launched a start-up initiative under its domestic A1 brand. The idea is to select highly skilled individuals with entrepreneurial spirit and leadership potential, who are in the process of starting up a business, and give them the necessary network infrastructure, technical equipment and specialist support to market their business.
Austria was a hotbed of activity towards the end of this week as the Austrian Federal Competition Authority applied for an in-depth assessment by the Cartel Court of Telekom Austria’s proposed acquisition of MVNO brand YESSS!
Latin American operator group América Móvil has acquired yet more shares in Dutch operator KPN, taking its stake in the company to 23.43 per cent. The Mexico-based operator, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, announced its intention to take its stake up to 28 per cent in May, but KPN told its shareholders not to accept the unsolicited $3.25bn bid for shares.
Latin American operator group América Móvil is increasing its presence in Europe by acquiring a 21 per cent stake in Telekom Austria. The purchase comes in the same week that the operator increased its stake in Dutch operator KPN.
Telekom Austria has become the latest carrier to establish a division dedicated to developing solutions for the machine to machine (M2M) market. Announced in mid-September, Telekom Austria Group M2M was actually created in August in recognition of what TA CEO Hannes Ametsreiter described as “a very promising development of the M2M business”.
Telekom Austria has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Croatia’s largest cable operator B.net for €93m through its local subsidiary Vipnet, a provider of mobile telephony services.
The Serbian government is clearly not that motivated to offload its majority stake in incumbent carrier Telekom Srbija, having turned down the only offer for a second time. Sole bidder Telekom Austria had even increased its bid for the 51 per cent stake, yet on Friday the government called off the whole deal.
The Serbian government has given the sole bidder in its Telekom Srbjia sell-off 15 days to improve its offer. A fortnight ago, it emerged that Telekom Austria AG’s offer of €800-950m for the mostly-state-owned telco was the only bid received. The Serbian government, which owns 80 per cent of the telco, was hoping to attract offers in excess of €1.4bn for a 51 per cent stake in the company.
The sale of Telekom Srbjia looks set to be cancelled following the likely rejection of the lone bid for a 51 per cent stake in the company. The Serbian government, which owns 80 per cent of the telco, was hoping to raise €1.4bn from the sale; under those circumstances, it seems unlikely that the lone bid of €950m for a 51 per cent stake from Telekom Austria will be accepted.
Croatian operator VIPnet has announced the completion of a successful LTE trial in the 800MHz “digital dividend” band freed up by the migration to digital television. The trial, which began in October last year, took place in Zagreb, and achieved data speeds of up to 150Mbps download and 50Mbps upload.
Telekom Austria announced that it will acquire the remaining 30 per cent of SB Telecom, the sole owner of Belarusian carrier Velcom, that it does not already own. The total purchase price for the remaining 30 per cent stake amounts to €335m. This transaction will increase Telekom Austria’s stake in Velcom to 100 per cent.
Telekom Austria is to acquire 100 per cent stakes in the Bulgarian cable operators Megalan Network AD and Spectrum Net AD through its Bulgarian subsidiary M-Tel. Telekom Austria will pay €83m for the stakes.
Nokia Siemens Networks has won a five-year deal from Telekom Austria Group (TAG) to improve the carrier’s mobile networks performance and energy efficiency. The firms did not announce the value of the contract.
Austrian incumbent carrier Telekom Austria Group has reported that second quarter net profit for 2010 dropped by more than 16 per cent year on year to €68.7m. The firm attributed the decline to intense competition against a backdrop of regulatory and macroeconomic pressure. In particular, said group CEO Hannes Ametsreiter, a drop in fixed network voice minutes and a reduction in mobile termination rates have hit the firm’s income.
Telekom Austria announced Wednesday that it has successfully run a Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, showcasing a high definition videoconferencing platform in Vienna.
Lean and MeanWith summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.
Cross-border opportunities are there, but Telenor has work to do in BulgariaPan-European operater group Telenor is making another move into Eastern Europe, this time buying Bulgaria’s Globul. The move makes sense for several reasons, but success won’t come easy in a country with high mobile penetration and a sluggish economy.
Telecoms.com speaks with Ali Agan, who has risen through the ranks of TeliaSonera Group to become CEO of KCell in Kazakhstan. With a young population Agan is keen to deploy LTE and exploit nascent demand for data services.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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Calls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.