Global operator strategies - 26/11/05

France Telecom would have to rethink its 06-08 guidance after analysts found it is too ambitious and hardly reachable. Even if analysts fully support its strategy to pack together fixed and mobile services (to improve customer loyalty and expand revenue in the midterm), they found the growth target of 3% to 5% a year is out of reach, when the market is expected to grow at 2%.

Arcep (the French regulator) said FT could lose 500,000 subscribers by the end of the year.

Egypt plans to sell 20% of Telecom Egypt for about $800m. The IPO could start in early December.

Telus (Canada) plans to merge its wireless and wireline segments into a single operating structure.

European Transport Commissioner said an agreement could be reached soon on funding the deployment phase of the €3.6bn Galileo satellite navigation system.

China Telecom and China Unicom launched a strategic cooperation in the areas of resources, market, maintenance, new businesses, technology development and equipment procurement.

Telindus (Belgium) has raised interest from five bidders, including Belgrade, BT and France Telecom. It considers, however, Belgacom bid as unattractive.

Tata' s VSNL (from India) plans to invest $230m in South Africa over the next three years to develop and operate telecommunication services.