Mobile operator strategies - 11/11/07

Elisa (Finland) has launched the world's first commercial WCDMA 3G network in the 900MHz spectrum.

SkyLink (Russia) is granted GSM-900 license in Chechnya.

Vodafone has emerged as the main contender to buy 25% stake in TM International (Malaysia), a spin-off of the Telekom Malaysia mobile unit. The move would be worth $3bn.

China Unicom plans to roll out some 4m low-end CDMA phones now and another large-scale CDMA mobile phone deployment before the end of 2007.

America Movil has purchased Jamaican mobile operator Oceanic Digital.

SK Telecom took over Helio, a US MVNO, and plans to invest additional $270m.

Six banks, along with MasterCard and Visa Europe, and four mobile operators, have decided to launch a large-scale field trial to test mobile contactless payment, using a payment application embedded in the customer's SIM card and on the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology.