Global operators strategies - 10/02/08

Teliasonera has made a bid of $1bn for buying 100% (it already owns 49%) of Latvia-based Lattlecom.

ATT got FCC' s approval for buying spectrum in the 700MHz band from Aloha Partners (for $2.5bn).

KPN, E-Plus, 3UK, Play and Base (respectively in NL, Germany, UK, Poland, and Belgium) are lowering their data roaming prices to meet EU demands. In addition, Vodafone has announced a price reduction of up to 45% to its retail monthly data roaming tariff for European business travelers.

Telenor has agreed to sell its 18.3% stake in Golden Telecom to Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom for $774m.

Google has launched a counter-attack on Microsoft' s bid on Yahoo. “This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the internet: openness and innovation.” Yahoo management believe the bid price is too low and are mulling a plan to use Google as the search provider for its popular portal services.

DT said it is close to resolve T-Systems future. "Everything is possible from a sale to a partnership,"

Orange Romania enters the quadruple play services in Romania with UPC Romania.

Sistema (Russia) will invest $5bn in India to deploy its own world class telecom network across the country.

EarthLink (USA) has shut down its muni WiFi business and put it for sale.

Rumor: Arab investors would be interested in Sprint Nextel.......