Operator Corner (3) - 25/05/08

Teliasonera will resell MTG/Viasat pay-TV packages to its own IPTV and broadband customers through six new channel packages.

KPN and Reggefiber (NL) have formed a JV (49% KPN and 51% Reggefiber) to deploy a FTTH network in the city of Almere with 70k homes.

NRJ Mobile (MVNO France) switches its network to Orange.

Orange has selected Nokia' s OVI portal and will provide various entertainment mobile services.

Numericable (MSO in France) would be the higher bidder for Alice (Telecom Italia unit) in France.

T-Mobile would sell its Dutch landline broadband business (acquired last year from Orange NL).

MTN (S. Africa) is now not only wooed by Bharti Airtel (India) but also by Etisalat (UAE), Vimpelcom, DT, and Vodacom. Bharti Airtel and its parent company Singtel were planning to create a new company, focused on taking over MTN, but more recently said that the deal structure proposed by MTN was "unacceptable." and consequently called off merger talks with MTN.

Vodafone enters the Macedonian market through partnership with VIP Macedonia. It bought remaining 26% stake in Arcor (Germany) for €174m.

BT awarded a €449m contract to Tech Mahindra (India) to improve its IT infrastructure.

Etisalat (UAE) considers investment in the Iranian mobile market.

Portugal Telecom, Vodafone, Vodacom (S. Africa), ITI (India) and Bharti Airtel (India) are said to re-bid for Ghana Telecom.

Econet Wireless (S. Africa) and Global Telecom are the favorites to get the third and fourth GSM license in Malawi.

Telefonica would sell its 17% stake in Sogecable, dominant pay TV operator in Spain, to Prisa.

Virgin Group is launching a WiMAX service in 20 cities in Russia. The service will be branded as Virgin Connect.