Operator Corner (2) - 29/09/08

Iridium has agreed to be bought by an equity firm Greenhill & Co for $591m.

Verizon has successfully tested near real-time circuit provisioning across its network with the trial of control plane technology and multi-supplier interoperability (Fujitsu, Ciena and Tellabs).

Sprint Nextel will officially launch its Xohm mobile WiMAX network on Oct. 8.

T-Mobile USA will sell its Android-based, HTC-made G1 phone on Oct. 22, at $179. G1 has a touchscreen and includes several Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, as well as Amazon’s music store.

ICO, MSV and Qualcomm have developed cellular satellite services for the North American market.

Hanaro Telecom has become SK Broadband.

KT (S. Korea) plans to invest $1.5bn to develop its IPTV services by 2012. 300k IPTV subscribers are expected by end-2008.

Lao Telecom will finally launch its 3G service in Oct. 08.

Chunghwa Telecom is considering selling the G1 smartphone from the end of 2008.

Swan Telecom (India) will launch operations during 2Q09.

KDDI will offer 1Gbps optical fiber offering in October.

China Unicom would issue a new procurement for 3G equipment in late Sept.