Mobile operator strategies - 10/05/06

Tower operator Crown Castel bought another tower operator Mountain Union Telecom for $309m. This will add some 550 sites and about $26m in turnover.

America Movil said it is not interested buying Millicom International, as reported by rumors.

Unless its UK rivals, T-Mobile UK will continue to focus on mobile only. Vodafone, Orange, O2 are planning converged services and entering the ISP market.

US mobile operator Chinook Wireless has switched from CDMA to GSM and selected Nokia.

China Mobile is cutting prices in Beijing to attract more low income users. This will help boosting the subscriber base, but will have a direct impact on ARPU, which is already one of the lowest in the world.

Alltel (US) extends its coverage through roaming deals with Cingular and Sprint Nextel.

Cosmote (Greece) will buy 42% stake in mobile telephony retailer Germanos.

SFR and Louis Dreyfus bought Telecom Italia' s 5% stake in Neuf Telecom (France) for €161m.

Bharti (India) has won a mobile license in Jersey through its Jersey Telenet subsidiary.

Orange (FT – France) is partnering with China's AMOI on 3G smartphone.