Mobile operator strategies - 24/10/06

Tele2 AB (Sweden) is buying 49% of the shares in Spring Mobil (Sweden) for about €16m. Spring Mobile was focusing the fixed to mobile telephony for businesses in Sweden.

China Unicom is expected to get a 3G licence in Macao.

Carrefour, a French supermarket, is launching MVNO operations (Carrefout Mobile) in France, backed by Orange.

Mobistar (Belgium) could be interested in buying local cable TV Telenet.

Softbank Mobile (Japan) has introduced a flat-rate tariff structure for basic cellphone services and free calls between its users during most of the day.