Mobile operator strategies - 25/06/05

Sprint may sign deal with the National Football League (NFL) to gain exclusive rights to video and audio highlights of games and broadcast them over wireless phones.

SFR (France) accepts a new MVNO on its network. Coriolis will debut operations before the end of the year. It is the fifth SFR's MNVO in France.

Telstra could be interested to enter the 3G mobile market in New Zealand. It should decide also with which option: either build some limited own network or make a deal with an established operator (Vodafone ?, already a partner for TelstraClear).

America Movil could invest some $2bn a year through 2010 and get 100m mobile subscribers by 2007.

Digicel (a Caribbean operator) is to buy the Caribbean business of Cingular Wireless.

MTN (South Africa) will buy a 51% stake in Loteny Telecom, one of two operators in the Ivory Coast, and will acquire Telecel Zambia. MTN has operations in South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Rwanda, Swaziland and Zambia.

Alfa Group (Russia) has finally made a deal (worth $3.3bn) with Turkey's Cukurova group on a minority stake in the mobile phone operator Turkcell. Teliasonera got a similar deal few months ago and disputes this new agreement.

Finland grants license for 450 Mhz spectrum band to Digita Oy, which plans to deploy a wireless data network using Flash-OFDM technology.

Orange (France Telecom) will extend its Developer Center network to the US with the opening of new centers in Boston and San Francisco.

ONE (Austria) is launching the world's first radio program broadcast exclusively and live to 3G UMTS handsets.

Netcom (Nigeria) will deploy first 3G network in Nigeria using the IPWireless TD-CDMA-based technology.

DoCoMo is testing 1Gbps download on a 4G network.

Megafon (CIS) launches 3G service (a first in the CIS) in Tajikistan through its JV TT-Mobile.

UPC, a cablo operator in NL, is becoming MVNO on Orange Netherlands network.