Global operator strategies - 9/10/05

EU approves public funding in the UK for broadband access project aimed at bridging the "digital divide" in some areas of England. Wales, France and Spain have already benefited from similar programs.

Magyar Telekom, Hungary incumbent, is mulling merging its mobile unit T-Mobile Hungary into its fixed-line subsidiary T-Com to offer combined mobile and fixed packages.

Shortly after the announcement of the NTL and Telewest merger, a group of private-equity firms could bid for the combined company for about $11bn. NTL+Telewest has a network covering about half of the UK market and has about 5m subscribers.

13 companies were shortlisted to bid for Tunisie Telecom: Vivendi Universal, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Portugal Telecom; Bouygues Telecom, Batelco; Etisalat; Kuwait's MTC, South Africa's MTN, Saudi Oger, STC from Saudi Arabia and Tecom/DIG.