Italian telco Fastweb, a subsidiary of Swisscom, is planning to shut its IPTV service by November this year, because of disappointing subscriber take-up. A report by IPTV News, quoting local newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, states that Fastweb’s IPTV customers have received letters advising them of the closure
State-owned fixed line and mobile operator Mauritius Telecom has reported a small 4% year-on-year rise in pre-tax profits to MUR2.55 billion (USD89.1 million) for the year to 31 December 2011, but is still tight-lipped on its oft-mooted listing. The incumbent had originally planned to list on the stock exchange in 2010, raising USD1.5 billion in the process, but the project was put on the backburner following the global financial crisis
According to Reuters, South Africa's Telkom said today that the country’s government will not back its proposed partnership with South Korean telco KT Corp, which wants to buy a 20% post-issue stake in the South African fixed line incumbent. KT last month cut its offer for the stake by nearly a third to around ZAR3.3 billion (USD385 million)
Reuters cites Austrian magazine Format in a report disclosing that Vienna-based investor Ronny Pecik has formed a partnership with Russian billionaire property developer Yelena Baturina, potentially to boost his interest in Telekom Austria beyond the 20%-plus stake he has amassed recently via holdings financed with Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris and others. Unnamed sources were quoted as saying: ‘With a high double-digit million sum, the 49-year-old has made it possible for Pecik to boost his Telekom stake to a blocking minority.’ Last month Pecik won a seat on Telekom Austria’s supervisory board; he also claimed to have no intention of increasing his stake ‘for the time being’
Figures from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) show that the country’s state-owned PSTN operator TelOne has ended a long period of stagnation in its fixed line total by increasing its voice subscriber base by 35,000 in the three months to the end of March 2012. The increase took its lines in service to around 373,000; previously POTRAZ reported that TelOne’s lines declined to below 338,000 at the end of 2011, down by around 50,000 since 2009. According to state-backed newspaper The Herald, the telco’s recent growth in fixed line usage is attributed to its rollout of lower-cost ADSL broadband services and expansion of ADSL coverage.
Bosnia’s Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) has announced that following a regulatory session it has adopted new rules regarding fixed number portability (FNP). The watchdog has confirmed that, with a view to boosting competition while encouraging liberalisation in the fixed line sector, the administrative fee for the transfer of numbers between fixed lines will be dropped from BAM30 to BAM20 (USD18.9 to USD12.7).
Mexican president Felipe Calderon has announced that Mexico expects to launch auctions within the next two months that aim to boost coverage of telecommunications services offered over fibre, BNamerica reports. The development dovetails with an earlier announcement that the Mexican government is aiming to promote high speed internet adoption in part by the sale of concessions that would allow the winning bidders to utilise state-owned fibre-optic lines and to build networks in those areas that currently do not have access to broadband services. As reported by CommsUpdate in January 2012, the initiative was expected to see the government conduct auctions that will include contracts to use two fibre-optic lines from state-owned powerco Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), while bids will also be taken on the use of fibre links running on along the federal highway network.
