CLICK HERE TO READ ON YOUR IPHONE/IPAD SPECIAL EDITION BUSINESS ANALYSIS FOR TELECOMS PROFESSIONALS Gaining weight Sponsored by: REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2012 AND PREDICTIONS FOR 2013 TIMELINE A round-up of the major stories in telecoms in 2012, as reported in our daily news service www.totaltele.com JANUARY-MARCH areas and to share the terminal operations with those of rival SingTel buys Amobee segment elsewhere. player Wind Hellas, blaming SingTel agreed a cash deal worth France gets Free market uncertainty. US$321 million for US-based Free Mobile launched as France’s Slim gets Net Servicos mobile advertising solutions firm fourth mobile operator, offering a Carlos Slim’s Embratel was given ALU’s Genesys sale closes Amobee. €19.99 per month unlimited calls, the green light by Brazilian Permira’s $1.5 billion acquisition messaging and Internet tariff. regulator Anatel to take over of Genesys from Alcatel-Lucent Batelco sells out of India Orange immediately responded cableco Net Servicos. closed following receipt of Bahrain’s Batelco agreed to with price cuts. regulatory approvals. sell its 42.7% stake in Indian CEO change at Telecom Egypt mobile operator STel to Sky Chile merger off Telecom Egypt appointed Hungary’s new state operator City Foundation for 65.8 million After being blocked by a Chilean company insider Tarek Aboualam A consortium led by state-owned dinars (€130 million). antitrust court, the planned as its new chief executive, electricity wholesaler MVM won merger between Entel and GTD replacing acting CEO and spectrum in Hungary’s 900-MHz Tata circles world Manquehue was called off when managing director Mohammed auction in January. MPVI Mobil India’s Tata Communications GTD’s controlling shareholder Abdel Rehim Hassanein. planned to launch services in completed the final leg of its Tata backed out of the deal. early 2013, but its licence was Global Network–Eurasia cable India scraps 2G licences voided by a Budapest court in system, which also constituted Zambia privatisation reversed India revoked the 122 mobile September. the last link in its wholly-owned, The Zambian government licences it awarded in 2008 that round-the-world cable. reversed the 2010 sale of Zamtel became the focus of a corruption LightSquared blocked to Libya’s LAP Green Networks scandal, affecting a number of The FCC in February blocked UK gets first TD-LTE network after an investigation concluded major global telcos and some LightSquared’s plan to roll out PCCW-owned UK Broadband that the telco had been grossly local players. It reauctioned the a wholesale LTE network in switched on its 3.5-GHz band, undervalued. LAP Green paid spectrum in November. the US on the grounds it could TD-LTE network in London. $257 million for a 75% stake. interfere with GPS signals. CEO Voda’s Greek merger off Sanjiv Ahuja later resigned and Fibre on demand OTE sells out of Serbia Vodafone backed away from the company filed for Chapter 11 BT’s Openreach division detailed Telekom Srbija bought back 20% plans to merge its Greek mobile bankruptcy protection in May. the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) of its own shares from Greek on-demand 300-Mbps service incumbent OTE for €380 million. Global connections by technology generation it plans to make commercially available from spring 2013. n 2G n 3G n 4G New RIM CEO 100% Thorsten Heins was named as VoLTE victory 80% new chief executive of RIM, Ericsson and Qualcomm replacing under-fire co-CEOs 60% announced a successful voice call and chairmen Mike Lazaridis and 40% handover from LTE to WCDMA Jim Balsillie. Lazaridis became using Single Radio Voice Call vice chairman of RIM’s board, 20% Continuity (SRVCC). while Balsillie left the company in 0% March. 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Telus launches LTE Source: Wireless Intelligence Telus launched LTE services in 14 French FTTH deal There will be 8.5 billion mobile connections in the world by 2017, half of which cities, making it the third mobile Orange agreed to allow Bouygues will be 3G or 4G connections, split 40% 3G and 10% 4G, Wireless Intelligence operator in Canada to do so, after predicts. Today, 26% or 1.7 billion of the 6.5 billion total are 3G/4G; just 1% of all Telecom to use the horizontal connections are either LTE, TD-LTE or WiMAX. By 2017 the FDD variant of LTE Rogers and Bell Canada. network segment of its fibre-to- will account for 85% of 4G connections, while TD-LTE will take a 14% share. 2G the-home (FTTH) infrastructure connections will decline by more than half a million over the next five years as Google sells Clearwire stake people migrate to faster services, the firm estimates. in very densely populated Google sold its 29.4 million 2 www.totaltele.com December 2012/January 2013 TIMELINE shares in Clearwire for $66.5 Saudi Telecom CEO change America Movil upped its stake in who was let go by the Internet million, significantly less than the Saud al-Daweesh resigned as Netherlands-based KPN to 27.7% company in May after just four $500 million it paid for the stake chief executive of Saudi Telecom in June. It also announced a share months (see p.20). in 2008. Company. He was replaced by purchase deal that saw it raise Khaled Al Ghoneim. its stake in Telekom Austria to BCE buys data centre firm Etisalat pulls India plug... 22.76% in September. Canadian telco BCE and three Etisalat ceased operating its Google buys Moto Mobility institutional investors agreed to Cheers Mobile service in India Google completed its $12.5 billion SFR shake-up pay C$1.1 billion for data centre on 31 March, following the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Frank Esser stepped down as CEO operator Q9 Networks. The cancellation of its licences. in May and named one of its own of France’s SFR in March. He acquisition closed in October. people, Dennis Woodside as the was due to be replaced by former ...forges ahead in Afghanistan unit’s new chief executive. Vodafone Europe head Michel Microsoft $1.2bn Yammer buy The United Arab Emirates Combes, but plans changed after Software giant Microsoft inked incumbent also became the first Bharti launches LTE Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of SFR’s a US$1.2 billion deal to acquire telco to offer 3G services in Bharti Airtel claimed to be parent Vivendi was ousted in business social networking Afghanistan. India’s first 4G operator when it June. Stephane Roussel became provider Yammer in a bid to boost launched services in Kolkata. The SFR’s new chief executive. its cloud services portfolio. Bharti launches in Rwanda operator also agreed to acquire India’s Bharti Airtel launched a 49% stake in Qualcomm’s JULY-SEPTEMBER Telefonica sells China stake commercial services in Rwanda, Indian broadband wireless access Telefonica agreed to sell a 4.56% becoming the country’s third businesses for around $165 EU roaming caps arrive stake in China Unicom to the mobile network operator. million. Caps on the cost of mobile data latter’s parent for €1.13 billion, usage while roaming in the EU reducing its holding to 5.01%. Hirai takes helm at Sony LION2 goes live came into force on 1 July. Sony announced that its video France Telecom-backed CGI snaps up Logica games and consumer electronics submarine cable system LION2– Vodafone buys C&W Canadian IT services firm CGI head Kazuo Hirai would take connecting parts of Africa with Vodafone’s £1.04 billion Group agreed to pay £1.7 billion over as president and CEO from 1 international networks–was purchase of Cable & Wireless for European rival Logica. April, replacing Howard Stringer, switched on. Worldwide was completed in who became chairman. July and changes to C&W’s Voda, O2 merge UK networks Facebook shares struggle top management immediately The UK units of Vodafone and New China Mobile chair Facebook’s long awaited IPO followed: Vodafone Global Telefonica’s O2 announced a China Mobile announced Xi came in May. The social network Enterprise CEO Nick Jeffery network-sharing deal covering Guohua as its new chairman, did not maintain its $38 IPO price replaced Gavin Darby at the 2G and 3G networks, with a view noting that Wang Jianzhou had for long, dropping to below $20 helm, while other C&W execs to adding in LTE in future. The retired for “reason of age”. in the subsequent months. There made way for Vodafone people. 50/50 joint venture will run the has been a small rebound since. network of 18,500 masts. APRIL-JUNE Verizon buys telematics firm Competition in Israel Verizon Communications agreed Sprint closes iDEN network Colombian telcos merge HOT Telecom and Golan to pay $612 million in cash for US mobile operator Sprint said it Telefonica brokered a deal with Telecom launched mobile services Hughes Telematics. The deal will close down its iDEN network, the Colombian government that in Israel, both undercutting the closed in July. the one remaining legacy from will see fixed-line firm Colombia market’s established operators its Nextel acquisition, as soon as Telecomunicaciones merged with with low-cost price plans. South Africa blocks KT deal June 2013. Telefonica Moviles Colombia. The South African government Telefonica will own 70% of the Mozambique newcomer rejected Telkom SA’s plan to sell China Telecom MVNO launch combined entity. Movitel, majority-owned by a 20% stake to South Korea’s KT China Telecom launched its UK Vietnam’s Viettel, became Corp for around 268 billion rand MVNO under the brand name City Telecom sells telco assets the third mobile operator in ($330 million).