Operators

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas is reportedly attempting to acquire 50% of Iusacell from broadcaster Televisa, in a deal which would give him full control of Mexico’s number three operator.

Telecom Italia CEO Marco Patuano has stated that the firm may abandon the sale of its stake in Telecom Argentina to Fintech if it continues to face regulatory delays.

The new government of Slovenia, which is expected to come into power in September, must approve the privatisation of incumbent operator Telekom Slovenije before it can continue.

Telecom Italia has delayed the deadline for the sale of its stake in Telecom Argentina until September 25^th.

Indian operator Essar has agreed to sell Kenyan number three yuMobile to local rivals Airtel and Safaricom for KSH10.5 billion ($120 million).

After stating its intention to bid for a majority stake in TIM Participacoes, Brazilian operator Oi is now reportedly looking for a bidding partner.

Brazilian operator Oi is gearing up to bid for a majority stake in its rival TIM Participacoes, the local unit of Telecom Italia.

The Algerian government’s acquisition of a majority stake in mobile operator Djezzy looks set to go ahead after an independent financial adviser deemed the agreed price for the stake to be ‘fair’.

Vodafone is reportedly interested in acquiring one of Brazil’s three leading operators, with TIM mooted as the primary candidate.

Apple has used servers belonging to China Mobile to store personal user data, marking the first instance in which the US firm has stored iCloud information in the country.

Telefonica has confirmed that it is in talks with a Mexican mobile firm via a regulatory filing, but has declined to name the company in question.

Millicom has sold its 50% stake in Mauritius operator Emtel to its business partner Currimjee Jeewanjee.

The big three Chinese operators are jointly founding a towers firm to facilitate their 4G rollouts.

America Movil controller Carlos Slim has expressed his belief that potential buyers for the assets that the operator plans to sell are unlikely to come from within Mexico.

Vodafone Group and Bemobile (trading as “bmobile”) have announced the formation of a new Partner Market agreement in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Vodafone has sold its 49% stake in Vodafone Fiji to the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF). The deal closed for FJD160 million (almost $87.5 million).

China Telecom and China Unicom have received licences to begin trialling FDD-LTE networks in 16 Chinese cities.

China Mobile is acquiring an 18% stake in Thai operator True Corp for around $880 million.

Vodafone’s Czech unit has taken issue with an LTE network-sharing arrangement between two of its main rivals, arguing that the country’s regulator has stipulated that such arrangements should not be exclusive.

Chinese market leader China Mobile has fulfilled its promise of halving LTE charges by doubling the amount of data available to its 4G subscribers without raising its tariffs.

Saudi Arabian number two Mobily has walked out of negotiations that could have resulted in it acquiring a stake in fixed-line provider Etihad Atheeb Telecommunications (EATC).

Helios Towers Africa is keen to participate in the upcoming sale of Bharti Airtel’s African tower infrastructure – but to do so, the firm needs to raise around $500 million.

Having successfully closed a deal to acquire a majority stake in Maroc Telecom, Etisalat is now bidding for the remaining publicly-traded shares in the Moroccan operator.

Huawei and ZTE have emerged as the major recipients of China Mobile’s second round of 4G contracts, with Huawei winning 31% of the deals while ZTE took 34%.