Operators

Telefonica Czech Republic will scrap 10% of its jobs over the coming year. While the operator is currently struggling, the redundancies actually date back to a 2011 restructuring initiative and are not related to investment group PPF’s recent bid for a majority stake.

Reliance Industries’ surprise participation in India’s mobile spectrum auctions has increased the likelihood of frenzied competitive bidding.

Latin American mobile provider NII Holdings, which operates as Nextel, has signed wholesale agreements with Telefonica that will grant its Mexican and Brazilian customers access to nationwide 3G voice and data services.

Japanese firms KDDI and Sumitomo are reportedly close to forming an alliance with the state-controlled mobile operator in Myanmar.

India’s leading operators have confirmed that they will participate in the country’s upcoming spectrum auctions, which look set to net the government a hefty return.

Indian operator Reliance Communications (RCom) is reportedly restructuring its operation. Most significantly, it is believed to be splitting its GSM and CDMA units, with the latter believed to be in line for a sell-off that would help to reduce RCom’s debt.

MTN Uganda has completed its planned 2013 Network Coverage site roll-out initiative.

Telefonica has dismissed reports that it was planning to collaborate with Brazilian rivals in order to break up Telecom Italia’s Brazilian unit, TIM Brasil.

Vodafone is reportedly considering a buyout of its Indian rival Tata Teleservices.

 Indian market leader Bharti Airtel has signed a major infrastructure sharing agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm.

China Mobile is currently negotiating a deal with Apple for the distribution of iPhones in China.

The Brazilian trustbuster Cade has taken aim at what it perceives as Telefonica’s market dominance, ruling that the Spanish operator must divest its holding in Telecom Italia’s TIM Brasil or take on a new partner for its own subsidiary Vivo .

Turkcell has accused South African operator MTN of costing it business in Iran via “corruption and bribery”.

Vodafone has entered into a Partner Market agreement with Latin American operator Datora Telecom to rebrand Datora’s mobile arm as Vodafone Brasil.

Telecom Italia has strongly denied recent reports that it would sell its Brazilian subsidiary in order to reduce its debt.

Orange has confirmed that it will sell its Dominican operation to Luxembourgian cable and telecoms private equity firm Altice.

Indian market leader Bharti Airtel is looking to raise as much as $1 billion to fund its participation in upcoming spectrum auctions as well as potential acquisitions.

South African fixed-line provider Telkom is “continuing to explore all avenues to derisk [its] mobile business”, according to CEO Sipho Maseko.

Brazilian operator Oi has stated that it may sell shares in order to raise money for further acquisitions should the need arise.

MTN Group is extending the reach of its regional networks with Etisalat’s SmartHub, a global communications hub facilitating direct routing of traffic between the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Telecom Egypt could acquire a controlling stake in Vodafone’s Egyptian operation once the 4G licensing process is underway.

Telefonica is looking to take on America Movil in Mexico, where the latter has a hefty market share of around 70%.

Idea Cellular has dramatically cut its tariffs, with 2G data prices down by up to 90% and 3G reduced by a third.

Russian operator Rostelecom could transfer control of its mobile operation to VTB and Bank Rossiya, the two banks that own Tele2 Russia.

Bharti Airtel has confirmed that it has reached an agreement with the Warid Group to acquire Warid Congo SA.

Investment group PPF has acquired a 66% controlling stake in the Czech unit of Telefonica for around €2.47 billion.

Vodafone Group will assume full control over its Indian operations, buying out minority shareholders at a cost of INR101 billion ($1.6 billion).

The government of Myanmar is weighing up potential partners for the country’s incumbent operator, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

America Movil registered a drop of almost 50% in its net profits in the third quarter, which the group attributes to economic issues in the Latin America region and particularly Mexico, as well as higher finance costs.

China Mobile has blamed the increasing prevalence of OTT services for a 9% drop in its Q3 net profits.

Vodafone is reportedly looking to buy out Telecom Egypt’s 45% stake in Vodafone Egypt for as much as $2 billion.

PCCW Global has signed an international IP VPN Network-to-Network Interconnection (IP VPN NNI) agreement with PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, the corporate division of Filipino operator PLDT.