Telecompaper) US fixed-line operator Windstream has agreed to acquire regional operator Iowa Telecom for USD 1.1 billion. Iowa Telecom shareholders will receive 0.804 shares of Windstream stock and USD 7.90 in cash per each Iowa Telecom share under the terms

Telecompaper) France Telecom and TDC have reached an agreement to combine their respective Swiss subsidiaries, Orange Switzerland and Sunrise. France Telecom will pay a net EUR 1.5 billion to TDC as part of the deal, which will see the French

Telecompaper) Mobistar has agreed to acquire KPN's B2B and carrier services acvtivities on the Belgian market for EUR 65 million. The agreement includes the fibre network, the business customer base, the wholesale activities from the former Versatel operations and around

Telecompaper) Ericsson and Kpasch CarrierCom have won the bidding to acquire Nortel's GSM and GSM-R business. Ericsson is acquiring certain assets of Nortel's GSM business in North America for USD 70 million on a cash and debt free basis, while

Telecompaper) Tata Communications has signed a pact with five Middle East telecommunications companies to build a new cable system that will connect the region to the rest of the world. The five companies are Bahrain Internet Exchange, Oman's Nawras, Qatar

Telecompaper) The private equity owners of Danish operator TDC have started a strategic review of their holding in the company. Nordic Telephone Company, controlled by Apax Partners, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira and Providence Equity Partners, announced the review; it

Telecompaper) The European Commission has abandoned its investigation into Qualcomm's licensing practices after a number of industry players dropped their complaints against the US-based chipmaker. Ericsson and NEC confirmed in statements that they had dropped the complaints, following action taken

Telecompaper) Telecom Italia has launched pre-commercial trials of a LTE mobile network. The experiment, carried out in Turin with Huawei, is based on 14 new LTE base stations located in the centre of the city and integrated with the existing

Telecompaper) KPN subsidiary E-Plus has filed a complaint against German telecommunications regulator BNA over the planned mobile frequencies auction in the first quarter of 2010. The operator claims that the auction conditions breach German competition laws and disrupt the plans

Telecompaper) Russian telecommunications companies Svyazinvest, Sistema and Comstar have signed a memorandum of understanding on a proposed asset swap. According to statements from Comstar and its parent company Sistema, the deal would see Comstar dispose of its stake of 25

Telecompaper) South African fixed-line incumbent Telkom reported a 4 percent increase in its first-half operating revenue to ZAR 18.7 billion, while EBITDA decreased 12.2 percent to ZAR 5.1 billion. The EBITDA margin fell to 27.3 percent for the six months

Telecompaper) Finland has awarded licences in the 2.6GHz band for offering LTE mobile services. Finnish mobile operator Elisa said it was allocated 50 MHz during the auction, which was run by the regulator Ficora and ended on 23 November. The

Telecompaper) US operator KPN and carrier services provider iBasis have entered into a settlement agreement under which KPN will make an increased offer for the remaining shares in iBasis, of USD 3.00 per share in cash on 8 December. The

Telecompaper) Ciena has won the bidding to acquire most of Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets. Ciena increased its original bid to USD 530 million in cash and USD 239 million in 6 percent convertible notes due 2017, for

Telecompaper) China Mobile has introduced the Mini 3i smartphone from Dell. The Mini 3i runs China Mobile's OPhone open source platform, and includes pre-loaded 139Mail e-mail, Fetion chat and digital maps for navigation. The 3i is also compatible with consumer

Telecompaper) Nokia Siemens Networks has lost the race to acquire Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets. NSN said in a statement that it did not submit the highest bid in the auction held on 20 November, as a higher

Telecompaper) European music streaming service Spotify has launched its Symbian music application for Nokia and other smartphones. Spotify's mobile application supports Nokia smartphones, including the Nokia 6220 Classic, E71 and 5800 XpressMusic models. The application will also run on a

Telecompaper) T-Mobile is demanding EUR 38.5 million from MVNO Lycamobile, according to statements at a Hague court and court of appeals. The court has given its permission for T-Mobile to place a claim of almost EUR 31 million to cover

Telecompaper) The Serbian Agency for Telecommunications (Ratel) has launched the licence tender for a second fixed telephony operator. The only fixed-line telephony operator in Serbia is state-owned Telekom Srbija, which currently serves around 3 million fixed telephony customers. The tender

Telecompaper) Telefonica plans to close the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Prisa's pay-TV unit Digital+ this week, possibly at its next board meeting on 24 November. Telefonica is expected to pay around EUR 450 million for the 20