EMEA

Saudi operator currently controls 26% of the Kuwaiti mobile firm; deal will give Saudi Telecom a 100% stake Kuwait’s Capital Markets Authority approved Saudi Telecom Company’s plan to acquire all the shares of its Kuwaiti mobile telephony operator Viva. Saudi Telecom …

Winning spectrum bidders to be announced in March The Spanish government postponed plans to award mobile spectrum in the 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands to January 2016, according to local press reports. The Spanish authorities also said they expect …

French telco reportedly eyeing KPN and Proximus French telecommunications group Orange is eyeing potential acquisitions in the European market with Dutch telecom services provider KPN and Belgium telco Proximus Group among the targeted firms, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources …

The telco aims to upgrade 100 telecoms towers by the end of 2015 Dannish mobile telephony operator Telenor Denmark announced the deployment of its commercial LTE+ service in the country’s largest cities. Using carrier aggregation technology, Telenor is currently upgrading …

The UK regulator said spectrum auction will wait for the implications of the Three-O2 merger U.K. telecommunications regulator Ofcom decided to postpone its planned spectrum auction for licenses in the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz bands until the European Commission reaches a …

The transaction is expected to be completed in Q1 2016 Shareholders of Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia approved the proposed $16.5 billion acquisition of French-based supplier Alcatel-Lucent. Nokia has obtained all the regulatory approvals required to proceed with the proposed transaction. …

Voice-over-LTE trial to initially involve 5,000 subscribers French operator Bouygues Telecom launched a pilot voice-over-LTE service, the company said in a statement; the move makes the telco the first operator in France to offer VoLTE to users. The carrier said the VoLTE …

Telecom Italia plans to keep up to 20% of the infrastructure firm Telecom Italia is looking to sell a part of its Inwit holdings, with CEO Marco Patuano noting “we are ready to send tender invitations to potential bidders for the Inwit stake.” …

The telco plans to launch the first Vodafone-branded store in the city Mobile operator MTS Ukraine, which has recently branded its operations under the Vodafone Ukraine brand, announced it’s in the process of completing the installation and testing of 3G …

The Indonesian telco aims to reach 35 additional cities with LTE by year-end Indonesian mobile operator XL Axiata commercially launched LTE services in the country’s capital city of Jakarta, The Jakarta Post reported. XL Axiata said it expects to reach …

Trial blends licensed and unlicensed spectrum; reached access speeds of more than 274 Mbps Mobile operator Vodafone Netherlands said it carried out a trial delivering LTE services on a commercial network by aggregating both licensed and unlicensed bands. The trial …

Agreement includes joint evaluation and research activities Chinese information and communications technology provider Huawei and Spanish telecommunications firm Telefónica have signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding to focus on the development of “5G” technologies. Based on the MoU, which was inked …

The Spanish-based telecom will focus on E2E customer experience HONG KONG – Within the next five years, Spanish telecommunications operator Telefónica will focus its efforts on the development of mobile technology in order to improve the quality of its video …

Deal includes 2G, 3G and 4G equipment and small cells solutions Swedish vendor Ericsson and Qatar-based telecom group Ooredoo have signed a frame agreement for the supply of radio, core and transmission solutions, as well as related implementation and integration …

French operator launched ‘4G+’ in Lyon French telecom operator Bouygues Telecom said it added 208,000 new mobile customers in the third quarter of the year, reaching a total of 11.6 million customers on its network at the end of the …

Affirmed Networks supplied virtual evolved packet core In what the communications service provider billed as a strategic move, Saudi Telecom Co. deployed a virtual evolved packet core specific to machine-to-machine services. The vEPC was provided by Affirmed Networks and enables …

Tele2 looks to reach nationwide LTE coverage by Q1 2016 Swedish telecoms operator Tele2 launched LTE service in the Netherlands, the company said in a statement. Tele2 Netherlands said its LTE network will initially reach 92% of the country’s population, …

Spanish telco looks to reach 1,300 cities with LTE by year-end Spanish telecom operator Orange said it’s investing 1.5 billion euros ($1.61 billion) in its LTE network across the country. With the investment, the operator is looking to cover 85% …

Orange has started to deploy an ‘Internet of Things’ national network in France HONG KONG – French telecom operator Orange expects to invest 15 billion euros ($16.3 billion) between 2015 and 2018, the company’s SVP of Radio Networks Arnaud Vamparys …

During the Wi-Fi Global Congress in San Jose, Calif., I had the pleasure to sit down with Paul Taylor, manager of business development & Wi-Fi services at United Arab Emirates mobile network operator Du, to discuss the drivers behind the …

Vodafone UK claims attack gained limited customer data from 1,827 customers Vodafone Group reported its United Kingdom operations late last week were hit by a cyberattack that gained access to account information of 1,827 customers, including names, telephone numbers, bank …

The Deutsche Telekom field trial was deployed over base stations in Bonn Deutsche Telekom said it recently deployed the world’s first field implementation of narrow band “Internet of Things.” The trial was carried out with the cooperation of Chinese vendor …

CMA doesn’t think BT/EE deal will hurt competition in mobile sector The U.K.’s competition and consumer authority, CMA, has provisionally cleared BT’s anticipated acquisition of mobile operator EE. After looking in detail at different markets – including the supply of …

5G radio demo has already been conducted Nokia Networks and United Arab Emirates mobile operator Du signed a memorandum of understanding on a set of common objectives for the development and evolution of “5G” and the “Internet of Things.” The companies …

The operator aims to offer access speeds of up to 375 Mbps Turkish mobile operator Turkcell expects to launch LTE-A services in the country in 2016. Atac Tansug, the company’s fixed network director confirmed that the 4G service will be …