Indian telecoms provider Kavveri Telecom has acquired base station and antenna manufacturer Rymsa Telecom. The move will give the company access to the European market and coincides with Kavveri’s launch of 3G services in India. Kavveri plans to invest €20 million in Rymsa.
Verizon has agreed to acquire 122 advanced wireless spectrum (AWS) licences from SpectrumCO in a deal worth $3.6 billion. The licences cover a potential 259 million end users in the US. SpectrumCo is a joint venture between three cablecos - Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Under the agreement each company will receive a ROI equivalent to their ownership percentage. For more information click here.
Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) is seeking a sale and lease deal for its towers in Bahrain and Jordan. Batelco has hired Citigroup to help with the sale, for which a formal bidding process is already said to be taking place. The deal could generate an estimated $200-$300 million for the carrier and is expected to be used for acquisitions.
Emerald Networks has announced plans for what it claims will be the highest capacity submarine cable system on the transatlantic route when it launches in the spring of 2013. Emerald has appointed investment bank Jefferies & Company to raise the $300 million it believes will be necessary to finance the project. The 5,200km network will, said Emerald, be the first across the Atlantic with a transmission rate of 100Gbps per channel. For more information click here.
US telecoms solutions provider HickoryTech has announced an agreement to acquire North Dakota based fibre network provider IdeaOne Telecom Group. The company, which is based in Fargo, was purchased in an all cash transaction valued at $28 million. IdeaOne provides data networking, internet, collocation, phone and hosting services to approximately 3,600 business and residential customers in the local area. The acquisition will add 225 fibre route miles to HickoryTech’s regional network.
Global operator Tata Communications has launched its IPX+ exchange service and confirmed 70 global operators have already signed up to the service. Designed to capitalise on the latest IPX technology innovations, the mobile broadband platform enables end-to-end management of mobile networks and multiple services over IP. Tata said it expects mobile data volumes to grow threefold annually as demand for mobile broadband solutions rises. For more information click here.
Maldives telecoms operator Dhiraagu has begun laying cable for the company’s domestic intra-island network. The cable laying process began in Kulhuduffushi and is expected to be completed by the end of December 2011. In addition to Dhiraagu’s data centres, the network will link eight regions, connecting the whole of the Maldives from the north to the south with 1253km of fibre-optic submarine cable. The network is expected to be ready for service in 15 months.
Pt Telekoms Indonesia has announced plans to invest $233 million on a high-speed network over the next four years. The network is expected to grant connection speeds of between 20Mbps and 100Mbps. Local sources report that Telkoms’ president, Rinaldi Firmansyah, announced the company’s goal of providing of 13 million homes passed high-speed broadband access by 2015. Network roll-out is said to be already underway with 1.7 million homes passed from the district of Sumatra to Papua.
Anatel the Brazilian telecoms regulator has raised BRL237.8 million from the country’s spectrum auction for wireless services. Companies bidding included Tim Brasil, TNL, Telecom Americas and Sercomtel Celular all purchased more airwaves. Tim Brasil, which is backed by Telecom Italia, purchased nine blocks of spectrum in the 1800MHz band for BRL109.3 million and TNL purchased four lots of the 1800MHz spectrum for BRL110.6 million. America Movil’s Claro paid BRL14.5 million for one lot in the 800MHz band and one 1800MHz block was purchased by Sercomtel Celular for BRL3.03 million.
The world’s largest internet company Google has announced plans for a $300 million data centre in Hong Kong. The facility will be built on a 2.7 hectare site located in the Tseung Kwan O industrial Estate in Kowloon. The $300 million price tag includes the cost of the land, construction and technical equipment. The new data centre is being constructed to meet rising internet traffic demands across Asia. The facility is expected to come online in early 2013.
