RCom secures antitrust approval for SSTL takeover
Reliance Communications has secured approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL). In a stock exchange filing, RCom announced it has received the green light to proceed with the takeover. RCom arranged in November to acquire SSTL in an all-stock deal valued at around $685 million, by exchanging SSTL's share capital with a 10% stake in the combined company. RCom has also agreed to pay spectrum costs amounting to 3.92 billion rupees ($57.1 million) over the next 10 years. Through the deal RCom will acquire around 9 million customers, as well as SSTL's spectrum holdings in the 800-MHz band in eight of India's 22 telecom circles.
HTHKH home fiber network now passes 1.8m households
Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong Holdings has announced that its 3Home Broadband network now passed 1.8 million households, of which over 90% have access to 100Mbps to 1Gbps high-speed broadband services. At a media luncheon, the operator also revealed it plans to achieve 2 million home passes covering 80% of households in Hong Kong by the end of next year. Hutchison Global Communications (HGC) operates a 100G fiber backbone that now spans over 1.45 million km. HGC is also the largest commercial Wi-Fi operator in Hong Kong, and the operator plans to have around 17,000 hotspots by the end of February and 23,000 by end-2016.
Vodafone Australia rebounds in 2015
Vodafone Australia has revealed that its customer base increased from 5.3 million to 5.44 million in 2015, while its revenue rose 4.5% to A$3.65 billion ($2.64 billion) over the same period. The operator's turnaround strategy appears to be paying off, with Vodafone reporting huge demand for data and solid growth in core postpaid customers for the period. But net ARPU dipped 0.7% to $45.68 due to handset subsidies for luxury devices. Vodafone Australia is jointly owned by Vodafone Group and Hutchison Telecommunications,
APAC to lead in mobility spending in mobile-first economy: IDC
Spending on mobile devices, related software and services among enterprises and consumers in the APAC region will grow at a CAGR of 3% through to 2019, reaching $578 billion, IDC predicts. APAC will be the largest region in the world in terms of mobility related spend, the research firm said. China will dominate spending across technology categories in the region, but service spending is already outpacing hardware. Emerging Asian countries by contrast will continue to see growth in hardware spend as many consumers and enterprises embrace smartphones and other mobile devices for the first time. IDC expects the next few years to serve as an inflection point for mobility in Asia as the region and the world transitions to a mobile-first economy.
Former M1 employee sentenced to jail, caning in bribery case
A former M1 employee has been convicted of a series of crimes ranging from accepting bribes from a loan shark in exchange for sharing customers' details and bribing a friend to help obtain details from rival SingTel's subscriber database. Tay Kunhong plead guilty to eight of the 269 charges he was facing, and has been sentenced to 17 months' jail, three strokes of a cane and an S$90,000 ($64,300) fine, the Straits Timesreported.