Webwire: True-CAT 3G deal won't be repeated; Chinese cities ink microblog laws

True-CAT 3G deal won't be replicated: minister

Thailand's ICT minister has asserted that no other operator will be allowed to enter a 3G deal similar to the controversial agreement between True and state-owned CAT, and added that the True-CAT deal is likely to be scrutinized in court.

Bangkok Post

Chinese cities ink own name social media laws

Chinese cities Guangzhou and Shenzen have reportedly introduced new regulations requiring residents joining any of seven microblogging websites to register using their real names, in another move by authorities to tighten restrictions on “rumors” spread through social media.

Xinhua

KPN to sell French MVNO to Bouygues

Dutch telco KPN will sell its KPN France unit, which operates MVNO Simyo on Bouygues Telecom's network, to Bouygues. Analysts expect the sale price to be under €20 million ($26.2 million).

Bloomberg

VZW fixes second LTE outage this month

Verizon Wireless has restored services after the second outage of its LTE network this month, which had left customers temporarily unable to make voice calls and send or receive text messages.

Christian Science Monitor

TeliaSonera buys rest of Kcell ahead of IPO

TeliaSonera has arranged to buy the 49% of Kazakhstan's Kcell that it does not own for $1.5 billion, ahead of plans to float 25% of the company in an IPO next year.

Bloomberg

Softbank may exit MySpace Japan JV

Japan's Softbank reportedly plans liquidate its 50/50 joint venture with News Corp which operates the Japanese-language version of MySpace, transferring management of the site to MySpace LLC.

Reuters

Google to pay $300m p.a for Firefox search deal

Google will pay Mozilla almost $300 million per year to maintain its place as the default search engine used in the Firefox web browser.

All Things Digital

Police chief sacked over risque email blunder

A Portuguese police chief has been suspended from duty after accidentally sending a city's entire municipal workforce a Christmas-themed email containing images of women in lingerie and bikinis.

Reuters