It was the week that saw Facebook go public, as Indian cellcos were given the go ahead to share (some) spectrum, and Asia was declared the world leader in Internet attacks.
Social networking behemoth Facebook made its long-anticipated move this week to file for an IPO. The company didn’t name an exchange, but said it’s aiming to raise $5 billion, according to the New York Times.
However, sources “close to the company” also claim Facebook is aiming for a much bigger offering that could value the company as high as $75 billion or even $100 billion – which would make Facebook bigger than Kraft Foods, Goldman Sachs and Ford Motor Co, the NYT says.
In other news for the week, India’s DoT ruled that operators can share spectrum – as long as its 2G spectrum only.
According to reports, the rules also prevent operators from sharing spectrum in circles where they do not hold frequencies themselves, and disallow operators from sharing spectrum if it would exceed the limits laid out in merger regulations (i.e. 25% of the spectrum per region).
There was also legal news in the Philippines this week, as the nation's Appeals Court upheld a ruling by regulator NTC requiring operators to change from per-minute billing to per-pulse billing.
But the case isn’t over yet, as the courts had previously rejected the NTC's proposed mandatory maximum fee scheme for per-pulse billing. The legal fight could thus make its way to the Supreme Court.
It was also the week in which the European Union urged the World Trade Organization to probe China’s control of rare earths, after the trade body ruled the state infringes global trade rules covering other raw materials. While the case didn’t specifically mention rare earths, European lawmakers say the ruling should now form the bedrock of a case examining those elements.
In Singapore, the three main telcos will need to adhere to higher QoS levels for 3G service provisioning come April this year, after regulator IDA announced this week it had updated its 3G mobile QoS framework.
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