Published: Monday March 21, 2011 MYT 8:54:00 AM
Updated: Monday March 21, 2011 MYT 8:55:26 AM
NEW YORK: AT&T Inc. said Sunday it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the U.S.
The deal would reduce the number of U.S. wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny. It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp., the struggling No. 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
AT&T is now America's second-largest wireless carrier and T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest. The acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The combined company would serve about 43 percent of U.S. cellphones.
For T-Mobile USA's 33.7 million subscribers, the news doesn't immediately change anything. Because of the long regulatory process, AT&T expects the acquisition to take a year to close. But when and if it closes, T-Mobile USA customers would get access to AT&T's phone line-up, including the iPhone.
The effect of reduced competition in the cellphone industry is harder to fathom. Public interest group Public Knowledge said that eliminating one of the four national phone carriers would be "unthinkable."
"We know the results of arrangements like this - higher prices, fewer choices, less innovation," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, in a statement.
T-Mobile has relatively cheap service plans compared with AT&T, particularly when comparing the kind that don't come with a two-year contract. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said one of the goals of the acquisition would be to move T-Mobile customers to smart phones, which have higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said.
AT&T's general counsel, Wayne Watts, said the cellphone business is "an incredibly competitive market," with five or more carriers in most major cities. He pointed out that prices have declined in the past decade, even as the industry has consolidated. In the most recent mega-deal, Verizon Wireless bought No. 5 carrier Alltel for $5.9 billion in 2009.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the deal will face a tough review by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. She expects them to look market-by-market at whether the deal will harm competition. Even if regulators approve the acquisition, she added, they are likely to require AT&T to sell off parts of its business or T-Mobile's business. Verizon had to sell off substantial service areas to get clearance for the Alltel acquisition.
To mollify regulators, AT&T said in a statement Sunday that it would spend an additional $8 billion to expand ultrafast wireless broadband into rural areas. Instead of covering about 80 percent of the U.S. population with its so-called Long Term Evolution, or LTE network, AT&T's new goal would be 95 percent, it said. That means blanketing an additional area 4.5 times the size of Texas. The network is scheduled to go live in a few areas this summer, but the full build-out will take years.
The offer would help the FCC and the Obama administration meet their stated goals of bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans. They see wireless networks as critical to meeting that goal - particularly in rural areas where it does not make economic sense to build landline networks.
AT&T said its customers would benefit from the cell towers and wireless spectrum the deal would bring. In some areas, it would add 30 percent more capacity, AT&T said.
"It obviously will have a significant impact in terms of dropped calls and network performance," Stephenson said.
AT&T would pay about $25 billion in cash to Deutsche Telekom, Germany's largest phone company, and stock that is equivalent to an 8 percent stake in AT&T. Deutsche Telekom would get one seat on AT&T's board.
Like Sprint, T-Mobile has been struggling to compete with much larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and its revenue has been largely flat for three years. Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA's subscriber count has stalled at just under 34 million, though it posts consistent profits.
Deutsche Telekom has been looking at radical moves to let it get more value out of its U.S. holding, including a possible combination with a U.S. partner.
There was a big hurdle to a T-Mobile USA-Sprint deal: The two companies use incompatible network technologies. The same hurdle would apply in a Verizon Wireless-T-Mobile USA deal. But the networks of AT&T and T-Mobile use the same underlying technology, so to some large extent, AT&T phones can already use T-Mobile's network, and vice versa.
The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies. Dallas-based AT&T can increase its cash portion by up to $4.2 billion, with a reduction in the stock component, as long as Deutsche Telekom receives at least a 5 percent equity ownership interest in the buyer.
The agreement doesn't leave room for other buyers to jump in with a higher bid, AT&T said.
AT&T would finance the cash part of the deal with new debt and cash on its balance sheet and will assume no debt from T-Mobile. - AP
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/business/20110329084751&sec=business
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Huawei Challenges US to Launch Probe
Saturday February 26, 2011
NEW YORK: China's Huawei Technologies Co has challenged the United States to launch a formal investigation into its business, in an attempt by one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment makers to clear its name from allegations that have blocked US deals.
The highly unusual call follows the outcome of a recent US government foreign investment review that is forcing Huawei to sell assets it bought from 3Leaf, a small US company.
Three years ago, Huawei had to pull back from a bigger proposed investment in 3Com, in similar circumstances.
The company said it had been the victim of misperceptions about its relationship with the Chinese military because its founder, Ren Zhengfei, served in the People's Liberation Army until 1983.
Huawei said the US should investigate any doubts it had so that it could reach an accurate conclusion.
“We're literally willing to do anything the government might ask to give them visibility,” said Bill Plummer, Huawei's US-based vice president for external affairs. “We're open to any type of investigation or audit or review that they feel would address whatever concerns they have.”
Huawei said its ability to do business in the United States had been hurt significantly in the past 10 years by unproven allegations. As well as problems it had with acquisitions, US Republican lawmakers also raised national security concerns about Huawei's bid to supply wireless network equipment to Sprint Nextel Corp last year.
But the company said nobody had proven any links between its business and military technology.
“No one has ever offered any evidence that Huawei has been involved in any military technologies at any time,” the company said in an open letter it posted on its website on Thursday.
Huawei has made huge strides in recent years in the wireless network equipment market, where it has overtaken big players such as Alcatel-Lucent. Reuters
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/26/business/8141195
NEW YORK: China's Huawei Technologies Co has challenged the United States to launch a formal investigation into its business, in an attempt by one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment makers to clear its name from allegations that have blocked US deals.
The highly unusual call follows the outcome of a recent US government foreign investment review that is forcing Huawei to sell assets it bought from 3Leaf, a small US company.
Three years ago, Huawei had to pull back from a bigger proposed investment in 3Com, in similar circumstances.
The company said it had been the victim of misperceptions about its relationship with the Chinese military because its founder, Ren Zhengfei, served in the People's Liberation Army until 1983.
Huawei said the US should investigate any doubts it had so that it could reach an accurate conclusion.
“We're literally willing to do anything the government might ask to give them visibility,” said Bill Plummer, Huawei's US-based vice president for external affairs. “We're open to any type of investigation or audit or review that they feel would address whatever concerns they have.”
Huawei said its ability to do business in the United States had been hurt significantly in the past 10 years by unproven allegations. As well as problems it had with acquisitions, US Republican lawmakers also raised national security concerns about Huawei's bid to supply wireless network equipment to Sprint Nextel Corp last year.
But the company said nobody had proven any links between its business and military technology.
“No one has ever offered any evidence that Huawei has been involved in any military technologies at any time,” the company said in an open letter it posted on its website on Thursday.
Huawei has made huge strides in recent years in the wireless network equipment market, where it has overtaken big players such as Alcatel-Lucent. Reuters
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/26/business/8141195
Sprint opposes AT&T purchase of T-Mobile USA
Published: Tuesday March 29, 2011
MYT 8:37:00 AM
WASHINGTON: Sprint Nextel is urging government officials to block AT&T Inc.'s planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, said the proposed $39 billion cash-and-stock deal would create a duopoly market for U.S. wireless services dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
"On behalf of our customers, our industry and our country, Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly," Sprint said in a statement Monday.
The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission could take a year or longer to review the proposed transaction.
AT&T argues that the wireless market would still be "intensely competitive" - with multiple players in most local markets - even with the combination. - AP
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/business/20110329084751&sec=business
MYT 8:37:00 AM
WASHINGTON: Sprint Nextel is urging government officials to block AT&T Inc.'s planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, said the proposed $39 billion cash-and-stock deal would create a duopoly market for U.S. wireless services dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
"On behalf of our customers, our industry and our country, Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly," Sprint said in a statement Monday.
The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission could take a year or longer to review the proposed transaction.
AT&T argues that the wireless market would still be "intensely competitive" - with multiple players in most local markets - even with the combination. - AP
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/business/20110329084751&sec=business
Amazon Launches Online Media Storage Service
Published: Tuesday March 29, 2011 MYT 3:23:00 PM
BY RACHEL METZ,AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon.com wants to be more than a destination for shopping online - it also dreams of being a place where you can store your music, photos and videos and access them any time, from any computer.
The online retailer launched two new offerings late Monday: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player.
The first lets you upload and store files like music, videos and photos on Amazon's servers, which you can get to from a Web browser on a Mac or PC.
The second lets you play songs you've uploaded on your computer or on a smartphone that runs Google's Android operating software.
The "cloud" in the services' names refers to the practice of storing content online and streaming it to a computer over the Internet.
Amazon's move is beating Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which are believed to be working on similar services that would allow consumers to access their content when away from their home computer.
While Amazon will charge for the Cloud Drive service, it's offering anyone with an Amazon account 5 gigabytes of free storage.
That's less space than you'd get on the smallest iPod Touch, but it's a move that's likely to woo plenty of users who might later decide to pay for more storage space.
The Seattle-based company, which already runs an online storage service for companies called Amazon S3, decided to roll out a consumer cloud service to make it easier for customers to access digital content no matter where they are, Amazon music director Craig Pape said.
The offerings could also benefit Amazon's bottom line: The company realized customers were hesitant to purchase MP3s at work because they didn't want them tied to their office computer, Pape said, so Cloud Drive and Cloud Player may drive more impulse music shopping.
"At the end of the day we're trying to delight customers, but we're trying to sell more music, too," he said.
The company also wants to sell cloud storage. If your tunes and videos take up more space than the 5 GB Amazon is giving out, you can pay an annual storage fee to use Cloud Drive: The use of 20 GB of storage, for example, will cost $20 (and this includes the 5 free GB). For an undisclosed period of time, however, Amazon is offering 20 GB of free storage to those who buy a digital album from its Amazon MP3 store.
Documents or videos you've uploaded to Cloud Drive will open with programs on the computer you're using, Pape said, while songs in MP3 or AAC files will be playable through the Web-based Cloud Player.
The player offers simple controls - you can play, pause or skip tracks, or build your own playlists. For users who want to listen while on the go, an updated version of the Amazon MP3 digital music-buying app will include Cloud Player, letting users play music they've stored with Amazon's service on their cell phone as well as tunes that are already on their handsets. - AP
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/business/20110329153243&sec=business
BY RACHEL METZ,AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon.com wants to be more than a destination for shopping online - it also dreams of being a place where you can store your music, photos and videos and access them any time, from any computer.
The online retailer launched two new offerings late Monday: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player.
The first lets you upload and store files like music, videos and photos on Amazon's servers, which you can get to from a Web browser on a Mac or PC.
The second lets you play songs you've uploaded on your computer or on a smartphone that runs Google's Android operating software.
The "cloud" in the services' names refers to the practice of storing content online and streaming it to a computer over the Internet.
Amazon's move is beating Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which are believed to be working on similar services that would allow consumers to access their content when away from their home computer.
While Amazon will charge for the Cloud Drive service, it's offering anyone with an Amazon account 5 gigabytes of free storage.
That's less space than you'd get on the smallest iPod Touch, but it's a move that's likely to woo plenty of users who might later decide to pay for more storage space.
The Seattle-based company, which already runs an online storage service for companies called Amazon S3, decided to roll out a consumer cloud service to make it easier for customers to access digital content no matter where they are, Amazon music director Craig Pape said.
The offerings could also benefit Amazon's bottom line: The company realized customers were hesitant to purchase MP3s at work because they didn't want them tied to their office computer, Pape said, so Cloud Drive and Cloud Player may drive more impulse music shopping.
"At the end of the day we're trying to delight customers, but we're trying to sell more music, too," he said.
The company also wants to sell cloud storage. If your tunes and videos take up more space than the 5 GB Amazon is giving out, you can pay an annual storage fee to use Cloud Drive: The use of 20 GB of storage, for example, will cost $20 (and this includes the 5 free GB). For an undisclosed period of time, however, Amazon is offering 20 GB of free storage to those who buy a digital album from its Amazon MP3 store.
Documents or videos you've uploaded to Cloud Drive will open with programs on the computer you're using, Pape said, while songs in MP3 or AAC files will be playable through the Web-based Cloud Player.
The player offers simple controls - you can play, pause or skip tracks, or build your own playlists. For users who want to listen while on the go, an updated version of the Amazon MP3 digital music-buying app will include Cloud Player, letting users play music they've stored with Amazon's service on their cell phone as well as tunes that are already on their handsets. - AP
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/29/business/20110329153243&sec=business
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Penang Govt Clarifies That Free WiFi is For All
Published: Sunday March 20, 2011 MYT 4:34:00 PM
Updated: Sunday March 20, 2011 MYT 5:09:33 PM
GEORGE TOWN: The state government has denied reports that it excluded three non-Pakatan Rakyat parliamentary constituencies from its free WiFi initiative.
State Telecommunications Task Force chairman Jeff Ooi claimed that his statement on the matter had been 'twisted.'
“We were only telling the public about the hotline which they can call if they are still unable to log on to the service, but these news reports that came out are blatant lies,” he said at a press conference Sunday.
Ooi, who is Jelutong MP, said if the WiFi initiative was politically-driven, there would not be any hotspots in Bayan Baru where he alleged there were ‘defectors’.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state was working on a joint-venture to provide another 750 hotspots for free.
He said the 750 hotspots provided earlier were installed by Redtone which relied on advertising revenue to get a return on their investments and capital outlay.
“They targeted places which would have the greatest number of users and commercial exposure to increase their advertising revenue, and those mainly low coverage were residential areas,” he said.
It was reported that a minister had described the move to exclude the three parliamentary constituencies - Kepala Batas, Tasik Gelugor and Nibong Tebal as “dangerous and childish”.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economic Planning Unit) Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the move was dangerous because if Pakatan Rakyat took control of the Federal Government, it might adopt a similar policy and sideline states that supported Barisan Nasional.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/20/nation/20110320164143&sec=nation
Updated: Sunday March 20, 2011 MYT 5:09:33 PM
GEORGE TOWN: The state government has denied reports that it excluded three non-Pakatan Rakyat parliamentary constituencies from its free WiFi initiative.
State Telecommunications Task Force chairman Jeff Ooi claimed that his statement on the matter had been 'twisted.'
“We were only telling the public about the hotline which they can call if they are still unable to log on to the service, but these news reports that came out are blatant lies,” he said at a press conference Sunday.
Ooi, who is Jelutong MP, said if the WiFi initiative was politically-driven, there would not be any hotspots in Bayan Baru where he alleged there were ‘defectors’.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state was working on a joint-venture to provide another 750 hotspots for free.
He said the 750 hotspots provided earlier were installed by Redtone which relied on advertising revenue to get a return on their investments and capital outlay.
“They targeted places which would have the greatest number of users and commercial exposure to increase their advertising revenue, and those mainly low coverage were residential areas,” he said.
It was reported that a minister had described the move to exclude the three parliamentary constituencies - Kepala Batas, Tasik Gelugor and Nibong Tebal as “dangerous and childish”.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economic Planning Unit) Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the move was dangerous because if Pakatan Rakyat took control of the Federal Government, it might adopt a similar policy and sideline states that supported Barisan Nasional.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/20/nation/20110320164143&sec=nation
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