20 / 60
18
Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2010
emerging-market telecom opera-
tors. Telenor, of Norway, and the
telecommunications arm of the
Russian financial and industrial
conglomerate Alfa both held
significant stakes in Russian and
Ukrainian cellphone firms. The
new company – VimpelCom –
combines the second-largest
mobile phone operator in Russia
(Beeline) and the largest operator
in Ukraine (Kyivstar) with operators
in a half-dozen other former Soviet
countries as well as in Vietnam and
Cambodia. VimpelCom will serve
about 90 million subscribers.
Telenor announced the deal with
Alfa on 21
st
April, whereupon
within hours the Antimonopoly
Committee of Ukraine declared it
was having second thoughts about
clearing the Kyivstar/VimpelCom
component.
The committee’s spokesman,
Bohdan Yakymiuk, told Interfax-
Ukraine, “Additional circumstances
have come to light and the decision
will be re-examined.” (Kyiv Post,
22
nd
April)
Another noteworthy merger, this
✆
✆
one French/Danish, has also met
with late objections. In a last-minute
decision, the Swiss Competition
Commission on 22
nd
April informed
France Telecom and TDC, the
biggest telecommunications com-
pany in Denmark, that it had
decided to block the merger of their
respective subsidiaries in Switzerland
– Orange Communications and
Sunrise Communications.
As reported by the online maga-
zine Global Telecoms, following the
decision the two operators sug-
gested that it would in fact weaken
competition by strengthening the
position of major telecommuni-
cations provider Swisscom AG.
Their joint statement read, in part:
“France Telecom and TDC are
disappointed and surprised by this
decision as they strongly believe
that the contemplated combination
and substantial commitments would
have benefited the Swiss consu-
mer. Without this combination,
Swisscom’s dominant position in the
Swiss telecommunications market
would be maintained.” The merger
was proposed in November 2009,
with France Telecom due to take
75% of the combined operation;
TDC, 25%. France Telecom would
also pay $2 billion to TDC as part
of the deal. The two principals
said they would “assess their avail-
able options regarding potential
next steps.”
“Faced with surprisingly strong
✆
✆
US demand, we have made the
difficult decision to postpone the
international launch [of the iPad]
by one month, until the end of
May,” Apple said in a statement,
after having sold a reported
500,000 of the devices. The only
iPad available in the US, for $499,
was the 16GB WiFi version, with
customers for the 3G model
having to wait. Michael Carroll
wrote in telecomasia (15
th
April)
that a “teardown analysis” by the
electronic advisory firm iSuppli
revealed the cost of producing
the 16GB iPad to be $259.60;
over 40% of that goes for display
purposes.