June 27, 2008 - 'Hunter' Verizon wants Vodafone out of U.S. venture

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June 27, 2008 Sign up Forward Archive Advertise Read more at SmartBrief.com News for telecom industry leaders Search recent stories:       News of the Day  "Hunter" Verizon wants Vodafone out of U.S. venture Saying Verizon Communications intends to be "the hunter" in moves to consolidate the wireless industry, CEO Ivan Seidenberg pressed Vodafone to shed its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. "Would I like to have 100% of the earnings given we're doing 100% of the work? Yeah, I would," he told the Financial Times, although he said a near-term move by Vodafone is unlikely. Financial Times (6/26)   Business & Industry Watch  SK Telecom sells Helio to Virgin Mobile USA MVNOs Virgin Mobile USA and SK Telecom's Helio are joining forces through a $39 million stock offer made by Virgin Mobile. As part of the agreement, SK Telecom has committed to investing $25 million in Virgin Mobile. "The reduction of our long-term debt and the increase to our revolver will realign our capital structure, providing us with greater liquidity and increased flexibility to grow our business," said Dan Schulman, chief executive officer of Virgin Mobile. Reuters (6/27) Verizon executive muses on FiOS, the future In this Q-and-A, Verizon Communications' senior vice president of technology, Mark Wegleitner, talks about the current state of FiOS, new services, faster Internet speeds, P2P companies and the telecom's competitors. CNET (6/27) China: Focus on Olympics, not telecom growth The Chinese government told the country's telecom carriers to put a moratorium on adding new phone and Internet subscribers in August in order to focus on providing quality service for the Beijing Olympics. "We simply won't touch the network any more to ensure its stability for the Olympic Games," said an employee of China Telecom, the nation's main fixed-line carrier. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)/Associated Press (6/26) Other News AT&T earmarks $80 million for upstate N.Y. upgrades Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y.) (6/27) Qatar Telecom eyes Indonesia, makes Indosat offer Financial Times (6/27) USTelecom Spotlight Learn about SIP Survivability at the Engineering Summit Like every other Web and Internet-based communications protocol, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) used for handling VoIP, SMS and now video calls has become a target for malicious attacks. Learn about technologies that help service providers protect their SIP-based networks and how to keep SIP networks secure by attending the Third Annual USTelecom Engineering Summit, in Washington, July 23 and 24. Register today! Learn more about USTelecom -> NXTcomm  |  News  |  Join USTelecom  |  NextGenWeb  |  Webinars   Video Upload  AT&T spreads U-verse to Wisconsin cities AT&T will begin launching its U-verse TV service Monday in about a dozen Wisconsin cities that currently rely on Time Warner Cable for their multichannel needs. The U-verse introductions -- in places such as Green Bay, Oshkosh and Fond du lac -- will include the NFL Network and the Big Ten Network. OneTRAK (6/26) Sony's new download play to start with Bravia TVs Sony will begin streaming movies to its Bravia LCD TV sets as part of a new strategy to link electronics products to one another and the Web. The company said it would introduce video downloading across a broad array of its platforms, including TVs, PCs, music players and video game devices over the next three years while building network and wireless features into almost all of its product categories. The Times (London) (6/27) , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (6/27) Report: Murdoch may try more pay-TV deals in Europe News Corp. is considering acquisitions of pay-TV providers Premiere AG in Germany and Digital+ in Spain, according to this article. The deals, put together, would cost Rupert Murdoch's company more than $6 billion and represent a second attempt to crack the European pay-TV market after News Corp. lost billions with its investment six years ago in Germany's Kirch Group. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (6/27) The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS) Integrated Technologies – Global Solutions, a Volt Telecom Group division, (ITGS) delivers products and comprehensive, design, engineering and installation services to improve the security of public, private and government facilities nationwide. Contact us today for a FREE brochure on our turnkey voice, data, security, access and video systems. salesinfo@volt-telecom.com. Interested in learning more about advertising in the USTelecom dailyLead? Contact Amy Abbey at 202-737-5500 ext 250 or aabbey@smartbrief.com.   Technology Trends  HP aims to better serve telecoms HP introduced Solutions Consulting Services, which the company believes will assist telecoms in better harmonize business and technology. "Working with HP SCS, service providers have achieved measurable revenue gains and operational efficiencies as well as the ability to deliver a better customer experience," said Sebastiano Tevarotto, vice president and general manager, Communications, Media and Entertainment, HP. TMCnet.com (6/26) Femtocell backers: We need to be ready for 4G Saying it was time to look beyond their use in today's mobile networks toward the adoption of 4G, the Femto Forum announced it is teaming up with The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance. The groups said they needed to begin adapting the small home base stations to such next-generation technologies as WiMAX or Long Term Evolution (LTE). Network World/IDG News Service (6/26) ESPN, NFL offer FCC assistance in testing white spaces ESPN and the National Football League are offering the FCC a chance to field-test devices that use soon-to-be-available white spaces in the wireless spectrum during NFL telecasts. TV providers have argued that the use of the spectrum, which becomes available with the transition to all-digital TV next February, will interfere with telecasts, but Internet providers want the white spaces to boost the power of their online services. PC Magazine (6/26) Other News Analysis: How telecoms can stay competitive TMC Internet Telephony (6/26)   IP Download  The next step in open innovation The creation of knowledge, products and services by online communities of companies and consumers is still in its earliest stages. Who knows where it will lead? The McKinsey Quarterly (free registration for SmartBrief readers) (6/1) Report: YouTube accounts for 75% of Web video traffic YouTube in May garnered more than 75% of U.S. traffic to Web video sites, posting a 26% jump over the same period in 2007 and far outpacing the number of visitors to the second-place site, MySpaceTV, which came in at 9%, according to Hitwise. Rounding out the top five were Google Video (3.73%), Yahoo! Video (1.92%) and Veoh (1.13%). InformationWeek (6/26)   LeadQuote  My only ritual is to just sit down and write, write every day." --Augusten Burroughs, American writer       This dailyLead was created for webmaster@freeraovat.com Subscriber Tools       Update account information | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe | Print friendly format | Web version | Search past news | Archive | Privacy policy Advertise Sales Account Director:  Amy Abbey (202) 737-5500 x250 Download Media Kit   Read more at dailyLead.com A powerful Web site for dailyLead readers including: Breaking News Industry Home Competitor News Readers' Choice Press Releases Search Archive       Recent USTelecom dailyLead Issues: Thursday, June 26, 2008 Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Monday, June 23, 2008 Friday, June 20, 2008     Lead Editor:  Susan Rush       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005     © 1999-2008 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information