WCA July 2010

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.

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

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2010