Regional operator Tele2 has launched an internal investigation into accusations that an employee at majority-owned Kazakh operator Mobile Telecom Service engaged in industrial espionage to gain access to market strategy details of rival Kcell. The employee, who has been sacked by Tele2, has been charged with a criminal offence.
Half-yearly EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) at Danish incumbent TDC fell 4 percent year-on-year to 5.13 billion crowns (US$856 million), on revenues that inched up by 0.5 percent to 13.22 billion ($2.1 billion). Intense competition necessitated heavy bundle-based discounting, which saw ARPU (average revenue per user) fall during the period.
euNetworks Group Ltd., the U.K.-based bandwidth infrastructure provider, has posted a half-year net loss of €18.5 million ($22.8 million), compared with a net loss of €10.1 million ($12.4 million) in the first half of 2011. Half-yearly revenue, however, was up 84 percent year-on-year to €46.2 million ($57.1). Last month euNetworks switched on an 8.8-Terabyte link between Dublin and London. (See euNetworks Posts €18.5M Loss in H1 and euNetworks Deploys Dublin-London Link.)
Prysmian SpA, the Italian cable firm, reports that growth in the Americas has helped offset a decline in European business. Adjusted net profits for the first half of 2012 rose 15 percent year-on-year to €130 million ($160.5 million), on flat revenues of €3.9 billion ($4.8 billion).
Space junk ahoy -- close the sunroof! Reuters reports that two telecom satellites failed to launch properly from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan on Monday. Russia's Express MD2 and Indonesia's Telkom 3 were the two birds that didn't fly, costing somebody up to $150 million.
Swisscom AG is feeling the heat, it says, as traditional services such as switched voice calls and SMS give way to IP-based applications and social media for communication. Its revenues for the first half of 2012 were down 1.8 percent year-on-year to 5.6 billion Swiss francs ($5.7 billion), while profits fell 3.5 percent to CHF928 million ($955 million). (See Swisscom Reports H1 Profit of CHF928M and Euronews: Ericsson Readies Swisscom for LTE.)
Post-uprising demands for higher wages at Telecom Egypt are cited as a factor in the operator's25 percent drop in net profit, from 813 million Egyptian pounds ($133 million) in the second quarter of 2011 to EGP613 million ($100 million), reports Reuters.
There could be more angry folk waving placards outside Google's U.K. headquarters, predicts the Daily Telegraph, following the revelation that the search behemoth paid just £6 million ($9.4 million) tax on U.K. revenues of £3.95 billion ($6.18 billion) in 2011.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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