Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas has expressed anger at the decision by India's Supreme Court to revoke the mobile licence it jointly holds with Unitech. Baksaas told Reuters that the ruling is a very serious attack on Telenor's investments, and withdrawing from the Indian market "is one alternative that is on the table."

Baksaas

The court's decision to cancel 122 mobile licences, which also impacts Etisalat, Russia's Sistema and many local mobile operators, follows accusations that the licences were subject to corruption when sold in 2008.

But the Telenor CEO is adamant that his company is being penalised unfairly. "We met every inch of that regulation of that licence. We have brought competition to the Indian market ... just to see a ruling that has significant retroactive consequences. It is an action that we have never seen in any country before."

Baksaas added that the move created a high level of uncertainty, and would immediately impact activities with its partner Unitech that involves investments totalling $3 billion in India. 

The CEO also stated that he would ask the company's largest shareholder, the Norwegian government, to lobby the Indian government on Telenor's behalf. "That is part of the tool kit," said Baksaas.

One institutional investor told Reuters that securing the Norwegian state's help would be the only route to salvaging Telenor from the situation.

Saeed Baradar, a telecoms specialist at Societe Generale in London, told Bloomberg: [Telenor] "really needs to get out because shareholders worry that capital discipline will be broken in India." He estimated that the operator may have to pay an additional $2.1 billion to rebid for the mobile licences that have been withdrawn by the court.

However, the court ruling seems likely to benefit some of the larger mobile operators, such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, which remain unaffected. Observers believe this upheaval could lead to much needed market consolidation. 

"This verdict is good news for established incumbent operators and, in the short term, we are likely to see some increase in tariffs," a director of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan told Reuters.

For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this separate Reuters article
- see this Bloomberg article

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A German court ordered Apple to stop online sales of its older model iPhones and 3G-enabled iPads, but Apple managed to reverse the ruling within hours. The dust-up stems from a court injunction secured by Motorola Mobility in December after Apple failed to license Motorola wireless patents.

Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, but not its latest iPhone 4S, were involved in the dispute, as were all 3G models of the iPad, but not the Wi-Fi-only models.

An Apple spokesperson said Motorola repeatedly refused to license its patents on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.

However, Apple may still fall to a separate ruling in Germany related to its iCloud and MobileMe push email service. A court granted Motorola's request for an injunction against Apple's push email service; Motorola argues the products infringe on its patent for a similar paging technology.

"Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid, and we're appealing the court's decision," an Apple spokeswoman told AllThingsD, which noted that Apple is likely to fight the injunction. 

The battle between Apple and Motorola is just one of dozens of patent-infringement lawsuits spanning the globe and invovling just about every major smartphone manufacturer.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this AllThingsD article
- see this Reuters article
- see this BBC News article
- see this Teltariff.de article (translated via Google Translate)

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Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa is expanding its European footprint with the purchase of Orange Austria for €1.3 billion.

The deal, which is expected to be completed by mid-2012, will see Hutchison 3G Austria become the third largest operator in the country after Telekom Austria's A1 and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile Austria.

The merging of 3G Austria with Orange Austria will create an operator with nearly three million subscribers and around 20 per cent of the total market, noted Reuters, adding that Hutchison was expecting to generate expense and Capex synergies of at least €500 million once the integration take effect.

The acquisition will also see some assets of Orange Austria sold to Telekom Austria Group for €390 million once the sale is formally closed. These are said to include existing spectrum, base station sites, certain intellectual property rights and the MVNO Yesss Telekommunikation.

Orange Austria is jointly owned by France Telecom and UK-based Mid-Europa Partners, with the French company expecting to receive around €70 million for its 35 per cent holding in the Austrian business, which had around €1 billion of debt.

Analysts working for the financial service firm Raymond James told Reuters that France Telecom could use the proceeds to strengthen its position in the Belgium operator Mobistar. "This would also leave more than enough to pay for half of the acquisition of minority interests in Mobistar while the other half would be paid by potential tax synergies."

For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Bloomberg article

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A supervisory board member of Siemens has indicated that the company is looking for a new CEO for its networking equipment joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Suri

A Reuters report said that Sibylle Wenkel, who represents the IG metall trade union on the supervisory board of Siemens, had mentioned that the finance director of Siemens, Joe Kaeser, was conducting an executive search to find an alternative to current Nokia Siemens CEO Rajeev Suri.

A report carried by Dow Jones Newswire said that Kaeser had commented in November that restructuring at NSN would impact the profits of Siemens.

NSN's future prospects are also, along with Ericsson's and Huawei's, likely to be hurt by India's Supreme Court decision to revoke over 200 mobile licences and thereby cause consolidation in the much overcrowded market.

NSN reported weaker than anticipated fourth-quarter results, and it expected to struggle in the first quarter of 2012 as it implements a massive restructuring programme.

For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Dow Jones Newswire article

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Deploying LTE or boosting efficiency gains in the macro network will not solve the problems of growing mobile data volumes and falling revenues per megabyte, according to a new study from Analysys Mason.

To tackle this daunting prospect, the market research firm says that operators must cut network carriage costs by 50 per cent or face an overwhelming eight-fold increase in the costs of radio access network (RAN) equipment.

According to Terry Norman, co-author of the study and lead analyst for Analysys Mason, if European operators attempt to meet the growing demand for data traffic by deploying more base stations, RAN costs could climb to $40 billion per year by 2016, compared with $5 billion per year in 2011.

"Operators can't afford to spend that sort of money," Norman said. "Therefore, operators will either accept network congestion or use pricing to control demand--neither is good business practice. The elegant solution is to make substantial efficiency improvements."

One option recommended by Analysys Mason is for operators to use small cells to carry a part of this traffic. "Because Wi-Fi is widely deployed and competitively priced, it is a leading candidate small-cell technology," Norman said.

However, the analyst warned that operators will be unable to attach adequate users to an outdoor Wi-Fi unit to relieve the congested macro cell that it is supporting. The study claims that almost 95 per cent of tablet users and 70 per cent of smartphone users will be found indoors, leaving very few heavy users of data outdoors.

While operators are already testing Wi-Fi offload, Analysys Mason recommends they extend the tests to include video services. It also suggests operators are unlikely to have the operational capability to deliver an effective Wi-Fi network and believes partnering with experienced companies is the way forward.

Of note, the study claims that the Wi-Fi industry must overcome present hurdles and deliver ‘carrier-grade' products and services, as already achieved by the femtocell industry.

The firm believes that the current battle between Wi-Fi and femtocell for small cell domination will be decided over the next two years, with the likely outcome being the convergence of the two technologies.

For more:
- see this Analysys Mason press release

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