THE federal government has unveiled the board members that will lead its ambitious $43 billion national broadband network project.

(Telecompaper) Deutsche Telekom's quarterly revenues grew by 7.4 percent year-on-year to EUR 16.24 billion in the second quarter, including EUR 1.5 billion in revenues from Greek telecommunications operator OTE. The adjusted EBITA grew by 8.4 percent to EUR 5.3 billion, including EUR 500 million generated by OTE. Deutsche Telekom's adjusted net profit grew by 19.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to EUR 756 million. The packet of measures initiated in April for the US, UK and Poland is beginning to take effect. Operating costs fell and the EBITDA margin rose in all three countries compared with the first quarter. Free cash flow stood at EUR 1.4 billion for the second quarter, 28.5 percent less than in the second quarter of 2008. The decrease in free cash flow is primarily attributable to the increase in capital expenditure for among others expanding the mobile network in the US and the DSL network in Germany. Despite a high level of capital expenditure, the group also continu

(Telecompaper) Cisco reported revenues of USD 8.5 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter to 25 July, down 18 percent from a year earlier. Sales in the US fell 13 percent to USD 4.8 billion, revenues in Europe were down 19 percent to USD 1.7 billion, emerging markets sales declined 38 percent to USD 0.8 billion and Asia-Pacific sales were down 20 percent to USD 1.0 billion. Among customer groups, only consumers showed low single-digit growth in orders, while enterprise orders were still down around 30 percent and service provider orders were down in the high twentys. Net profit fell USD 1.1 billion or USD 0.19 per share, from USD 2.0 billion or USD 0.33 per share a year ago. Profits include a tax charge of USD 174 million or USD 0.03 per share and a charge for enhanced early retirement benefits of USD 138 million or USD 0.02 per share. Cash flow from operations was USD 2.0 billion, down from USD 3.5 billion a year ago, and Cisco finished the period with a total USD 35.0 billion in cash.

(Telecompaper) Russian corporation Sistema's board of directors has approved the acquisition by mobile operator MTS of a 50.91 percent stake in Comstar-United TeleSystems (Comstar-UTS). Sistema currently owns around 50.9 percent of Comstar and 53.1 percent of MTS. Under the terms of the deal, a subsidiary of MTS will purchase Sistema's 50.91 percent stake in fixed-line carrier Comstar-UTS for USD 1.272 billion or USD 5.98 per global depositary receipt (GDR). The acquisition now depends on MTS' ability to raise the necessary financing for the transaction and the approval of Sistema shareholders. Via the Comstar acquisition, MTS plans to gain access to important growth markets in commercial and residential broadband, build value-accretive synergies in capital and operational expenditures, as well as create the basis for the development of content platforms and services. The execution of the share purchase agreement and closing of the transaction is scheduled for completion by end-October

(Telecompaper) Portugal's Zon Multimedia will launch in September commercial broadband offers with download speeds of 200 Mbps and 1 Gbps. The cable operator said it had successfully completed the equipment tests for the new speeds. Currently, the fastest offer available on the Portuguese market is 120 Mbps, from rival cable operator Cabovisao. The new offer will be launched under the Zon Fibra brand. In January, Zon launched 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps speeds, which are already available to 1.4 million households in Portugal.

THE expensive e-health ambitions of Canberra could be bankrolled from the leftover $1.8 billion in the Health and Hospitals Fund.

IT was tents and microphones at 10 paces as Australia's breakfast radio hosts gathered in to spruik digital radio.

CYBER attacks have forced wildly popular micro-blogging site Twitter offline and caused performance problems for Facebook.

THE government has named the board that will oversee its $43 billion NBN, revealing a team strong in legal and business experience.

(Telecompaper) Canada-based Data & Audio Visual Enterprises Wireless plans to unveil the easy-to-understand monthly plans for its services, including text messages, following the planned launch in early 2010, the Canadian Press reports. Dave Wireless has signed a contract with Ericsson to build its 3G wireless network. The five-year Ericsson deal covers the network build in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. The 3G network will allow Dave Wireless to move to LTE technology. The company will be announcing a name change in the fall.