TELSTRA has bolstered its board with the appointment of former Microsoft Australia boss Steve Vamos and gas industry expert Russell Higgins as non-executive directors.

THE $200 million national Wimax rollout by the Seven Network's struggling Unwired unit has been called off and replaced by a limited roll out plan for Perth.

(Telecompaper) At least 13 telecommunication operators among them Nigeria's Globacom, MTN and Etisalat have expressed interest in the acquisition of 75 percent stake in Nitel and its mobile subsidiary, Mtel. According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), supervisor of the sale process, no fewer than 13 applications have been filed by telecommunication firms willing to participate in a fresh attempt by the country to sell the national operator. Public notices for the expressions of interest were published in both local and international media in July. The deadline for interested bidders was 28 August. Potential bidders include Etisalat Nigeria, Omen International, Summit Group, MTI consortium, Finetek.Com/Ericsson consortium, MTNL of India and Globalcom. Others are MTN Nigeria, Communications Anas Network Services, a Telefonica consortium, Metro PCS Communications, Brymedia and Galaxy Backbone. Following the receipt of the proposals, an evaluation committee has been constituted wi

(Telecompaper) Nokia unveiled a new application for integrating Facebook with its Ovi services, as well as new high-end handsets at its Nokia World event in Stuggart. Lifecasting with Ovi will premiere on the new N97 mini mobile phone in October and also be available as a software upgrade for the existing N97. The application allows users to publish their location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the home screen of the mobile device. The new N97 software will also offer new homescreen widgets and additional usability improvements including flick scrolling, as well as an updated version of Nokia Maps with premium content from Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities. The Nokia N97 mini is a smaller version of the flagship handset, with stainless steel cues, a tilting 3.2-inch touch display and slide-out qwerty keyboard. The handset comes with 8GB memory plus card slot, a 5 megapixel camera and A-GPS. It will sell for EUR 450 before taxes and subsidies. Nokia will al

(Telecompaper) Portugal's competition watchdog (Autoridade da Concorrencia - AdC) has fined Portugal Telecom and Zon for abuse of dominant position on the broadband internet market in the period 22 May 2002 - 30 June 2003. Portugal Telecom was fined EUR 45.016 million, while Zon will have to pay around EUR 8.046 million. The antitrust body's decision follows complaints by competitors in 2003 and 2004. The AdC investigation showed the PT group had a market share of over 70.7 percent in retail broadband accesss in 2002 and 77.7 percent in 2003 and served as sole wholesale provider on the local market. According to AdC, "an investigation proved the abuse of the dominant position [by PT and Zon], demonstrating the existence of competition restricting practices such as artificial price-fixing, discrimination and limits on production, distribution, technical development and investment". PT and Zon announced they will aapeal AdC's "unfair" ruling before the Lisbon Commercial Court.

EBAY's $2.3 billion majority sale of internet telephony company Skype has been hailed as smart by analysts but it's also left some wondering how the new owners plan to turn a hefty profit.

KERRY Stokes has cemented his position as Australia's multimedia mogul after his Seven Network yesterday announced a shake-up to Australia's $30 billion a year telecoms sector.

NOKIA Siemens Networks (NSN) chief and former Telstra executive Simon Beresford-Wylie will leave the company in November.