MTS India shares go to Russian state

MTS India shares go to Russian state

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) today announced the allotment of shares to the Russian Federation. The company issued 54,73,12,918 equity shares to the Federal Agency for State Property Management of the Russian Federation ("Rosimushchestvo") against the funds equivalent of INR 26,988 million (i.e. US$ 600 million approx) received in December 2010.

According to Vsevolod Rozanov, President and CEO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd “We at SSTL are delighted to have received an over whelming response from all our existing shareholders to the rights issue. Additionally, with formalities relating to the allotment of equity shares to the Russian federation also getting completed, it truly represents a major milestone. Both these developments are a testament to the faith reposed by all the shareholders in our company, which now has over 10 million customers. Going forward, the challenge is to further accelerate the proliferation of our telecom services nationally, in sync with our data centric, voice enabled strategy.”

Optus appoints new Strategy and Marketing Director Optus Wholesale

Optus appoints new Strategy and Marketing Director Optus Wholesale

Optus announced today a key executive appointment within its Wholesale division with the appointment of Ben White as Director of Marketing and Strategy.

Ben White joined Optus in 2006 as the Director of Strategy and Corporate Development for Optus. In this role he was responsible for managing Optus' overall strategy as well as major business development opportunities including mergers, acquisitions and key strategic partnerships. His work included leading the development of Optus’ plans to contribute to and capitalise on the emerging Australian digital economy.

Mr White has played a key role in Optus’ focus on the mobile business and integral to the company’s work related to the National Broadband Network, including leading Optus’ response to the Federal Government’s Request for Proposals on the NBN and its subsequent advocacy regarding the establishment of NBN Co.

Vicki Brady, Managing Director of Optus Wholesale and Satellite said, “I am delighted to welcome Ben as part of the senior leadership team for Optus Wholesale and Satellite."

PLDT to invest in DIGITEL

PLDT to invest in DIGITEL

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (“PLDT”) (NYSE: PLDT) (PSE: TEL) and JG Summit Holdings, Inc (“JGS”) (PSE:JGS) announced that at meetings held earlier today, their respective Boards of Directors approved the acquisition by PLDT of JGS’s and certain other parties’ ownership interest in Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. (“Digitel”) (PSE:DGTL), comprising (i) 3,277,135,882 common shares in Digitel, representing a 51.55% equity stake; (ii) zero-coupon convertible bonds issued by Digitel and its subsidiaries to the JGS Group which are assumed to be convertible into approximately 18.6 billion shares of Digitel by 30 June 2011; and (iii) intercompany advances of P34.1 billion made by the JGS Group and certain of such parties to Digitel and its subsidiaries (the “Assets”). Digitel is the 100% owner of Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc., which owns the brand Sun Cellular.

Cancellation of Treasury Stock, NTT DOCOMO Global

Cancellation of Treasury Stock, NTT DOCOMO Global

NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced today that its board of directors has approved a cancellation of treasury stock pursuant to article 178 of the Corporation Law.

Class of shares to be cancelled
Common stock

Number of shares to be cancelled
140,000 shares (about 0.32% of issued shares before the cancellation)

Date of cancellation
March 31, 2011"

SingTel and VMware launch on-demand enterprise hybrid cloud solution

SingTel and VMware launch on-demand enterprise hybrid cloud solution

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and VMware today announced the launch of SingTel PowerON Compute enabled by VMware vCloud® Datacenter Services.

This enterprise hybrid cloud computing solution enables enterprises to upgrade their IT resources without the heavy cost and complexities of purchasing and managing additional servers and systems, thereby reducing operating costs by up to 73 per cent. Companies will be able to expand the resources of their private cloud infrastructure seamlessly into PowerON Compute’s secure public cloud without the hassles of re-installing and re-configuring their software applications. This means customers can fully utilise current IT infrastructure investments while benefitting from on-demand, pay-as-you-use, public cloud computing resources.

Mr Bill Chang, SingTel’s Executive Vice President of Business Group, said: “By working with VMware, PowerON Compute will allow enterprises in the region to turn on computing resources just like they turn on water from a tap. PowerON Compute will enable enterprises to move their operations to their hybrid cloud, without compromising security, control or performance, while allowing them to pay only for IT resources consumed.”

Mr Paul Maritz, VMware Chief Executive Officer, said: “SingTel’s new PowerON Compute solution delivers on VMware’s promise to provide customers with hybrid cloud resources that enable IT as a service for their users. Hybrid clouds provide customers with freedom of choice that will eventually give rise to applications that can be ‘dragged and dropped’ between clouds and delivered securely to any device, anywhere, at any time.”