Europe

Reuters notes that Telecom Italia's controlling shareholders must buy out minorities in its Brazilian mobile phone unit, Brazil's securities regulator has said, a move that could cost shareholders more than US$1 billion.

UK fixed-line incumbent BT may return to the mobile sector as part of a joint venture with UK operators T-Mobile and 3, The Observer newspaper reported yesterday.

French telecoms regulator Arcep may announce its decision on the winner of the country's fourth and final 3G licence before Christmas, should no more candidates emerge for the concession, notes TeleGeography.

Reports state Europe's top mobile operators will meet the European Commission today in an attempt to delay EU plans to force them to cut the charges they make for connecting calls to their networks, known as termination rates.

French broadband provider Iliad is willing to pay the €206 million fee for one of the 5MHz blocks of frequency on offer to run the country's fourth 3G network, reports TeleGeography, citing comments co-founder and president Xavier Niel gave to national newspaper Le Figaro.

TeleGeography notes that French telecoms regulatory authority Arcep has advised the government it will start the process of awarding the country's fourth and final 3G license in June this year.

TeleGeography notes that Swedish regulator PTS has issued a decision approving a joint application from the country's existing GSM mobile operators - TeliaSonera, Tele2, Telenor and Swefour - and currently 3G-only provider 3 Sweden for new allocations of frequencies in the 900MHz band.