Operators

Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa announced today they are to merge their Australian operations in a 50:50 joint venture that aims to be better able to take on the country's two other dominant mobile operators.

Telefonica Spain has undertaken a 3G network expansion which will enable it to provide mobile services to more subscribers by extending its service reach by more than 25 percent in dense urban areas.

Singapore's SingTel, the largest mobile firm in Asia-Pacific outside of China, has reported a 16.1 percent fall in net profit for its fiscal third-quarter as a result of unfavourable currency movements.

Telecompaper reports that Vodafone has started a reorganisation at Ghana Telecom following its acquisition of a 70 percent stake in the operator.

RCR Wireless News reports that Verizon Wireless is set to unveil further details of its highly anticipated LTE rollout at next week's GSMA Mobile World Congress, including the identities of its equipment vendors.

Ericsson has announced it will perform the first-ever demonstration of new HSPA multi-carrier technology for peak downlink data rates of 42Mb/s at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

Two of the Nordic region's largest telcos - Sweden's TeliaSonera and Norway's Telenor - have reported better-than-expected earnings for fourth-quarter 2008, but both warned of a gloomy outlook for 2009.