Telefonica

Telefonica has sought to strengthen its presence in the world's largest mobile market by signing a "business cooperation framework agreement" with China Unicom, the country's number two mobile operator.

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.

The LiMo Foundation - tasked with creating a mobile Linux-based open-source operating system that can be quickly designed into a handset - unveiled a number of announcements today after being out of the spotlight for a while.

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.

Spanish-owned Latin American mobile giant Telefonica plans to invest CLP465 billion (US$180 million) in extending its GSM and HSPA networks in Colombia, reports Dow Jones Newswires citing a company statement.

Argentine operator Movistar, part of the Spanish-owned Telefonica Group, is expanding its HSPA network, according to a TeleGeography report that cites BNamericas.

The FT notes that Telefonica has reported a 15 percent year-on-year drop in profits for 2008, as one-off items and currency movements masked a solid underlying performance at the Spanish telecoms giant.