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AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, telecommunications briefs
[November 13, 2012]

AME Info, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, telecommunications briefs


Nov 13, 2012 (AME Info - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SAWIRIS OFFERS $6.4BN FOR TELECOM ITALIA STAKE: Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris has offered to invest EUR5bn ($6.4bn) to acquire a stake in Telecom Italia, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources close to the company. The offer is worth 30 percent of Italy's largest telecoms operator at current market values.



HTC SETTLES GLOBAL PATENT BATTLE WITH APPLE: HTC Corp has announced it has reached a global patent settlement and 10-year licensing agreement with Apple Inc. that ends one of the first major conflagrations of the smartphone patent wars, Reuters has reported. Apple sued HTC in 2010, accusing the Taiwanese handset company of infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technology. Late last year, the US International Trade Commission ruled that HTC had infringed upon one of four patents Apple had disputed and imposed a sales ban on some of the Taiwanese maker's phones. Apple and HTC did not disclose specific terms of the deal.

APPLE PAYS $21M TO SBB OVER CLOCK DISPUTE: Apple Inc. has paid $21m to compensate Swiss national rail operator SBB for using its famous clock without permission, AFP has reported. The company agreed in October to pay the lump sum so it could continue using SBB's Swiss-designed station clock face on its iPads and iPhones.


LEBANON PLANS INTERNET SPEED BOOST: Lebanon's telecoms ministry has said internet connection speed in the country has significantly increased between June 2011 and June 2012, The Daily Star has reported. "International connectivity has increased 11 times and will soon be redundant with the purchase of an 800 Gbps capacity on the Alexandaros submarine cable," the ministry said.

FOXCONN SAYS IPHONE 5 DESIGN MADE PRODUCTION DIFFICULT: Foxconn has said it cannot meet strong demand for Apple's new iPhone 5 due to difficulties in building the gadget, AFP has reported. "We can't really fulfil Apple's requests. Our shipments are insufficient... given the huge market demand," said Foxconn chairman Terry Gou. The design of the iPhone 5, of which five million were sold over its launch weekend in September, has made production difficult, he said, without providing further details.

SAMSUNG SHIPPED 18M GALAXY S3 IN Q3: According to a report by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung's Galaxy S3 has emerged as the world's most popular smartphone model, holding 10.7 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, Cnet has reported. Apple's iPhone 4S was relegated to a close second place with 9.7 percent of the market after two years at the top of the list, while the iPhone 5 held just 3.6 percent of the global share, the data showed. Samsung shipped 18 million Galaxy S3 units in the third quarter, up from 5.4 million in the second quarter, an increase of 230 percent.

MOBINIL SEES CHANCE FOR PROFITABILITY, GROWTH IN 2013 : Egyptian mobile operator MobiNil has said it hopes to swing back into profit in 2013 after being badly hit by the political turmoil that followed the toppling of president Hosni Mubarak last year, Reuters has reported. Egypt's financial regulator earlier this month approved a tender offer by France Telecom that would cement its control over MobiNil. "Our position in the market is much better this year than last year," Yves Gauthier, CEO of MobiNil, told a news conference in Cairo. "We will continue to invest," Gauthier said, adding that MobiNil typically invests EGP2bn annually. "2013 will be a year of profitability ... a year of improvement and a growing year." ___ (c)2012 AME Info (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) Visit AME Info (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) at www.ameinfo.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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