Digicel challenges Fair Trading Commission's opposition to merger with Claro - Jamaica

Irish-owned mobile operator Digicel has filed a lawsuit in the Jamaican supreme court against the fair trading commission's (FTC) decision to oppose its merger with mobile operator Claro, the Jamaica Observer reported.

The merger is due to come into effect on March 1, when Claro will cease operating in Jamaica.

The FTC filed suit in the high court last month challenging the merger, which it believes will have a negative impact on competition, given that the market will be reduced to two players.

If the FTC challenge is successful, Digicel and Claro, of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), will be fined J$5mn (US$58,000) each for breach of the Fair Competition Act.

On January 31, when the FTC's case is to be heard, the regulatory body is expected to ask for an injunction blocking the merger.

The FTC is also reportedly challenging Digicel's sale of its Honduran unit to América Móvil, which is part of the deal. However, Digicel, through law firm Henlin Gibson Henlin, last week filed a countersuit in which it challenged whether the FTC has jurisdiction in relation to the transaction in Honduras.

América Móvil selects Alcatel-Lucent as LTE provider in Latin America - Puerto Rico, Regional

Latin American telecoms giant América Móvil (NYSE: AMX) has selected French company Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) as the infrastructure provider for its LTE/4G network rollout in the region, Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.

The deployment will begin with an LTE commercial launch in América Móvil's Puerto Rican operator, Claro, in the coming weeks.

The deployment will include Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio portfolio of products, which the French company announced it was developing last year and which is designed to reduce operating costs, technical complexity and power consumption in mobile broadband networks.

"With speeds as high as 100 megabits per second, our subscribers will enjoy the most advanced wireless broadband services," said Enrique Ortiz de Montellano, president of América Móvil's operations in Puerto Rico.

"This includes... HD video with video on demand, at least 10-times faster high-speed navigation, high definition videoconferencing, online gaming and other applications," he added.

The Alcatel-Lucent solution also provides a future evolution path, the company said.

Claro's LTE network will be one of three due to be available in Puerto Rico. AT&T (NYSE: T) launched on November 20 in 700 MHz, and Claro had a soft launch on November 24, also in 700 MHz. Open Mobile is also planning an LTE rollout.

TCS talks with Oi don't pan out, insists on opportunity to consolidate CATV sector - Dominican R.

Dominican cable TV (CATV) firm Telecable Sabaneta (TCS) had been in discussions but was unable to close an agreement with Brazilian operator Oi to jointly develop business in the Dominican Republic, TCS president Manuel Thomas told BNamericas.

Oi executives cited a re-structuring processes and the arrival of a new CEO as the reasons behind its inability to move forward in negotiations with TCS. "Was the new CEO in agreement with this project to expand in the Dominican Republic? That's the question to which we never had an answer to, and we're still looking for other partners in this project," Thomas said.

In the meantime, the public bidding process began in December for the assets of the second largest Dominican cable-TV operator, Aster, which TCS was originally targeting in a joint venture with another company investing, Thomas noted.

In that process, six entities have qualified - Codetel, Tricom, Wind Telecomunicaciones, Columbus Networks Dominicana, Consorcio Energetico Punta Cana Macao and Urbaser Dominicana. An additional four entities were disqualified for not properly filing information required by the Dominican Republic's central bank - Comcast, Venetto Business Corporation, Trebuchet Engineering and Empresa de Servicios Municipales.

The bid for the company will start at US$44mn, according to the TCS executive. There may be a legal challenge to the process, he noted, especially when considering that presidential elections are coming up in May with the opposition leading the polls, and a new political scenario may lead to a review of the bidding process to determine if there was favoritism.

"There is still an opportunity to grow [in the Dominican Republic CATV market] by consolidating a high number of small suppliers, but not to the scale that we had hoped for with the acquisition of the aforementioned operator [Aster]," Thomas said.

TCS's business plan is to acquire and consolidate individual cable TV operators throughout the Dominican Republic. According to Thomas, the market is highly partitioned, with individual firms serving specific cities.

Once the cable TV base is consolidated, TCS plans to focus on the mobile market, where Thomas says fourth place operator Viva may be a target to then compete with the other three market operators - Claro, Orange and Tricom.

To move on these opportunities, TCS had originally signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2010 to form a joint venture with Venezuelan cable TV provider NetUno, but that agreement fell through, with NetUno saying the situation of raising funds in Venezuela complicated its capacity to invest outside of the country.

Telecable Sabaneta is the sole provider of cable TV services in the city of Sabaneta, while in the DSL segment its competitor is Codetel.

Openwave net losses grow in fiscal Q2 - Regional

Openwave, a US provider of value-added (VAS) applications to mobile and broadband operators, posted a US$10.4mn global net loss in the fiscal second quarter, ended December 31, compared to a US$4.5mn net loss in the year-ago period.

The company's revenues reached US$35.9mn, compared to US$39.9mn in the year-ago quarter.

Headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company has clients in North America, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Openwave delivers context-aware mediation and messaging solutions that enable communication service providers to create and deliver more innovative services.

Qualcomm's net earnings jump 20% in fiscal Q1 - Regional

Chipmaker Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOMM) saw a 19.7% rise in net profit to US$1.40bn in the first quarter of its fiscal 2012, ended December 25, compared to US$1.17bn from 1Q11, the company said in a statement.

The company's revenues in the quarter surged 39.8% to US$4.68bn, from US$3.35bn in the first quarter of fiscal 2011.

"I am pleased to report another record quarter with revenues, earnings and MSM [mobile station modem] shipments reaching all-time highs, driven by our industry-leading chipset portfolio and the continued strong demand for smartphones around the world," said Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.

The company is raising its revenue and earnings guidance based on broad licensing partnerships and an extensive chipset roadmap - led by its integrated Snapdragon processors - which is expected to put Qualcomm in a good position for strong growth in fiscal 2012.

Qualcomm forecasts US$4.6bn-5.0bn in revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

Use this link to see the company's full report.