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Orange to Slash 2,000 Jobs
Mobile phone group Orange is to cut around 1,800 to 2,000 jobs in the UK as it takes the knife to cut costs following the integration of its Wanadoo UK Internet business, the France Telecom unit. The job cuts would be achieved mainly through a combination of redeployment, natural attrition, non-renewal of temporary short-term contracts, and some redundancies.

IBM Wins Project from Strom
IBM Global Systems Israel, the local services arm of IBM, will carry out a $1 mn IBM CRM consultancy project for Russian telecommunications company Strom MediaTel. In the past two years, IBM Israel has led enterprise computerization projects, mostly for telecommunications companies, including Bharati Telecom, Poland's Telekomunikacja Polska SA, Russia's VimpelCom, Romania's MobilFon, and China Telecom and China Mobile.

SingTel's Annual Profit Grows 27%
Singapore Telecommunications has said the company's profit for 2005-06 was S$4.2 bn, up 27% from profit of S$3.3 bn in the previous year. As of March 31, 2006, the company had 1.7 mn mobile subscribers, including 1,30,000 subscribers for its 3G service.

A-Pac Wireless Revenue to Grow
Asia Pacific wireless telecom industry will grow from $159.9 bn in annual revenue in 2005 to $242.4 bn by the end of 2010, according to research firm In-Stat. Subscriber penetration rate for the region including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippine, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan was about 25% in 2005, varying from 6.8% in India to 115% in Hong Kong, In-Stat said.

Dialog Telekom's Profits Climb
Sri Lanka's Dialog Telekom's net profits soared 39% for the three months ended March this year, boosted by expansion in international business and booming subscriber growth. Revenues rose 55% as Dialog expanded network coverage and offered value added solution to increase usage per customer.

Flextronics, Nortel Complete Deal
Flextronics and Nortel have completed the transfer of the manufacturing operations and related assets including product integration, testing, repair, and logistics operations of Nortel's Systems House in Calgary to Flextronics. Approximately 650 employees in Calgary will transfer to Flextronics as part of the final phase of the previously announced agreement. This deal brings long-term strategic value for Flextronics and creates the broadest capability of any EMS company in the telecom market.

Skype in Korean Market
Skype is set to launch its PC-to-phone service in South Korea, cutting international calling costs and threatening local telecom companies. Skype began offering its free services between personal computers in South Korea in February, and quickly reached 100,000 users. Skype-Out, the downloadable PC-to-phone program, will allow users to make calls around the world at a cost of about 2 cents per minute through a pre-paid card.

SFR Uses Siemens' Technology
French mobile operator, SFR, is equipping its existing WCDMA network with high-speed data access (HSDPA) technology from Siemens. SFR has launched its new data service '3G+' in the Western French region of Nantes/Saint Nazaire/Rennes and offering its customers mobile network access with a maximal transmission data rate of 1,8 megabits per second.

Swisscom Posts 12% Drop in Profit
Swisscom's first-quarter net profit has declined 12%, even though it has had strong growth in the number of mobile phone and broadband customers. Swisscom, a spinoff of the old state-owned PTT, and still majority owned by the government, said sales were $1.9 bn, down 2.9% from the first quarter of 2005.

PCCW Global, China Telecom Launch Bandwidth Connectivity
Hong Kong PCCW Global and China Telecom Group have launched the first-ever private line Ethernet service providing high bandwidth connectivity between Hong Kong and China. The service, International Ethernet Private Line (IEPL), is an end-to-end managed bandwidth solution, providing customers with dedicated point-to-point cross border connectivity over a reliable platform, at high speed and with scaleable upgrades. PCCW Global and China Telecom have a long-standing commercial relationship, serving Chinese enterprises as they expand outside China into the region, and helping multinational companies grow and expand their business in China.

Warner, SK Partnership
Warner Music and SK Telecom has announced an agreement in principle, resulting in the creation of a new joint venture company called WS Entertainment. The firm will be incorporated by joint investment from Warner Music Korea (WMI's Korean operating company), Seoul Records (subsidiary of SK Telecom) and SK-KTB Music Investment Fund. WMI will have majority ownership of WS Entertainment. SK Telecom will contribute working capital, representing a significant investment in the Korean recording industry.