South Africa’s Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) says that it would object to any attempt by Vodacom to buy the country’s second largest landline operator, Neotel and said it was watching developments carefully before formulating a formal response.

WAPA believes that the acquisition would stifle competition, lead to job cuts, and do little to reduce the digital divide that it believes should be the country’s top priority with regard to broadband.

"The growth in smaller operators is good for the customer and good for the country," said Christopher Geerdts, chairperson of WAPA. "It increases competition, creates jobs and drives rural broadband penetration. Larger operators tend to cut jobs and cherry-pick customers in the most lucrative suburbs and business parks."

Taiwan based smartphone manufacturer, HTC has reported its first ever quarterly loss as the company continues to struggle to turn around its shrinking market share.

The company posted a net loss of NT$2.97 billion (US$100 million) for the three months to the end of September. A year ago, the company had posted a profit of NT$3.9 billion.

Revenues came in at NT$47 billion, sharply down on the NT$70.2 billion from a year ago.

The company does not give any indication of its handset sales breakdown in its financial statements.

A number of distressed asset investors are said to be circling BlackBerry eyeing a possible counter-bid for the company, which is currently subject to a possible buy-out bid by Fairfax Financial Holdings.

BlackBerry is currently valued at just US$4.7 billion, even though it has US$2.1 billion in cash.

Cerberus Capital Management has been named as the most likely counter-bidder, and is reported to be seeking access to BlackBerry’s accounts so that it can carry out a due diligence on the company.

At least one other distressed-investing firm has also been considering a bid, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed source.

BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis is also contemplating a bid, a person familiar with the matter said. He still owns a 5.7 per cent stake in the company.

"We do not intend to disclose further developments with the respect to the process until we approve a specific transaction or otherwise conclude the review of strategic alternatives," BlackBerry said.

Ooredoo is reportedly mulling a secondary stock market listing in London to help diversify its investor base and improve the liquidity of its shares for existing investors.

Citing bankers familiar with the matter, the Gulf News reported that Ooredoo has sent out proposals for the stock market listing to banks.

"It’s becoming more interesting for a lot of people trying to raise money and diversify their investor bases," said one banker, who didn’t want to be named.

Ooredoo is 55 per cent-owned by the Qatar government.

Its shares are also hampered by being listed on the Doha stock exchange, which limits shareholder liquidity and can hinder expansion plans.

Ooredoo is said to be in talks with Telenor that could see network sharing between their two companies in Myanmar.

Both companies were recently awarded a mobile operator licence in the country to compete with the state-owned monopoly network.

"It’s a greenfield launch and we’re going to build the network in partnership with Telenor," Jeremy Sell, Ooredoo’s chief strategy officer, told a conference in the UAE.

"This has never been done before – we’re rolling out two greenfield networks and anything made of steel or concrete we want to share. There are no towers that are so strategic you can’t share them," he added.

Telenor has not commented on the claims.

Apart from cost savings from capital investment, the country is mired by out-dated regulations and it is expected that the networks could face a red-tape headache securing planning approvals for their towers.

Pooling their resources could dramatically reduce the problems, while adding pressure on local government officials to be less bureaucratic when approached by the joint operators.