SMARTY mobile has unveiled its winter sale deals on a flexible one month plan.

Its latest Sim deals include 200GB for £14 (was £17) and the new 24GB plan (was 12GB) gives double data for £8.

SMARTY’s plans all come with lots of data, unlimited calls and texts, 5G at no extra cost and EU roaming included up to 12GB.

You can get a SMARTY sim card from its website, or pick up a sim from a high street store such as Sainsbury’s, Argos, Poundland, WHSmiths and McColls.

Huawei is set to sell its Honor smartphone brand in a deal reported to be worth over £11 billion.

According to reports from Reuters, Honor is set to be snapped up by a Chinese consortium led by handset distributor Digital China and the Shenzhen government.

Honor was launched in 2013 by Huawei aimed at consumers on more of a budget.

It follows reports last month that Huawei was looking to sell Honor in a deal worth close to £3 billion.

Reuters states that Digital China would occupy around 15 per cent stake in the business, with three other Shenzhen backed investment companies owning a similar amount.

Mobile News has contacted Huawei for comment.

Potential

Last year in Western Europe Honor ranked fifth for overall market share with 2.6 per cent, according to IDC.

The vendor sold more phones than its rivals Oppo, Nokia and OnePlus.

Any potential deal to sell Honor could open up opportunities for Honor handsets to once again use Google services, which was imposed last year.

Huawei was placed on the US Entity List in May 2019, meaning that its smartphones, along with Honor’s lost access to Google services.

BT is said to be in talks to sell its multi-billion pound stake in Openreach, which runs the UK’s broadband network.

The Financial Times revealed that potential investors include Australian investment firm Macquarie Group.

In the article, the FT said that talks have been ongoing for the past three weeks, according to three sources with ‘knowledge of the discussions’.

It comes a week after BT announced challenging financial figures, that saw the telco suspend its dividend until 2022.

Last week, the telco also revealed its ambitious plans to connect 20 million premises with full fibre by the mid 2020’s. This is widely expected to cost £12 billion.

Profitable

Openreach is the most profitable division within BT, with numerous outlets reporting its value to be around £20 billion.

Last week BT announced pre-tax profits dropped 12 per cent to £2.3 billion, while also confirming shares likely resume at 7.7 pence a share, much lower than the previous 15.4 pence beforehand.

Openreach has covered 2.6 million homes in the UK with its full-fibre network.

Since talk of the reported negotiations, shares in BT are up 9 per cent this morning (May 15).

However Openreach CEO Clive Selley told his employees that such reports are inaccurate.

In a message posted on the company’s intranet today he said: “Many of you will have seen the reports overnight about BT being in talks to sell a stake in Openreach.

“I spoke to Philip Jansen last night after the story broke in the newspapers. He is very clear – the story is inaccurate. Openreach is staying in the BT Group.

“Let’s build the huge fibre broadband platform, keep raising service levels and continue the very big job of upgrading our customers throughout the UK from copper to fibre.”

Ingram Micro is under discussions to be sold by parent company HNA Group to private equity firm Apollo Asset Management for $7.5 billion, including $1.5 billion of debt.

This is according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. HNA Group said on Christmas Eve it is selling Ingram “due to changes in market conditions and the company’s strategy”, the firm said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. The$7.5 billion bid from Apollo was reportedly considered too low to accept.

In September, HNA Technology claimed to hold $3.55 billion of outstanding debt from the purchase of Ingram Micro, of which $350 million was due for payment this year.

HNA Group bought the distributor in December 2016 for $6 billion.

Ingram Micro said: “Ingram does not comment on rumour or speculation.”

The OnePlus 5 has gone on general sale in the UK today (June 27).

Prices start from £449 for the grey 64GB model with 6GB of RAM. The alternative option is the 128GB version with 8GB of RAM featuring in black for £499. Orders can be made through the OnePlus official website.

O2 is the only operator to range the OnePlus 5. The featured monthly plan from the UK network includes 30GB of data, unlimited calls and text. It will cost £51 per month with £9.99 upfront.

Trade-in

OnePlus will offer a trade-in scheme where customers can send in their old devices for cashback to purchase a OnePlus 5. Customers can instead trade in an old device for a voucher to spend on anything at its inline store.

The trade-in service is available in most European countries including: The UK, Spain, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden to name a few. More countries will be added at a later date.

It is the sixth handset released by the Chinese manufacturer since the One was launched in 2014. It comes with ‘Dash Charge’ technology which the manufacturer claims will give a day’s worth of power with just half an hour of charging. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 8GB of RAM powers the handset.

Other major features include a dual camera; which features both 16MP and 20MP cameras. Users can also adjust individual settings like white balance and shutter speed like they would on a standalone professional camera.

The Huawei P10 is available from today (March 31) across all major operators and retailers.

It was unveiled at Mobile World Congress on February 26. Features includes the world’s first Leica front-facing camera (eight megapixels), coupled with the 20 and 12 megapixel Leica dual rear cameras.

The screen is 5.1-inches protected by Gorilla Glass 5, housed in a glass body also made from Gorilla Glass. Powering it is a 2.4GHz octa-core processor (Kirin 960) with 4GB of RAM. Software out of the box is Android Nougat 7.0, with Huawei’s Emotion 5.1 Android skin.

Other features include USB type-C, front-mounted fingerprint sensor, 3,200mAh battery and fast charging.

Deals

Carphone Warehouse is offering the P10 with EE, O2 and Vodafone on monthly contracts starting from £28 per month with 500MB of data, 500 minutes, unlimited texts, with a £159.99 upfront cost.

Customers can pick up the P10 from Vodafone for the £42 per month with 24GB of data, unlimited calls and text, 2GB roaming data with a £10 upfront cost. Also included is a six month subscription to either  Spotify, Sky Sports Mobile TV and Now TV.

EE are stocking the device for £40.99 per month, 5GB of data, unlimited calls and text (roaming included), 500MB roaming data and the BT Sport app included.

Three are also selling the P10 for £29.99 per month with 12GB of data, unlimited minutes and text, roaming and an upfront cost of £29.

O2 will be delivering the P10 for £41 per month with 1GB of data, unlimited calls and text, offers from O2 Priority, stapled with a £9.99 up front cost.

Nokia has confirmed it is in talks to acquire rival global network equipment provider Alcatel Lucent for a fee of around €11 billion.

The news follows increasing speculation Nokia is ready to sell its mapping division HERE, estimated to be worth £2 billion, which would help to fund any purchase.

Nokia warned however in a statement there was “no certainty” that discussions will result in any agreement or transaction – but “advanced talks” were underway.

The would see Nokia strengthen its position a global provider of network equipment against leading rivals, which include market leaders Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Samsung and ZTE.

A joint statement read: “In relation to recent media speculation Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent confirm that they are in advanced discussions with respect to a potential full combination, which would take the form of a public exchange offer by Nokia for Alcatel-Lucent.

“A further announcement will be made when appropriate.”

Nokia launched the network division as part of a joint venture with Siemens, ‘Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) in 2006, but has struggled to make a significant impact in the market when compared to its rivals, particularly around 4G/LTE. It has cut more than 17,000 jobs since 2011. Nokia bought out Siemens share for $2 billion last August rebranding as Nokia Solutions and Networks.

French firm Alcatel, a rival to ‘new’ Nokia – who sold its core hardware business to Microsoft a year ago for £4.5 billion, offers fixed, mobile and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. It has operations in more than 130 countries and employs more than 62,000 staff.

Like wise Alcatel has undergone a number of changes to address falling profits, cutting around 10,000 staff since 2013 as a part of a €1 billion cost reduction effort. It current employs around 70,000 staff.

The firm achieved profits of €284 million in fourth quarter results, falling well below the â‚¬304 predicted by market analysts.

]]> https://mobilenewscwp.co.uk/news/article/nokia-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-alcatel-lucent/feed/ 0 https://mobilenewscwp.co.uk/news/article/ee-confirm-talks-over-sale-to-bt/ https://mobilenewscwp.co.uk/news/article/ee-confirm-talks-over-sale-to-bt/#respond Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:24:49 +0000 https://mncwp.tailrd.cloud/ee-confirm-talks-over-sale-to-bt/ EE joint venture parent firms Orange and Deutsche Telekom have this morning confirmed they have joined Telefonica by entering discussions to sell the business to BT

Operators in the UK have launched their January sales with a series of discount offers targeting 4G contracts and bundle deals.

O2 is offering savings of up to £170 when a £27 per month tariff is taken with either the Samsung Galaxy S4, LG G2 or HTC One. The price includes 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB of data. The handset will cost £49.99 up front instead of £199. 4G tariffs are also available at £5 more per month for unlimited minutes and texts plus 1GB of 4G data.

O2 is also offering savings of £5 per month on its smartphone and tablet bundles, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Wi-Fi with Galaxy S4 Mini and the Sony Xperia Tablet Z Wi-Fi with Xperia SP. The offer is for £37 per month with a £39.99 upfront cost, giving unlimited minutes and texts and 1GB of data.

New offers are set to be added to O2’s sale on January 9.

Vodafone is offering up to 25 per cent off of handsets, tablets and SIM only plans until February 4.

Handsets on sale include the HTC One which is free on monthly plans from £33, down from £37, and the Sony Xperia SP which is free on monthly contracts from £17, down from £25.

Vodafone has dropped the price of the Nokia Lumia 520 on Pay as You Go from £85 to £75, while its Red L SIM only offer for unlimited texts and minutes plus 2GB of data is now £20.80 instead of £26.

Vodafone has also reduced the price on several 4G-ready tablets, such as the Sony Xperia Tablet Z which is now £31 per month with 4GB of 4G data rather than £37.

Meanwhile, EE is offering the Nokia Lumia 625 for free on a £18.99 4G plan with 1000 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.

EE is also offering the Sony Xperia SP for free when taken with a £23.99 per month 4G plan with unlimited minutes and texts plus 2GB of data.

Elsewhere, Three has reduced a number of its Pay as You Go handsets, including the Nokia Lumia 520 for £79.99, reduced from £99.99.

BlackBerry is in talks with several companies including Google, Cisco, LG and Samsung over selling parts of its business, according to a report by Reuters.

The Canadian manufacturer announced it was up for sale in August and has since signed an agreement with financial holdings company Fairfax Financial which could see it sold for $4.7 billion (£2.9 billion) next month – unless it finds a better offer.

According to Reuters, BlackBerry is in talks with Google, Cisco and German software company SAP, which could see it’s secure network and patent portfolio broken off and sold.

It has also asked for preliminary expressions of interest from Intel, LG and Samsung, the report said.

According to analysts, BlackBerry’s patent portfolio could be worth $2 billion (£1.2 billion) to $3 billion (£1.9 billion) and its its services business (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) between $3 billion (£1.9 billion) and $4.5 billion (£2.8 billion).

However, a company filing has revealed BlackBerry’s patent portfolio and licensing agreements are likely to halve in value over the next 18 months.