France Telecom replaces No. 2 after weeks of criticism over handling of employee suicides

September 30th, 2009 24th suicide at France TelecomPARIS — Officials say a France Telecom employee has killed himself, becoming the giant phone company's 24th worker to commit suicide in 18 months. Officials in the eastern Haute-Savoie region said the 51-year-old man jumped off a bridge onto a highway on Monday.

September 14th, 2009 France Telecom mobilizing managers after suicidesPARIS — France Telecom SA was mobilizing all 20,000 of its managers Monday in an effort to respond to a string of 23 employee suicides that unions blame partly on layoffs and restructuring at the telecommunications giant. The company's head of human resources, Olivier Barberot, was holding a conference call with all of France Telecom's managers, in response to the latest suicide on Friday.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Telecom majors Reliance Communications (RCom) and Aircel are on the verge of signing a $300-million agreement for sharing telecom infrastructure like towers, sources close to the deal said Monday. "The deal will offer RCom a revenue upside of over Rs.1,500 crore.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is mulling a uniform licence fee for various services offered by telecom operators, a top official said here Monday. "The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) is considering implementing a uniform licence fee," said Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura at a conference organised by the Internet Service Providers Association of India.

July 30th, 2009 France Telecom H1 profit down 4.3 percentPARIS — Telecommunications company France Telecom said Thursday that first half net profit fell 4.3 percent as the economic crisis caused customers cut back on phone calls and data transfers — and warned that conditions will get tougher in the second half. The company, whose largest shareholder is the French state, reported net profit of euro2.56 billion ($3.60 billion) in the six months through June compared with euro2.67 billion in the first half of 2008.

July 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday said farmers need financial security to prevent them committing suicide as has been happening in India, and stop them from drifting away from agriculture, like in the US. "Yeah, it (farmers' suicides) is a great concern.

July 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Five telecom firms will be audited for suspected misreporting of revenues by them, the government said Thursday. The telecom operators that are under the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) scanner are Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Tata DoCoMo, the joint venture between telecom majors Tata Teleservices and NTT DoCoMo of Japan, commercially launched GSM telephony operations in Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles Wednesday. Tata DoCoMo's pan-India service rollout will be completed this year, with entire south Indian circles going "live" in a fortnight, it said in a statement.

May 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - J.S. Sarma, a member of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, Thursday took over as the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), succeeding Nripendra Mishra.

April 30th, 2009 Air France exec to chair Areva supervisory boardPARIS — Areva SA has appointed Air France-KLM chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta to chair its supervisory board, the French state-owned nuclear engineering firm said Thursday. Spinetta, 65, replaces former supervisory board chairman Frederic Lemoine, who resigned earlier this month.

April 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With phone operators expected to run out of 10-digit mobile numbers soon, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is now considering an 11-digit numbering system. 'With so many telecom service providers and a growing customer base, the need for new numbers and their consequent shortage will be felt soon,' a senior telecom official, who did not want to be identified, told IANS Saturday.

February 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Wednesday said it has accepted the telecom regulator's proposal to allow companies to offer mobile phone services without owning network infrastructure or spectrum. The government decision would pave the way for foreign and Indian companies to set up mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) in India which can roll out wireless telecom services by renting spectrum and networks from existing telecom companies.

February 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The booming Indian telecom industry that boasts of the world's second largest mobile network is more resilient than others in combating crises such as the current economic slowdown or natural disasters, says a technocrat who has been associated with the sector for over three decades. At the launch of his book 'Connecting India' Wednesday evening, S.D.

January 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The telecom regulator Wednesday extended the last date for receiving the industry's views on the proposed lock-in period on equity sale in new licence holding companies to Jan 27. On Jan 9, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had sought the industry's views on the lock-in period by Jan 20.

January 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) has picked up a 49 percent stake in Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure (WTTL), Tata Teleservices' tower arm, a company official said Monday. Despite a minority stake, Kolkata-based QTIL will have management control in the firm, the official said on condition of anonymity.