Australia's antitrust regulator blocked an asset transfer deal between Telstra and TPG, the country's No.1 and No.3 wireless internet firms, citing competition concerns, setting the scene for a legal battle over access to four million customers. In a deal announced in February, Telstra Group was to buy spectrum - airwaves which carry wireless internet - and transmission towers from TPG Telecom Ltd, while TPG would keep selling 4G and 5G coverage using what would become Telstra's infrastructure.
Three Australian telecom companies have been ordered by a court to pay a collective A$33.5 million ($22.08 million) in penalties for making misleading claims about speed of some NBN internet plans, the country's competition regulator said on Friday. The Australian Federal Court has ordered Telstra to pay A$15 million, a unit of TPG Telecom to cough up A$5 million, and imposed a fine of A$13.5 million on Optus, a unit of Singapore Telecommunications, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) on Thursday said the company may have to bare the brunt of further macro-economic challenges that are expected to persist into fiscal 2023 despite posting a 23% jump in its first-half net profit. SingTel, which is going through a strategic reset, said net profit for the half year ended Sept. 30 came in at S$1.17 billion, compared with S$954 million a year earlier. Optus, the Australian unit of SingTel, flagged a massive data breach where up to 10 million customers' data were compromised.