TOKYO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's number two mobile telephone operator KDDI Corp. said Monday it had weathered increasingly fierce competition to post a rise in interim profits on the back of brisk subscriber growth.

KDDI said it had signed up more than a million new customers for its mainstay 'au' cellphone brand in the six months to September, ratcheting up the pressure on rivals NTT DoCoMo and Softbank.

Net profit rose 7.1 percent to 145.7 billion yen (1.26 billion dollars), KDDI said in a statement.

BRUSSELS, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission urged mobile phone operators on Thursday to cut their rates for text messages and data or face price caps like those recently put in place on so-called roaming rates.

'I call on operators to deal with the problem of high prices for text messages and data,' EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding told journalists.

TOKYO, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's number two mobile telephone operator KDDI on Thursday announced deep cuts to call charges that analysts said could hinder Asia's largest economy's exit from deflation if rivals follow suit.

KDDI Corp. said it would introduce a new charging system in which call charges will decline by about 20 to 30 percent, while the prices of handsets will increase.

VIENNA, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Telekom Austria said Wednesday it was moving into the Belarus mobile telecommunications market by buying the number two operator there, MDC.

Telekom Austria said in a statement it had agreed to buy a 70-percent stake in MDC's parent company, Cyprus-based SB Telecommunication, for around 730 million euros (one billion dollars).

In addition, the Austrian telecoms giant had an option to buy the remaining 30 percent by the end of 2010 for an additional 320 million euros, the statement said.

ANKARA, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey's Telecommunications Board said Wednesday that it had cancelled a tender for the country's first third-generation mobile phone licence due to lack of competition.

The regulatory body ruled unanimously in favour of annulling the September 7 tender in which the country's top mobile phone operator Turkcell was the only bidder.

ANKARA, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Turkey's top mobile phone operator Turkcell on Friday won a tender for the country's first third-generation phone licence with a bid of 321 million euros (438.5 million dollars).

Turkcell was the only bidder in the televised tender held by the state regulatory body, the Telecommunications Board, for four different licences at four different frequencies that will allow operators to provide advanced servives such as video telephony.

BAGHDAD, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Iraq on Thursday said it had signed 15-year contracts with three companies to provide mobile telephone services, one of the few sectors booming in the war-ravaged country.

Al-Atheer Telecommunication, Asiacell and Korek signed the contracts with Siyamend Othman, the chief of the National Communications and Media Commission.

'With the signing of the three contracts, Iraq's communication sphere will move from instability into stability,' Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh said at a press conference in Baghdad.

AMMAN, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - Five companies began bidding in Amman Thursday for a share of Iraq's lucrative mobile telephone market, one of the few sectors of the war-ravaged economy still producing revenues, officials said.

The five include the three existing licence holders -- Orascom, MTC and Asiacell, Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh told reporters before the bidding process got underway in the Jordanian capital.

LONDON, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - Vodafone, the British mobile phone giant, said Wednesday it had decided against exercising an option to sell part of its stake in US mobile operator Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications.

In a statement, Vodafone said it continued to believe that retaining its full 45-percent interest in Verizon Wireless was in the best interests of shareholders. Verizon Communications owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless.

WASHINGTON, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - Nine out of 10 Americans feel that sending text messages from a mobile phone while driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving, but admit to doing it anyway, a poll published on Tuesday showed.

Although 89 percent of the 2,049 adults polled online by Harris Interactive said texting while driving was dangerous and should be banned, and 92 percent said it was as bad as having a few drinks and driving, 66 percent of respondents admitted to reading text messages while at the wheel.

BRUSSELS, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission on Thursday named and shamed mobile phone companies that have failed to offer their customers new EU maximum tariffs on cross-border mobile phone calls.

Most of the companies in the 27 EU nations have swiftly offered the new tariffs, which slash the prices in some countries, the EU's executive arm said.

BRUSSELS, July 30, 2007 (AFP) - New rules aimed at slashing the price of mobile phone calls made abroad in the European Union come into effect this week, with EU regulators promising Monday to name and shame non-compliant companies.

Mobile operators must offer EU subscribers tariffs of no more than 49 euro cents (66 US cents) a minute for cross-border calls within the 27-nation bloc, while receiving a call should cost no more than 24 cents.

TOKYO, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - Japan`s number two telecom operator KDDI Corp. reported Monday a nine percent rise in net profit for the fiscal first quarter thanks to a strong performance by its mobile telephone business.

KDDI continued to win subscribers as Japan`s cellphone providers wage a fierce battle for market share after rule changes allowing people to switch mobile telephone operators without having to change their phone numbers.

KDDI, which runs the 'au' cellphone brand, posted net earnings of 82.49 billion yen (682 million dollars) for the three months to June.