By Will Sturgeon, 26 September 2000 09:15
NEWS Richard Branson is broadening his corporate horizons ever further with news in the Financial Times that he has taken £115m of outside funding to expand his Virgin Mobile operation. The money will be used to increase the company's market share and bring Virgin inline with the four main UK mobile phone operators. It should also pave the way for overseas expansion... Expansion is also on the cards for ONdigital, with the Financial Times reporting that the digital TV company has entered into talks with "several large telecommunications and cable companies" in search of fresh investment prior to an estimated £2bn flotation. Telewest and Orange are understood to be two of the companies in question. The talks reflect a growing trend particularly amongst telecoms operators to tie-up partnerships with content providers before the roll out of 3G technologies. Orange has already splashed out £95m this year for PA's virtual newsreader Ananova. Whoever it is that ONdigital decides to bring on board, the Financial Times insists "the deal is imminent"... Finally, there is good news on the unbundling of the local loop from Redstone Telecom in this morning's Guardian. Claims from BT that there is no space in its 6,000 exchanges have raised objections from companies claiming anti-competitive behaviour, but Redstone has found a way to chart BT's muddied waters by installing its equipment outside the 1,250 exchanges it has applied for access to. Other companies have failed to breach BT's stronghold by applying for space within the exchanges, but in the words of Bob Cushing, business development director at Redstone: "There is a way round all this." BT take note, because you can be sure Colt Telecom, Energis, Iomart, Kingston Communications, Thus and a whole host of others certainly will be...
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