Telefonica has signed a new contract with Spanish cable operator ONO allowing it to use its network for another 2-1/2 years to sell on phone services, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday.

ONO (Madrid, Spain) and rival Jazztel (London, UK), known as virtual operators because they do not own networks, are making headway in an increasingly competitive environment since the market shifted to convergent offers that bundle phone with television and internet services.

US M2M-focused MVNO RACO Wireless has announced a deal with Canada’s Rogers Communications that will let customers deploy M2M services in the Canadian market.

The deal to expand the MVNO’s footprint is aimed at customers in a variety of vertical sectors, including fleet management, security, telemedicine and asset management, and includes support for its Omega Management Suite platform.

Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera has given up on attempts to sell Yoigo, its Spanish subsidiary, indicating that offers it has received do not match its own valuation of the business.

“Yoigo [Alcobendas, Spain) has great potential for further development, but as its market strategy does not quite match our other operations, we have been prepared to divest it if we were offered a price which fully reflects its future potential,” said Per-Arne Blomquist, the chief executive of TeliaSonera (Stockholm, Sweden), in a statement.

M2M specialist Arkessa claims to be the first company to launch services based on the new wholesale M2M platform being offered by UK mobile-phone operator Three.

The company says it will take advantage of Three’s “ultrafast” network to offer embedded data SIM cards for devices that require high-speed connections for video and other advanced services, including CCTV cameras and remote health-monitoring systems.

Semiconductor distributor Avnet Memec is claiming “mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE)” status after signing a deal to become a pan-European distributor for M2M managed-services provider Wyless.

Avnet Memec (Poing, Germany) says that its M2M customers will now benefit from having access to the Wyless (Lawrence, USA) managed network and Wyless’ Porthos-branded management platform, reducing costs and time to market.

Portuguese operators Optimus and Zon Multimedia look set to merge to form the country’s second-biggest player, behind Portugal Telecom, after directors from both companies gave their blessing to the tie-up.

Under the terms of the deal, Optimus (Porto, Portugal) will be incorporated into Zon (Lisbon, Portugal) and its shareholders will hold a 40% stake in the combined entity, which will operate under the name of Zon Optimus.

Besides controlling 26% of the market, the new company will have revenues of €1.6 billion and an operating profit of about €540 million.

M2M MVNO Wyless has struck a deal with Canada’s Rogers Communications allowing customers to deploy M2M services on the operator’s wireless networks in Canada.

Under the arrangement, business customers of Rogers will also be able to deploy M2M services outside Canada using Wyless’s managed-services platform.

Wyless (Lawrence, USA) has already formed partnerships with a number of mobile network operators and says the Rogers (Toronto, Canada) deal will expand the reach of its platform in an important market.