www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Turkey’s privatisation body said that it has not started the process of selling a second tranche of state-owned shares in Turk Telekom. Turkey’s Privatisation Administration was reportedly planning to sell a 15 percent stake in Turk Telecom, which is also active in the internet service provider and mobile sectors, by the first quarter of next year.
“No process has been recently started for the privatisation of any shares in Turk Telekom owned by the Treasury,” the administration further said.
Selection of an investment bank to advise on the process was expected to take place by September, media reports.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MegaFon, largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, is reportedly eyeing at the possibility of buying up to 5% of shares in rival cellco Vimpelcom on the stock market. According to the sources, the proposal was on the agenda of MegaFon’s board meeting on 1 July but no decision was made.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:For the first time ever in Malta, Melita Mobile is introducing the cheapest mobile rates for roaming in EU countries after the Company decided to go one step further than mandatory EU regulations by setting its new roaming tariffs a year ahead of EU requirements and ahead of other local mobile operators.
Melita Mobile announced a significant reduction on all voice, SMS rates for roaming within EU countries. Calls made from any EU country to another, now cost 47 cents (VAT included) for the first 30 seconds and then on a per second basis. . Incoming calls on Melita Mobile cost 18 cents (VAT included) per minute while roaming in any EU country.
The reductions are applicable from 1st July. SMS rates have also been reduced to 13 cents (VAT included)whilst roaming in any EU country.
“Here’s another reason why mobile users should join Melita Mobile, especially those who travel very often. We are living up to our cheaper, simpler, better promise across all our mobile services and products to the extent of introducing even cheaper roaming rates ahead of EU requirements. According to EU obligations, we could have introduced our present roaming rates in 2010, however Melita Mobile chose to offer all its subscribers an even cheaper roaming service from now,” said Mr Daniel Galea, Melita’s Product Manager for Mobile services.
Besides having the cheapest mobile roaming rates for EU countries, Melita Mobile also offers 30% cheaper local call rates, a flat rate of 10cents per call to all Melita Mobile and Melita fixed-line numbers for the entire duration of all your calls, no time windows on pre-paid credit, per second billing and the convenience of a single monthly bill for all services.
Moreover, Melita Mobile offers the only reliable video calling services in the Maltese Islands at the same call rate as voice calls.
“The new roaming rates makes our roaming rates the cheapest in Malta” added Mr. Galea.
Melita offers a worldwide network of roaming services with some 600 third party mobile operators across the globe in over 200 countries, through an agreement with Italian giant Telecom Italia.
Roaming services are available both on Pay Monthly plans (by contract) and on Pre-Paid plans (by topping up).
“We have invested a lot of money to ensure that Melita Mobile subscribers have access to full mobile roaming facilities in any part of the world and we want to make sure that these facilities are offered at the cheapest prices,” said Mr Galea.
For further information on Melita Mobile, log on to www.melita.com
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: x-Mobility today announces the launch of its Mobile Virtual Network Aggregator (MVNA) service that provides a white-labeled MVNO service for brands wishing to enter the mobile space. As the holder of a full Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) licence on the 3UK network, x-Mobility’s MVNA service allows new entrants into the market with a quicker and more cost-effective solution than dealing directly with an operator.
The MVNA service from x-Mobility provides everything a company needs to set itself up as a new MVNO, targeting its own distinct customer base. Services include:
Click here to find out more!• White label branding of both the USIM and the network name on the handset, making all aspects of the service ‘branded’ in the eyes of your customers
• Operations Support Systems (OSS), for provisioning of services
• Billing Support Services (BSS), with both wholesale & retail billing interfaces available
• Customer Care services so that any issues your customers face can be resolved
• Number portability, allowing you to port your customers’s numbers from other networks
“The MVNO concept is particularly well suited to developing niche propositions and, while this has benefitted consumers in some European markets, the UK mobile operators have yet to truly embrace that model,” said Phil Kendall, Director - Global Wireless Practice, Strategy Analytics. “The MVNA approach is an excellent way to facilitate that step change in the market. This is especially true if services like low-cost international calls and data services, that are not traditionally associated with an MVNO, can be added to the mix.”
x-Mobility works closely with 3 and has a full MVNO licence on the 3UK network. This allows x-Mobility to aggregate the service to other brands as a white-label service and x-Mobility can provide pre and post-paid voice and data services for its customers.
David Bickett, Business Development Director at 3, said: “x-Mobility has created a very compelling service which suits the excellent network that we have built in the UK. We believe that the smaller, niche MVNO players will be able to profit from the combination of 3UK’s network and x-Mobility’s MVNA service.”
One of the companies that is taking advantage of x-Mobility’s MVNA service is Uni-Tel Mobile, which has been set up to target the UK student market.
“I’m really impressed with the x-Mobility business model and really grateful of it too,” said Mike Hall, the Operations Director at Uni-Tel Mobile. “Thanks to x-Mobility we’ve been able to get our MVNO service up and running quickly. We think that we have a very compelling offering to the student market and we’re extremely excited about the possibilities.”
Wayne Myers, CEO of x-Mobility, said: “This is culmination of a lot of hard work and planning, But now we have launched we’re able to help even more brands that want to launch an MVNO service within 120 days and at a fraction of the cost of the traditional, direct route.”
“It’s great that we’re able to help companies like Uni-Tel Mobile provide a new service to their customers within a few months. We hope to help many more companies launch MVNOs to service consumer segments that the mobile operators cannot reach.”
x-Mobility is currently working with a number of brands that will be launching their own MVNO service shortly. Based on the volume of SIMs ordered, x-Mobility is one of the biggest MVNOs on the 3UK network.
For more information, please visit www.x-mobility.com
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:SFR (incl neuf Cegetel) Chief Executive Frank Esser, has reportedly said that the French group had a ‘strong’ second quarter in terms of subscriber additions for fixed and mobile services, and is ahead of its target for sales of the iPhone 3G. The CEO, further said, ‘We had a good momentum, a very strong second quarter in mobile and in fixed phones. SFR started selling the Apple device in April this year and has currently shipped more than 200,000 units, which is ‘ahead’ of its target despite the global economic downturn. Esser also said that SFR, which acquired fixed line and broadband operator neuf Cegetel last year, has no immediate plans to go full-steam into a quadruple-play offer for the consumer market segment.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:Digicel BVI has announced Bigger, Better Savings for its subscribers which will allow for more FREE talk on its network. The subscribers signing up for the new caibbean plan will get all local Digicel to Digicel calls totally FREE, effective as of midnight tonight. The Caribbean Plan was introduced June 18th and is available to both Digicel’s prepaid & postpaid subscribers to make unlimited calls to other Digicel customers across its Caribbean and Central America networks for just $49 per month.
CEO, Digicel, Alan Bates, said with the added value of including all local calls to the plan, Digicel is offering Better Choice to all customers in BVI.
“We had this in testing over the last few weeks and now it is ready to launch to give everyone Better Value from The Bigger, Better Network,” he said. “The Caribbean Plan is the best value unlimited plan in the BVI as it is unlimited to local and Caribbean destinations, all for just $49. This offer is not only available on postpaid plans, but also prepaid subscribers, who can also opt in without having to commit to a longer term agreement. Just dial *134# send.”
Bates said the thousands of customers previously subscribed to the Caribbean Plan will automatically benefit from this new offer as of 12 midnight and will also be able to make FREE local Digicel to Digicel calls as part of the plan.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Verizon Wireless, a US mobile network operator, announced further investment in its network infrastructure in the US State of Iowa with the activation of a new cell site near Manning.
The company said that the new cell site, located near State Highway 141 and Delta Avenue
improves coverage in the towns of Manning, Templeton and Harbor, with improved coverage west of the site along State Highway 141 to Aspinwall, east to US Highway 71, north to US Highway 30 and south to the Audubon County border.
IN 2008, Verizon invested over USD24m in its Iowa network, port of the USD50bn the company, a joint venture between Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) (LSE:VOD), has spent on its network infrastructure and services since its inception in 2000.
For more information, please visit www.verizonwireless.com
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:Vistream, the German MVNO has selected the mobile equipment vendor ZTE for the upgradation of its GSM and UMTS network so that it can further resell its services.
Vistream which is known as an MVNO enabler, purchases in voice and data wholesale from network partner E-Plus but offers white label MVNO services using its own infrastructure.
ZTE said it will provide Vistream with network capacity for 500,000 subscribers, including an all-IP platform, ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) hardware infrastructure and advanced NGHLR (Next Generation Home Location Register) systems.
The project will also include geographic database disaster recovery features to help maximise the network’s reliability and lower the operator’s TCO (total cost of ownership).
Vistream said the upgradation was a part of enlarging its business across various European markets, “working in deep cooperation with various third party content providers.”
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:Iran has taken away the third mobile licence from the Kuwaiti mobile operator Zain and now plans to hold fresh tender for it.
According to local media report Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Soleimani said that Zain had not “fulfilled its obligations.”
Zain was awarded the licence in May after it was stripped by Iran from Etisalat for almost the same reason of not fulfilling obligations.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:LG which is seeing a upward movement in its growth process and has reached the #3 position as a mobile handset manufacturer across the globe.
LG, according to President, Mobile Business, Ahn Seung-kwon, plans to become #2 cellphone maker in the world by 2012. Which means that it plans to overtake Samsung in the next 3 years.
Mr.Ahn further revealed that the handset manufacturer will:
- in Q4 LG will launch a new “Black label” series phone, which will be positioned to compete with the iPhone
- LG is pretty happy with their luxury “Prada” phone line and is working on another Prada handset
- LG also has a plan to move even deeper into a luxury cellphone market, by creating it’s own extreme premium brand, “similar to Toyota’s Lexus and Nokia’s Vertu”
Turkey says no process started for privatisation of Turk Telecom
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