Wireless Federation

PCAdvisor writes…Europe’s mobile phone industry will continue to fight plans to regulate roaming charges, even though Germany, the European Commission and the European Parliament appear dead set on imposing them, said the GSM Association.

Germany, Europe’s biggest country, is using its six-month presidency of the European Union to push through a regulation capping both wholesale and retain roaming prices customers pay for using their mobile phones outside of the country they live in.

It has vowed to push through a roaming regulation by the end of its presidency at the end of June.

However, the GSM Association believes that caps on retail prices can still be avoided. “There is a strong lobby against retail regulations,” said David Pringle, the association’s spokesman.

“Most sensible politicians would see retail regulation only as a last resort. Most national markets in Europe have healthy competition with four operators competing for customers,� he added.

Countries wanting to avoid retail price caps include the UK and France. Officials in both countries prefer to regulate at the wholesale level - the prices carriers charge each other for roaming calls across different networks.

The German government wants retail prices capped at €0.49 (£0/32) for outgoing calls and €0.25 (£0.16) for incoming calls. These limits are very close to the caps the European Commission proposed for a regulation it tabled last year, said Martin Selmayr, the Commission’s spokesman on telecom-related issues.

“The German proposal is almost identical to the Commission’s,” he said, adding that Germany’s intervention is “very helpful and should ensure that we have a regulation in place by the summerâ€?.

Meanwhile, European parliamentarians attending a hearing in Brussels yesterday called for additional curbs on the cost to consumers of sending SMS messages and data over their mobiles while abroad.

They also called for rules that would force mobile phone operators to reveal the roaming charges as soon as a call has been made.

“I want more transparency in regard to the price structure on the basis of real-time information,” said Paul Rubig, an Austrian conservative member of the European Parliament.

“Whoever uses their mobile phone abroad must be informed immediately of the costs. Calling home from the beach on holiday must not be more expensive than the flight,” he said during a press conference after the hearing.

Pringle said the mobile phone industry supports calls for greater price transparency. “Transparency is important, it’s just a question of how you achieve it that has to be answered,” he said.

Wireless Mobile Telecom

Reuters writes…India’s telecoms regulator on Wednesday slashed tariffs for national roaming on mobile networks by up to 56 percent, further reducing already low call rates in the fastest growing mobile market in the world.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said the new tariffs, effective from Feb. 15, would be applicable for the dominant GSM network as well as the CDMA platform.

It fixed a ceiling of 1.40 rupees a minute for outgoing local calls while roaming, 2.40 rupees for outgoing long-distance calls and 1.75 rupees for incoming calls, regardless of the distance.

Subscribers can receive text messages for free, while outgoing messages would still be charged.

Mobile operators will not be allowed to charge a fixed rental fee for roaming or a surcharge on roaming services.

The new charges would cut roaming tariffs by 22 to 56 percent, the TRAI Web site showed.

“While competition in mobile services has reached a satisfactory level, the same is not true for roaming segment of the mobile services,” TRAI said.

“The authority would closely monitor market developments on roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it would revisit the issue,” a statement said, describing the new tariffs as “simple, transparent and distance neutral.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom

Forbes writes…Having failed over the summer to make a big splash in the global portable phone market, China Mobile Communications is dipping its metaphorical toe into the pool instead. The state-owned parent of China’s largest mobile phone operator, is paying about $286 million to buy control of Paktel, a small, unprofitable mobile operator in Pakistan.

China Mobile Communications easily trumped a host of competing bidders by offering a substantial premium for Paktel, which was put on the block by its current owner, Millicom International Cellular (nasdaq: MICC - news - people ) of Luxembourg, in November. Earlier last year, China Mobile tried to buy all of Millicom, which specializes in emerging markets, but the deal fell apart. (See “China Still Learning M&A”)

The acquisition, when completed in February, would be China Mobile’s first and small overseas excursion after years of toying with the idea. The Beijing-based concern currently controls Hong Kong-listed China Mobile (nyse: CHL - news - people ), which provides service in Mainland China.

Pakistan is not a bad place for China Mobile to start an international expansion. The mobile market resembles to China’s in many ways. Like China, it is a fast-growing emerging market, with a penetration rate of more than 25%. The cozy political relations between Pakistan and China would also bode well on the political and regulatory fronts.

The problem with Paktel is that it needs significant investment. It is the fifth-biggest company out of six concerns vying to serve a population of 160 million, and it already has $138 million in debt. The China Mobile offer values the company at $460 million, including the borrowings and some minority interests.

Millicom is selling because it could not afford to invest enough to make Paktel a contender. The company said it does not plan to sell holdings in the other 16 markets it serves, located in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

One executive with knowledge of the bidding process said Paktel would give China Mobile access into a market that is expected to add 50 million new subscribers in the next five years.

Wireless Mobile Telecom

TheCellFreak writes…Ready to get wound up? WireFly is offering the acclaimed LG CU500 music phone for free with a two year Cingular account. The LG CU500 is on one hand yet another RAZR rip off, but on the other hand it’s the first phone in America that was HSDPA enabled and can connect at up to 1.8Mbps. The 3G mobile features streamed TV, a rotating 1.3 megapixel video camera, speakerphone, and Bluetooth supported music.

While it comes with one of the more ill conceived micro SD memory card slots, they stuck it behind the batteries; it also comes with Tetris, and all is forgiven for Tetris, the only video game I’ve truly figured out how to play (Wait a second, did I just imply Snake is too complicated?)

Aside from technically being called free, the Cingular plan you have to sign up for is $59.99 a month with 900 rollover minutes; not exactly cheap, but not exactly unreasonable given the amount of video and music downloading speed they offer. On the Gwen Stefani scale of “cool�, I give this sh– 7 bananas; yeah the memory card slot has some spiderwebs, but overall the phone is seriously luxurious and you don’t even have to be a rich girl to take advantage. So don’t speak, just click here and check it out. What are you waiting for?

Wireless Mobile Telecom

TheCellFreak writes…In one of the more curious details of the upcoming apple iphone rollout; while customers from the great state of Vermont are more than welcome to buy an iPhone, they won’t actually be able to use it. Such is the problem with iPhones being available only through AT&T Cingular, and while large areas of other states including Alaska, Colorado, the Dakotas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and even New York will be effected, Vermont is the only state completely without Cingular coverage.

That the sparsely populated state is the odd man out isn’t surprising but what is ironic is the news comes in the same Vermont governor Jim Douglas wants to make the nation’s first e-state, having it completely cell phone and broadband accessible by 2010. And as Cingular plans its expansions two years in advance with nothing currently brewing, it looks as though Vermont iPhone fans are not going to be Cingular fans anytime soon.

Wireless Mobile Telecom

TheCellFreak writes…HBO announced Tuesday a partnership with S.K. Telecom that would make previously aired episodes of popular HBO programs downloadable. With such features as unlimited viewing, quick return chapter selection, viewers able to hand pick episodes, and above all, a $2 a month flat subscription fee, the deal looks like a steal for consumers.

Except one minor detail- the subtitles; the shows are going to have them. Seeing as Koreans speak Korean, that makes sense in theory but… in reality I have problems being able to make out subtitles on a full size television half the time. Are we really supposed to believe that the words are somehow going to be more legible on a 3 inch screen?

While this deal doesn’t effect the North American market as of yet, Cingular has already started offering limited HBO content and through their HBO MobileSM and HBO Family MobileSM programs, and it only seems a matter of time until a fuller roster is offered. In addition to made for mobile episodes of Entourage, an industry first, Cingular has also been offering full length episodes of the first season of Entourage, and various other full episodes of Sex in the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Wireless Mobile Telecom
 

FierceMobileContent writes…Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group announced a partnership with ACCESS China Media Solutions to develop software and services for distributing music downloads and related content to mobile devices. The music conglomerates declined to reveal the amount each invested in ACCESS China Media Solutions, a joint venture between Chinese software developer ACCESS Ltd. and U.S.-based digital media firm Melodeo that creates mobile content provisioning software. “It’s a strategic investment,” WMG senior VP of digital strategy and business development Michael Nash told the Associated Press. “We’re definitely going to advise [ACCESS China] with respect to both digital rights management and also the consumer experience on the platform.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom

FierceMobileContent writes…A new report issued by market intelligence firm IDC says there are now more than 229 million U.S. wireless subscribers spending an average of $6.00 per month on data services, yielding $4.1 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2006. IDC says messaging constitutes nearly half of U.S. data revenues, with business- and consumer-oriented services and content at 40 percent and content and simple application downloads at 12 percent.

During the quarter in question, Verizon Wireless emerged as the new leader on data spending-per-customer with $7.27 a month, eclipsing longtime metric leader Sprint Nextel’s $7.15 per subscriber. “Among the national carriers, Verizon Wireless is today the overall leader in data services in terms of total wireless data revenue, data percentage of ARPU, and data spending, although Sprint Nextel and the other national carriers continue to lead in select services,” said IDC Wireless and Mobile Communications research analyst Julien Blin in a prepared statement.

IDC reports ringtones remain the most popular premium download among U.S. consumers, with 20 percent of subscribers purchasing at least one ringtone every quarter. “Master track ringtone sales continue to rise in popularity, and more than half of all ringtones sold today are of this variety,” Blin said. “Continued support from leading record labels, media companies, and brands will remain a factor driving future sales. While direct-to-consumer ringtone sales are likely to continue to grow in the next few years, other innovative strategies and technologies such as super-distribution, enhanced mobile search, music recognition and bundles are likely to become important elements in the market.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telegeography writes…Japanese multiple system operator (MSO) Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has reported that the number of subscribing households served by its 24 managed franchises reached 2.62 million at the end of December 2006, up 485,700, or 22.7% on the year earlier. At the same date the MSO had more than 2.19 million taking cable TV services (of which 1.13 million were digital), 1.15 million broadband users, and 1.17 million telephony customers. The company has attributed part of the growth to the addition of its new franchise Cable West Inc, which became a consolidated subsidiary at the end of September last year. Combined revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable television, high speed internet access and telephony services reached 4.52 million, up 22.8% year-on-year, while the bundle ratio (the average number of services received per subscribing household) was unchanged at 1.72.

Wireless Mobile Telecom

Telegeography writes…Nepal Telecom (NT) has announced plans to deploy a further 3.5 million mobile lines in the country by 2010, writes Kantipur Report. The network expansion will help boost combined fixed and mobile teledensity to 16 lines per 100 people, NT says. Sources close to the paper say the operator will soon issue an international tender for the expansion work. ‘The notice will be published in February and we hope to hand over the project to the preferred bidder by the end of 2007,’ a spokesman said.

Wireless Mobile Telecom