Etisalat, better known as Mobily brings all new competitive rate cuts for it’s subscribers. According to the new plan, subscribers will recieve a 60% discount the third minute onwards, whether they are calling subscribers on Al Jawal, Zain or Al Hatef, making the tariff on that minute onwards a competitive 12 halala per minute.
For the subscribers calling abroad can also enjoy the same 60% discount, whether it on regular international numbers they dial or favorite international numbers.
Wireless Federation » archive for September, 2008
Eitsalat poses competitive rate cuts (UAE)
- September 30th, 2008
- 7:09 am
Nick Reads calls it quits as the CEO of Vodafone UK, replaced by Guy Laurence (UK)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:55 am
Nick Reads, leaves his role as Vodafone UK’s CEO. He will be replaced by Vodafone Netherlands present CEO Guy Laurence.
Read has been appointed as CEO of the Asia-Pacific & Middle East Region, which will comprise Vodafone’s interests in Australia, China, Egypt, Fiji, India, New Zealand and Qatar.
Laurence has been a pat of Vodafone group since 2000 and has had a number of senior roles including CEO of Vizzavi, Vodafone’s original mobile internet venture, and Global Consumer Marketing Director before moving to Vodafone Netherlands.
BH Telecom, HT Mostar and Telkom Srpske all geared up to launch 3G services (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:43 am
BH Telecom, HT Mostar and Telkom Srpske are all set introduce their 3G services in the country. The commercial service is likely to be launched at the end of this year by BH Telecom.
According to the regulations issued by the Council of Ministers in May 2008 operators that have been awared UMTS licences will need to provide coverage to 30% of the population in the first year of operation, rising to 50% by the end of the second year.
So the services will at the very beginning be available in major urban areas.
Sale of Wind and 3Italia’s Eiffel tower fails (Italy)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:38 am
Wind and 3 Italia, fail to sell the jointly owned mobile tower network, Eiffel, valued at EUR1.5 billion (USD2.2 billion), to Digital Multimedia Technologies (DMT).
A DMT statement said, ‘DMT informs that the project of combination of the tower business of Wind Telecommunicazioni SpA and H3G SpA is definitively over.’
Yoigo launches a new price plan of EUR0.08 a minute (Spain)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:09 am
Yoigo, a unit of TeliaSonera in Spain, has launched an all new price plan to grow it’s market share. The a EUR0.08 a minute price plan for calls in Spain, will be available to it’s subscribers from today.
According to Yoigo’s Chief Executive Johan Andsjo, in the new price plan, every call will have a connection charge of EUR0.15, and text messages will cost EUR0.08.
Whereas, Yoigo’s biggest competitors, Telefonica and Orange, which charge somewhere between EUR0.12 and EUR0.19 a minute depending on the call plan for cellular calls in Spain.
BlackBerry Bold in Japan soon (Japan)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:08 am
In July 2009, NTT Docomo will launch BlackBerry Bold smartphone in Japan in Partnership with Research In Motion (RIM)
Features:
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
- 2 megapixel camera with flash,
- 1 GB of internal memory (expandable with SD/SDHC cards),
- A screen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution
- Built-in GPS receiver
- BlackBerry Maps
- 624 MHz multitasking processor
- HSDPA connection
Price tag is not yet disclosed it will be showcased at Ceatec Japan 2008 between 30 September and 4 October.
Megafon posts a net income of USD405 million in Q2′08 (Russia)
- September 30th, 2008
- 6:00 am
Megafon, one of Russia’s three largest mobile operators, posts the net income of RUB10.1 billion (USD405 million) in Q2′08, a rise of 22.1% year-on-year. Revenues rose 23.8% to RUB42.4 billion, while EBITDA was up 13.6% at RUB20.5 billion.
According to CEO Sergei Soldatenkov said: ‘MegaFon continues to show strong growth, mainly through strong increases in our subscriber base.’ He added: ‘We continue to move towards our goal: to become the largest Russian cellular operator in terms of revenues.’
Megafon had 38.9 million subscribers at the end of June with a market share of 22.4%.
FCC positive about approving the Verizon-Alltel deal by year-end (USA)
- September 30th, 2008
- 5:48 am
FCC, the US telecom regulator, said it will be completing the review of two major telcos tie-ups before before year end. FCC, is presently, studying Verizon’s proposed USD28 billion acquisition of Alltel and is also looking at the planned WiMAX joint venture between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. If it recives the approval, the Verizon-Alltel deal will create the nation’s largest cellular operator, with nearly 82 million subscribers by June-end.
On the other hand, print and Clearwire are deploying separate mobile WiMAX networks in major cities but plan to create an umbrella company which will be able to provide a nationwide wireless broadband service.
European Commission drafts a new proposal, plans further tariff cut for EU states
- September 29th, 2008
- 7:56 am
The European Commission drafts a new propasal which shows further cost reduction in roaming charges among the EU states. According to the proposal, the cost of sending a text message in another country will drop from an average of 28 euro cents to 11 euro cents.
The draft also introduces a new price cap of 1 euro per megabyte for roamed data such as checking emails or downloading a song using a mobile phone or laptop, which costs 3-4 euros presently. Subscribers have the freedom to pecify in advance how high their data roaming bill can go before the service is cut off. It also proposes the extension of price caps on roamed voice calls, due to expire in 2010.
The cost of making a roamed call was capped at 43 euro cents a minute on 30 Aug and is due to fall further in a year’s time. The proposal foresees the cost of making a roamed call falling to 34 euro cents and to 10 euro cents for receiving a call by 1 July 2012.
“Using your mobile phone abroad in the EU should not cost unjustifiably more than at home, whether for making calls, sending texts or surfing the web,” says EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.
The GSM Association, which has member operators like Telefonica, Orange and Vodafone, claims voice mobile phone usage has risen by 11% and revenues have fallen by 26% since roaming caps were introduced in 2007.
“The overall concern of the industry is that it’s a continuation of politically motivated regulation and it’s micro regulation,” saysTom Phillips, the lobby group’s head of public policy.
The GSM Association claims the data roaming market is too niche to be regulated and that introducing caps could do more harm than good. It estimated that all forms of roaming make up 10% to 15% of a mobile operator’s revenues.
Govt. plans to offer 200 mln rural telecom connections by 2012 to shun off the urban-rural disparity (India)
- September 29th, 2008
- 6:59 am
Indian Governmnet is now focusing to bridge the gap between the urban and rural areas in terms of telecom connectivity, they are intending at offering 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012. According to Communications and IT Minister A. Raja, We plan to have 200 million rural telecom connections by 2012 at a penetration rate of 25% and will utilize the USO (universal service obligation) fund for the achievement of this goal. Considering the current data, there are about 88 million phones provided in the rural areas with a tele-density of around 11%.
