Cable & Wireless has announced a five year partnership with Orange to use the mobile network to provide national roaming in the UK for “its new and first to market fixed mobile convergence (FMC) service.” In fact, it is by no means the first enterprise product and will not be available before the end of the year.
Sandra O’Boyle of Current Analysis told telecomseurope.net, “BT has stolen the FMC limelight with Corporate Fusion which relies on WLAN in the office and dual-mode GSM/WiFi phones. C&W needed to come up with its own solution. Its approach is private enterprise mobile network using its guardband licence to provide pico and femto cells in office. Customers can use existing mobile handsets so the whole roaming issue in and out of the office appears to be less of an issue.”
She added, “Key unknowns are prices of these base stations and how attractive the tariffs will be. And seems like it could be fairly easy for any of the other guardband winners to deliver a similar service including BT, COLT and O2, whereas it will be difficult for C&W to deliver outside of the core UK market.”
It’s significant too that although Orange is a strong consumer brand, the FMC service will be for enterprise customers. BT’s long-heralded Fusion for the home was a flop, as was T-Mobile’s German service, T-One. Both were withdrawn last year. O2’s Genion service in Germany, launched in 2005, is perhaps the most notable exception to prove the rule. It was launched in 2005 and as of September last year had 4.15 million customers, according to the operator.
Consumers are more interested in replacing their fixed lines than a combined offer, it seems. A report by Eurostat, the European Commission’s research arm, published last November, revealed that many households are mobile-only either replacing a fixed line or simply not bothering to have one installed, in eastern and central Europe.
Almost half (48%) of Lithuanian households are mobile-only and so are 47% of Finnish, 42% of Czech, 38% of Portuguese, 24% of Belgian homes. France has 14% of mobile-only dwellings, the UK 13% and Germany 11%.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- February 21st, 2008
- 2:17 pm
European carrier Colt Telecom reported fourth-quarter sales of EUR 424.6 million, down 5.5 percent from a year earlier due to cuts in fixed-mobile rates and lower voice revenues. Data revenues rose 10 percent to EUR 220.9 million, while voice revenues fell 18 percent to EUR 203.7 million. EBITDA edged 1.3 percent higher to EUR 71.8 million, and pretax profit grew to EUR 13.5 million from EUR 8.9 million a year earlier. Under its new organisational structure, Colt reported sales from large enterprises up at EUR 174.4 million, while sales from SMEs and wholesale fell versus a year earlier, to EUR 119.3 million and EUR 130.9 million respectively. Wholesale generated the most operating profit, at EUR 10.5 million, while the SME business was loss-making at EUR 1.2 million. After its first full year of profitability in 2007, Colt said it expects “another year of progress” in 2008.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
In a continuing effort to provide the best wireless service for race fans during the NASCAR Monster Weekendraces from June 1-3, Verizon Wireless will beef up its network capacity bydeploying a temporary mobile cell site called a COLT (Cell on Light Truck)
at Dover Downs. The COLT will enhance wireless capacity, allowing more
customers to use their wireless phones concurrently to make calls, send and
receive text and picture messages, and download games and ringtones. The
company reports that during the big race weekend Verizon Wireless’ network
will handle more than five times the normal number of wireless calls
compared to a typical race weekend.
”With more than 140,000 race fans and tailgaters expected throughout
the weekend, along with news media and the pit crews themselves, we
anticipate a significant surge in wireless activity,” said Michele White,
network executive director for Verizon Wireless’ Philadelphia Tri-State
Region. “In these instances, we bring in an additional mobile cell site
that works along with our existing network in the area to handle the
increase in wireless calling.”
Quick Facts on the Verizon Wireless COLT
– The temporary cell site can process thousands of calls every hour.
– The 25,000-pound COLT features two retractable masts, a microwave
antenna to link network components, an emergency power generator and a
small office.
– The COLT is also fully equipped with resources needed during
emergencies including equipment, fuel, electrical generators, food,
water and cots.
The temporary cell site is part of Verizon Wireless’ continuous effort
to increase capacity and enhance the quality of its wireless voice and data
network in the Philadelphia Tri-State Region and across the country.
Verizon Wireless has invested $35 billion over the last seven years — $5
billion on average every year since the company was formed — into its
national wireless network as part of its commitment to offer customers the
most reliable service available, including wireless data services such as
picture messaging, text messaging, and the company’s exclusive V CAST
service. Since 2001, the company has invested more than $900 million in its
Philadelphia Tri-State region, which includes Delaware.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Telent plc (LSE: TLNT), a leading provider of technology services, has recently been awarded a three year contract by COLT to provide field engineers to support its customers’ communication infrastructures.
The contract with COLT, a leading supplier of data, voice and managed services to businesses and governments, will see telent employ engineers from COLT’s existing staff alongside its own field engineers. The combined workforce will plan, install, support and maintain customer communication systems across a multitude of networking platforms including IP, Ethernet and SDH.
The support from telent will enable COLT to provide enhanced speed of installation, the application of industry best practice and out-of-hours service delivery. With one of the UK’s largest field forces available to the COLT field engineering team, the company can now offer total reach across the UK on a 24/7 basis. telent’s Network Support Centre will play an integral role by handling calls and despatching engineers to any fault, anywhere in the country.
“COLT has a reputation for providing its customers with a secure and reliable network and required a service provider that could offer the same quality of service; telent’s quality processes and ability to scale its services convinced us that they were the partner of choice,” explains Adrian Thirkill, Director of Operations at COLT. “The skills base formed by combining COLT’s employees with telent’s field force has created a unique platform for delivering a high level of service with the added advantage of extra scalability, which will support COLT’s ongoing business plans.”
Mark Plato, CEO at telent, comments, “This contract win is a significant achievement for telent and is testament to our ability to provide complete network lifecycle support. telent has established itself as an expert in providing telecommunications support right from the initial planning stages through to maintenance and support. We are looking forward to working closely with COLT and playing an essential part in COLT’s future growth.”
About telent plc:
telent plc supplies a broad range of communications support services to telecommunications operators, as well as to large enterprises and government agencies in the UK and Germany, leveraging its accumulated knowledge of customers’ networks, its expert field force, its scale and reputation for quality.
The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TLNT
About COLT S.A.
COLT is a leading European provider of business communications. COLT specialises in providing data, voice and managed services to midsize and major businesses and wholesale customers. It has more than 50,000 customers across all industry sectors. COLT owns and operates a 13-country, 20,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 32 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 10,000 buildings and 15 COLT data centres.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
C&W looks to a brighter future with Orange
