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Wireless Federation » archive for 'C&W'

C&W discloses brand name ‘Lime’ for Caribbean operations

  • November 4th, 2008
  • 10:42 am

Cable & Wireless, one of the world’s leading international communication companies has revealed the new brand name Lime for its operations in the Caribbean. The name itself comprises of what the company offers, Landline, Internet, Mobile and Entertainment services, as well as representing “a change in the way they do business”, C&W said. They are soon going to launch a “manifesto for change”, which details its commitments to the region and outlines some of the initiatives the company will implement to create a better place.

Digicel wins third GSM licence in BVI (British Virgin Islands)

  • December 19th, 2007
  • 7:20 am

The Caribbean wireless operator Digicel has won a licence to offer GSM mobile services in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The firm says it has earmarked USD15 million as an initial investment into what will be its 24th market, and it plans to deploy a network with 100% population coverage. Digicel joins the two existing cellular operators in BVI: CCT Global and Cable & Wireless (C&W) subsidiary bMobile; C&W retains a monopoly in the fixed line sector.

   

Vodafone UK awards C&W two-year GBP40 million deal (UK)

  • August 30th, 2007
  • 3:33 pm

In a two-year agreement worth GBP40 million (USD80 million), Cable & Wireless (C&W) will provide Vodafone UK with a range of professional and IP network services that will work toward aligning both of the companies’ next generation network strategies. C&W has provided a range of voice and data services to Vodafone for nearly 20 years, and is its preferred connectivity partner for its enterprise customers.

David Shaw, Chief Commercial Officer of Cable & Wireless Europe, Asia and US, said: ‘Our strategy is to focus on the largest users of telecoms and to deliver them what they want, when they want it and with an unparalleled customer experience. As such, we’re thrilled to be given the opportunity to partner with Vodafone UK - it’s doing great things at the moment and we’re looking forward to showing them what we can do.’

   
 

 

 

 

Freewire to extend off-campus using C&W network (UK)

  • July 10th, 2007
  • 11:39 am

Cable & Wireless (C&W) has signed a 5-year GBP 70 million contract with UK IPTV service Freewire to provide the Freewire TV services to all inhabitants in the UK. C&W will also supply Freewire TV to other broadband operators using its network. Cable & Wireless signed the contract with Inuk Networks, the parent of Freewire. Currently, Inuk offers triple-play services to UK students in collaboration with JANET, the university backbone network. To date, over forty universities representing over 100,000 student rooms, have signed up to the Freewire service. Using Cable & Wireless’ nationwide multicast network, Freewire will be able to extend its proposition beyond the current user base of students in university accommodation and into the homes across the UK from March 2008.

   

Digicel disputes C&W market share claims

  • June 2nd, 2007
  • 6:47 am

Jamaica-based holding company Digicel has called on its main rival Cable & Wireless (C&W) to back up claims that it is close to being the number one operator by subscribers in the islands of Grenada and St Vincent & the Grenadines. CEO Colm Delves said that Digicel’s numbers and that of third parties refute the claim by C&W that it leads the market in Grenada and is only one market share percentage point behind Digicel in St Vincent & the Grenadines. Digicel told BNamericas that it leads C&W by 21% in Grenada with a 60.5% market share compared to 39.5% for C&W, while in St Vincent & the Grenadines Digicel believes it has a 63% market share compared to C&W’s 37%.

   

C&W reports revenues of GBP 3.35 bln, 5 mln mobile users

  • May 24th, 2007
  • 10:37 am

UK-based telecommunications operator Cable & Wireless (C&W) reports GPB 118 million more revenues for its financial year ending 31 March 2007 to reach GBP 3.35 billion. The increase principally reflects the full year impact of the revenue from customers acquired as part of the Energis transaction on 11 November 2005. This has more than offset the impact of the anticipated churn and erosion Europe, Asia & US encountered in subsequently restructuring the business to focus on larger, more profitable customers. The EBITDA for 2006/7 increased by 20 percent (26% at constant currency) to GBP 492 million, compared with 2005/6 and the net profit decreased from GBP 170 million in 2005/6 to GBP 152 million in 2006/7. C&W proposes a full year dividend of GBP 5.85 per share, which represents an increase of 30 percent over the 2005/06 full year dividend. C&W’s International business saw its mobile customer base increase by 44 percent to more than five million on 31 March with the C&W subsidiaries being responsible for 2.6 million mobile customers, 49 percent more than on 31 March 2006. The number of broadband customers increased by 39 percent to over 400,000 customers in 2006/07 and the subsidiaries saw their broadbandbase grow 37 percent to 378,000 customers. This was primarily driven by strong growth across the Caribbean. The number of fixed line customers remained steady over the 12 month period to 31 March 2007 at approximately 1.9 million customers. C&W Europe, Asia, and US saw that its programme to reduce the number of customers is progressing well and reports less than 10,000 customers. The operator expects to reduce the overall number of customers to about 3,000, comprisinglarge corporates, carriers, resellers and public institutions.

   

C&W denies plans to cleave business in two

  • May 2nd, 2007
  • 7:26 am

Telegeography writes…Cable & Wireless (C&W) has said it will maintain its current strategy and does not have any immediate plans to split into two. ‘Any discussion of spinning off our businesses is premature,’ the Bracknell-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Shares in C&W rose after the company said it is focused on building its UK and international units and the strategy is `progressing well.’ British Sunday newspaper The Observer had reported that Cable & Wireless may split itself into British and international units and sell them to private-equity groups or competitors. `We are in the early stages in terms of both businesses and there is more work to do,’ the company said in the statement. Chairman Richard Lapthorne and managers John Pluthero and Harris Jones were reported to be in favour of a sp .

   

 

Carriers Slam Ofcom’s Mobile Price Cuts

  • March 28th, 2007
  • 3:25 pm

Cbronline writes…Two of the UK’s largest fixed-line carriers have slammed new controls governing the cost of making a fixed-line call to a mobile phone, after the UK regulator Ofcom instructed mobile operators to cut connection fees.
The current controls governing the cost of making a fixed-line call to a mobile phone were set to expire at the end of this month. Following a two-year review, Ofcom on Tuesday set new charge controls that limit the amount mobile operators are able to charge other telephone companies for connecting calls to their networks.
Ofcom said that it expects this to result in significant savings for consumers over the four-year period that the controls will apply. It expects an average annual reduction in wholesale charges of 400m pounds ($786m) to 500m pounds ($983m) over four years; savings which Ofcom “expects to be passed through to retail customers.”

The new mobile voice call termination charge controls will now apply equally to 2G as well as 3G mobile operators in the UK, meaning that Hutchison 3G (3) will join Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 in being subject to the new rates.

Ofcom decided to reduce the level of average wholesale charges across the board. Lowly fifth-placed operator 3 is subject to charge controls of 5.9 pence ($11.60) per minute (ppm), a reduction of around 45% from current charges.

Meanwhile, the average wholesale charges of the big four (Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile) will be reduced to 5.1 ppm ($10.02) in current prices. Ofcom said that for Orange and T-Mobile, this represents a reduction of around 20%; and for Vodafone and O2 a reduction of around 10%.

However, in a rare case of mutual agreement, two of the UK’s largest fixed-line carriers have slammed the new rates.

“Ofcom’s rates are overly generous to the mobile operators,” said Jim Marsh, CEO of Cable & Wireless Plc in a statement. “Fixed network customers will bear the brunt by paying above the odds for calling mobile users — money which the mobile operators will use to subsidise the retail tariffs they offer to their own customers.”

“To be clear, we’re talking around 1.5bn pounds ($2.95bn) over the next four years… that’s not small beer,” he added. C&W said it was working through the detail of Ofcom’s reasoning before deciding what action to take.

 

 

Deutsche Telekom to make play for C&W?

  • February 9th, 2007
  • 3:11 pm

Telegeography writes…Reuters is reporting that shares in Cable & Wireless jumped 4% yesterday on speculation that Deutsche Telekom might be interested in making a bid. While both companies refused to comment on the rumours, city analysts have been considering the possible benefits of such a deal, with the general opinion appearing to be that the pair would be a good fit.