Wireless Federation

AT&T tries to capture Sprint Nextel’s iDEN customers as it launches a rugged push-to-talk handset from Samsung that features a video sharing capability. The handset, called the Rugby is going to operate on AT&T’s HSPA network and the clamshell phone is military-grade in terms of its ability to withstand the elements.
Sprint Nextel has constantly been loosing its iDEN push-to-talk customers to other operators.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

According to a media report, Sprint Nextel is considering a sale of the Nextel wireless network it bought in 2005, but may have trouble finding a buyer for an asset whose value has plunged about 80% to an estimated $5 billion. Analysts said that aside from having to compete with newer network standards than iDen, which has a walkie-talkie feature, any buyer would find it tough to reverse the now-completed integration of the iDen business, including its billing, broadcast towers and customer service.

“They spent the last few years trying to integrate it. There are a lot of questions that a buyer and the government would have to have.” said analyst as quoted by the report. U.S. Federal Communications Commission is already pressuring Sprint to relinquish a key chunk of iDen wireless airwaves for emergency communications networks. Also iDen technology, developed by Motorola, was being left behind by newer mobile services with broadband web links, analyst said. Sprint said in a regulatory filing this week that it was exploring alternatives for iDen that include “improving operations, making additional investments, entering into strategic partnerships and considering potential divestitures.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Argentina’s mobile market is the third largest in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico and in terms of penetration, Argentina is the regional leader. The telecom sector has been growing rapidly, with a penetration of 75% mobile telephony. The three operators, Movistar, Claro, and Telecom Personal, run a close competition for market share. Besides the three main cellular providers, Nextel operates an iDEN network with a small but profitable slice of the market. GSM is the main technology in Argentina, with TDMA and CDMA slated to disappear after June 2008.
All three companies launched 3G services over HSDPA networks in 2007. Approximately 136,000 subscribers use 3G services in Argentina.

Country                       No. of 3G Users
Telecom Personal             75,000
Claro                              50,500
Movistar                         10,500

*Total subscribers in Argentina will increase from 38.03 million in 2007 to 44 million in 2010.
* The two largest operators - Movistar Argentina and CTI - will continue to have very similar market shares (by subscribers). It is forecasted that Movistar will increase its current market share from a projected 35.6% in 2007 to 36.8% in 2010 while CTI’s market share will drop slightly to 32.8% in 2010.
* Telecom Argentina will continue to suffer from the highest churn rate in the country at 3% monthly churn rate from 2007 to 2010.
*It is forecasted that Movistar Argentina will have the lowest EBITDA margin of 30.4% in 2010 in Argentina. On the other hand, Telecom Argentina, CTI, and Nextel will enjoy higher EBITDA margins at around 35% - 40% in 2010.
*In 2010 Nextel, will provide services to 2.9% of total subscribers, will receive the highest ARPU of $48.2 per month. It is noted that this is 3 times higher than the closest competitor, Telecom Argentina.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Sprint Nextel has sold it’s 3,300 mobile towers to infrastructure operator TowerCo for USD 670million, which are concentrated in large metropolitian markets throughout the US. The sale will help Nextel focus more on it’s core communications services business while also increasing its liquidity.

Sprint will lease back the towers for use in its CDMA, iDEN and WiMAX networks.