Wireless Federation

Nokia Siemens Networks wins the contract to expand Teletalk Bangladesh’s GSM network. The main region where the expansion will take place is Dhaka, with no financial details being disclosed.

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Optus Australia has announced it’s coverage for 3G which has reached 85% of the total population.

“We are very pleased to announce we hit 85 per cent in terms of 3G availability across the country,” said Maha Krishnapillai, director of government and corporate affairs.

Last year January, the mobile operator was expanding it’s network to 96% of population by using a combo of 900MHz and 2,100MHz frequencies, which will cost an estimate of $500 million if the network were entirely rolled out at 2,100MHz.

In December it was confirmed, that the firm will use both frequencies, setting the cost at $500 million and appointing vendors as Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks for the roll-out.

In May this year, the operator has decided to go a step ahead, by investing an additional $315 million which in turn will allow the network to reach 98% of the population when completed, instead of the planned 96%. The deadline for completion has been moved to December 2009.

“For the first time we believe that we will be going head to head with Telstra,” Krishnapillai said of the coverage increase.

Optus will be having an upper hand over its key rival, as the population density in certain areas has changed since Telstra laid its network. “We have the luxury of putting our network in those places where the population centres are in 2008,” Krishnapillai said.

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MTC, Namibia’s largest cellco, has invested nearly USD40 million (NAD300 million) in its network infrastructure in the year to date, in projects including raising SMS capacity, the deployment of a transmission backbone across several areas of the country and the replacement of central switching equipment with next generation architecture.

The company’s fibre-optic transmission network was extended in areas including the capital Windhoek, coastal regions and in the north, ending MTC’s long-standing reliance on renting backbone capacity from Telecom Namibia. The fibre project was implemented by Nera and Ericsson at a cost of NAD76 million this year. MTC also upgraded its radio access network and wireless broadband service capabilities, in partnership with Nokia Siemens Network and Motorola, at a cost of NAD88 million. MTC’s investments over the last 13 years total NAD1.6 billion.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Nokia encountered a slowdown in sales growth in the second quarter, yet remained upbeat on the industry outlook for the year,predicting a rise in the mobile phone sales. The Finnish company, reported a 4% rise in the sales from a year earlier to US$ 20.84billion (EUR 13.15 billion). Due to restructuring charges of US$ 728.9million (EUR 460 million), the operating profit fell 39 % to US$ 2.33billion (EUR 1.47 billion). Excluding one-time items, operating profit was still up 39 percent to US$ 3.05billion
(EUR 1.934 billion).

Sales at the Devices & Services division came down to US$ 14.42billion (EUR 9.1 billion), a fall of 1%, as strong growth in emerging markets Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa was offset by a drop in revenues from Europe, North America and Greater China. Operating profit fell 12 percent to US$ 2.53billion (EUR 1.6 billion), including a charge of US$ 410.54billion (EUR 259 million) for shutting its site in Bochum, Germany. The company sold 122 million phones in the quarter, up 21 percent year-on-year and up 6 percent from Q1. However, average selling prices fell sharply, to US$ 117.32(EUR 74) from US$ 142.71(EUR 90) a year ago, due to a greater share of low-price phones sold in emerging markets and the weak dollar versus the euro. Nokia said its “optimistic” about the rest of the year amid positive feedback on upcoming new phones. The company increased its outlook for the industry, saying it now expects market growth of 10 percent or more in device shipments this year, versus a previous estimate of just 10 percent growth. In the second quarter, the market grew an estimated 15 percent year-on-year and 3 percent from Q1, to 303 million units, and Nokia expects further sequential growth in Q3.

Nokia Siemens Networks reported second-quarter sales up 18 percent from a year earlier to US$ 6.5billion (EUR 4.1 billion), led by Latin America, the Middle East & Africa and Greater China. The company generated an operating loss of US$ 74.45million (EUR 47 million), including US$ 318.78million (EUR 201 million) in restructuring charges. Including another US$ 190.3million (EUR 120 million) in charges related to the company’s set-up, the group had a positive operating margin of 6.7 percent. Nokia Siemens Networks continues to expect the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market to be flat in euro terms in 2008.

Nokia Siemens Networks Friday announced a collaboration with ThomsonFemto cells are small cellular access points which provide enhanced coverage specifically in residential environments and enable operators to provide fixed-mobile convergence services and others such as IPTV.

The company said Thomson’s femto cell-enabled residential gateway coupled with the 3G Femto Home Access network solution from Nokia Siemens Networks - incorporating the new network element, the Femto Gateway, launched earlier this week - will allow operators to seamlessly deliver 3G multimedia services such as music downloads and video available in the home on any WCDMA 3G handset.

Trials of the 3G Femto Home Access solution including Thomson’s residential gateway will start at the beginning of 2008, and commercial deployments are planned for the third quarter of 2008.

 To develop a 3G femto cell home access solution.

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A new regulatory framework is needed to encourage financial transactions via mobile phones and transform access to financial services in developing countries. The Transformational Potential of M-Transactions, was published today by Vodafone in partnership with Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks.

 Vodafone’s sixth policy paper, of which three focus on the social impact of mobile phones, gives details of new, allegedly independent research by economists from Frontier Economics, Groupe d’Economie Mondiale and some consultants from the World Bank.

Lack of access to banking services forces people to rely on a cash-based economy with little security, a more casual informal labour market and a lower tax base for governments.And financial services are critical for economic development and inclusive financial services for the those without access to a bank are essential to in the fight against poverty.

Over the last two years, pilot programmes in Africa and Asia have highlighted the potential for mobile phones to deliver basic financial services. Its shows how these services provide the first real opportunity for many poorer people to get on to a formal “banking ladder” with benefits including reduced threat of crime, saving time and secure savings.

The sponsors recommend the following:

• new regulation is needed concerning deposits to be less bank-centric and allow m-transactions operators to enter the market;

• as new entrants, m-transactions operators must have access to clearing systems;

• ‘Know your customer’ and anti-money laundering rules need to be adapted to conditions in developing markets where formal documentation and access to photocopiers is limited. The customer data held by mobile operators could, with appropriate safeguards, offer an alternative to existing forms of regulation;

• interoperability of m-transactions schemes must be carefully considered to enable operators to benefit from network effects, but ensure that the intensity of competition in new markets and need for innovation is not stifled.

• the development of m-transactions is also expected to introduce significant improvements in financial services, such as easier and cheaper international payments especially for remittances home, or reduced risk in domestic payments by near real-time transfers.

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