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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Norway'

Batelco gives it’s subscribers, ‘Batelco World Freedom’ (Bahrain)

  • September 26th, 2008
  • 5:26 am

Batelco (Bahrain Telecommunications Company) introduces a new service for it’s subscribers, ‘Batelco World Freedom’. This new service will allow it’s subscribers to recieve free incoming calls from across the world in 21 nations. Subscribers who roam in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Norway, Luxemburg, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Mozambique, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia will be able to use the service.

   

Vyke condemns mobile operator’s EU protests (Norway)

  • September 17th, 2008
  • 8:56 am

Vyke warned telecoms operators for opposing the European Commission’s proposal to cap mobile data roaming rates. According to GSMA report, the VoIP services provider claimed that the rising uptake of mobile data services was boosted by a 25% fall in roaming rates in the year to April 2008. Aaron Powers, head of business development at Vyke, when you look at it, a small reduction in roaming rates has led to operators making a lot more money off data by volume of usage. Yet all of a sudden there’s uproar when the EU tries to set a cap - mobile providers have taken a head in the sand point of view, he said. European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding is set to recommend restrictions on data roaming fees this autumn. She intends to impose caps on SMS roaming charges and mobile termination rates, proposals which have drawn widespread criticism from a number of European telcos.

Norway’s Telenor is open to enter into India’s mobile market

  • September 4th, 2008
  • 12:14 pm

According to a media report, Norway’s Telenor is open to entry into India’s growing mobile market, a move which would crown its Asia-focused investment strategy. It is considered to be a potential move into India, report said. Anayst believes, Unlike many of its markets which have already matured, India remains a fast-growth hub with huge potential.

Telenor spokesman, Dag Melgaard said that concerning India, we can say that we are constantly moving around in the world assessing possibilities. (And) we have recently been in India. We have previously also stated that India was too big (for Telenor), as we have said about China, but that doesn’t stop us from assessing such possibilities, Melgaard added. With more than 150 million mobile clients worldwide, Telenor said After Vodafone, it is the second biggest non-Asian operator in Asia.

Telenor’s network collapses during excavation (Norway)

  • August 27th, 2008
  • 7:51 am

A fibre optic cable was cut during excavation in Oslo that had created a serious problem as people were not able to contact the central emergency no. using their mobile phones. Telenor Information Director Atle Lessum says this just should not happen. We must now find out why our back-up systems did not function.

Norway to have 121% mobile penetration by 2010 (Norway)

  • August 19th, 2008
  • 11:19 am

Norway’s mobile market is a duopoly between the network operators Telenor Mobile and TeliaSonera’s NetCom, supplemented by a small number of MVNOs. Although mobile penetration reached 111% by mid-2007, annual growth rate remains among the highest in Europe. Both Telenor and NetCom offer GSM 900/1800 networked services and 3G services, while new providers include the 3G licensee Mobile Norway which expected to launch commercial services in 2009, and Nordisk Mobiltelefon, operating a CDMA450 network.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Norway Mobile Forecast include:

  • The number of total subscribers in Norway will increase from 5.5 million in 2008 to 5.8 million in 2010. The wireless penetration level will reach 121% in 2010.
  • It is forecasted a change in the market shares of the two operators in Norway - Telenor Mobil and Netcom. It is predicted that Telenor Mobil’s market share will decrease from 57% to 54.5% while Netcom’s market share increases from 43% to 44.7% during the forecast period, 2008 - 2010.
  • The pure duopoly of Telenor Mobil and Netcom will continue to allow for the high levels of ARPU in Norway. In 2010, the average ARPU in Norway is expected to be US$ 62 per month.
  • It is forecasted that both Telenor Mobil and Netcom will have similar EBITDA margins at around 33.6% in 2010.

Telenor concur mobile internet services deal with Nokia (Norway)

  • July 4th, 2008
  • 1:46 pm

Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor ASA said it has agreed a co-operation deal with Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia Oyj intent at accelerating the adoption of new internet services on Nokia’s Ovi services platform.

The Norwegian firm said, ‘The Telenor and Ovi services will be offered to Telenor customers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark as well as in Hungary.

As part of the agreement, Telenor said specific Nokia devices are to be customised to provide access to both company’s mobile services, including Nokia Maps, N-Gage and Telenor Music Store.

Telenor said, The services will be launched during the second half of 2008.

   

 

 

Telenor asks US court to block Alfa lawsuit (Norway)

  • June 24th, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

Norwegian telecom group Telenor asked a US federal court to halt a lawsuit brought against it in Russia by a company controlled by Russia’s Alfa Group.

A Reuters report said the multi-billion lawsuit was filed in a Siberian court by Farimex Products, a fellow shareholder in Russian mobile operator Vimpelcom. Telenor has called it groundless and asked the US Federal District Court in New York to block it.

“Farimex is controlled by Alfa and its claim is just another one of Alfa’s collusive lawsuits,” Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said, quoted by the Reuters report.

British Virgin Islands-based Farimex claims Telenor harmed Vimpelcom by preventing it from purchasing Ukrainian mobile group Kyivstar and delaying Vimpelcom’s purchase of Ukrainian Radio Systems.

   

Kyivstar completes traffic capacity upgrade

  • May 28th, 2008
  • 2:41 pm

Ukraine’s largest cellco by subscribers Kyivstar has completed an upgrade of its nationwide network using DWDM technology , giving it an eight-fold increase in maximum traffic capacity to 320Gbps, the company said in a press release.The project, which took two years, allows Kyivstar to serve four million mobile users simultaneously within two network units, whilst protecting mobile traffic from malfunction, according to the operator. Kyivstar, majority-owned by Norway’s Telenor, had 23.69 million GSM subscribers at the end of March, up by 7.9% year-on-year, giving it a 46.3% market share.

   

 

 

 

TeliaSonera to offer iPhone in Scandinavia and Baltics

  • May 28th, 2008
  • 2:17 pm

TeliaSonera signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

No other information was provided.

TeliaSonera provides telecom services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey.

   
 

Telenor sued……. again

  • April 19th, 2008
  • 9:20 am

Norwegian telecoms group Telenor’s Russian unit is being sued for USD3.8 billion in a Siberian court by a minority shareholder in Russian mobile network operator Vimpelcom. It follows a nearly identical claim for USD1 billion made by Eco Telecom, part of Russia’s Alfa Group, in March. A Telenor news release said ‘The lawsuit’s claims against Telenor are that Telenor harmed Vimpelcom by preventing Vimpelcom from purchasing [Ukranian mobile operator] Kyivstar and delaying Vimpelcom’s purchase of [another GSM operator] Ukrainian Radio Systems’. The latest suit was filed by Farimex Products, a British Virgin Islands company, but court records did not reveal who owns the company. Farimex only owns shares worth USD800,000 making it hard to see how it can justify claiming USD3.8 billion in damages.

In August 2007 Telenor won an arbitration case in a New York court, which ordered Alfa Group to either sell its 43.5% share in Kyivstar or reduce stakes in certain other competing operators. Alfa chose to comply with the latter option by reducing its minority stake in Turkey’s Turkcell (the majority owner of Ukrainian cellco Astelit), and agreeing to sell its entire stake in WiMAX operator Ukrainian High Technologies (aka Alternet). Telenor owns 56.5% of Kyivstar, and holds 33.6% of the common stock of Vimpelcom, which is 37% owned by Alfa through its telecoms arm Altimo.