UK leading mobile operator Orange calls off the shipment of RIM’s BlackBerry Bold as the operator reports software glitches. According to a website, the operator is waiting for the fixing of the glitch before it brings the phone to it’s subscribers. Additionally, the UK based operator’s website read, BlackBerry Bold 9000 as “out of stock.”
The statements coming from both the carrier Orange and the mobile phone maker RIM did not reveal the suspension of the sales, but agreed on the working out a solution for the glitches.
“Although the reported 3G concerns have been limited to a minority of Orange customers in the U.K., Orange UK and RIM both take customer concerns very seriously and felt it was prudent to introduce a maintenance release of software for Orange UK customers at this time,” they said in a statement.
“Orange UK and RIM apologize to customers for any inconvenience and expect to provide a software maintenance release soon,” they added.
Wireless Federation » archive for 'Orange UK'
Orange suspends shipment of BlackBerry Bold due to software glitches (UK)
- October 13th, 2008
- 7:30 am
France Telecom shifts it’s focus back on Africa (France)
- September 16th, 2008
- 7:20 am
According to France Telecom’s chief executive Didier Lombard, FT is planning to shift it’s focus back on Africa, by making acquisitons in Anglophone countries.
The French group now plans to return to its strategy of small deals in high-growth emerging markets.
The telco according to Mr. Lombard, will largely remain unaffected by the economic slowdown, and suggests it could increase its payout to shareholders.
The cashflow generated in 2008 seems to be “a little bit better” than the predicted €7.8bn ($11.07bn). FT is also looking forward to raise the free cashflow ratioreturned to the investors above the targeted 45%, still a hint.
France Telecom, for the first time in history, paid out an interim dividend to shareholders last week, and Mr Lombard said: “It’s a kind of friendly attitude towards our investors and I am sure that the board will want to continue in the same way.”
France Telecom which operates in 13 African countries, mostly the western parts of the continent, last year made an important and significant acquisition by purchasing a controlling stake in Telkom Kenya, Kenya’s leading telecoms company, for $390m.
“Now we are looking at all the African territories and probably we will discover that we continue in the same direction,” said Mr Lombard.
There are no specific targets. France Telecom faces stiff competition in Africa from MTN and Vodafone. Mr Lombard denies the acquisitions of a leading African mobile operator, such as MTN or Orascom of Egypt, “because the value is already in the price”.
France Telecom’s focus will be on building new infrastructure and offering new services as it did in Niger. “It’s a very profitable situation, but we created value ourselves, We are not a bank, We are a telco.”
The telco rules out the sale of Orange UK’s underperforming fixed-line broadband business, as t is important to retain it if France Telecom were to compete against BT in providing telecoms services to companies.
Orange UK launches a new MVNO, Globalcell, targets Eastern Europeans in UK (UK)
- September 9th, 2008
- 5:40 am
The Orange UK launches a MVNO, Globalcell, a service for the Eastern Europeans living in the UK. The following service will be offering SIM-only prepaid services bundled with all customer services conducted in the subscribers’ native language. Initially, the list of languages that Orange UK will support includes Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, Slovak and English.
According to Orange UK’s VP of New Business, Wholesale & Strategy, the concept is revolutionary and partnering with exciting MVNO’s such as GlobalCell not only demonstrates the telco’s desire to become the network partner of choice for new and existing MVNOs but also extends the Orange reach to much broader segments of the market.
With the launch of Globalcell, Orange UK’s MVNO will have a subscriber base of more than 2.5 million. The combined total of Orange UK’s postpaid and MVNO subscribers is now 18.5 million as of August 2008.
Orange UK to upgrade 3G network (UK)
- August 5th, 2008
- 1:36 pm
Orange UK has reportedly announced of upgrading its 3G network infrastructure across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North-East of England, which will allow for a more reliable combined voice and data services and a 99% call set-up success rate. Orange will also come up with a faster alternative of HSPDA which will enable support for mobile broadband, targeting a speed of 7.2Mbps. Its agenda also includes expanded coverage across UK, and adding of 450 new 2G and 3G sites over the next twelve months.
