Wireless Federation

People Telecom has struck a deal with Telstra for the resale of mobile GSM services, in order to establish itself as a network-neutral telco.

People Telecom is planning to expand it’s mobile phone business and resell mobile services from all major carriers in an effort to boost margins after struggling to return an operating profit in its latest financial results.

“Our new arrangements with Telstra wholesale, combined with improved internal efficiencies, are already underpinning improved operating margins for the People Telecom business,” says People Telecom chief executive officer John Stanton.

He also added that the new deal will help acceletate the telco’s move to operate as a multi-network MVNO, enabling it to offer services on all the major mobile networks in Australia.

“The agreement with Telstra will significantly expand the scope and flexibility of our current mobile offerings,” Mr Stanton said.

The following GSm agreement is an addition to a $200 million network services contract that People Telecom had signed with Telstra’s wholesale division in February’08.

The new Telstra-supplied People Telecom mobile plans launch is due this week.

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Australia based People Telecom has announced of it’s reselling of the mobile network services to from mobile carrier Vodafone.
People Telecom has signed a three-year agreement with Vodafone Australia for the supply of mobile voice and data services to become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
“We have been successfully providing Blackberry services in collaboration with Vodafone for the past two years and we have seen significant customer demand for an expanded range of products delivered on the Vodafone network,” Stanton said.
The agreement will also allow People Telecom to broker its own wholesale agreements for Vodafone mobile services direct to ISPs and local “tier-three” carriers.
According to Vodafone Australia CMO John Casey the terms of the agreement will allow People Telecom to deliver more value to personal and business subscribers.

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According to a report, People Telecom plans to start reselling incumbent operator Telstra’s ADSL2+ broadband service, making it the first Australian altnet to do so. At the moment, rivals like iiNet and Optus are pushing ahead with their own ADSL2+ deployments up till now Telstra has defied efforts to offer a wholesale ADSL2+ service.
In recent months there is a drastic change in market where formal monopoly seems to have changed its mind.  Telstra reports the largest ADSL2+ network in the country with some 900 exchanges covered.  People telecom is reselling Telstra services and earlier this year signed an $182 million deal with the incumbent.

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The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) says it is planning to grant licences to private fixed line network operators in the capital Dhaka by the end of this month. ‘We are prepared to issue licences to private [land line] companies to operate in the central zone (the designated telecoms zone including the city). We expect to offer the licences by the end of this month,’ BTRC Chairman Major General (Retired) Manjurul Alam told reporters. ‘All of the companies are interested to operate in Dhaka as the profit margin is higher here. We will tag a condition that any company interested to operate in Dhaka is obliged to expand their activities nationwide and this is mandatory,’ said the chairman. Any company failing to expand its activities outside Dhaka as per its plan submitted to the Commission will face a heavy fine, he added. The authority is yet to publish final details of licence fees and the number of concessions up for grabs. The BRTC also confirmed that it would not renew any existing licence of operators that had failed to launch services in the city – presumably referring to WorldTel, the British Virgin Islands-registered firm which was issued with a fixed licence concession in July 2001 but has delayed a promised launch of CDMA WiLL-based limited mobility PSTN services ever since. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, despite the successful licensing and launch of a host of new fixed line and fixed-wireless operators in all other areas of the country, an estimated 250,000 Dhaka residents are still waiting for a fixed connection, with incumbent Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) unable to meet demand. The central metropolitan zone, covering Dhaka city, Zinjira, Savar, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Tongi, accounts for over half of Bangladesh’s telecoms demands, according to the BTRC. According to GlobalComms, provincial private WiLL operators itching to meet the ready demand in the capital include Telebarta (Jubok Phone), National TeleCom (NationalPhone), Peoples Telecom (PeoplesTel), GEP Telecom, OneTel Communications, Ranks Telecom (RanksTel), Jalalabad Telecom (Bijoy Phone), Banglaphone, Westec (Bay Phones) and SA Telecom.

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ZDNet writes…Business-focused telco People Telecom will this year start offering third-generation voice and data services off the back of a renewed 18-month agreement with the telco’s wholesale provider Optus.

“People Telecom today renewed its five-year relationship as a mobile service provider with Optus by signing an AU$21 million agreement,” the telco said in a statement issued today.

“The new agreement will also enable People Telecom to begin offering third-generation (3G) mobile voice and data services during 2007.”

People Telecom claims some 15,000 mobile subscribers.

The telco shopped around in the increasingly competitive Australian mobile space before renewing its arrangements with the SingTel subsidiary.

“The signing of the agreement follows several months of negotiation with all wholesale GSM providers in Australia,” People Telecom’s statement said. People Telecom will also continue to onsell Optus’s wholesale services to other telcos.

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