Wireless Federation

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.

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Telefonica O2, Slovakia, is now reportedly operating on 800 base stations, which are it’s own mobile public GSM telephone network. The network currently covers 88% of population, which has led the company to meet licence condition. The amount of O2’s investment in Slovakia reached the volume of SKK 4,5 bn.
“We want to provide our customers with services of the highest quality. Building of our own network is the company’s long-term strategic objective and its building is constantly continuing. Besides our own network, we will further on use also the national roaming,“ stated Martin Škop, the Chief Network Officer of Telefónica O2 Slovakia.
Meeting the license conditions, O2 has nearly achieved its long-term objective for its presence in the Slovak telecommunication market.
Launching of this network into operation is carried out gradually in individual regions of Slovakia by launching greater units. The only change that the customer will be noticing is the change of the logo on the display of mobile telephone, where the name of operator “O2–SK“ or the numerical code “231-06“ or the code “SVK–06“ will appear. Simultaneously with its own network, O2 will also use the national roaming.

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Slovak Telekom has been 885 million koruna (EUR29.2 million) for abusing its dominant market position, by the Slovakia’s anti-monopoly authority.
Slovak Telekom, 51% owned by Deutsche Telekom with the rest belonging to the Slovak state, offers fixed-line services as well as the mobile phone services of T-Mobile.
According to PMU, the fine is imposed due to the telecom operator’s refusal to open up it’s local network to competitors.
“Slovak Telekom has for a long time distorted the competitive environment, which has had negative consequences for consumers,” the PMU said in a statement.
Slovak Telecom was also fined at the end of last year by the PMU 526 million koruna for anti-competitive behaviour.

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GTS CE has launched a regional MPLS network for retail customers, covering Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Managed from a centre in Prague, the network will allow customers to connect branch offices and remote users throughout the region on one seamless network. The company Palace Cinemas has already used the MPLS network in pilot operations, connecting its multiplexes and branches in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

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Mobile operator Telefonica O2 Slovakia will put its first 400 O2 base stations into operation in September, in line with the terms of the licence. The number of O2 base stations will double by autumn 2008. As it builds its own network, Telefonica O2 Slovakia will continue to use national roaming services on the network of T-Mobile Slovensko. It will roll outs its own network in Slovakia’s individual regions on a step-by-step basis. It is currently focusing network construction on areas with the highest population density.

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Mobile operator T-Mobile Slovensko, a.s., closed the first half of this year with 2.2 million clients, as shown by the report published by Slovak Telekom group. The number of post-paid service customers rose 24 percent y/y to 1 million this June. The company announced net growth of active migration of 199,000 customers from the sector of pre-paid cards. Despite this significant migration, the number of customers with pre-paid cards decreased by a mere 1 percent y/y thanks to total influx of customers to the company. The number of pre-paid service customers amounted to almost 1.2 million in late June.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) was SKK 588 in late June, which is a drop of almost 2 percent y/y. The company explained this moderate drop with the lower average price of most services, thanks to which average user spending on telecommunications services is lower than in the past. Revenues from non-voice services grew twice as fast as the number of customers with y/y growth exceeding 10 percent. Non-voice services made up about 16.4 percent of ARPU in H1 2007, while their share was only 15.7 percent a year ago.
In the first half of 2007, T-Mobile Slovensko reported total revenues of SKK 8.343 billion, which is an increase of 9 percent y/y. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached SKK 3.932 billion, which is 5 percent more than a year ago. Change of the EuroTel trade name in T-Mobile was enabled through acquisition of an additional 49 percent stake in EuroTel by Slovak Telekom (ST), from the consortium Atlantic West B.V. EuroTel thus became a 100 percent subsidiary of Slovak Telekom, whose majority shareholder is Deutsche Telekom (DT). T-Mobile is a mobile division of DT. Slovak Telekom paid SK 10.225 billion for its 49 percent share in EuroTel.
The third mobile operator in the country, Telefonica O2 Slovakia, registered 455,000 clients in late June 2007. Data on the number of customers of T-Mobile’s main competitor, Orange Slovensko, is not available at the moment. It had over 3 million active clients in late 2006.

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Czech mobile revenues rose 5.5 percent to CZK 15.7 billion, as the customer base grew 2.6 percent year-on-year to 4.894 million. Amid a focus on converting prepaid users to postpaid, the operator increased contract customers by 111,000 in the second quarter to 2.077 million at the end of June. Minutes of use rose 16 percent from a year earlier to an average 115 per subscriber in the first half, while ARPU was up 2.4 percent year-on-year to CZK 510 per month. Mobile data revenues were up 18 percent to CZK 921 million.

At the fixed-line business, revenues rose 0.3 percent to CZK 15.1 billion, helped by growth in internet and IT services. The number of fixed access lines fell by 17 percent from a year ago to 2.207 million at the end of June, as customers switched to mobile services. ADSL subscribers rose by 56,000 in the first half to 526,000 at the end of June, while the company added 22,000 IPTV customers in the period for a total 32,000.

In Slovakia, the company had 455,000 customers at the end of June, after starting prepaid services in February and a postpaid offer in June. Most customers however appear to be using the operator as a second SIM provider, so further marketing efforts are planned to promote the company as a primary service provider and launch more postpaid offers in the second half.

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Slovenia has the highest mobile phone penetration in the Central Eastern European (CEE) at 92 percent, with Bulgaria having the lowest at 59 percent. Croatia and Serbia share first place for frequency of SMS communications at 5.4 messages per day. Slovenia is the leader for MMS penetration at 24 percent, with Russia and Austria top for MMS frequency at 3 and 2.6 MMS messages per day respectively. On average, 75 percent of CEE citizens own at least one handset. Following Slovenia, mobile penetration is 86 percent in the Czech Republic, 83 percent in Austria, 79 percent in Slovakia, 79 percent in Hungary, 76 percent in Croatia, 74 percent in Serbia and 68 percent in Russia. The highest rate of mobile phone users with two or more phones is in the Czech Republic at 12 percent, compared to 7 percent in both Serbia and Slovakia and 4 percent of Bulgarians.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Slovenia has the highest mobile phone penetration in the Central Eastern European (CEE) at 92 percent, with Bulgaria having the lowest at 59 percent. Croatia and Serbia share first place for frequency of SMS communications at 5.4 messages per day. Slovenia is the leader for MMS penetration at 24 percent, with Russia and Austria top for MMS frequency at 3 and 2.6 MMS messages per day respectively. On average, 75 percent of CEE citizens own at least one handset. Following Slovenia, mobile penetration is 86 percent in the Czech Republic, 83 percent in Austria, 79 percent in Slovakia, 79 percent in Hungary, 76 percent in Croatia, 74 percent in Serbia and 68 percent in Russia. The highest rate of mobile phone users with two or more phones is in the Czech Republic at 12 percent, compared to 7 percent in both Serbia and Slovakia and 4 percent of Bulgarians.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Slovenia has the highest mobile phone penetration in the Central Eastern European (CEE) at 92 percent, with Bulgaria having the lowest at 59 percent. Croatia and Serbia share first place for frequency of SMS communications at 5.4 messages per day. Slovenia is the leader for MMS penetration at 24 percent, with Russia and Austria top for MMS frequency at 3 and 2.6 MMS messages per day respectively. On average, 75 percent of CEE citizens own at least one handset. Following Slovenia, mobile penetration is 86 percent in the Czech Republic, 83 percent in Austria, 79 percent in Slovakia, 79 percent in Hungary, 76 percent in Croatia, 74 percent in Serbia and 68 percent in Russia. The highest rate of mobile phone users with two or more phones is in the Czech Republic at 12 percent, compared to 7 percent in both Serbia and Slovakia and 4 percent of Bulgarians.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News