Starbucks offers free downloads with iTunes Wi-Fi launch (USA)
Coffee house chain Starbucks has announced the ‘Song of the Day’ free digital music promotion in the US. From 02 October to 07 November, customers at over 10,000 Starbucks locations in the US may receive ‘Song of the Day’ cards redeemable on the Apple iTunes Store for a complimentary song chosen by Starbucks Entertainment. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, featuring the Starbucks exclusive ‘Now Playing’ service, will go live in over 600 Starbucks locations in New York and Seattle on 02 October. Starbucks will give away 1.5 million iTunes downloads per day during the promotion, for a total of over 50 million free songs. The exclusive Starbucks partnership with Apple allows customers to use the HotSpot Wi-Fi network of T-Mobile USA at participating stores to wirelessly download music onto their iPhone, iPod touch or laptop. Starbucks will roll out the iTunes Music Store to 350 more stores in the San Francisco Bay area in early-November, to 500 stores in Los Angeles in early-February 2008, 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008 and additional markets across the US later in 2008.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Infineon signs deal with Motorola for 3G RF chip (Germany)
Germany-based Infineon Technologies has signed an agreement with Motorola to develop a multi-mode, single-chip 3G radio frequency transceiver based on Infineon’s Smarti UE chip. Terms of the development agreement were not disclosed. Infineon’s Smarti UE supports all global UMTS band combinations (I-VI and VIII-X) as well as quad-band EDGE. The DigRF3.09 compliant digital baseband interface of Smarti UE is controlled by high level commands from the baseband. Infineon will develop the new RF chip which will address the market for 3G services by offering maximum HSDPA and HSUPA performance, efficient power consumption and slim design.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Nigerian mobile operators told to pay compensation (Nigeria)
The Nigerian Communications Commission has ordered the three major mobile operators, MTN, Globacom and Celtel to pay compensation to customers for the continued network congestion and poor service quality. The directive is the latest in a series of recent measures taken by the regulator aimed at forcing the operators to improve service quality. They have already seen their ability to offer promotions limited and been forced to offer regulator reports on service quality. The operators have been told to pay NGN 50 per subscriber each month traffic channel congestion is at 2-5 percent of calls, NGN 100 for congestion of 5-10 percent and NGN 175 per subscriber for anything over 10 percent. The NCC threatened further sanctions if congestion persists over 5 percent. Operators will be required to submit weekly reports on congestion, while the regulator will also carry out regular independent assessments. The compensation is expected to take the form of unrestricted airtime credit.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
DoT sets October deadline for licence applications (India)
India’s department of telecommunication (DoT) has announced 1 October as the deadline for accepting new licence applications, reports the Economic Times. It has been decided that new applications for Unified Access Services Licences will not be accepted after 1 October. At the same time, communications and IT minister A Raja said that the DoT has formed a committee to formulate pre-qualification norms for applicants and screening guidelines for those that qualify. All the applications will be scrutinised and limited applications will be selected. About 190 new licence applications have already been received, with real estate players like Unitech and Parsvnath among the applicants.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Pipex to spin off WiMAX venture, sell remaining assets (UK)
The UK’s Pipex Communications has announced plans to spin off its WiMAX venture Pipex Wireless and sell its remaining web hosting and business services activities. Developed with Intel, Pipex Wireless has been testing wireless services in a handful of cities in the UK and is set to launch commercial services in the fourth quarter in Manchester. Meanwhile, as part of the company’s strategic review, Oakley Capital has shown interest in acquiring the rest of Pipex. Peter Rubens, a limited partner at Oakley, also sits on the Pipex board. An independent board committee, excluding Rubens, will be set up to evaluate offers for the rest of the group. Pipex also reported its first-half results, showing sales up 58 percent to GBP 188.9 million, of which GBP 153.1 million was from the broadband and voice activities recently sold to Tiscali. Before tax, the group had a loss of GBP 8.5 million, versus a profit of GBP 0.8 million a year earlier, hit by higher operational, amortisation and depreciation charges as well as the start-up costs for the wireless venture and interest associated with a bond issue.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Alcatel-Lucent, Kyocera team for WiMAX mobile broadband (USA)
Alcatel-Lucent and Kyocera Wireless have signed a joint development agreement to co-operate on the development of WiMAX-based mobile broadband products. These products will integrate Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX network infrastructure with wireless end-user devices from Kyocera. These Kyocera devices will include multimedia mobile phones, non-traditional wireless devices, wireless PC cards and USB devices. The joint programme will cover the establishment of specifications, development and integration of WiMAX solutions, and the creation of an interoperability testing (IOT) programme to ensure that the new Kyocera WiMAX devices can operate smoothly on Alcatel-Lucent’s infrastructure. Commercial availability of WiMAX base stations and terminals from the partners is expected in first half 2008. The agreement expands and formalises an existing WiMAX co-operation agreement between Alcatel-Lucent and Kyocera.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Dutch VoIP growth slows down, despite 1 mln cable VoIP users (Netherlands)
The total Dutch consumer telephony market grew by 2,000 connections during the second quarter of this year to 5.999 million, despite a 3.6 percent drop in PSTN/ISDN connections to 3.8 million. The number of Dutch consumer VoIP subscriptions grew 7.1 percent during the second quarter to 2.2 million on 30 June. However, the quarterly growth was lower than during the first quarter due to KPN’s decision to limit the weekly intake of InternetPlusBellen VoIP customers to 5,000. DSL-based VoIP subscriptions grew at a slower rate than cable VoIP subscriptions: 5.7 percent compared with 8.3 percent. DSL VoIP ended the quarter with 1.095 million connections, adding only 65,000 customers, while cable-based VoIP subscriptions grew by 82,600 to end the quarter with 1.076 million customers, passing the 1 million users milestone. KPN is the largest VoIP provider, with a market share of more than 31 percent on the Dutch digital telephony market, followed by UPC (19.2%) and Casema (12.3%). The quarterly growth for the remaining quarters of 2007 is expected to be around 13 percent, or 250,000 net additions, driven by the cable network operators. This will lead to around 2.8 million VoIP users at the end of this year.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
New Zealand sets requirements for Telecom separation (New Zealand)
The New Zealand minister of communications has issued a directive detailing the requirements for the planned functional separation at Telecom New Zealand. The directive deals with the scope and governance of the required access network services unit, which will manage the local access network; the basis for local loop unbundling and bitstream access; migration of existing services to the new organisation; structure and powers of the independent oversight group; and a range of safeguards based on the principles of standalone, arms-length, equivalence and non-discrimination. In response, Telecom said it was a “demanding” programme and it would work on its proposals for implementation and undertakings over the next four weeks. The reorganisation is expected to cost NZD 200 million in capital expenditure over the next four years, with operational costs of up to NZD 40 million per annum over this same period. Telecom has already set up a wholesale unit and will start work on the separate access network services unit. The operator denied any talk of selling the ANS unit and said no jobs will be cut due to the restructuring. According to unsourced media reports, Telecom agreed with the government to sell the network unit, valued at more than NZD 3 billion.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Cosmote CEO resigns (Greece)
Evangelos Martigopoulos has resigned as CEO of Greek mobile operator Cosmote. In a statement, Cosmote’s parent company OTE said the reason for the resignation was differences of opinion with OTE over Cosmote’s strategy. The OTE board will meet on 26 September to accept his resignation. No details on a successor were given. According to media reports, the change in management is expected to facilitate OTE buying out the minority shares in Cosmote. It currently holds 67 percent in the mobile operator.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Blyk launches ad-funded wireless service (UK)
Blyk, a start-up mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) run by the former president of Nokia, has launched an advertising-funded wireless service in the UK, targeting the 16-to-24-year olds with the promise of 217 free texts and 43 minutes of talktime every month. It has signed up 45 brands from McDonald’s and Coca Cola to Boots and L’Oreal who want to target this key demographic. ‘There’s no contract, no cash, no hooks. You don’t have to do anything and you get it every month for free,’ said co-founder and chief executive Pekka Ala-Pietila.
Blyk, which uses the Orange network for its service, is currently operating on an invitation-only basis, putting invites in Fresher’s Week packs at 30 UK universities and plans to distribute invites at other events such as concerts. Users or ‘members’, as Blyk terms them can also recommend friends to the service. Once a new user has texted FRESH to a special five digit number they are given an entry code which they can use on the Blyk website. After answering a number of demographic and lifestyle questions they will be sent a new SIM card for their existing phone but can keep their old number. Members can track their usage on the Blyk website and if they exceed the free monthly allowance the phone reverts to the basic Orange pay-as-you-go tariff of GBP0.1 (USD0.2) a text and GBP0.15 a minute calls.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
