Ericsson says did not bid for huge China Mobile deal (China)
Ericsson said it had not competed with Alcatel-Lucent for a 643 million euros (US$1 billion) deal with China Mobile which the French group signed this week.
A Reuters report quoted Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg as saying that the Swedish group had not been beaten to the deal, which is a framework agreement to provide mobile communication equipment and services.
“We weren’t competing for that order,” Svanberg told reporters at a meeting in Stockholm.
Svanberg had been asked about the deal, which had prompted a lengthy article in Swedish business daily Dagens Industri about how Ericsson’s rival had won the order.
China Mobile’s upgrade bid (China)
China Mobile has invested heavily in upgrading networks to consolidate its leading position in both 2G and 3G eras, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.
The world’s biggest mobile carriers by subscribers has signed two IT companies to upgrade the networks, including its trial 3G network, during Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan’s visit to the United States for the economic summit.
Alcatel-Lucent, the world’s biggest telecom equipment maker, said it had signed a 1 billion U.S. dollars framework agreement for 2008 with China Mobile to provide mobile communication equipment and services.
The agreement was secured through Alcatel-Lucent’s flagship company in China, Alcatel Shanghai Bell.
“We are delighted to be selected to continue providing solutions and services to China Mobile. China Mobile is one of our company’s main strategic cooperation partners,” Olivia Qiu, Alcatel Shanghai Bell’s president, said.
The agreement signing ceremony was witnessed by Wang in Washington.
Under the frame agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide China Mobile with mobile core and wireless network solutions, TD-SCDMA equipment, applications, transmission and IP router equipment and the related services.
Meanwhile, Sun Microsystems Inc also announced a framework agreement with China Mobile on IT products and services projects in 2008. Sun will provide China Mobile with IT products and relevant services at an estimated price of some 34.8 million dollars.
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Samsung Mobile WiMAX¢â Wave2 Products Receive ‘WiMAX Forum Certified Seal of Approva’
Samsung Electronics, a leading provider of Mobile WiMAX¢¢ solutions, announced today it has been awarded with the world¡¯s first WiMAX Forum Wave2 certification for both ¡®Base Station¡¯ and ¡®Mobile Station¡¯ which support the 2.5GHz band, at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2008, in Amsterdam.
The Mobile WiMAX Certified products are commercial grade ¡®Mobile WiMAX Wave2 Base Station¡¯ and ¡®Mobile Station,¡¯ the Express card type device, using Samsung¡¯s own Mobile WiMAX Wave2 modem chipset, which will be commercially used in the Sprint-Nextel Mobile WiMAX service later this year.
Mobile WiMAX Wave2 products introduce a number of new features including Multi-In Multi-Out (MIMO) and Smart Antenna. These features enable the fastest data rate, up to 37Mbps for downlink and 10Mbps for uplink, among currently available mobile technologies in service. At this speed users can download 3MB MP3 music files within 0.7 seconds and 700MB movie files within less than 3 minutes.
¡°We are very excited to obtain the Mobile WiMAX Wave2 certification from WiMAX Forum by successfully passing all rigorous certification tests. This once again shows Samsung¡¯s leadership in Mobile WiMAX technologies.¡± said Geesung Choi, President of Telecommunication Business at Samsung Electronics.
¡°I am confident in Mobile WiMAX as one of the most promising solutions for mobile broadband services. This important milestone exhibits the technology is ready and mature and Samsung will accelerate the commercialization with in the global market to open new era of mobile broadband world,¡± Mr. Choi said.
“The WiMAX Forum would like to thank Samsung and the other member companies that have worked so hard to achieve today¡¯s milestone and enabling the Forum to continue to reach critical objectives with the ongoing certification of Mobile WiMAX equipment,” said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum during a press conference at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam.
“Samsung has played an important role in WiMAX Forum¡¯s success of driving market momentum by enabling us to move closer to delivering on our plan to certify more than 100 Mobile WiMAX products in 2008. Our seven independent WiMAX Forum certification labs are on now online to manage the anticipated increase of products to be submitted for certification.
The Wave2 certification designation today together with Wave1 certification award in April this year puts Samsung in a very few elite class of vendors which possess both certified commercial Mobile WiMAX Wave1 and Wave2 product lineups.
Samsung¡¯s Mobile WiMAX Wave2 solutions are expected to be commercially available through KT and SKT in South Korea from later this year and UQ Communications in Japan from next summer.
The WiMAX Forum is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization formed to certify and promote the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon the harmonized IEEE 802.16/ETSI HiperMAN standard. Currently, the organization has more than 500 member companies including service providers, regulators, equipment vendors, chip vendors, and content providers.
Singapore’s top carrier sets focus on China expansion (Singapore)
SingTel, Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms firm, is in talks with operators in China about investing in the world’s biggest telecoms market, a Reuters report said.
China has also recently overhauled and opened the industry to foreign investors.
“It’s a market we have been monitoring. We have been in discussions with various operators in the China market,” SingTel CEO Chua Sock Koong was quoted by the Reuters report as saying.
Last month, Beijing unveiled a long-awaited sector revamp, aimed at improving competition and rolling out high-speed third-generation mobile services, in what has been called the world’s largest industrial reorganization, the report added.
The restructure also opens the door to foreign investors who have been restricted to taking small stakes, such as Vodafone’s 3.3% investment in China Mobile.
“We are not financial investors, we want to make investments as strategic partners, and the stake is one that would give us the necessary governance rights and involvement at the board and management level,” Chua said.
“There are ongoing engagements but no deal has been done,” she added, without naming any firms.
Earlier this month, media reports citing unnamed sources said SingTel was considering investing in fixed-line operator China Telecom, although there have been no formal talks.
This follows China Telecom’s comments that it was in talks to sell a stake to a strategic investor and had been approached by four or five companies, the Reuters report further said.
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Motorola wins WiMax deal in France (France)
Motorola has been selected by TDF a leading European provider of network services to broadcasters and telecom operators, to design and deploy 802.16e WiMax networks for several regions in France where HDRR, a TDF subsidiary, holds WiMax frequency licenses.
The three-year frame agreement with TDF follows an initial pilot at the end of 2006 and successful deployments in Loiret, Sarthe and Limousin regions which enabled the roll-out of innovative networks enabling the delivery of high speed broadband access to end users.
TDF and its partners, including local governments, deliver a wholesale broadband service to retail ISPs which in turn provide broadband data as well voice over IP services to businesses and consumers.
By selecting Motorola’s 802.16e WiMax solution, TDF customers will enjoy advantages of the new WiMax services in the future.
Motorola provides deployment, integration and support services to TDF in addition to WiMAX equipment such as WiMAX Access Points (the WAP 400 series), and outdoor and indoor customer premises equipment such as the CPEo 400 series and CPEi 200 series.
Apple, AT&T settle iPhone lawsuit (USA)
Apple and AT&T have settled claims that the iPhone’s “visual voicemail” technology infringed patents held by Klausner Technologies, an Associated Press report said.
Klausner Technologies is a New York-based patent holding company founded by inventor Judah Klausner.
The visual voicemail feature lets iPhone users see a list of people who’ve left them phone messages and listen to the messages in any order they choose.
The three companies said in a joint filing this week in US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas that they’ve resolved Apple’s and AT&T’s portion of a larger patent lawsuit Klausner filed, the Associated Press report said
They asked the court to dismiss the case.
Judah Klausner said that Apple and AT&T have agreed to take out licenses on the technology, joining eBay’s Skype division, which last month also settled a lawsuit filed by Klausner over a visual voicemail feature in Skype’s VoIP service.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Representatives for Apple and AT&T did not immediately return emails seeking comment.
Klausner’s lawsuit over visual voicemail includes several defendants, most of whom have now settled.
Alcatel-Lucent acquires broadband firm Motive (USA)
Alcatel-Lucent has entered into an agreement to acquire Motive, a provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services.
Alcatel has made a cash tender offer for all outstanding Motive shares at a price of 1.4 euros (US$2.23) per share, representing a value of approximately 43.7 million (US$67.8 million).
The offer represents a premium of around 53% over the June 16 closing price, and is around 51% higher than the average share price.
Closing date for the transaction is expected to be early in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Alcatel and Motive have been working together for three years, developing and marketing remote management solutions for automating the deployment of residential gateways.
The two companies have over 40 joint customers. Alcatel has also been reselling Motive’s service integration products.
The acquisition will be a two-stage process, with the cash tender offer being followed by a merger of Motive into Alcatel as a subsidiary.
Yahoo Stretches Mobile Reach To 600 Million (USA)
New deals in Asia boost Yahoo’s mobile search reach as the try to grab a bigger slice of the market for advertising on the small screen.
As we get caught up in the search ad machinations between Yahoo and Google in the United States, it’s easy to lose focus on international deals. Over the past year, Yahoo has been making deals with a number of wireless telecoms, and becoming the default search provider for their customers.
The latest set of agreements pulled in six more telecoms in Asia. Reuters cited David Ko, Asia managing director and vice president of Yahoo’s mobile division, on the latest round of deals.
These put Yahoo’s reach on mobiles to 600 million, Ko said. In countries where use of the wireless web and associated services exceeds that per-person of US subscribers, it’s easy to see the benefit. Yahoo gets more usage, more chances to display mobile ads, and more opportunities to make money from subscribers.
The only little setback we have seen for Yahoo on mobiles was the end of a one-year deal with Opera Software, which had offered Yahoo as the default search for its excellent mobile browsers. That agreement ended with Opera switching back to Google for its search.
If Yahoo keeps securing deals in Asia, they won’t miss Opera. Now they just need the monetization to reach or exceed expectations in order to help satisfy shareholders who are miffed over the loss of a deal with Microsoft to sell the company.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
T-Mobile To Offer iPhone 3G For $1.55 In Germany
Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the iPhone needs to be more affordable, and it looks like wireless carriers are taking that message to heart.
Germany’s T-Mobile is offering the 8-GB iPhone 3G for as little as 1 euro, or about $1.55. In order to get this price, subscribers have to sign up for a monthly service plan of nearly $107 a month. With the company’s minimal service plan, the smartphone will cost about $263.
More Personal Tech InsightsWhite PapersThe Friday ITch: Season 2, Episode 1 Demo: MagicJack The 16-GB version will cost about $31 with the all-inclusive data plan that costs nearly $138 a month. With T-Mobile’s cheapest plan, it will cost about $387.
Users of iPhones tend to use more data than other Internet-enabled cell phone users, and that should continue now that the latest version is capable of faster mobile Internet access. Carriers are willing to eat some of the handset’s cost to get these heavy data users in long-term contracts.
O2, which will carry the phone in the United Kingdom, said last week it would offer a free iPhone 3G for subscribers who sign up for service plans costing either $88 or $146.50 a month.
In the U.S. market, AT&T will be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G. With a two-year contract, the 8-GB version will cost $199, and the 16-GB version will cost $299. In addition to voice services, mandatory monthly data fees cost $30, and business users will have to pay $45 a month.
The iPhone 3G will be released July 11 in 22 countries and Apple said it will eventually be sold in 70 countries. Since its release last year, the iPhone has sold 6 million units in six countries.
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The iPhone Mobile Music Battle
The iPhone Web application arms race is on. A variety of companies are getting involved in developing applications that will bring their services to Apple devotees. While the platform is bringing competitors onto the same stage, everyone is trying to take a bite out of that Apple. Detente is nowhere in sight.
Recently, AOL threw its hat into the iPhone Web application ring and is offering CBS streaming radio to users. The AOL Radio powered by CBS Radio Web app was highlighted last week at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference and won the award for “Best Entertainment Application.”
“We’re thrilled to be recognized by Apple for the work that has gone into AOL Radio for the iPhone,” said Kevin Conroy, executive vice president at AOL. “The APIs available in the iPhone SDK provided us with all the tools necessary to quickly create a terrific version of AOL Radio for the iPhone OS, and we’re looking forward to adding streaming radio to the many great experiences available to iPhone users.”
AOL Radio uses the iPhones Core Location Framework to detect the location of a user and patch into local CBS radio stations. The application also automatically detects the type of network a user is on—Wi-Fi or cell network—and adjusts the stream between low and high bandwidth.
The award brings weight to AOL’s self-professed goal to “Get back to the Mac.” Other AOL efforts include AOL Mobile Search, a new portal, and a Desktop for Mac.
Bringing streaming audio to the iPhone isn’t a new concept. NPR mobile already offers an application that allows users to get their news.
But streaming music has been more difficult for frustrated users of services like Last.FM and Pandora.
Last.FM is a social community where users can stream music to their machine and rate the music they listen to on iTunes. By rating music, Last.FM can learn preferences and stream music tailored to individual tastes.
According to the Web site, Last.FM uses an Audioscrobbler engine that allows “users to ‘scrobble’ their tracks to our servers, helping to collectively build the world’s largest social music platform.” Currently, MobileScrobbler is the only iPhone application that users can use in order to stream Last.FM to their device.
But MobileScrobbler comes with a catch: it can only be used on unlocked iPhones, meaning users run the risk of voiding their warranty and carrying an expensive piece of silicon and plastic around if something goes wrong.
Pandora has at least one intriguing scenario already in place for bringing streaming music to the iPhone. Writing on the Pandora blog in May 2007, Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, talked about getting Pandora on a mobile device.
“One of the most interesting startups in the Bay area right now is a company called Zing. They’re building a really cool platform that enables Wi-Fi-connected media players. They’re the company behind the new Wi-Fi-connected Sansa Connect media player,” wrote Conrad.
Conrad got in touch with Zing and worked with the company to take the Pandora Everywhere Platform and get it running on a Wi-Fi device. While Conrad demoed the product, he specifically noted that it wasn’t a product announcement and that there are no plans for a Pandora-specific mobile device.
And now, by clicking on the mobile tab on Pandora’s Web site, users are presented with the option of embedding Pandora on their mobile phone—so long as it is a device that supports the application and exists on the Sprint or AT&T network.
AT&T currently has an exclusive contract with Apple to provide services for the iPhone.
A quick search of Apple’s iPhone Web application page shows more than 25 pages of existing applications. A streaming music provider that creates an application that allows users to stream music to their iPhone would be in an advantageous position to capture part of the market.
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