RCOM shows slow quarterly profit growth (India)
Reliance Comunications Ltd. reports the slowest profit growth in nine quarters after adding less profitable customers in rural areas. Anil Ambani (Billionaire) controls Reliance having slow pace in signing up the customers compare to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. Net income rose 24 percent to 15.1 billion rupees ($355 million) in the three months ended June 30, according to Mumbai-based Reliance .They need to compete in India’s villages to bolster profit growth after the failure of MTN merger. According to the statistics, Reliance doubled the number of villages covered by its network to 600,000 in the nine months ended March 31.
Apple sells 1 million iPhones on launch weekend despite activation problems (US)
Apple sold more than 1 million iPhone 3G mobile phones on the launch weekend of this much-awaited communication device.
On Friday, the phone went on sale in 21 countries and will go on sale in France on Thursday.
“The iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive. “It took 74 days to sell the first 1 million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”
That positive response ignored the inconvenient glitches caused when an Apple server designed to let users activate their gadgets crashed under the load of existing iPhone owners trying to upgrade to new software that was released at the launch of the iPhone 3G.
The new iPhone 3G updates the previous iPhone with much faster connection speeds and built-in GPS, but many analysts believe the most significant update is the new software that allows users access to thousands of applications developed by third parties and available through Apple’s online store.
Prices for the phone vary around the world, but in the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model when customers sign a two-year contract at a minimum cost of $70 a month.
Airtel with Huawei for handset bundle offer (India)
Bharti Airtel joins with Huawei to come up with Handset bundle offer. Huawei’s T156 handset along with Airtel Lifetime connection will be for Rs. 1199. This innovative offering is a great value for money proposition for our customers in the Delhi & NCR region and we are confident that this will help us consolidate our leadership position in Delhiâ€, said Shashi Arora, CEO.
This is available with 2 year warranty. With the follwing features in a handset:
- speakerphone
- alarm clock
- calculator
- call vibrator
Dell and Microsoft team up with Datang Mobile for 3G standards (China)
Microsoft and computer manufacturer, Dell have teamed up with China’s Datang Mobile together will develop a range of products based on the Chinese 3G standard, TD-SCDMA. The core aspect of the cooperation relates to studying the compatibility of the Windows operating system with a 3G data card and Dell computers. (more…)
MTNL Q1 reports net up 15% (India)
India’s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) shows net profit of 15 % in first quarter on revenues that remained largely flat. For the April-June quarter, the telecom service provider’s net profit rose to 1.15 billion rupees from 1 billion rupees last year on revenues that edged higher to 12.88 billion rupees from 12.87 billion rupees last year.
BT revenue grows 3%, share price plunges 10% (UK)
BT’s revenue rises 3% on last year. Along with this rise its shares price drop by a 10%. The telco made earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £1.433 billion, up 1% on the same period a year ago. Company warned of margin pressure partly due to currency charges, it remains confident to hit the revenue targets for the full year.
Apple iPhone’s rival HTC Touch diamond launched across 30 countries (World)
High Tech Computer (HTC), the world’s largest maker of smartphones, has launched its Touch Diamond handset in 30 countries around the world by 50 operators.
The company also plans to introduce four or five more Diamond family products in the second half of this year.
HTC says it has also been successful in working out deals to lower the initial cost of the handset for users. Apple’s US$199 price tag on the 3G iPhone put pressure on HTC, which had originally planned to launch the device for NT$23,900 (US$783) in Taiwan.
Earlier this month HTC announced a deal to sell the Touch Diamond for NT$2,999 (US$98) with certain 3G contracts from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest mobile phone service provider.
The company has already announced one of its new Diamond family products, the Touch Pro, a business handset with a similar design to the Touch Diamond.
Touch Pro shares the curved diamond backside of its sister handset, but it’s thicker due to the Qwerty-keypad that slides out from underneath for easy thumb typing. Also like the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro is a 3G smartphone with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, and runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS.
Ericsson-Liechtenstein sign network deal (Germany)
For the expansion of ADSL network with the new VDSL2 technology, Ericsson has signed an agreement with Telecom Liechtenstein. As per the deal Ericsson will also provide support over the next three years. The deal will bring high-speed broadband to Telecom Liechtenstein subscribers across the country. VDSL2, based on Ericsson’s advanced EDA1200 product, enables Telecom Liechtenstein wide deployment of multiplay services e.g. voice, video and data as well as HDTV, IPTV, Video on Demand, high speed internet access and interactive gaming.
Nokia slashes phone prices of phones by 10% (World)
Nokia, which controls 40% of handset market, cut prices of many of its phones by up to 10 percent in late July, with the steepest cuts in music and media phones, according to market data and industry sources. Nokia’s price cut will put further pressure on its smaller rivals like Sony Ericsson , who’s focus is music and camera phones.
Nokia had cut prices across the portfolio, while the sharpest falls seen in the data market of Finland, in retail prices of music phone models 5310, 5610 and multimedia handset N81 8GB, reveals an European industry source.
The share price of Nokia fell by 2.2% soon after the news.
FCC calling regulators for 4th 3G licence (France)
To introduce a number of measures designed to improve market conditions for the country’s mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), France Competition Council is calling telecoms operator. MVNOs currently account for less than 5% of the total French mobile market and less than 2.4% of total revenues. The Competition Council argues the situation is a result of the difficult contract arrangements MVNOs were forced to sign with network operators SFR and Orange France when the sector was opened up to them in 2004/05.
Virtual operators were forced to accept clauses that linked prices to operators’ retail prices, as well as long exclusivity clauses and no access to network elements that allowed commercially sensitive information to get back to the network operator. Three solutions has been proposed by the agency which says, including new contract offers from the operators, the award of the fourth 3G licence to stimulate competition and new regulations or legislation to level the playing field.
