Rogers Wireless commits to buy $150 million worth of iPhone (Canada)
Rogers Wireless’s network virtually came to a grinding halt the day of the Apple iPhone announcement back in April reports Electronista.
Although the mobile business has helped Rogers draw year-over-year quarterly revenue increase of 11 percent to $2.8 billion without the iPhone on sale, the company executive states that demand for other devices slammed on the brakes†the same day as Rogers announced it would launch the Apple iPhone.
Apparently, demand for mobile devices remained calm up until the launch of the Apple iPhone, resulting in Nokia and Rogers both halving the price of the N95 8GB handset to $200.00 only a week before the iPhone launch in an attempt to stimulate sales.
Apparently, Rogers has committed to purchasing $150 million worth of Apple iPhones, and will purchase more if necessary.
Mobile Number Portability to be introduced in India by Mid-2009 (India)
The Indian government has announced that Mobile Number Portability will be available in key cities by Mid-2009.
The Economic Times reported that Market surveys conducted locally have shown that between 25-50% of mobile users in India appear to be unhappy with their mobile operator, and are willing to switch telcos if allowed to retain their mobile number.
ET reports that five players — four US-based companies (Telcordia, NeuStar, Syniverse and IBC) and a state-owned Indian entity (CDoT) are in the running to become centralised MNP operators.
The introduction of MNP could result in a significant churn in the telecom market and is likely to negatively impact established players like Airtel and Vodafone, whereas the move will benefit the new entrants such as Datacom and Unitech. Telcos believe that the number of exits will be balanced by the addition of new users, but the cost of retaining subscribers is likely to go up once MNP is launched.
Coalo plans to focus on emerging markets (UK)
Vittorio Colao begun his tenure with the world’s biggest mobile phone operator said that he would stick to Vodafone’s focus on emerging markets and remained hopeful of a deal for South Africa’s Vodacom.
Mr. Colao said he would continue Vodafone’s expansion with discipline, into new territories wherever we see new opportunitiesâ€. Also gave no indication about wanting to sell Vodafone’s 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, its US joint venture with Verizon Communications.
Sofinova to buy loss-making mobile telephone unit of Safron (Paris)
Safron (French industrial conglomerate) is to sell its loss-making mobile telephone unit to investment fund Sofinova, according to media report. Out of 700 workers at the group development centres only 300 would be kept on. Remaining 400 will be reassigned t other jobs.
Safron is looking for a buyer for its mobile handsets division, Sagem Mobiles, which generated sales of $1.01 billion in 2007. The unit employed 3,318 staff at the end of March 2008, according to Safran’s website.
Qwest moves from Sprint to Verizon to offer wireless services (US)
Qwest Communications International Inc. will now offer Verizon Wireless services to all new subscribers in its residential service area.
Qwest said that it would stop reselling Sprint Nextel Corp.’s wireless service and move its subscribers to Verizon’s network under a five-year agreement. Qwest says it will begin contacting existing Qwest Wireless customers soon with recommendations for Verizon Wireless calling plans and handsets.
Motorola acquires AirDefense for wireless security solutions (US)
Motorola has announced it’s acquisition of AirDefense, maker of wireless LAN (local area network) security solutions.
The acquisition will complement Motorola’s existing portfolio and its “all-wireless enterprise vision,” Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business President Kathy Paladino said in a statement.
AirDefense, founded seven years ago, produces a wireless intrusion prevention system, designed to monitor wireless networks for rogue traffic and conduct incident analysis, forensics and remote troubleshooting, according to the company’s website.
News of the deal comes on the same day as Motorola announced it was reorganizing its non-handset business into three units.
Verizon: We Can’t Set Up Your Account “Because Your Name Has Shit In It”
Dr. Herman I. Libshitz, a retired radiologist and potential Verizon customer who would like DSL. Sadly, Dr. Libshitz was informed that he could not use his name in his email address or as his user name because it has “shit” in it.
He tried his best to escalate the complaint with Verizon, but had little luck. First, he called the help line:
“We called their help line, and got a wonderful young man in the Philippines who told us:
” ‘We can’t install it because your name has – in it.’ ”
I asked the doctor how I was going to print that. He said, “Just say it’s a word contained in Libshitz.”
He had no luck with a supervisor, so he called the billing disputes number and reached another supervisor who promised to investigate and have someone contact him because ” the only person who could help was in Tampa, and that man would have to call India to get them to change the computer code.” No one called back.
Finally, he got a letter informing him that he could not use his name as a username because it didn’t comply with Verizon’s policy.
It took calls from the Philadelphia Inquirer to get Verizon to deal with Dr. Libshitz and his “questionable” name, and that’s what bothers him. He told the Inquirer that what he wants “is for these people at least to stand at attention to explain themselves. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get to Verizon. . . . You cannot get to them. They are insulated from things like this.” Unless you work for a newspaper, that is.
Here’s Verizon’s official response:
“As a general rule (since 2005) Verizon doesn’t allow questionable language in e-mail addresses, but we can, and do, make exceptions based on reasonable requests. The one from Dr. and Mrs. Libshitz certainly is reasonable and we regret the inconvenience and frustration they’ve been caused.”
Source: The Consumerist
Maroc Telecom HQ1 income up by 18% (Morocco)
Maroc Telecom first half net income rises with 18% to $618million, on revenues that increased by 10%. Moreover 11% year-on-year rise in six-month operating profit and raised its forecast for the full year. They are expecting overall 2008 revenue growth to exceed 8%, with an 11% rise in annual earnings from operations.
Rent-Free landlines for rural BSNL customers (India)
In a move to capture the rural market , Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. will provide rent-free telephones to customers in villages. According to General Manager Hari Shankar Sharma, BSNL, this scheme would commence from August 1 and would be made applicable only for those rural telephone exchanges that have the capacity of 1,000 phone lines.
Telenor shows interest in HTCC stake bid (Hungary)
Norwegian operator Telenor plans to bid for 68% stake in US- listed alternative operator Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corporation (HTCC). The second largest local fixed line telecoms operator in Hungary (HTCC), which markets itself under the Invitel banner, has around 700,000 customers; it acquired Invitel for $640 million in early 2007.
Major reason to bid for HTCC stake is its sales. Apart from Telenor other bidders in the first round are Mid Europa Partners and GMT Communications Partners.
