XL H1’08 profit grew to USD69.25 million, doubling the subscriber base (Indonesia)
PT Excelcomindo Pratama (XL), Indonesia’s third largest mobile operator by subscribers, reported that its net profit for the first six months of this year grew 15-fold on the corresponding period of 2007, driven by a doubling of its subscriber base and foreign exchange gains. XL posted net profit of IDR631.3 billion (USD69.25 million) for the January-June period, against IDR41.04 billion a year ago, while its revenue climbed 59% to IDR5.84 trillion. The operator, whose main shareholders are Telekom Malaysia (83.79%) and Emirates Telecommunications (close to 16%), said its customer base leapt 124% year-on-year to 22.9 million by 30 June, although it said increased competition was exerting a squeeze on profit margins.
Telecom Italia hinted by Benetton to seek fresh funds (Italy)
A major Telecom Italia shareholder, Benetton , has hinted that the telco could be forced to seek fresh funds from investors as it looks to pay back debt or to finance a more aggressive expansion strategy.
Gilberto Benetton, whose family has an indirect stake in Telecom Italia via the Telco consortium which also involves Telefonica, said, ‘Sooner or later Telecom will have to raise capital and at that moment, we can decide whether to subscribe, and so decide whether to dilute our stake.’
HITS licence may revoked, warns UCC (Uganda)
HITS Telecom Uganda may loose its licence if it fails to launch its commercial operation. The Ugandan Communications Commission (UCC) has warned HITS Telecom Uganda who was awarded Public Infrastructure Provider (PIP) and Public Service Provider (PSP) concessions in March 2007, allowing it to offer a range of telecoms services including wireless; a requirement of the concessions is that operations begin within 18 months. In November 2007, company completed its test call at that time it announced it was expecting to launch commercially in the first quarter of 2008.
HITS haven’t yet answer the cause for delay. Relying the local press, which says that the company is struggling to raise the necessary investment. This has been denied by the spokeperson Jimmy Kiberu. HITS will make a ‘major announcement’ next week says Mr Kiberu.
Entel Movil expands mobile services in Cochamba (Bolivia)
Entel Movil has expanded mobile services to the region of Cochamba, according to local news sources. The operator has deployed a base station in the region using GSM technology operating in the 850MHz band. The rollout is part of a larger commitment by the operator to bring mobile and internet services to rural areas of the country. According to a database, Entel Movil announced plans in 2006 to reach half a million people in 1,000 rural regions, through an agreement with the Ministry of Public Works. The project is being entirely funded by the cellco, although no costs have been detailed.
Only 7 companies to bid for 3rd Mobile licence in Rwanda
Only seven companies shows interest in third mobile licence of Rawanda. According to source, relatively low interest may be to do with flaws in the tender process. Seven companies are Vitel Holdings, Larrycom For Investment, Essar Telecom, Comium Group, Celtel, Millicom, and Easymobile Communications.There has been criticism of the government’s policy of extending invitations to bid to preferred companies, and not instead having a widely advertised public tender with bidding documents made available to everyonone.
Closing date is 30 september, RURA will select the top three bidders. Final decision will be taken by the State Ministry of ICT, which will make the final decision before the end of the year.
Dolby Mobile audio systems in LG phone soon (South Korea)
Dolby Mobile audio system to be used in high-end phones of LG later this year. South Korea’s LG the first cell phone maker to incorporate the Mobile version of Dolby’s system into its handsets. Dolby Mobile is an audio processing system tuned to match the processing and audio capabilities of cell phones.
However a lot of effort has been put in improving the screens but no work has been done on the audio systems. While most phones today feature an MP3 music player it’s been more or less an after thought in many handsets, but with more and more people using the function a richer, deeper, better sound could become a key selling point.
With an 8.2 percent share of the market, LG is currently the fourth largest cell phone maker in the world in the first three months of this year.
ZTE Mobile Telecom and Telegent Systems team to deliver free-to-air mobile TV (China)
Telegent Systems, makers of TV mobile with its high-performance single-chip mobile TV solutions, has announced that it has been selected by Shenzhen ZTE Mobile Telecom Co.Ltd, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, to provide its free-to-air mobile TV solution for selected ZTE mobile handsets sold worldwide. Under the agreement, Telegent will be the exclusive supplier for the free-to-air mobile TV feature for a period of two years.
Operators worldwide view free-to-air mobile TV as a way to differentiate their s globervice offerings and attract and Telegent being the proven performer in the globalmarket has been selected for the service.
Telegent’s mobile TV solution enables consumers to receive all local broadcast channels no matter where they are, providing consumers with a compelling, free and easy-to-use method of watching the same news, sports and other programming that they receive on their TV sets at home. For operators, free-to-air TV handsets provide access to the most popular content without requiring any investment in new standards, infrastructure or programming. Telegent’s solutions are currently available in more than 80 handset models worldwide sold in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
15% dip in Capacitor prices says Kyocera (Japan)
Japan Kyocera Corp revealed that its US mobile unit Kyocera Wireless Corp and its mobile phone operations it bought from Sanyo Electric are unable to achieve profit for the full year. They expected capacitor prices to fall 15% in 2008-09.
Consumer Cellular recycles phones and raises funds for charity (Portland)
Consumer Cellular has comeup with an innovative cell phone recycling program that has already kept 10,000 mobile phones out of landfills and raised more than $8,000 for Portland, Ore.-based Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation.
As reported by CTIA, an estimated 150 million mobile phones are retired in the U.S. every year but less than 10 percent of idled phones are recycled. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reports that 75 percent of Americans are unaware of mobile phone recycling options.
With every mobile phone sold, Consumer Cellular includes a postage-paid envelope so customers can recycle their old cell phone, regardless of if the phone still works. Consumer Cellular’s award-winning recycling partner, ReCellular, refurbishes and resells the usable cell phones, making wireless communication more accessible to more people. Phones that no longer function are recycled according to strict environmental standards and the salvaged materials are used to make other products.
AT&T bans use of 3G networks for peer – to – peer file sharing (US)
AT&T’s 3G bandwagon will not include peer-to-peer downloading and AT&T bans the use of 3G networks for P2P file sharing and told an FCC official that anyone caught with their hands the P-2-P cookie jar will be terminated, reported MultiChannel News.
AT&T’s terms of service for mobile wireless broadband customers prohibit all uses that may cause extreme network capacity issues, and explicitly identify P2P file sharing applications as such a use. Under these terms of service, which are similar to those of other wireless providers, use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user’s service could be terminated.
First AT&T warns customers in writing that their relationship is in jeopardy for using banned P2P apps.
