Germany puts a ceiling on call charges to service numbers
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The German Parliament has given consent to set a limit on the price of calls from mobile phones to customer service 0180 numbers. The Bundestag has reportedly agreed to a cap of EUR 0.42 per minute and EUR 0.60 per call. Earlier, the call charges were EUR 0.69-0.87 per minute. The call cost from a landline is a maximum EUR 0.14 per minute and EUR 0.20 per call.
Zain to bring rival operators under One Network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain Group is running a pilot test, success of which will see Zain adding its rival operators under One Network roaming offering.
According to Zain’s Director of products and the One Network George Held the operator is trialling the plan in the Middle East with a big country and in Africa with an operator from a big economy with a big population.
He further said the test phase is ongoing and has been successful and Zain and the providers in question are waiting for the legal framework under which the service will be implemented to be worked out. He said the initiative will take shape in a few months.
Movistar Venezuela offers free minutes & discounts on handsets
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Movistar Venezuela has introduced a promotion celebrating the anniversary of the Movistar brand. The subscribers who sign up with Movistar Hogar a tu Medida tariff plan will receive a free service for a month along with 200 free minutes for local calls, and 100 free lifetime minutes for calls to the Movistar mobile line associated to the fixed-line service.
The promotion further offers discounts on mobile phone purchases. The subscribers can purchase the Huawei ETS 2222 mobile phone for VEF 99 or 25 Club Movistar points, the ZTE WP822 for VEF 119 or 30,000 loyalty points, or the Huawei ETS 8221 terminal for VEF 159 or 45,000 Movistar Club loyalty points.
The promotion will be valid until 28 April and is available for new prepaid and postpaid subscribers.
Zain inks a deal with Rotana, offers digital entertainment services
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain has inked a deal with Arabic audio-video distribution company Rotana Holding. This will enable Zain subscribers to access Rotana’s digital entertainment services, including music download, via the Zain Create mobile application. Initially, the service will be available to Zain’s subscribers in Kuwait, with expansion to Zain Group’s other Middle Eastern operations to follow. Zain Kuwait posted a subscriber base of 1.77 million in December 2008 and holds a market share of 57.4%.
MTN South Africa plans investment of US$487Mn
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MTN South Africa has announced the investment plans of ZAR4.6 billion (USD487 million) to upgrade its network this year. The company intends to improve network coverage and data transmission speeds, whilst reducing operating expenses. MTN is also planning build 305 new base station sites and is also investing in its fibre-optic network. MTN posted a 33% rise in voice traffic in 2008 and aims to repeat the story of glory in 2009. The incumbent was home to 17.2 million subscribers at the end of December 2008, a 13.8% year-on-year increase.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Pakistan’s mobile subscriber base totals 91Mn at February’09-end
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Pakistan mobile subscriber base has raised to 91.008 million in February 2009, growing from 90.703 million in January, reports PTA. Mobile density in Pakistan hiked to 56.50%, up from 56.30% in January.
Mobilink, the market leader, saw a drop in mobile subscriber base which fell from 28.315 million to 28.116 million whereas Telenor jumped to the second position with a subscriber base of 19.842 million, up from 19.657 million in January. Ufone grabbed the third position with 19.497 million subscribers, up from 19.415 million in January followed by Warid which ended February’09 with a subscriber base of 17.251 million. Zong stood at the last position with 5.979 million subscribers.
Myanmar introduces video-capable mobile handsets
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Myanmar has reportedly introduced video-capable mobile phones. The residents of Yangon, the only city with W-CDMA coverage, have got nearly 5,000 such handsets. According to the statistics available, Myanmar was home to 375,800 GSM subscribers at the end of 2008, up from 211,812 in 2007. CDMA-based network subscribers ended 2008 with a subscriber base of 205,500.
Voo & Telenet together to bid for Belgium’s fourth 3G licence
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a local media report, it is likely that the Belgian cable operators Voo and Telenet will together bid for the country’s fourth 3G licence, which will be auctioned this year. Voo and Telenet entered the Belgian telcom market as MVNOs. Telenet operates on Mobistar’s network.
Vodafone UK launches Twitter SMS
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone UK and Twitter have inked an agreement which will enable the Vodafone UK subscribers to receive or send SMS or ‘tweets’ at no extra cost. The ‘tweet’ service will be a part of the usual SMS bundle offered by Vodafone. Twitter says, will continue to ink partnership with operators around the world for the Twitter SMS service.
Digicel, ZTE to launch low-cost solar-powered handsets
Low-cost solar-powered mobile phones, jointly developed by ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 000063 and SEHK: 0763) and telecom carrier Digicel, will be available in ten countries in Latin America, Mid America, and South Pacific from June 2009.
Priced at USD 40, the solar-powered mobile phone is expected to snatch a 25% share of the ten countries’ telecom market. Of the global population, 1.6 billion need such low-cost mobile phones and 680 million are able to buy the handsets. Thus, solar mobile phones have potential robust growths.
The Chinese networking and telecommunications equipment supplier will continue cooperating with Digicel in future, noted an executive from ZTE, adding that the company currently does not consider selling the solar-powered mobile phones in the domestic market.
About Digicel
Established in 2001, Digicel is the largest telecom operator in Caribbean region. It started to research solar-powered mobile phones with ZTE in 2008.
For more information, please visit www.digicelgroup.com/
