AAPT and Telstra agree commercial terms
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telstra Wholesale and AAPT today announced that they have reached commercial agreement on a broad range of products and services including Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), Local Carriage Service (LCS) and PSTN Originating Terminating Access (PSTN OTA).
The agreement extends an existing long-term commercial relationship initially forged between the two parties in 1991 when AAPT, Australia’s third largest telecommunications group, started offering competitive fixed line services to Australian consumers. (more…)
Zong & Worldcall ink deal with USF (Pakistan)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Pakistan’s Universal Service Fund (USF) has reportedly inked agreements with mobile network operator CMPak (Zong) and broadband provider Worldcall Telecom. Zong will be paid PKR1.57 billion (USD18.9 million) to launch basic telephony services in the Jaffarabad, Naseerabad and Jhal Magsi administrative divisions in Balochistan; the cellco is anticipated to offer services to around half a million people in 648 mauzas (villages) that are currently unserved. Worldcall, meanwhile, will be given PKR785 million to provide broadband connection in eleven districts in Southern Punjab. The CEO of the USF, Parvez Iftikhar, also unveiled that, having signed these two most recent agreements, the fund has surpassed the PKR10 billion mark in terms of subsidies granted to operators for rolling out services in underserved and unserved areas.
Orange UK launches Orange Monkey, free music streaming for prepay subscribers
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orange UK has reportedly launched free music streaming service for its prepay subscribers. The operator has tied up with Universal Music and Channel 4 to launch Orange Monkey service to offer subscribers free access to a large number of songs streamed to any mobile phone.
The service will target the people who fall into 16-34 and will allow them to create, listen and share playlists via the platform.
At present there is only label on board which may limit the choice of music content. According to the analysts the service will attract a large number of subscribers.
LG to launch Wine 3G in September’09 (Korea)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: LG, the handset manufacturer, intends to launch the 3G version of the very popular LG Wine series, which has been a success with more than 2 million units sold globally.
The 3G version will be unveiled in Korea in September’09, via SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom.
The key features of LG’s Wine phones are the large screen and keypad, quick-access keys, text-to-speech, and the simple overall design.
O2 Germany expands mobile advertising services
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: O2 Germany has expanded its mobile advertising business with new O2 Advertising Services. These will allow companies to place targeted ad messages and generate a higher response rate. The services will enable advertising partners to benefit from a strong brand with a positive image and high awareness. They will also conduct international campaigns across the Telefonica network. O2 Advertising Services include mobile ad formats such as display ads in mobile portals, SMS and MMS campaigns.
KCC approves KT-KTF merger (Korea)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Korean Communication Commission, the regulatory authority of Korea, has reportedly given its approval to KT and KTF merger, the largest merger case outside the financial industry in Korea’s history.
The merger will comprise of W24 trillion in assets and sales of W19 trillion (US$1=W1,422), exceeding even the merger of LG Electronics and LG Information & Communications in 2000, which produced combined sales of W16 trillion. It is expected to be the first of many restructuring plans in the information and communications industry.
Hungary ends June with 11.88Mn mobile subscribers
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: NHH, the Hungarian regulator has reportedly released a data on the mobile subscribers across the nation for the month of June. The data unveils that the subscriber base dropped by 23,323 in the month of June to 11.88 million.
Pannon saw a drop in its market share from 34.87% to 34.73%, Vodafone’s remained almost unchanged at 21.06% compared with 21.07%, while T-Mobile’s slice of the pie grew to 44.21% up from 44.07%.
Active subscriptions, however, increased from 10.63 million in May to 10.64 million in June.
T-Mobile USA to launch HTC Touch Pro2 on 12 August
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: T-Mobile USA will reportedly launch the HTC Touch Pro2 smartphone for its subscribers on 12 August. The handset will be available in mocha finish, but pricing details remain unrevealed.
While the smartphone will still run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, it brings a number of notable improvements, such as a brilliant 3.6-inch WVGA tilting touch screen, a touch-sensitive zoom bar, a spacious full QWERTY keyboard, and support for T-Mobile’s 3G network. The Touch Pro2 rounds out the wireless options with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Other goodies include HTC’s Straight Talk technology, which brings enhanced phone features, and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
T-Mobile will be the first USA mobile operator to offer HT Touch Pro2.
Sprint Nextel reports Q2’09 results (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sprint Nextel Corp. today reported second quarter 2009 financial results that included consolidated net operating revenues of $8.1 billion, a net loss of $384 million and a diluted loss per share of 13 cents. The company generated Free Cash Flow* of $676 million in the quarter and $1.5 billion in the first half of 2009. As of June 30, 2009, the company had $4.6 billion of cash and cash equivalents and $1.5 billion of borrowing capacity available under its revolving bank credit facility, for a total liquidity of $6.1 billion.
In the second quarter, we made further progress on our efforts to enhance financial stability, improve the customer experience and reinvigorate the brand,†said Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel CEO. The widespread visibility surrounding our record-breaking June launch of the Palm® Preâ„¢ handset gave us an unprecedented opportunity to showcase these improvements to customers as ‘a new Sprint.’ They saw a 3G network described by PC World magazine as the most reliable among competitors, key satisfaction and performance metrics in customer care improving for 18 straight months, advertising that won the top international award in Cannes, and a stable balance sheet with 2009 long-term debt maturities paid and enough cash on hand to cover maturities through 2011. (more…)
