Roaming charges on Vodafone reduced by 50% in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Adding a new spice to the latest tariff war in the world’s fastest-growing cellular market, India, Vodafone Essar, reduced its roaming charges by more than 50% besides offering the option for per-second pulse.
The pay per second plan launched by TATA DoCoMo has made the other operators to join the war. Some are even coming up with other lucrative plans like 50 paise per minute, for all types of calls, local as well as roaming by Reliance Communications and to 60 paisa per minute roaming charges by Bharti Airtel.
Though the customers are benefiting a lot from this tariff war, the mobile operators are losing out on revenues. The stock prices of listed telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, RelCom and others are sliding.
One of the major reasons behind this war is to attract the new users as new operators are entering the market. Norway’s Telenor launch made it the 12th operator playing in the Indian market while, Arab’s second-biggest carrier Etisalat is planning to enter India.
Price rise for Telmex’s fixed line only customers(Mexico)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile operator Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) announced that only the fixed line only subscribers in Mexico will have to face price rise, while there will be no rise on the packages including a broadband service. For the packages that have monthly fee, local and long distance calls, digital services, and high speed internet, the prices will remain the same.
Lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico’s Chamber of Representatives, passed a legislation levying 3% excise on telecommunication services in October 2009. Telmex took the decision in order to avoid the offset of the increase in taxes on telecom firms, by increasing the cost of the services to its customers.
Earlier, 4% tax was proposed but it was reduced by one percent by the lawmakers.
Telenor concerned over lack of spectrum (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Claiming it as the largest single day launch in telecom history, Uninor, Telenor’s Indian unit launched its GSM network covering nearly 600 million people. But at the same time, the company also expressed its
concerns over the lack of spectrum.
The company said that when they got the license, they were said to be given extra spectrum after reaching certain subscribers level. Two third of Uninor is owned by Scandinavia’s Telenor while the rest is owned by India’s Unitech Group.
The company plans to cover 22 telecom circles in India in which eight circles will be covered in this month while five will be covered early next year. Instead of offering per second billing, Uninor has offered 25 paise per minute tariff for local calls, and 49 paise for STD.
Rwanda receives its third mobile network service
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: African telecom company Millicom officially launched its mobile operations in Rwanda after receiving the license in December 2008, thus becoming the third operator in the country. The service will cover almost 50% of the population while there are plans to extend the service in the next three years.
The 3G infrastructure of the firm has been deployed in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda including other key urban centers.
According to Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom, Rwanda has emerged as a highly lucrative market with the population of 10 million, less than 20% mobile penetration and the country’s status as a highly developing economy.
With its strengths in distribution and innovation, the company feels that it can provide Rwanda’s mass market with mobile voice and value-added services.
Verizon Wireless questioned by FCC regarding fee hike (America)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Federal Communications Commission of the USA has asked for an explanation from Verizon Wireless regarding accidental data charges even when they terminate their contract on some of their phones.
The carrier hiked its contract termination fee from $175 to $350 for its “smart” phones in the month of November. Verizon subsidized the cost of the devices to contract-signing customers on the line of all the other carriers while smart phones cost the carrier more than regular phones.
FCC has also asked Verizon if the customers who accidentally hit Web access buttons on phones that have no data plans, are also charged? The carrier has said that the charges were already stopped a few months ago.
Puerto Rico’s Sprint acquires iPCS Inc for $426 million
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Puerto Rico based Sprint Nextel Corp. acquired wireless affiliate iPCS Inc for $426 million. The deal will lead to the addition of 700,000 customers as Sprint subscribers.
iPCS’s shareholders will get $24 per share in cash and Sprint will also take on $405 million in debt.
Before the deal, Schaumburg based iPCS had the right to sell wireless service in 81 markets in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee under the brand name of Sprint but now it will function as the wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint.
TOT launches 3G network in Thailand
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of 3G network by Thailand’s state-controlled mobile network TOT got a cold response from the subscribers. However, initially the network will be available only in Bangkok and the areas surrounding it. Expansion of the network in the near future relies on the auction of the 3G license.
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will offer four licenses- three of 10 Mhz and a fourth with 15Mhz of radio spectrum while the reserve price will range between US$100-US$200 million. The process will not take place until next year as there is a lack of executives to form a quorum.
Small trials of 3G networks are already run by the current operators over their existing GSM radio spectrum, while CAT Telecom which is a CDMA operator, is seeking an overseas investor to assist in 3G rollout plans
FIFA World Cup to come live on Optus 3G phones
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Optus 3G phone subscribers will now get to see live 2010 FIFA World Cup for free. The company has entered into a deal with FIFA (F©d©ration Internationale de Football Association) for the streaming of the live matches. Though the entire 3G mobile device already have the application, the iPhones will receive the solution for the broadcast before the World Cup kick starts in June 2010.
Footage captured by the cameras recording the game for the mobile phone form factor will be supplied by FIFA to mobile broadcasters. Unless there are two simultaneous games, all the operators will receive the same feed.
Optus said that it will give priority to the games played by Australian teams. Besides, it has also entered into another agreement with SBS, a television broadcaster for additional footage available from its “The World Game” program.
Azerbaijan joins Iran and Russia to improve connectivity in Caspian region
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The largest stakeholder in Iran based Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, Iranmobin entered into a 50/50 equity joint venture with Russian C-Ring Telecom. C -Ring Telecom is a subsidiary of Russian long-distance operator Synterra while TIC is a unit of fixed line monopoly Telecommunication Company of Iran.
In order to rollout a new fibre-optic ring around the Caspian Sea to handle Europe-Asia voice, Azerbaijan’s AzTelekom forged an agreement with the new venture. The agreement also aims at improving internet service delivery in the Caspian region.
The agreement was signed at trade and economic cooperation summit held in Tehran by Russian and Iranian state and company officials. TIC also signed an agreement with Rostelecom, another Russian carrier, to share international transmission links.
Telsur bought by GTD for USD115 million
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a USD115 million deals, Quinenco agreed to sell telecom firm Telefonica del Sur (Telsur) to rival telco GTD. Chilean financial and industrial conglomerate Quinenco has 74.43% stake in Telsur.
While highlighting the magnetism of Telsur, GTD said that the company has transformed itself from line operator into a multi service provider and now offers a range of broadband and broadcast services. GTD also felt that by the end of 2009, GTD and Telsur together will have a customer base of 480,000 subscribers in fixed and wireless telephony, internet, and digital TV.
Telsur has predicted an annual revenue of USD133 million while GTD expects USD175 million for 2009.
