India’s 3G auction- Wait is not over yet
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The operators waiting to have a 3G network does not see an end to their wait as the auction for 3G network has again been postponed and this time not for few days but for months.
The Indian government has announced that it might defer the bandwidth auction for the third generation the next fiscal year starting April 1, 2010.
Since January 16, 2009, the dates for the auctions have been deferred thrice over issues such as an increase in the starting price of bandwidth and the number of slots to be sold.
AT&T to invest billions in network overhaul
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Billions will be invested by AT&T this year for the overhauling of its 3G network. The iPhone-related mobile data traffic explosion has resulted in dropped calls and painfully slow throughput in some congested markets and this move is aimed at keeping up with this congestion.
$18 billion to $19 billion is the expected capital expenditures investment by AT&T in 2010 which is about $2 billion more than last year on wireless network and backhaul. iPhone zones like New York and San Francisco are the main targets of this overhaul and the operator will increase its capacity, with 2,000 additional cell sites and 400,000 more square miles of 3G coverage.
The move has become even more imperative for AT&T because of the introduction of Apple iPad which has increased the data traffic even further.
Indian telco MTNL loses INR8.76 billion
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to the rise in the cost and fall in the revenue from basic and cellular services, state owned Indian telco Mahanagar Telephone Nagar limited posted a net loss of INR8.76 billion for its fiscal third quarter.
Total revenue at the company fell about 18% to INR9.19 billion from INR11.25 billion. 51% rise in the total cost from INR12.91 billion to INR19.49 billion has also been recorded while its non-operating income fell to INR1.01 billion from INR2.61 billion.
25% drop to INR7.46 billion from INR9.92 million has been found in the revenue from basic wire line telephony services. Besides, the cellular services also fell about 22% to INR1.66 billion in the latest third quarter.
Tata Communications net profit triples in Q3 (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tax write-back and lower costs helped in the tripling of Tata Communications net profit in the third-quarter. INR2.81 billion has been gained by tax write backs compared with a tax expense of INR394.5 million a year earlier.
An increase from INR821.9 million to INR2.82 billion has been recorded in the net profit for the October-December period. While the Revenue fell 23% to INR7.70 billion from INR9.99 billion. Total costs slipped 12% to INR7.66 billion from INR8.74 billion.
China Unicom’s net profit drops by 50%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 50% decrease in the net profit has been expected by Chinese telecommunications operator China Unicom because a one-off disposal gain boosted its 2008 results significantly.
An after-tax gain of 27.57 billion Yuan ($4 billion) for 2008 had been generated by China Unicom after selling its code division multiple access mobile operations to China Telecom Corp. in October 2008
High costs and expenses for its new third-generation mobile business have been cited as some of the reasons behind the poor performance of the company in 2009.
Telecom Italia to face moral suasion from Italy govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Italy government has expressed that the only way to stop the merger of Telecom Italia and Telefonica SA is the moral suasion of the shareholders of the former.
Telecom Italia which is Italy’s largest telecom group is considered an asset by the country’s politicians who are disgusted to see it fall into the hands of a foreign operator. But at the same time, the Italian banks owning stakes in Telecom Italia are unsatisfied with their investment.
According to Telecommunications Deputy Minister Paolo Romani, in case of a merger with a multinational company, it would be important to maintain some kind of Italian governance for Telecom Italia, which would be able to decide on how to prioritize investments.
France to sell of remaining 3G frequencies
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The two remaining frequencies left to be allocated for the fourth 3G wireless license will be sold by France at a price of EUR120 million (USD168 million). The same amount was paid by Iliad recently for Free Mobile’s 3G operating license. However, price will actually be determined by the regulator Arcep, and not the government.
There are three operating blocks in the fourth 3G license, out of which, one is for a new market entrant (Iliad), and the other two are open for any of the incumbent cellcos Orange France, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.
Arcep will take the decision on the 3G spectrum in H1 2010 which would be followed by 4G auctions.
DT not obliged to grant access to VDSL dark fibre: German court
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to the latest ruling by highest administrative court, the Leipzig-based Bundesverwaltungsgericht, Deutsche Telekom (DT) is not obliged to grant competitors access to dark fibre on its VDSL network.
However, DT has been asked to follow the December 2009 order of Federal Network Agency (FNA) to allow its competitors access to its street cabinets and empty pipes.
A complaint has also been filed by UK-based operator Vodafone following the failure of talks between its German unit and DT to negotiate access to the latter’s VDSL network. The company has argued that the fact that it constituted a new market and the scale of its investment means that the fibre-optic network should be exempted from competition.
3G network to be launched by Orange Dominicana by next month
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 3G services will finally be introduced by Dominican mobile network operator Orange Dominicana at an expenditure of USD25 million in the beginning of February 2010. This will help the users to connect to the ‘Orange Net 3G+’, which will offer download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps.
Initially, the network will only be available in Santo Domingo, Santiago and Bavaro but the service will be extended to the other areas within 12 months. The announcement has been officially made by Orange after a number of rumors in the Dominican press that Orange had been testing 3G networks.
UK to wait till 2011 for 2.6GHz spectrum auction
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: UK will have to wait until 2011 at the earliest for the auction of Long Term Evolution (LTE) spectrum. The comment came from Independent Spectrum Broker, Kip Meek, after O2 UK, UK’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, announced the completion of its LTE trials in Slough, recording download speeds of 150Mbps during the pilot.
According to Meek, the delay in the sale of 2.6GHz spectrum stems partially from reluctance from the market’s major players to get involved now while the operators are focusing on trialling the provision of 3G services over the 900MHz band, as they claim this will help them assess how much they would be willing to pay for spectrum in the debated band.
