Wind Mobile launches in Edmonton (Canada)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news Globalive’s WIND Mobile has been launched in the city of Edmonton in Canada. The network will be opened at six retail locations across the city, with another one in the Edmonton City Centre set to open next month.
The company made a history in December last year by becoming the first national wireless provider to launch in Canada in over a decade. WIND will launch in Ottawa and Vancouver in the coming months.
According to Anthony Lacavera, Chairman of Globalive and WIND Mobile, people want a mobile experience that is free of contracts, system access fees, high prices, poor service, limited technology, and complicated billing, and Wind Mobile built its offering to deliver on just that.
U.S. mobile operators defend early termination fees
www.WirelessFederation.com/news The use of early termination fees has been defended by U.S. mobile operators in a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week explaining how they are informing consumers about their policies.
Each of the four major wireless carriers, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA, along with Google were asked by the FCC in January to detail how they inform customers of their fees in statements on corporate Web sites, in brochures and sales scripts, and in monthly bills. AT&T defended its use of early termination fees (ETFs) by stating that without them, consumers would have to pay more up front for phones.
According to Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior vice president for federal regulatory affairs, while the vast majority of AT&T’s subscribers choose term commitments and discounted or free handsets, AT&T has millions of month to month and prepaid subscribers.
Windows Phone 7 devices to have three main designs: Microsoft Australia
www.WirelessFederation.com/news It has been revealed by the officials from Microsoft Australia that Windows Phone 7 using devices would have only three main form factors.
The details of the chassis program much rumored last year has also been confirmed by them.
Full-touch screen devices using a 1GHz processor or even faster is the characteristic of Chassis 1 and it is the first to reach the shipping target late in 2010. Chassis 2 devices will be similar to common Windows Mobile phones and will sport a touch screen and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.
Not very much detail has been given for Chassis 3 but it is said to involve handsets with fixed-in-place keyboards.
Samsung unveils new Samsung Jet 2
www.WirelessFederation.com/news A new mobile phone has been added by world No.2 handset maker, Samsung in its Jet series roster, the Samsung Jet 2.
An enticing 3.1-inch 16M WVGA AMOLED display that offers users the most vivid and colorful touch experience is one of the unique features of this handset.
A powerful 800MHz application processor provides unprecedented speed and unrivaled performance while an English dictionary and an advanced Media Browser enables users to close several widgets at once through motion control.
Google Push Email is an additional feature and it also allows media content sharing technology among DLNA certified devices.
Palm shares drop following its warning of fewer sales
www.WirelessFederation.com/news 13% drop in the shares has been witnessed by Palm after it was warned by the US smartphone maker that its fiscal third-quarter and full-year revenues would be below forecasts due to sluggish handset sales.
A serious blow for Palm’s management has been reflected by the sales shortfall which has based the struggling company’s turnround strategy on the success of Palm’s new WebOS operating system and the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones that run on it.
Palm Pre was being launched by the company a year ago in a bid to catch up with rivals including Research in Motion’s BlackBerry family of smartphones, Google Android-based devices and the Apple iPhone.
The company has had difficulty persuading network operators and customers to embrace its new smartphones despite of the praises it received for its new operating system.
FCC to auction wireless spectrum in the USA
www.WirelessFederation.com/news A plan has been announced by the Federal Communication Commission as per which US mobile network operators will be able to bid for a prized segment of wireless spectrum for commercial use.
The auction is scheduled to take place early next year.
It has also been proposed by FCC that $12bn to $16bn will be set aside by the Congress over 10 years.
This will help support building a nationwide broadband wireless network for use by public safety workers.
China Mobile to buy 20% stake in Pudong Bank
www.WirelessFederation.com/news Following Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s announcement to enlist strategic investors, including China Mobile, the world’s biggest wireless operator, its shares were suspended from trading on Friday.
20 per cent stake in the bank, which is 3.8 per cent owned by Citigroup, is planned to be sold to China Mobile for about Rmb40bn ($5.9bn).
Pudong Development is one of the many Chinese state-controlled banks that are seeking to raise funds to shore up their balance sheets recently.
A year of unprecedented loan growth and the introduction of stricter capital requirements by regulators have been attributed behind the move by the company.
Virgin to offer 100Mb per second broadband service (Britain)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 100Mb per second broadband service will be launched by Virgin Media this year to extend its speed advantage over rivals BT and British Sky Broadcasting.
A narrowing of full-year pre-tax losses for 2009 from continuing operations from £860.2m ($1.3bn) to £337.5m has also been reported by the company. 28,600 new cable subscribers signed up the network which is the largest number of net additions since the NTL-Telewest merger four years ago.
According to Neil Berkett, chief executive, Virgin’s 100Mbps service would become available to the first customers by the end of 2010; with deployment complete a year later and he also hoped that there will be demand for a 100Mbps product as more households want to watch an internet video, play online video games and download music simultaneously.
European telcos rule out big investments in 2010
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Large acquisitions have been ruled out by Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom in 2010 besides reassuring investors about their shareholder remuneration policies.
Deutsche Telekom has proposed a 2009 dividend at €0.78 that will produce a €3.4bn pay-out. A dividend of at least €0.70 during 2010, 2011 and 2012 are due to be received by the investors, supplemented by share buy-backs. France Telecom reported €45.9bn of revenue for 2009, down 3.7 per cent on 2008, as a combination of economic and regulatory pressures hit sales.
According to Ren© Obermann, Deutsche Telekom’s chief executive, investors should receive annual remuneration of €3.4bn ($4.6bn) through a combination of dividends and share buy-backs between 2010 and 2012 while Stephane Richard, France Telecom’s incoming chief executive hoped that the company could at least match its proposed €1.40-a-share dividend for 2009 in 2010 and 2011.
Telecom Italia launches investigation in tax scam
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Thorough investigation has been launched by Telecom Italia into the role of one of its subsidiaries in an alleged €2bn ($2.7bn) tax evasion scam. The Italian prosecutors believe this scam to be one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The alleged €2bn fraud centers on Sparkle, Fastweb and a network of offshore groups in Panama, Luxembourg and other jurisdictions. The alleged evasion of €350m in value-added tax on the deals is also investigated by the prosecutors and Italy’s tax police.
According to Franco Bernab©, chief executive, board of Italy’s biggest telecommunications group was examining 1,600 pages of court documents relating to a sweeping tax evasion and money laundering probe involving Sparkle, its wholesale voice and broadband business, and Fastweb, another Italian telecoms group.
