Swisscom starts review of allegations against Fastweb
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An in- depth review has been started by Swisscom AG into allegations that its Italian broadband unit Fastweb SpA was embroiled in a EUR2 billion money-laundering and tax-evasion scheme. The decision has been taken as it is felt that legal repercussions could trigger goodwill write-downs and hurt its profits.
Arrest warrants against 56 people, including Fastweb’s founder Silvio Scaglia and four other former Fastweb staff has been issued by an Italian judge alleging they took part in a money laundering ring between 2003 and 2006.
It has also been alleged by the Italian prosecutors that Scaglia was part of a ring with mafia ties that used phony companies to launder money to buy jewels, cars and real estate between 2003 and 2006.
T-Mobile UK launches European data roaming deals
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Some new data bundles have been introduced by T-Mobile UK which a user can enable by simply opening the laptop browser while abroad.
The competitive boosters include- 3MB for £1 with about 15 minutes online checking email (lasts 24hrs); 20MB for £5 with about 2 hours online usage (lasts 24hrs); 50MB for £10 with one days use (lasts 24hrs); 200MB for £40 with 30 days usage.
This is aimed at those people who take their laptops with mobile broadband dongles abroad and the system will simply bring the user back to the ‘buy more’ page when they have exceeded their allowance of allotted time.
Leap Wireless & Pocket Communications start joint venture (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Deal for a joint venture has been signed between Leap Wireless International Inc. and a Texas-based month-to-month mobile service provider, Pocket Communications Inc.
Under the deal, Leap will own 76% of the joint venture, which includes wireless spectrum and operating assets, while Pocket controls the rest besides buying some of Pocket’s assets for $38 million in cash.
Leap has expressed its wish to hold the controlling stake in the joint venture with an aim to strengthen its position in the South Texas area. The deal signifies an increased willingness for deals among low-end players that provide wireless service without a contract.
NRIs, now send Free Holi SMS to anyone in India!
Send Free Holi SMS to your friends and family this Holi from anywhere in the world!
To send Free Holi SMS: Click Here and For 35 ideas on great Holi SMS texts go here: http://sms.youmint.com/holi-sms/holi-sms1.html
Millions of people across India and the world will be celebrating the festival of colours, Holi, on Monday (March 1).
The festival is celebrated by throwing colours and coloured water at each other. While nothing can beat playing Holi with friends and family, one can also wish friends and colleagues a Happy Holi by sending Free SMS wishes through YouMint.com
YouMint a leader in permission marketing in the Indian market has just announced that it will allow Resident and Non-Resident Indians to send Free Holi SMS to anyone in India.
According to Hindu mythology, bonfires are lit to commemorate the death of the demoness Holika, when she attempted to burn Prahlada by carrying him into a fire. Due to his devotion to the gods, Prahlada survived the blaze while Holika didn’t. This festival is also linked to Lord Krishna and is celebrated with more fervour in Mathura and Vrindavan.
iPhones & BlackBerry triggers Q4 handset sales
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a research, the global handset sales have been increased by 8.3% in the fourth quarter of 2009 triggered by the growing popularity of iPhones and BlackBerry devices.
The sales reached 53.8 million units in Q4, up 41.1% from the same period in 2008 while the total handset sales for the quarter passed 340 million units.
With 23.8% increase from 2008, full-year smartphone sales totaled 172.4 million units. The result came despite a 0.9% fall in total phone shipments to 1.21 billion. The handset segment last year was dogged by intense price competition†that pressured Average Selling Prices (ASPs).
The market was successfully captured by Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) thus controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively.
Ericsson acquires 100% shares of LHS
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: At an extra-ordinary shareholders’ meeting on December 21, 2009, the remaining minority shareholders in LHS AG have sold their shares to Ericsson, through a squeeze-out process.
The de-listing from Deutsche B¶rse, Frankfurt am Main, is soon to be finalized while Ericsson is already registered as owner of 100% of the shares in LHS AG.
A leading billing and customer care software and services company, LHS’s postpaid offerings have been combined with Ericsson’ prepaid solutions with this acquisition. This has enabled Ericsson to provide a fully integrated convergent charging and billing solution for mobile and fixed operators.
3G network-sharing agreement signed by French mobile operators
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An agreement has been signed between three established mobile phone operators of France to share third-generation mobile network installations in order to extend 3G network coverage across the country.
Principles on how to share 3G mobile network deployments has been laid down in the framework agreement signed by France Telecom’s Orange, Vivendi SA’s SFR and Bouygues’ Bouygues Telecom on February 11.
According to French telecoms regulator Arcep, the agreement will help speed up the extension of the 3G network in France and will enable full nationwide coverage by the end of 2013. Terms for the inclusion of Iliad’s Free Mobile in the agreement will also be discussed by the three operators before May 31, 2010.
Alca-Lu reflects damage control mode after NZ network failures
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The repeated outages at the HSPA network supplied by Alcatel-Lucent to Telecom NZ have made the former go into a damage control mode. CEO of Alca- Lu, Ben Verwaayen went onto the airwaves to defend the company, but failed to explain the failures.
Verwaayen attributed the initial network problem to a serious hardware failure caused by traffic surges resulting from users trying to get back on the network which subsequently overloaded the system.
According to Paul Budde from Australian-based research firm Paul Budde Communications, the situation was getting very serious for Telecom New Zealand, damaging its credibility which in turn could weaken its chance of winning the next stage of the country’s fiber roll out project.
Google faces anti-trust probe by European Commission
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The anti-trust probe started by European Commission to find out the dominance of Google in the search market will receive co-operation from Google, as per the search giant.
Price comparison site Foundem, French online legal services guide ejustice.fr, and Microsoft-backed German portal Ciao complained against Google alleging that it is using its market power to limit competition their ability to compete and the EC in turn launched an investigation against the company.
According to the one of the complainant, Google’s own price comparison service comes top of the list of results when a user searches for a specific item they want to buy. The same goes for searches for video content.
Google, on the other hand has acknowledged the complaints on its corporate blog.
Nakhchivan’s 3G network to be boosted by Azerbaijan govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 21,000 mobile subscribers will be provided with 3G network coverage by May due to deployment of third-generation base stations in the autonomous republic of Nakhchivan. The revelation came from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies (MCIT).
Broadband internet, mobile TV and video calling services will be promoted with the expansion of 3G infrastructure to towns and villages in the area.
The only 3G license in Azerbaijan was issued to Azerfon by MCIT to provide 3G services. Azerfon launched its 3G network in Baku, Sumgait, Ganja, Shirvan, Nakhchivan, Mingachevir, Tovuz and Shamkir, as well as in the Absheron Peninsula, shortly after receiving its concession in December 2009.
