Verizon announces prepaid mobile data offerings

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Verizon Wireless has announced its prepaid mobile data plans for most of the Smart-phones and some feature phones it sells. Before this it was possible to buy prepaid voice plans but not data plans.

Prepaid accounts for close to two-thirds of all new connections amongst all major US carriers. Given this situation, all carriers are drawing their attention to prepaid data plans. The fledgling economy is forcing telcos to enrich their pre-paid offerings.

Earlier, ClearWire, a 4G service provider majority owned by Sprint-Nextel announced a flat-price prepaid mobile data  brand for its Wimax network called  Rover. Virgin Mobile also announced a $40 contract-free data plan last month.  AT&T customers can also get  pre-paid data plans, just like their contract counterparts.

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Telenor Investors advise the company to ‘Quit India’

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Nine months after its entrance in the Indian mobile-phone market, Telenor has faced US$556 million operating losses which makes the investor tell Telenor ASA to Quit India.

The company spent around US$1.3 billion to buy control of its India venture and invested US$ 787.1568 million more on capital expenditure. It has estimated the division will be profitable in three years.

According to Jesper Kruger, a fund manager at ATP, most investors don’t apply any value to the Indian operations. Quitting India would certainly help sentiment.

According to Martin Hoff, an analyst at Arctic Securities in Oslo, Telenor’s experience in India, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market after China, shows that of Vodafone Group Plc as more than a dozen operators vie for users, pushing call rates to as low as a penny a minute. Telenor may revise its outlook for India at its annual investor meeting is on Sept. 21.The average revenue per user in India has collapsed in the last two years to a level below Telenor’s expectations. The old guidance of breakeven in three years looks impossible and I expect they will incur pretty large losses every quarter for the next couple of years.

Nine months after its entrance in the Indian mobile-phone market, Telenor has faced US$556 million operating losses which makes the investor tell Telenor ASA to Quit India.

The company spent around US$1.3 billion to buy control of its India venture and invested US$ 787.1568 million more on capital expenditure. It has estimated the division will be profitable in three years.

According to Jesper Kruger, a fund manager at ATP, most investors don’t apply any value to the Indian operations. Quitting India would certainly help sentiment.

According to Martin Hoff, an analyst at Arctic Securities in Oslo, Telenor’s experience in India, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market after China, shows that of Vodafone Group Plc as more than a dozen operators vie for users, pushing call rates to as low as a penny a minute. Telenor may revise its outlook for India at its annual investor meeting is on Sept. 21.The average revenue per user in India has collapsed in the last two years to a level below Telenor’s expectations. The old guidance of breakeven in three years looks impossible and I expect they will incur pretty large losses every quarter for the next couple of years.

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Zain Saudi Arabia anticipates 60% growth in revenue this year: Nabil Bin Salamah

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

According to Zain Group Chief Executive Officer Nabil Bin Salamah, Zain Saudi Arabia, a unit of Kuwait’s biggest mobile-phone company, anticipates 60% growth in revenue this year compared by 2009. Zain Saudi Arabia’s capital raise is to finance the company’s growth plans.

Zain Saudi is looking for investor consent to trim down its share capital by 48% and subsequently lift up its capital by 60% at an anonymous date.

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Private equity groups in line to bid for Polkomtel

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

The world’s biggest Private equity groups like Apax Partners, Blackstone, TPG and CVC Capital Partners are lining US$5.2billion, leveraged coup bids for Polish mobile operator Polkomtel biggest mobile phone operators, in which Vodafone owns a stake of almost 25 per cent.

The mobile operator is expected to be unlikely to attract interest from large European telecommunications groups. The company is likely to be valued at around six times EBITDA, which fell 14% US$883 million to last year.

France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom already have Polish mobile businesses and would almost certainly run into objections by regulators if they tried to buy Polkomtel.

Vodafone, which once wanted control of Polkomtel, is now willing to sell its 24.4% stake as the UK mobile group looks at maximizing returns to its shareholders in part by selling minority stakes.

Vodafone has made no decisions on whether to sell but people familiar with the UK group was willing to exit if a suitable offer was made. While Vodafone could preserve its stake, it is unlikely to exercise a right of first negative response that would enable it to buy out Polkomtel’s other shareholders.

Any sale is unlikely to be completed before next year.

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Telstra initiates IPO of Chinese on-line property SouFun at US$850million

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Telstra Australia has begun an IPO of SouFun, a Chinese online real-estate property, at price range valuing the unit at up to $850 million. Telstra bought 50.5% of SouFun in 2006 for $254 million, aims to sell its intact holding. The listing is likely to be absolute by September 30.

The company cased a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO of American depository shares. The statement sets an investigative price range of US$40.50-US$42.50 per share.

The operator has already secured underwriters to buy up any of Telstra’s stake not purchased during the listing.

According to reports, the move to exit SouFun has led to uncertainty about Telstra’s future plans for China. SouFun had contributed to around half of Telstra’s revenue from China, but the company still owns approximately $300 million worth of other Chinese assets.

Telstra has warned that any gain on the sale of SouFun will be contacted by Forex movements as its acquisition. The price range is also lesser than expected when proposed last December – investment bank Macquarie had at the time valued Telstra’s stake in SouFun alone at up to US$916.6million.

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Mobinil Might sell US$175million bonds to expand funds: CEO

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

The Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services possibly will issue bonds valued at US$175 million. According to Chief Executive Officer Hassan Kabbani, The Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services may issue bonds valued at US$175 million. The Cairo-based company that operates under the brand Mobinil plans to use the proceeds to fund network expansion. The time frame for the sale is yet to be disclosed.

Mobinil sold 2.32 billion U.S. dollars of bonds this year with the institutional portion having 1.5 times more offers than bonds available, and the sale to individual investors being 11.4 times oversubscribed.

According to Kabbani, the first issue was a huge success, the company got a positive reaction and that’s why the company is thinking of a second issue to fund expansion. Mobinil has a very aggressive expansion plan.The company has difficulties borrowing from banks because the central bank limits how much a local company can rise from lenders and treats, Mobinil as a unit of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE when it should be considered part of France Telecom SA.

Orascom first operation was the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services commonly known as Mobinil. Mobinil is a market leader serving over 24.2 million subscribers representing a market share of 43.6% (as of September 2009). Mobinil is one of Egypt’s five largest companies on Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE”) in terms of market capitalization.

Orascom and the Paris-based company in May settled a more than two-year legal dispute over the ownership of Mobinil, keeping the ownership structure unmoved.

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TPSA Ordered France Telecom To Pay US$510 million to DPTG

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

France Telecom SA’s Polish unit TPSA (Telekomunikacja Polska SA) has been ordered to shell out US$510.44 million to DPTG (Danish Polish Telecommunications Group) by arbitration court in Vienna. France Telecom owns 49.79% in TPSA.

This verdict covers a preliminary period from February 1994 to June 2004, and the second phase of the proceedings will examine the period from July 2004 to January 2009, if the parties negotiate a settlement.

According to France Telecom, TPSA is probing its options regarding taking further legal action to counter this decision. TPSA will announce as soon as possible any further steps to be taken on the issue, in particular regarding the execution of the decision. The company has already made the appropriate provisions relative to these proceedings for which the decision was expected although the calendar remained uncertain.

The possible monetary impact is excluded from France Telecom’s cash flow guidance for 2010, alongside all other outstanding items. France Telecom reaffirmed its commitment to payout a dividend of US$1.80 a share for 3 consequent years.

France Telecom SA’s Polish unit TPSA (Telekomunikacja Polska SA) has been ordered to shell out US$510.44 million to DPTG (Danish Polish Telecommunications Group) by arbitration court in Vienna. France Telecom owns 49.79% in TPSA.

This verdict covers a preliminary period from February 1994 to June 2004, and the second phase of the proceedings will examine the period from July 2004 to January 2009, if the parties negotiate a settlement.

According to France Telecom, TPSA is probing its options regarding taking further legal action to counter this decision. TPSA will announce as soon as possible any further steps to be taken on the issue, in particular regarding the execution of the decision. The company has already made the appropriate provisions relative to these proceedings for which the decision was expected although the calendar remained uncertain.

The possible monetary impact is excluded from France Telecom’s cash flow guidance for 2010, alongside all other outstanding items. France Telecom reaffirmed its commitment to payout a dividend of US$1.80 a share for 3 consequent years.

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Cell C launches HSPA+ network with data speed up to 21.6 Mbps

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

South Africa’s third cellular network operator Cell C has launched 4G brand in Port Elizabeth. The new HSPA+ network is scheduled for a phased roll out in 10 cities across the country.

The company is launching 2 packages; the initial package will include 24GB of data with a limited speed of to 7.2Mbps, while a second package will include 60GB of data with a speed of up to 21.6Mbps. Cell C will make data available at 5c per MB in package with an out-of-bundle rate of 39c.

According to Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt, the new network uses technology from Chinese manufacturer ZTE. HSPA+ gives a lot wider and deeper coverage. An HSPA+ transmitter on 900 MHz can cover three to five times more area than a UMTS 2100 site, so the company needs fewer base stations to cover an area. The voice will also improve with the new technology, which penetrates walls better and is less prone to interference. Cell C is upgrading the hub of its network with fibre-optic cables and has already rolled out 1461km of fibre. The company is on track to cover 34% of South Africa’s population by the end of 2010 and will cover about 67% by mid-2011.

Cell C re-identified in August with a nationwide marketing campaign and a controversial logo that resembles the copyright symbol.

The network is also launching BlackBerry on its network in August and will connect more than 9000 BlackBerry devices since then.

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Elitecore to enter African telecom market with BSS/OSS solutions

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

Elitecom Technologies, a professional service provider to the global networking and operations support systems (BSS/OSS) has revealed its venture in the African market with its BSS/OSS product suites that are ready for next generation networking (NGN)
Elitecore will propose its billing and revenue management confirmation, approval and bookkeeping product sets in market.
In the 4th Annual Service and Network Operations meet in Swaziland, Elitecore demonstrated its NGN product suites to leading service providers of the African subcontinent.
According to Nikhil Jain, chief operating officer, Elitecore Technologies, the company is uniquely positioned in the OSS/BSS segment as a single vendor offering ‘End to End’ AAA, billing and revenue management, and rating and charging solutions.

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Indian Govt demanding action from Telcos on IMEI

On 09.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

After a much hyped threat to shut-down BlackBerry services, the Department of Telecom in India sees another concern on handsets without IMEI numbers.

The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a unique 17 or 15 digit code used to identify an individual mobile station to a GSM network. The IMEI number provides an important function; it uniquely identifies a specific mobile phone being used on a mobile network. The IMEI is a useful tool to prevent a stolen handset from accessing a network and being used to place calls. Mobile phone owners who have their phones stolen can contact their mobile network provider and ask them disable a phone using its IMEI number. With an IMEI number, the phone can be blocked from the network quickly and easily.

According to DoT, all telecom companies will get show-cause notices within the next couple of days for failure to shut out mobile services to customers whose handsets do not have a unique ID.

A recent observance study by DoT revealed that the ban on offering mobile services to handsets without the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is still only on paper as networks of all mobile phone companies are still supporting such devices.

The telecom department had ordered all telcos to set up EIR (Equipment Identity Register) so that calls without IMEI or invalid identification numbers are not processed. This will help security agencies looking to investigate into the bomb blasts in several cities, which stated that mobile phones used by terrorists did not bear valid IMEI numbers. DoT made this policy in December 2009.

According to the DoT report, every tenth call made from the network of certain operators initiates from a handset that does not have an IMEI number.

With the generation of this notice DoT will impose financial penalties on all telecom companies. Under the new rules, telcos wil have to first pay up the penalties and will be given a refund, or the same will be adjusted against their licence or spectrum fees, if the courts uphold their case.

According to a source, importers of low-end handsets, especially from China, were cloning genuine IEMI numbers on to these devices resulting in many phones having the same unique ID. When several handsets have the same IMEI code, only one may reflect in the system.

The precise numbers of handsets that do not have an IMEI code are unknown. Last year about 5% of India’s 500-million cellular users were estimated to be using such phones. Prior to the ban, DoT had allowed private agencies to install IMEI numbers on these handsets but details on the number of customers who opted for this facility are not available.

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