Fastweb probe hits Swisscom net profit
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to provisions for a tax fraud probe at the Italian subsidiary Fastweb, net profit for the first quarter of Swisscom plunged by over a fifth. 22.1% fall in the net profit has been reported by the operator for the three months ended March 31, 2010 which went down to CHF377 million (USD341 million) from CHF484 million a year ago.
1.3% rise in the net revenues has also been recorded which went up to CHF2.95 billion, courtesy slight recovery in the economy. Proceedings against Fastweb, for which a sum of CHF102 million has been set aside resulted in the poor performance of the company.
Arrest warrants for 56 people had been issued by prosecutors’ in Rome in February, including Fastweb founder Silvio Scaglia over alleged money laundering and tax fraud offences. According to Swisscom, out of a total of EUR2 billion in value added tax (VAT) said to have been evaded by the numerous companies being probed, Fastweb is allegedly involved in some EUR40 million in evaded VAT.
4.6 billion Mobile subscriptions in 2009: UN
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a report issued by an International Telecommunication Union, 57% of people in developing nations were mobile phone subscribers. 4.6 billion mobile subscriptions at the end of last year has also been estimated in the report compared with about one billion in 2002.
An estimated 1.7 billion people, or 26% of the world’s population, were online last year, up from 11 per cent in 2002.
China comprises a third of the people online in the developing world, still, four out of five people living in poor countries had no access to the internet. It has also been found that general access to the internet, telephones and other technologies was becoming cheaper, with the cost dropping in nearly every country last year.
Hutchison 3G Austria modernizes its network for HSPA+ and LTE
Hutchison 3G Austria is modernizing its radio access network to be ready for HSPA+ and the next generation of mobile broadband, or LTE. At the same time this step will allow the operator to halve the energy consumption of its base stations. Nokia Siemens Networks will undertake this upgrade starting in autumn 2009.
The demand for increased mobile broadband capacity and throughput in Austria is reflected in the increasing usage of data cards and mobile services like Mobile TV, video download or video sharing,†said Berthold Thoma, CEO of Hutchison 3G Austria. Mobile broadband is also one of the most pragmatic solutions to bridging the digital gap between cities and rural areas. For rural areas, mobile broadband coverage is simply less expensive and faster to deploy than fiber to the home†solutions. We hope that with our nationwide coverage we will contribute significantly to this end.†(more…)
