Winning 3G bid might be used as base price for future sale: DOT
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The base price for all airwaves sale in the future will now be based on the winning bids in each circle for the upcoming third generation (3G) spectrum in India. It may also be recommended by TRAI that the current policy of allocating 2G spectrum based on the operators’ subscriber numbers should be stopped and instead of that the international policy of auctioning should be followed.
As per the recommendation, in the immediate future, the telecom operators will have to shell out huge amounts for radio frequencies besides shelling out the equivalent or more money for 3G spectrum for all additional frequencies.
Rs 25,000 and Rs 35,000 crore has been expected by Government through this auction. By bringing out this proposal, DOT is also expected to rake in an equivalent amount from the 2G spectrum sale in the next fiscal. All fresh allocations of 2G spectrum has been frozen by DOT.
Foreign operators barred from bidding in CDMA 3G spectrum auction (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The upcoming auction of 3G spectrum will be limited to UMTS spectrum only as per Ministry of Communications and Information Technology decision. The move is aimed at keeping the international companies away from the bidding auction. The decision can also block new foreign players from launching both 2G and 3G CDMA-based services.
However, scarcity of airwaves for that technological platform has been cited as one of the reason by the ministry for not allowing foreign operators to bid for 3G CDMA spectrum.
According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), only existing licensees offering CDMA services will be eligible to bid this spectrum is being provided as 3G growth path for CDMA operators.
China Unicom enters 3G price war
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Slashing the tariffs of the three-month-old W-CDMA service has been planned by China Unicom to add fuel to the already ignited 3G price war in China. From February 1, packages like 36 Yuan ($5.27) for 300MB of data and 50 minutes of voice calls a month will be made available to the customers.
30MB of data, 78 texts, 10 video calls and 200 voice minutes will be offered in another new plan for 56 Yuan a month. The company also aims to wrap up its three-year TD-SCDMA network rollout plan a year ahead of schedule.
Unicom had around 3 million WCDMA users and 10 million 3G customers. Due to the launch of its Apple’s iPhone on October 30, more 3G customers than 2G users were added by Unicom.
Service line won’t be affected due to delays to fixed line award, says Vodafone Qatar
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Corporate governance issues has again led to the delay, this time until the first quarter of the next year, in the official award of Qatar’s second fixed line license to Vodafone Qatar.
In September 2008, the British-Qatari joint venture was declared the winner of the second national operator (SNO) license, with commercial fixed line services originally mooted for 2009, whilst in the meantime it broke the monopoly of Qatar Telecom (Qtel) with the launch of 2G/3G services in July 2009.
According to William Fagan, the head of the country’s regulator, ictQATAR , Vodafone Qatar and its local investor Qatar Foundation had still not formed the actual company that will be awarded the fixed license. In order to launch fixed line services before the end of 2010, he expects all problems to be resolved early in the next year.
Ericsson selected as primary vendor for 2G/3G network rollout by Mobile Norway
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Norway, the joint venture formed by Tele2 Norge and Network Norway has selected Ericsson, a Swedish vendor as the main vendor for the roll-out of a new 2G/3G mobile network in Norway. Mobile Norway plans to roll out a network covering 75% of the population in the ‘coming years’.
There has not been any formal announcement of the financial deal or the time frame for the deployment of the new infrastructure.
In September 2007, Network Norway and Tele2 Norgehad announced their partnership and under the terms of the deal, Tele2 Norge acquired 50% of the shares in AMI, holder of Norway’s third GSM-900 license. After the deal, the 50/50 joint venture Mobile Norway came into existence.
Two months after the announcement the Norwegian government revealed that it had received an application from Mobile Norway for the country’s fourth UMTS license. Mobile Norway was also awarded the license for around NOK47 million after a sealed auction in December that year.
Skylink finally outlines GSM launch
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: SkyLink, a Russian cellco, which previously operated exclusively across CDMA-based networks, finally outlined its plans to deploy the 2G standard. The decision is taken after more than two years when the company secured licences allowing it to roll out GSM-based networks.
Even after winning concessions covering 45 of Russia’s 83 regions in late-2007, the company is yet to deploy GSM in these areas. This had risked the company of losing its license after the country’s communications watchdog claimed that it has failed to fulfill its license conditions.
Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei Technologies have been hired by Skyline to provide equipment and services for the rollout, giving the company some chance of achieving its target of installing GSM networks across most of Russia’s regions by 2011.
According to SkyLink deputy CEO, Yuri Khromov, the partnership with Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent is done to ensure that the new GSM base stations can easily be upgraded to 4G technology, in preparation for the time when Russia’s Communications Ministry gives approval for the next evolution of mobile broadband technology.
Huawei to deploy LTE network for Tele2 and Telenor Sweden
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: For the supply and deployment of network equipment and modems for the launch of so-called ’4G’ Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband services, Net4Mobility, a joint venture of Tele2 Sweden and the Swedish unit of Norway’s Telenor has contracted Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies.
The goal of the venture is to make LTE available to 99% of the Swedish population by the end of 2013. 30%-50% increase in 2G GSM voice traffic, with enhanced indoor and outdoor coverage across the country as a result is also the reason behind increasing the number of base stations.
Earlier, LTE data services were commercially launched in Stockholm by TeliaSonera Sweden.
LTE roll out started by Japan’s DoCoMo
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, announced that it has begun the deployment of new W-CDMA base stations equipped with newly developed Remote Radio Equipment (RRE)
units. Besides, the operator is also preparing for the launch of ultra-high speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) services.
The company is planning to launch the 4G mobile network in December 2010 using the 2GHz band. RREs enable a single larger base station to cover a wider area by utilising extensions via fibre-optic cabling from major base stations situated in other locations. This is very different from BTSs that are equipped with an antenna and switching equipment in a single location.
BTS which are equipped with RRE comprise a master unit (slave station) for signal processing and maintenance functions and the RRE for modulating and demodulating both W-CDMA and LTE signals transmitted and received via antenna.
