Ireland plans to raise US$ 660 million from 4G auction (Ireland)
The Irish government is hopeful of raising approximately US$ 659 million via the spectrum auction for high-speed mobile broadband and 4G services.
According to reports, ComReg (Commission for Communications Regulation), the communications regulator in Ireland, expects a minimum amount of US$ 540 million for 28 lots of radio spectrum, but says that competition levels may lead to an increase in the price.
Reports reveal that a lot of 1800 megahertz spectrum will be charged at a minimum price of $ 13.2 million while a lot of 800 megahertz and 900 megahertz spectrum will be sold at a minimum of $ 26.3 million each.
Telecom operators Vodafone, 3, O2 and Meteor, are expected to bid for the licence. The process is expected to complete by the end of July 2012.
3 announces network upgrade before 4G auction (UK)
Mobile operator 3 has said that it may be planning to upgrade its network which could lead to a further delay of the 4G spectrum auction. As per a report by the guardian, 3 took this decision over fears of being left out of the 800MHz bandwidth auction.
A complication against the regulator could have negative consequences for the 4G auction which has already been delayed long enough. The report reveals that UK will be the last major European economy to auction the airspace needed for 4G superfast mobile broadband.
The 4G spectrum auction is expected to raise US$ 6.4 billion with the final rules being decided in July.
Orange and O2 lead Ofcom’s mobile satisfaction survey (UK)
A new survey by the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, Ofcom, reveals that Orange and O2 have emerged as the most appreciated mobile networks by users in UK. According to reports, as many as 72 percent of the subscribers gave positive feedback for these operators with 10 percent giving a negative feedback and 18 percent maintaining a neutral stand.
Further, as per sources, T-Mobile accounted for 12 percent of unsatisfied customers followed by Vodafone which received positive feedback by 66 percent users. Reports reveal that as per the survey mobile operator 3 accounted for 60 percent satisfied customers.
Industry analysts have reportedly cited high speed broadband connection and improved network quality as the prime reasons for the success of Orange and O2.
Mobile operators form joint venture for Mobile Payments (Sweden)
In a move to further the facilitation of mobile payment services in the country, Sweden’s mobile operators – Telenor, Tele2, 3 and Telia, have reportedly formed a joint venture, which is expected to commercially launch its services next year.
The penetration of m-payment services in Sweden have shown considerable growth with an increasing number of customers using their mobile handset to pay for regular activities such as parking and public transport among others.
The joint venture will reportedly help extend the variety of services that can be carried out by a customer through the mobile handset. Further, sources claim that for users the venture will ensure uniformity amongst the services offered by the operators.
Hutchison plans to launch LTE for Austrian network
Hutchison 3G Austria (3) has upgraded half of its network to HSPA+, enabling theoretical peak download rates up to 42Mbps. By autumn 2011, the entire network will offer HSPA+ coverage to 94% of the Austrian population.
Furthermore, 3 is preparing the network for LTE based 4G services, whose launch in urban areas will start later this year.
According to 3 CEO Jan Trionow, it now has the frequencies, the technology and the data transfer rates for optimal use of state-of-the-art smartphones, innovative multimedia services and nationwide high speed broadband Internet. The network upgrade was provided by ZTE.
Antenna Software buys Volantis Systems
Antenna Software has acquired mobile internet software company Volantis Systems for an undisclosed amount.
Operating under the Antenna brand, the company will continue to provide support of Volantis products to its current customers, prospects and partners through its existing teams in the Volantis offices – strengthening Antenna’s global presence, particularly across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The addition of Volantis complementary technology allows Antenna to immediately offer its customers a significantly broader range of mobile web solutions, including the underlying architecture for mobile commerce and enterprise app stores. This adds to Antenna’s already robust on-demand (SaaS) Antenna Mobility Platform offering, which powers the company’s suite of mobile business and consumer applications.
Volantis brings a mass of carrier and enterprise customers, including T-Mobile, 3, Telenor, Garanti Bank and Reliance Capital.
According to Mark Watson, former CEO and Co-Founder of Volantis, company has spent the past decade developing a best-of-breed solution for the mobile internet. The company’s goal has always been to make the mobile web as accessible as possible to enterprises and consumers, with the most robust technology to support the solution. Joining with Antenna will allow them to continue to invest in the development of their technology while co-innovating as part of the Antenna team will help drive success for the combined company going forward.
Hong Kong operators focus on innovation in mature market
New research reports has revealed that given Hong Kong’s market maturity and high penetration levels, researchers expect that the focus of operators to continue shifting from subscriber acquisition to subscriber retention, an effort to be pursued by increasing investment in service innovation.
It is expected that the Hong Kong telecom market to generate $4.8 billion in 2010, recovering to 2008 levels after a revenue decrease to $4.6 billion in 2009. In 2010, however, solid growth in mobile data usage and a recovery in mobile voice revenue due to increased usage levels will lead the market to renewed growth. The growth will continue over the next five years, when the territory’s total telecom services market revenue will advance at a 2.8% CAGR to reach $5.5 billion in 2015.
Data and content services will be the main growth drivers, with mobile data services rising at a 10% CAGR between 2010-2015 on the strength of increased adoption of data-centric devices, such as 3G data cards and smartphones. To that end, mobile operators have been very aggressive, introducing smartphone models, data cards, and embedded devices, most of which have been successful in encouraging higher levels of data usage.
Hong Kong’s broadband and mobile penetration rates are among the highest in Asia, respectively at 94% of households and 144% of the population at year-end 2010. Operators must give special attention to creating innovative content and value-added services because broadband connectivity is reaching saturation levels. They must also pay special attention to bandwidth capacity to avoid overload.
Mobile data growth will be driven by the efforts of operators, such as 3, PCCW, and SmarTone, which are aggressively offering mobile data cards, netbook data card bundles, and smartphones with unlimited data access plans. Pay-TV growth will benefit from operators’ bundled offerings for both new and existing customers, as well as by attractive pricing plans and FTTx expansion.
3 UK cuts PAYG international call rates
3 UK is offering a great deal to its PAY AS YOU GO (PAYG) customers with cheaper international calls.
According to the company, it is cutting the cost of calls to 24 countries and prices will start at just 2p per minute to glamorous locations like Ireland and Poland.
To make their cheaper calls, pay as you go customers need only insert a three digit short code before the phone number they want to ring, the firm explained, and can call either mobiles or landlines at the cheaper rates.
Prices will increase depending on the location, and while calls to Poland start at 2p per minute, it will cost 6p to call a Pakistani landline. Calls to the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Germany and China are also covered. Calls to mobiles seem to average around the 14p per minute mark. The most expensive place to call on a mobile is Afghanistan at 16p, while the cheapest is 3p.
Surprisingly this lower cost does not apply to Irish calls, which after all is not particularly far from the UK. Calls to mobile Irish kinfolk will set users back 14p per minute, while ringing up the Chinese costs 3p.
Although lower priced calls have been available to users since April of this year, 3 has boosted the number of applicable countries to 25.
