www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A net profit of around TRY 250 million has been expected by telco Turkcell as a result of extraordinary charges for impairments, write-offs and legal reserves in Q4.

Legal reserves related to the Telecommunications Authority, fixed asset write-offs related to operations in Belarus and Turkey, goodwill impairment charges in Belarus and Tax Authority and Competition Board’s recent decisions in Turkey have been recognized in line with IFRS guidelines.

As an impact of the one-time charges and reimbursements based on the regulator’s decisions, revenue of TRY 2.260 billion is expected by the operator in its fourth quarter.  EBITDA is expected to be approximately TRY 680 million in Q4.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an increase of 7.1% year-on-year, the consolidated customer base of Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group reached 97.81 million, up from 91.33 million. Even the flagship domestic operation of the company had 69.3 million customers at year-end, up nearly five million from a year earlier.

However, a decline in the customer base has been faced by MTS in its Moscow market from 14.9 million at end-2008, to 13.6 million a year later. While growth was recorded in all MTS markets, only one international market, MTS Ukraine saw its customer base falling from 18.12 million to 17.56 million year-on-year.

The cellco’s operations in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus ended 2009 with 7.07 million, 1.76 million, 2.07 million and 4.56 million customers respectively.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Belarusian subsidiary of Telekom Austria has been awarded a countrywide 3G licence, at a price of €9.5 million and it will run until August 24, 2017. In order to support the 3G network, Velcom’s mobile network is already undergoing up gradation at a rate of 10 base stations per day.

After striking a reseller deal with CDMA operator Belcel in May 2009, Velcom has been selling mobile broadband services to its customers in Belarus. As per the 50-50 revenue sharing agreement, Velcom offered Internet services running on Belcel’s EV-DO network, which at the time was capable of supporting connection speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps.

Velcom has the second largest share of the market with 4 million customers; following MTS which currently has the largest share of the market with 4.52 million subscribers.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest mobile operator will use iBasis, a KPN affiliate Premium Voice service to complete international calls for its customers. Through this interconnection, MTS joins
more than 1,000 carrier customers from all segments of telecom that use iBasis for all or part of their international voice service.

The premium voice will provide MTS with very high quality worldwide voice termination through a single connection to the iBasis global network. The transfer of Caller Line Identifier (CLI) to mobile and fixed destinations is also guaranteed along with international roaming support worldwide.

Currently, Eastern Europe and Central Asia are rapidly growing region for mobile telecommunications services and with mobile service penetration exceeding 125% and annual growth rate of 14.5 percent, Russia is the fourth largest mobile telecommunications market in the world. The interconnection with iBasis will strengthen Russia’s position in the year to come.

At present, MTS is a leading provider of mobile communications in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus and has 96 million mobile customers and annual revenue of $10 billion.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Reliance Communications and China Telecom have today announced the opening of the first direct terrestrial cable link between the Chinese and Indian domestic markets.
The Reliance Communications and China Telecom constructed cable was the first cross border terrestrial connectivity project to be planned between India and China, and was completed earlier this month. The cable passes through the inhospitable terrain of the Nathula Pass, linking Yadong in China to Siliguri in India. The cable will provide direct, enterprise class connectivity between all major Indian and Chinese locations as well as expanding high-bandwidth coverage to more rural regions and cities in both countries. Neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and even Pakistan and Bangladesh will also benefit in the longer term, through increased bandwidth availability and global termination options. (more…)

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Reliance Communication, the India’s second largest mobile operator, has reportedly raised 12.25 billion rupees ($253 million) via short-term debt, industry sources unveil. The company sold one-month commercial paper at a yield of 3.40 percent. The paper matures on Sept. 29, 2009.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Etisalat India, a JV firm, will outsource its telecom infrastructure to Reliance Communication. The two firms have inked a deal worth more than $2.2 billion for 10 years.  The deal is for 15 of India’s 22 telecoms zones, the companies said in a joint statement.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Reliance Communications, India’s leading telecom player, has partnered with UK based mobile marketing company, 3rd Space Services Limited, to launch advertising funded videos on its Reliance Mobile platform. Under the agreement 3rd Space will supply mobile video content to Reliance Communications. It will also offer premium content such as ”Who wants to be a Millionaire”, Bollywood Songs and Films alongside the world’s leading sporting content, available on every data enabled handset within the Reliance network.

Customers will have access to the best free content in exchange for watching an advert embedded within the video. Both companies will focus on bringing in Indian & International advertisers. It is a win-win situation for everyone. (more…)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alcatel-Lucent Managed Solutions India (ALMSI), a JV between French telecom solution provider and Reliance Communication, the Indian mobile operator are close to inking 2-3 deals in as many months.
“The JV was formed initially to cater to the network operations need of Reliance Communications (RCom) alone. Now, we also plan to focus on business development opportunities in India and abroad,” Alcatel-Lucent India Head Vivek Mohan said.
Mohan added that the company was close to strike two-three deals in the network operation space, which might be announced in the next two-three months.
Though the details of the deal remain undisclosed, the source close to the development revealed that an agreement with Telecom New Zealand is round the corner.
Alcatel holds a 67% share in the JV whereas RCom holds the rest of 33%.
Sandip Biswas, Head of Managed Services, RCom said that the joint venture, at the time of its inception exactly one-year ago, had targeted to clock $500 million revenue over a period of five years.
“Now, we have increased it to $750 million and hope to even go past that target during the remaining period of five years,” Biswas added.
In its first year of operation, Biswas revealed that the JV has registered just over $100 million revenue which is likely to rise in the current year given that Reliance Communication was expanding its operations. Revenue from other prospective clients were also expected.

“The JV had started with CDMA and GSM operations and maintenance of five circles. Subsequently, we expanded the base to all 23 circles where RCom has operations,” he said.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Reliance Communication, the Indian mobile operator is reportedly in advanced talks with Apalya Technologies to offer MobiTV services on its GSM network. “Under the tie-up, Apalya will offer its proprietary platform ‘Mimobi’, enabling RCom to offer mobile TV services on its GSM network. Besides, it will offer RCom a bouquet of about 25 TV channels,” the company said in a release .
RCom at present offers mobile TV service to its CDMA subscribers, which carries over 13 channels using its real-time streaming technology. To offer the mobile TV application on its GSM network and to increase the number of handsets that can support the mobile TV application, it is tying up with Apalya to enhance the width of usage.

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