Chunghwa Telecom and China Telecom join hands to augment Wi-Fi roaming service (Taiwan)
The Taiwan based Chunghwa Telecom joins hands with China based China Telecom so as to cooperate with each other and facilitate the launch of Wi-Fi mobile internet roaming service.
Chunghwa Telecom stated that the increasingly popular adoption of smartphones and tablet computers coupled with the cross-strait communications and exchanges getting more frequent mean that the demands going to jump in terms of cross-strait voice and data roaming services. Earlier, Chunghwa Telecom was seen lowing voice roaming fees, in addition to offering data roaming choice based policies. As on August 2011, the network operator had also started offering Wi-Fi mobile Internet roaming services.
Data released by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan, in 2010 revealed that there were as many as 2.42 million mainland visitors to Taiwan, representing an increase of 60% based on the figures in the previous year. Apparently, meeting the customers’ demands for mobile, fast, stable, and cost-effective Internet roaming service are the primary concerns of Chunghwa Telecom’s development of Wi-Fi roaming service with the Chinese mainland operator.
In addition, it has been announced by Chunghwa Telecom that Taiwan based users travelling to China mainland stand to take advantage of China Telecom’s Wi-Fi Internet service at the rate of $.31 per minute. Previously, the rate for international mobile Internet roaming was between $0.78 and $1.25 per minute.
Chunghwa Telecom has plans for setting up 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in the pipeline across Taiwan, before the close of this year. Meanwhile, China Telecom will provide preferential Wi-Fi service to its CDMA users. So far, China Telecom has developed 120,000 Wi-Fi hot spots while it plans to establish one million additional hot spots over the next three years.
ZTE records 35 million handsets for 2011 first half (China)
China based ZTE stated that the handset manufacturer has recorded shipment of 60 million terminal products, of which 35 million devices constitute handsets for the first half of 2011. In the process, the company has seen an approximate 30 percent rise in handset shipments on a year-on-year basis. Interestingly, ZTE has seen a 400 percent increase in smartphone sales, in addition to a 300 percent increase in the USA.
Meanwhile, ZTE’s Blade has emerged as one of the best selling smartphones across the globe. In partnership with about 80 operators worldwide, the Blade is available in about 50 countries, including regions. In China, Blade happens to be biggest selling Android smartphone in China, in terms of daily sales, accounting for 16,000 units per day. So far, there are 2.5 million Blade handsets sold worldwide, primed to hit the five million milestone within this year.
In addition, ZTE is looking at shipping some 12 million smart terminals in the second half of the year, while the company has increasingly captured market shares in China, North America, Europe and Latin America.
Across Europe, ZTE has smartphone partnership deals with more than 65 operators on the back of rising handset sales of more than 30 percent in this part of the world for the same period. Meanwhile, ZTE has seen its Brazilian market share increase by 46 percent, in addition to the company securing investment for a high-tech industrial park, touted to become the country’s biggest telecommunications research, production and training centre; ZTE’s first R&D location in Latin America.
According to ZTE Executive Vice President He Shiyou, they are pleased with the success of the Blade worldwide and of their other handsets in other major markets. In addition, they are aiming to launch over 30 smart terminals during the remainder of 2011, including mid to high-end smartphones such as the ZTE Skate, a smartphone harnessing Windows Phone 7 and TD-LTE dual-module and dual-waiting models.
Nokia takes Chinese firm to court citing cameraphone lens patent (China)
Nokia has sued a firm based in Shanghai, China; cited infringement of a patent with regard to how a camera lens on a mobile phone can be protected when idle.
As part of the lawsuit, Nokia demanded that Shanghai Huaqin Telecom Technology which is a Qualcomm licensee stop manufacturing products, the former believes infringe its patent, in addition to seeking $1.55 million in compensation.
However, the defendant believes the technology in question is not a Nokia owned patent but an existing technology. On the other hand, the Shanghai firm also believes that the compensation demanded is excessive.
China Telecom gets closer to Apple agreement for selling CDMA iPhone (China)
China Telecom securing a preliminary agreement with Apple for selling the CDMA version of the iPhone by next year at the latest, or potentially as soon as this October, has been claimed by sources at the former’s provincial subsidiary.
According to sources, both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 could be offered by China Telecom; on the lines of China Unicom’s decision to simultaneously offer the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
China’s only CDMA network is run by China Telecom while China Unicom and China Mobile operate WCDMA-based 3G network and the home-grown TD-SCDMA standard respectively.
It has also been reported that employees at all China Telecom provincial subsidiaries are also receiving training for CDMA iPhone sales.
Nokia all set to draw the curtains on Ovi email service in China
If reports are to be believed, Nokia is all set to shut down its email and chatroom services under the Ovi brand, in China. The date of shut down is slated for the later part of this month.
Users are reportedly sent a message by Nokia saying that Ovi email accounts will be shut with effect from August 19 while old emails in the archive will be deleted unless downloaded prior to the deadline. As far as Ovi chat room users are concerned, they will not be able to use the chat room or the contacts application after August 19.
Despite Nokia’s announcements to its Chinese customers previously, with regard to the migration over to a Yahoo hosted platform, things apparently did not materialize accordingly.
Alcatel-Lucent’s second quarter revenue rise stamps its resurgence (France)
Alcatel-Lucent announced the rise in the company’s second quarter revenues by 2.4% to $5.6 billion. It also stated that discounting currency fluctuations, the rise in revenues would have stood at 10.4%. On the other hand, the company’s net profit stood at $62 million while it had suffered a loss of $263.19 million last year.
The constant currency adjusted traction remained healthy across North America, representing a year-on-year sales increase of 18% while the rise in revenue across the Asia Pacific propelled to 14% in the same quarter. However, the revenue growth in the Asia Pacific was pushed by more than 40% rise specifically in China, as compared to last year quarter. In addition, Central and Latin America stood out in the company’s revenue growth with regard to the rest of world which represented more than 30% year-on-year growth. With regard to Europe, there was a slight revenue rise in Western Europe but nullified by a drop in revenue across Eastern Europe.
Alcatel-Lucent’s networks segment posted a revenue rise of 7.4% to $3.55 billion in the second quarter 2011, as compared to $3.3 billion in the preceding-year quarter. Discounting currency fluctuation, revenues from the networks segment rose at 14.1% year-on-year, with 5.8% sequential increase. In addition, the adjusted operating profit from this segment stood at $68.65 million that represented an operating margin of 1.9% while the same stood at $78.67 million a year ago at a margin of 2.4% for the second quarter.
With regard to the Applications segment, the company witnessed a revenue decline by 0.6% that represented a drop from $699.46 million a year ago to $695.17 million, for the second quarter 2011. However, the preceding figure represents an increase of 7.8% in comparison the first quarter 2011 figure. Applications revenues at constant currency exchange rates rose by 4.7% year-on-year, with a 10.2% sequential increase. In addition, there was an adjusted operating profit of $27.17 million with an operating margin of 3.9%. In contrast, this segment had suffered an adjusted operating loss of $24.31 million last year; a margin of -3.5%.
The Services segment posted $1.25 billion worth of revenues for the second quarter 2011, representing a decline by 1.4%. In comparison, it was $1.26 billion for the second quarter last year; yet, the figure represents a rise of 7.7% as compared to the first quarter 2011′s revenues worth $1.16 billion. Discounting currency fluctuations, there was a rise of 2.9% year-on-year revenues for the Services segment, with a 9.8% sequential increase. In addition, the adjusted operating profit stood at $75.8 million, representing a 6.1% adjusted operating margin for the second quarter 2011 as compared to an adjusted operating profit of $27.18 million and a margin of 2.2% last year for the same quarter.
Chinese bank lends financial muscle to facilitate Huawei sales in Mexico
The China Development Bank (CDB) has lent financial muscle to Nextel Mexico by way of issuing a bank loan worth $375 million. Nextel Mexico is looking to fund Huawei’s implementation of the telco’s 3G network infrastructure.
A term of ten years has been allowed for final maturity; comprising of three year drawdown period and a seven year repayment term. The owner of Nextel Mexico, NII Holdings had inked an agreement with Huawei in February 2011 for providing end-to-end WCDMA solutions so as to augment Nextel Mexico’s 3G network.
According to Gokul Hemmady, executive vice president and chief financial officer of NII Holdings, they are extremely pleased that Nextel Mexico secured this funding, which is consistent with their strategy of obtaining long-term financing with attractive rates at the market level. They also believe that the financing holds them in good stead for evolving their business while pursuing growth initiatives in Mexico.
Samsung GALAXY S II records 5 million sales worldwide
The Samsung GALAXY S II, specifically the Model: GT-I9100 has sold more than 5 million across the world, as announced by the handset manufacturer, Samsung Electronics.
All it took were 85 days, for the popular handset to surpass this milestone. Earlier, the original GALAXY S had taken 40 days more to achieve the same sales mark. The handset’s launch in China, the largest market in the world had apparently helped.
According to JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, in just a few months the Galaxy S II has led the way in driving Samsung’s unmatched performance in the smartphone industry. In addition, since being launched into the retail market in late April, the Galaxy S II has seen tremendous growth.
Sony Ericsson sets up R&D centre; ratifies distribution deal (China)
Sony Ericsson has chosen Beijing for setting up its global research and development (R&D) operation center, as announced by the company at the time of unveiling. In addition, the company has also finalized a distribution deal with on the top Chinese retailers in Suning.
According to Magnus Ahlqvist, President, Sony Ericsson Greater China, Sony Ericsson continues to develop a differentiated experience on Android with their Xperia smartphone portfolio and the new R&D center will contribute to both local and global R&D efforts. The company also expects the new center to play a vital role in helping them in delivering innovative technologies, in addition to building relationships with strategic customers like China Unicom and China Mobile while the retail agreement with Suning is expected to help the company reach more Chinese consumers.
Sweden, Japan and North America constitute the other locations of Sony Ericsson’s R&D centers across the world. The Chinese center happens to be Sony Ericsson’s second largest R&D facility though.
China Mobile boss gets death sentence in bribery case (China)
Mr Zhang Chunjiang who is a former Vice Chairman and Executive Director, China Mobile has been handed a death sentence, in the wake of a bribery conviction. The sentence stands suspended for two years while it could also be commuted to life prison pending good behavior.
Zhang was found by the court of the Hebei province in North China, to have taken bribes amounting to $1.5 million during the period 1994-2009. At the time, he was deputy director of the Liaoning provincial postal administration, general manager of China Netcom Group Corporation, and Party chief, in addition to being deputy general manager of China Mobile.
His arrest took place in December 2009, at which time he was working at China Mobile, only to be dismissed some weeks after.
China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are known to be under the scanner at the moment, as part of a wide-ranging investigation into further allegations of corruption by the Chinese authorities. All the three telecom operators are state-owned. In the process, a number of mid-level managers have had their passports seized.
Time-to-time high-profile clean-up drives with regard to corruption scandals are associated with the Chinese government; the state-owned companies in particular. However, experts are viewing the recent developments as part of purging exercise in the wake of intended listing of the companies on the Shanghai stock market.
