Apple releases new iPad in South Korea and 11 additional countries (USA)
Apple launched the new iPad, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, in South Korea and 11 additional countries on Friday, April 20. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life while remaining amazingly thin and light.
In addition to South Korea, the new iPad also will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.
The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The iPad Wi-Fi + 4G models will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model.
The new iPad will be sold through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, iPad 2 is available at a more affordable price starting at just $399.
Write-downs condemn Turkcell into posting a loss (Turkey)
Turkcell is a telco based in Turkey. The company has released its Group revenues for the second quarter that reflected a revenue rise by 1.7% to $1.34 billion. However, the company posted a net loss of $12.6 million as compared to $251.02 million the previous year.
The company attributed the loss to one-off items below the EBITDA line that cascaded from the impact of the non-cash devaluation in Belarus, in addition to a provision with regard to the Competition Board fine. Discounting the one-off items below the EBITDA line, the net income for the Group would have stood at $280.80 million.
On the other hand, consolidated revenues were up 7.6% as compared to the previous quarter; mainly attributed to the 6.9% increase in mobile voice, in addition to revenues garnered from season-based superior usage of the expanding customer base across Turkey as well as the surge in mobile internet and services revenues by 9%. On top of that, the Group’s top line rose by 9.1%, in the wake of the subsidiaries’ contribution.
As on 30 June, 2011, there were about 61.7 million subscribers for the company; figure calculated based on the number of subscribers in Turkcell, in addition to each of its subsidiaries and unconsolidated investees. Mobile subscribers in Astelit and BeST, in addition to the company’s operations in Northern Cyprus and Fintur were also taken into account.
In the wake of the rise in the number of subscribers in Turkcell Turkey and Fintur, there was an increase of 1.3 million Turkcell Group subscribers, in comparison to the last quarter.
EU member states served notice to expedite implementation of new telecom regulations
25th May 2011 was the deadline set by the European Parliament and the EU’s Council of Ministers for the member states of the European Commission for full implementation of the new EU telecoms rules as part of their national law. Twenty of the EU member states have been sent information requests as to why they have not yet reverted with regard to the stipulated implementation of the telecoms rules.
Under the EU infringement procedures, the information requests are equivalent to letters of formal notice.
Under the ambit of the new EU telecoms rules, phones, mobile services and internet are taken into account with regard to rights of the consumers and businesses. The highlights of these rights comprise of customers being empowered to switch telecoms operators in just one day without changing their phone number, more transparency regarding the services customers are offered, in addition to securing their personal data online.
So far only seven Member States namely Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Sweden and the UK have confirmed the Commission of full implementation of the rules; a majority of the EU member states having notified the Commission of implementation to certain extents while the legislative processes are continuing.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain constitute the twenty other Member States that are yet to respond to the letters of formal notice within two months, failing which or even not being convincing, the Commission stands to issue the concerned Member States, a formal request to implement the legislation. The second request will be the form of a ‘reasoned opinion’ under EU infringement procedures. Eventually, the matter will be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Vodafone Netherlands chunks Viber
Vodafone Netherlands opts to block Viber, a chat service which provides free unlimited chat messages and VoIP.
As per Viber CEO Talmon Marco, the performance of the app has gone down since 10 March in Vodafone Netherlands. Other operators which filter out the app include Bouygues France and Vodafone in Romania and Cyprus.
VoIP calls using Viber are able to go through on the Vodafone NL network but the quality is so poor that conversations become unintelligible. Viber views the filtering policies as equal to censorship seen in countries such as Libya and Iran as it argues that operators are hindering innovation.
According to Vodafone NL, the operator stated that it was not fair for all subscribers to have to pay for VoIP.Vodafone has confirmed that it does block certain services for basic subscriptions. The service becomes available for users taking an extra bundle. The service is therefore not being blocked.
PrimeTel offers MVNO in Cyprus
PrimeTel has announced the terms of its mobile services under the brand name of PrimeTel Mobile over the CytaVoda network.
Whilst PrimeTel Mobile’s prepaid services have already been made available, the introduction of postpaid services is scheduled later in the summer.
PrimeTel is also planning to provide quad-play bundled services later in the year.
MTS in talks to acquire Ufanet (Russia)
MTS is in talks to acquire regional cable operator Ufanet, which provides services in the Bashkortostan republic and Orenburg region.
National competition regulator FAS has cleared a request by MTS to buy Cyprus-based Colswick Holdings, which controls Ufanet.
Orange and Vodafone outsource uncollected debts (Romania)
Orange and Vodafone have reportedly sold out unpaid invoices from approximately 100,000 clients to debt collectors.
On 25th March, Orange Romania sold unpaid bills from 57,619 residential and business customers to EOS KSI Romania. At the same time, Vodafone Romania sold on 1st April uncollected bills from 46,299 customers to Glasro Holdings, a Cyprus-based company with which has previously collaborated.
According to analysts, it is expected the two operators will recover between 5th and 10th percent of the value of their sold unpaid bills.
Foreign funds traced in 2G scam, 31 firms under scan (India)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday submitted their progress report on 2G scam stating that 31 firms have come under the scrutiny.
The agency placed its latest status report of its investigation in the scam in a sealed envelope before a bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly in which it has mentioned that it is seeking the help of foreign authorities in tracking the source of money.
According to Senior Advocate, K K Venugopal, letters have been sent to Singapore, Cyprus, Jersey and Virgin Islands in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. Similar communications were being sent to two more countries.
He added that 31 companies have so far been summoned and statements of 26 companies have been recorded. Some Hawala operators were also involved in the scam and their premises were raided and they were questioned by the ED.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly had stated while asking the government to consider setting up of the court. They emphasised that a special court is a must if they want the objectives of the statue to be achieved. It cannot be done with existing manpower and infrastructure.
The Centre had then approached the Delhi High Court which, in consultation with the Chief Secretary of the city government, decided to set up the special court. The Centre would inform the apex court on Wednesday when the matter relating to CBI investigation comes up for hearing.
Turkcell Introduces “Dual Carrier” Technology to Turkey and Doubles Mobile Internet Speed
Turkcell, the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, is delighted to announce that it will introduce “Dual Carrier” technology to Turkey and so become one of only ten companies in the world to use this latest technology.
Turkcell’s 3G network will be made compatible with Dual Carrier technology and will support mobile internet speeds of up to 42 Mbps. DC-HSDPA technology, which enables to use 2 frequency at the same time, will double the speed at which Turkcell subscribers are able to use mobile Internet via compatible modems and smart phones.
Commenting, Turkcell’s Chief Network Operations Officer, Ilter Terzioglu, said: “Turkcell will continue to invest in the latest technology and allow our customers to enjoy a very high speed, high quality mobile internet experience. Mobile internet becomes even more meaningful with ‘instant access’ and Dual Carrier technology is a new advance in 3G/HSDPA technology, which significantly increases the maximum speed available to customers. We will complete the update of our network as soon as possible. We will soon double mobile internet speed, allowing our subscribers to use Turkcell 3G VINN at 43.2 Mbps. We are aiming to achieve higher mobile internet revenues in accordance with the increasing smart phones as well as the higher data usage at faster speeds.”
About Turkcell
Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey with 33.9 million postpaid and prepaid customers and a market share of approximately 55% as of September 30, 2010 (Source: Our estimations, operator’s and the Telecommunication Authority’s announcements). Turkcell provides high quality data and voice services to approximately 80% of the Turkish population through its 3G technology supported network and to 99.07% of the Turkish population through its 2G technology supported network. Turkcell reported TRY2.3 billion ($1.5 billion) net revenue for the period ended September 30, 2010 and its total assets reached TRY14.5 billion ($10.0 billion) as of September 30, 2010. Turkcell has become one of the first operators among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and to reach to 42.2 Mbps speed with HSPA multi carrier solution. Turkcell is a leading regional player and has interests in international mobile operations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine which, together with its Turkish operations, had approximately 60.4 million subscribers as of September 30, 2010. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000 and is the only NYSE listed company in Turkey and is among the top 15% of companies listed on NYSE by its size as of October 2010. 51.00% of Turkcell’s share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 0.05% by ƒâ€¡ukurova Holding, 13.07% by Sonera Holding, 2.32% by M.V. Group and 0.01% by others while the remaining 33.55% is free float. Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr/en
