IMImobile to provide music service to Irish operator Meteor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Irish operator Meteor has selected DaVinci platform of India based IMImobile to power its full track music download service. The service will offer subscribers with 1.4 million DRM free tracks across PCs
and mobile handsets besides allowing them to share music across any device.
The music library is made from 2,000 independent labels, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. The service is compatible with 1,500 handsets and will be available immediately.
According to Director of advanced product development at Meteor, Elaine Robinson, the new service will allow the subscribers to first to listen to music on the devices and will be charged only once.
The deal is also very significant for IMI based in India and expanding its roots aggressively in Europe since past 12 months. According to the head of IMImobile Europe, Anu Shah, the company is looking forward to work with Meteors and provide them with outstanding service.
Roaming charges on Vodafone reduced by 50% in India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Adding a new spice to the latest tariff war in the world’s fastest-growing cellular market, India, Vodafone Essar, reduced its roaming charges by more than 50% besides offering the option for per-second pulse.
The pay per second plan launched by TATA DoCoMo has made the other operators to join the war. Some are even coming up with other lucrative plans like 50 paise per minute, for all types of calls, local as well as roaming by Reliance Communications and to 60 paisa per minute roaming charges by Bharti Airtel.
Though the customers are benefiting a lot from this tariff war, the mobile operators are losing out on revenues. The stock prices of listed telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, RelCom and others are sliding.
One of the major reasons behind this war is to attract the new users as new operators are entering the market. Norway’s Telenor launch made it the 12th operator playing in the Indian market while, Arab’s second-biggest carrier Etisalat is planning to enter India.
Telenor concerned over lack of spectrum (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Claiming it as the largest single day launch in telecom history, Uninor, Telenor’s Indian unit launched its GSM network covering nearly 600 million people. But at the same time, the company also expressed its
concerns over the lack of spectrum.
The company said that when they got the license, they were said to be given extra spectrum after reaching certain subscribers level. Two third of Uninor is owned by Scandinavia’s Telenor while the rest is owned by India’s Unitech Group.
The company plans to cover 22 telecom circles in India in which eight circles will be covered in this month while five will be covered early next year. Instead of offering per second billing, Uninor has offered 25 paise per minute tariff for local calls, and 49 paise for STD.
Puerto Rico’s Sprint acquires iPCS Inc for $426 million
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Puerto Rico based Sprint Nextel Corp. acquired wireless affiliate iPCS Inc for $426 million. The deal will lead to the addition of 700,000 customers as Sprint subscribers.
iPCS’s shareholders will get $24 per share in cash and Sprint will also take on $405 million in debt.
Before the deal, Schaumburg based iPCS had the right to sell wireless service in 81 markets in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee under the brand name of Sprint but now it will function as the wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint.
Azerbaijan joins Iran and Russia to improve connectivity in Caspian region
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The largest stakeholder in Iran based Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, Iranmobin entered into a 50/50 equity joint venture with Russian C-Ring Telecom. C -Ring Telecom is a subsidiary of Russian long-distance operator Synterra while TIC is a unit of fixed line monopoly Telecommunication Company of Iran.
In order to rollout a new fibre-optic ring around the Caspian Sea to handle Europe-Asia voice, Azerbaijan’s AzTelekom forged an agreement with the new venture. The agreement also aims at improving internet service delivery in the Caspian region.
The agreement was signed at trade and economic cooperation summit held in Tehran by Russian and Iranian state and company officials. TIC also signed an agreement with Rostelecom, another Russian carrier, to share international transmission links.
Vodafone opens new office to target SA multinationals
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The global enterprise business of Vodafone opened its office in South Africa targeting locally-based multinational companies. The aim behind this step was to offer consistent mobile solution for multinational businesses besides providing a single service for all their operations irrespective of the country it is based in.
Global Enterprise has its office in the US, Europe and parts of Asia while Vodafone and Vodacom together operates in SA, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya (Safaricom), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho and Tanzania,.
According to Vodafone Global Enterprise CEO Nick Jeffery, the company will tackle mobile e-mails and single billing sets and can also offer a single price across the globe for its customers as single price can lessen risk across the countries it operates.
While the main focus is on countries where Vodafone operates, it can barter deals with providers in other countries where it has no offices. Both Vodafone Global Enterprise and Vodacom are expected to work together to establish its roots in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Norwegian firm Telenor enters India with 29p per minute plan
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Moving one step ahead of the pay per second system, Norway-based firm Telenor, entered Indian market with 29 paise per minute plan under the brand name Uninor. The company has tied up with India’s Unitech Group and will be launched in seven circles — UP (East), Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, UP (West) and Bihar.
According to the CEO and President of Telenor group, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, the new plan offers more value for money to the users as the consumers want something more than the usual features. The pay per second billing was first launched by TATA DoCoMo, followed by other operators.
According to Unitech Wireless Managing Director Stein-Erik Vellan, the company’s target is to occupy 8% of the market share by 2018 and operate cash-flow break-even in five years.
Besides, the company also expects that the average revenue per user (ARPU) becomes lower than the industry level in the near term. However, Unitech is susceptible about bidding in the 3G auction but at the same time it has made it clear that it will surely not bid for an all India license.
Stephane Richard set to be France Telecom SA’s deputy CEO
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Head of French operations of French telecom magnate, France Telecom SA, Stephane Richard will take over the post of deputy chief executive from January next year. The appointment was made after the request by company’s chief executive officer Didier Lombard who himself will step down in 2011.
Stephane Richard is in the line of succession for the post of CEO and earlier worked as a senior official in France’s finance ministry. He took the role of running domestic operations in October this year.
He started his stint as head of the international operations of French telecommunications giant last summer.
