Vodafone CEO to petition EU for Google tax
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An antitrust probe had been called by Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao in February, into the search giant and his equivalent at Telefonica, Cesar Alierta. Internet players like Google was demanded be charged by Colao for their usage of his firm’s networks. Now, Vodafone is ready to petition the European Union to take action to “facilitate bilateral agreements between telecom operators and online content providers like Google”.
Google tax allowing mobile and fixed carriers to charge online content provider’s variable fees according to the network quality they receive, and/or the amount of bandwidth they consume, can be a result of this move.
President of Vodafone Spain, Francisco Roman outlined this plan reiterating that they must be properly compensated for their huge investment in higher capacity, better quality networks, and that they would rather charge the service providers than the consumers.
Brunel University leads Mobile Policy-making Initiative
An international academic consortium led by Brunel Business School has won million of pounds in EU funding to develop mobile phone technologies to involve citizens in policy-making.
The aim of the project is to develop user-friendly technologies and platforms which can be installed on mobile phones to allow the public to input directly into policy-making by giving feedback on issues affecting their daily lives.
The three-year UbiPOL (Ubiquitous Participation for Policy Making) has received a total grant of €2.7 million (£2.4 million) from the European Union, with £400,000 awarded to Brunel Business School, whose Dean, Professor Zahir Irani is co-ordinating the consortium.
According to Professor Zahir Iran, Dean of Brunel Business School, this project will develop a mechanism by which the public can access local government at their fingertips and, more importantly, give feedback and suggestions which can then be considered by policy-makers.
Is UK heading towards merger era?
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: European Union has given its blessing to the most talked about deal of the season and the celebration will soon begin with the consummation of the proposed merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK. The telecom sector of UK is vital and highly competitive and the main players have always and loudly protested their support of the benefits of competition.
But with the finalization of the proposed merger, the big five have come down to big four. The current market leader in UK, O2 will be pushed a place down the hierarchy. Vodafone will go further down the order and will be casting around for some way to bolster its fortunes. All these mobile operators will try to cope up with the new and a powerful competition in the form of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merger and by “competition” they all will mean merging themselves.
Though O2 will not be allowed to merge with Vodafone as the regulators in the UK and in Europe would not allow it too but the two can share their networks on a full fledged way.
The merger is paving the way towards a new trend of merger and collaboration of the entities that have control of two huge networks running the sector by themselves. The new trend will also provide access and services to a variety of MVNOs.
Until and unless a line is drawn by the regulator between the big two, the end user will be disadvantaged by the consolidation.
EU roaming rules effective from March 1
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Customers of the mobile operators in European Union must be allowed to cap their data use while on roaming. The so-called ‘bill shock’ rule became effective from March 1 and applies for customers using mobile internet while roaming in EU countries.
A monthly cap of EUR 50 on data roaming costs must be offered by operators and warning should be issued to the customers on reaching 80% of the limit. Customers are required to make the choice by July 1 in order to benefit from the service and on not taking any decision, the EUR 50 cap will apply automatically.
Functioning of all roaming regulations will be analyzed by the European Commission with a more extensive review in June 2011.
Belgacom pays Vodafone US$2.6 billion for rest of mobile arm Proximus
BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgium’s biggest telephone company, Belgacom SA, said Friday it has agreed to buy Vodafone Group PLC’s 25 per cent stake in Proximus for $2.6 billion US, giving it full control of the mobile operator. Proximus is Belgium’s largest mobile operator, with 47 per cent market share and 4.25 million customers. Belgacom said it expected the deal would add six to seven per cent to next year’s earnings – citing “significant synergies” and tax savings as it struggles with falling revenue from its main market, traditional telephone calls. It said it would finance the two-billion-euro buyout with a bridge loan in the short term and may make a bond offering later. It will also use the 67 million euros ($86 million) it will receive by selling its 5.8 per cent stake in French telecom firm Neuf Cegetel. France’s second largest mobile operator, SFR, has agreed to buy Neuf Cegetel. Belgacom said these deals were part of its plan to focus on its core market, saying it would continue to roll out new services such as digital TV and broadband internet in Belgium. Analyst Dirk Saelens who covers Belgacom stock for KBC Securities said both deals are positive news. The price paid for the Proximus stake “is not cheap, but it’s a good move and still earnings enhancing,” he said. Belgacom shares rose 2.5 per cent to 27.82 euros ($35.70) in trading in Brussels. The company faces a tough market, expecting revenue from its major source of revenue – fixed line telephone services – to decline by three per cent this year. New European Union rules on lower charges for international roaming to be introduced next year will also have a significant financial impact on Proximus, it said. Belgacom depends on fixed-line telephone calls for nearly half of its revenue but the market is shrinking. Revenue from fixed line services fell 1.4 per cent in the first six months of 2006, it said, which was partly offset from the growth in Internet, network integration services and selling access at wholesale rates to rivals. Belgacom reported a net profit of 219 million euros ($281 million) in the second quarter, down 23 per cent from 286 million euros in the same period last year. Total revenues rose 11 per cent to 1.525 billion euros ($1.96 billion) from 1.37 billion euros a year ago. Belgacom CEO Didier Bellens said the company would spend up to 200 million euros ($257 million) buying back shares and paying shareholders an interim dividend of 100 million euros ($128 million) before the end of the year. Bellens said the company was doing better than expected but preferred to reward shareholders rather than actively hunt for new acquisitions.
Source- http://money.canoe.ca
Technorati : Belgacom, Belgium, Mobile, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : Belgacom, Belgium, Mobile, Vodafone
