VHA contracts NSN replacing Ericsson (Australia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has signed a seven year deal with Nokia Siemens Networks as per which the latter will supply managed services and an integrated core network to the operator.
Existing VHA network vendor Ericsson has been pipped by NSN to clinch the 2G/3G deal and it also over taken over Chinese vendor Huawei, to win the contract. Flexi NG core platform will be supplied by NSN as per the contract and it will also provide service management for the core, transmission and radio networks.
Integration of networks and operations of Vodafone Australia and Hutchison 3G Australia is also required by the contract. The decision comes as huge blow to Ericsson which has been the major network supplier in Australia, as well as Vodafone’s 2G and regional 3G network vendor. Besides, it is also the sole vendor for Telstra’s 800MHz 3G network.
Hutch Australia reports rise in net profit
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A net profit of A$467.7 million ($421.3 million) has been posted by Hutchison Telecom Australia (HTAL), thanks to its merger with Vodafone Australia. A$587.3 million profit gain acted as a catalyst to bring the company from the red, as without HTAL would have posted a net loss of A$119.6 million.
According to VHA CEO Nigel Dews, VHA [Vodafone Hutchison Australia] is on-track to realize cost benefits outlined on announcement of the merger, which the company expects to equate to A$2 billion of net present value once fully realized.
The underlying net customer growth is 890,000 customers, while the total VHA revenue attributable to HTAL increased by 25.7% to A$2 billion.
Vodafone-Hutchison shows strong growth
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A record growth has been managed by Vodafone Hutchison in the second half of last year despite the Hutchison Telecommunications-Vodafone merger still being a work in progress. 584,000 new customers in the December half were gained by the company out of which 30 per cent were mobile broadband subscriptions.
According to Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Nigel Dews, 40 per cent of new subscribers were getting smartphones, which was driving a boom in data use and 1.39 million VHA customers are now using broadband on their mobile phones, modems and data cards linked to other devices.
The merged customer base was just short of 6.9 million subscribers at the end of last year.
Vodafone fined for spamming in Australia
VODAFONE Hutchison Australia and Coke have become been caught by an anti-spam law, prompting the Australian government to re-iterate that it will strongly impose the six-year-old law.
Vodafone agreed to pay $110,000 after it sent 100,000 text messages to Vodafone customers last October as part of a marketing campaign for Coca-Cola. Where the law is breached, the regulator has several options, including a formal warning, an enforceable undertaking, fines of up to $110,000 a day, and Federal Court action in the most extreme cases.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority investigated whether the messages breached the 2003 Spam Act because they did not give recipients a means to unsubscribe or contact the sender.
The messages was: ”Take a hint from your PC and reboot. You’ll work faster. Reclaim your lunch hour with a friend. Escape with a Coca-Cola lunch break.”
The payment was part of an enforceable undertaking by Vodafone Hutchison, which owns Vodafone, and the marketing companies New Dialogue and Big Mobile.
Vodafone Hutchison agreed to pay but it stated that it would continue marketing campaigns via mobile phones.
Interestingly, last month the Federal Court fined companies and individuals $15.75 million for spam text messages targeted at users of a dating website.
The year in 3G: steady as she goes
AmericasNetwork writes…It’s been a good year for 3G overall, if you like market growth and tech-religion wars. The year also set the stage for some of 2007′s key issues: cheaper handsets, mobile WiMAX and – yes, finally (maybe) – the kickoff of 3G in China
Another year, another slew of rollouts and stats wars in the 3G sector. The GSM Association (GSMA), the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) and the CDMA Development Group (CDG) have been hurling numbers and press releases at each other and the media.
One of the more interesting battles has been over operators crossing technology lines. Telstra’s announcement at the end of 2005 that it intended to scrap its CDMA network in favor of W-CDMA – claiming it was more cost-effective – sparked outrage on the part of the CDG. Telstra is still waiting for government approval of the plan, but in the meantime, Hutchison Australia’s Orange CDMA network (briefly rebranded as 3 CDMA) was shut down in August this year.
The GSA said in November that 29 CDMA operators had either adopted GSM/W-CDMA in addition to their CDMA networks or – in most cases – as a replacement for CDMA. The CDG, meanwhile, claimed that “up to 39″ GSM cellcos had either deployed cdma2000 1x or were planning to do so (although not at the expense of existing GSM systems, a fact the CDG didn’t refute but didn’t call attention to in its press release).
The CDG also crowed over the effects of mobile number portability on Japan’s mobile market. In November, the first full month after MNP rules were enacted, 1x EV-DO operator KDDI accounted for 82% of total net subscriber adds, while NTT DoCoMo actually lost more subscribers than it gained for the first time in memory.
And you thought the religious wars were over.
Whatever. At the end of the day, it’s been a decent showing for 3G in 2006, according to the latest figures from the CDG, GSMA and 3G Today. W-CDMA subscriber numbers have grown from 49 million worldwide at the end of 2005 to 83.6 million as of October 31, 2006. 1x EV-DO subscribers have gone from 26.6 million to 44.4 million in the same time period.
However, the real show-stopper has been the commercial arrival of HSDPA and EV-DO Rev A, both of which take GSM and CDMA to the next level in terms of data speeds. Arguably HSDPA has been the more successful of the two, with 89 commercial launches as of December, compared to just two EV-DO Rev A systems going live. Not too bad for a technology with no handsets and terminals limited mainly to PC cards for now.
That said, both HSDPA and Rev A are in the interesting position of serving as a wide-area mobile broadband solution well ahead of the first commercial launches for that other anytime/anywhere mobile broadband technology, mobile WiMAX.
