Vodafone Qatar launches international calls at $0.17
Vodafone Qatar’s World Calling Club is offering international call rates to more than 190 countries for US$0.17 a minute.
Calling destinations included in this promotion are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, US and Yemen.
Vodafone is also running a promotion on its International Calling Card 25 that gives customers 46 minutes of talk time to 15 popular destinations at a rate of QAR 0.14 a minute. Both promotions run until the end of May.
XL Axiata Q1 revenues grow by 9% (Indonesia)
XL Axiata has stated that its Q1 revenues grew by 9 % to US$528.84 milion from US$486.72 million in the year-ago period.
Cellular Telecommunication Service revenue by grew 7 percent to US$479.7 million and Infrastructure revenue grew 25 percent.
Net profit grew 26 percent to US$88.45 million. XL Axiata saw its EBITDA rise 10 percent to US$276.12 million and EBITDA margin grew to 52 percent. XL Axiata ended the quarter with 39.3 million subscribers, up 21 percent year-on-year. For the full financial year XL Axiata expects EBITDA margin above 50 percent.
Ozura World picks Tatto Media for mobile advertising (US)
Ozura World has selected North American mobile advertising network Tatto Media to adopt the Tatto Platform for smartphone mobile advertising.
Banking on Tatto Media’s proprietary ad serving technologies, Ozura World aims to extend mobile advertising into its mobile social network properties, especially in emerging markets such as Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.
This collaboration would create synergy for both Ozura World and Tatto Media via cross-platform marketing and technological integration.
Ozura World aims to achieve the target of USD 500 million in advertising sales within the next two years.
The combination of Ozura World and Tatto Media would assist the mobile social network to surpass the 270 million mark in terms of the total number of unique global users.
Spice to invest $225.61 in mobile internet space (India)
Spice Mobility is planning to invest US$225.61 million this year to switch to being a technology company focused on the Mobile Internet space.
The company also unveiled the roadmap to complete the first phase of the switch by September this year. The switch will use Spice groups businesses across sectors and geographies to catapult the neglected i2i (Ivory coast to Indonesia) economies in to emerging digital economies with Mobile Internet.
The roadmap for the switch to being the Mobile Internet company includes having a global supply chain for R&D and market intelligence to be headquartered in Singapore. Spice is creating seven cluster distribution model in Indian mobile retail.
Spice will set aside around US$27.07 million worth of shares for employees in the employees welfare trust pursuant to the approved Scheme of Amalgamation. In addition, Spice will set-up global knowledge centre at Noida in National Capital Region.
Telkomsel offers Bridge Alliance data roaming plan (Indonesia)
Telkomsel along with Bridge Alliance has launched Bridge DataRoamUnlimited, a postpaid data roaming plan.
The service offers unlimited data roaming at US$10 for a one-day plan and US$27 for a three-day plan.
The service is valid for roaming on Bridge Alliance member operator networks in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
The same package is already available from a number of Bridge Alliance members while Airtel (India), CTM (Macau), Optus (Australia), and Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) will be offering Bridge DataRoamUnlimited in the upcoming months.
BTEL Indonesia to acquire 4G Company
PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk (BTEL) has announced that it will acquire a 4G speed telecommunications service company. The name of the company is kept confidential and will only be revealed after the acquisition is completed in the second half of this year.
According to Rakhmat Junaidi, Director of BTEL Corporate Services, the name and valuation of the company cannot be revealed to the public because it is still in the process of due diligence.
The acquisition would allow BTEL to enhance its business development towards 4G technology. To make that a reality, BTEL has set aside a capital expenditure of US$ 200 million this year. It is also preparing a mobile network license for its CDMA network.
If the acquisition is successful at the end of 2011, BTEL would be able to boast the connection speed for its data plan users. It would also create a more conducive environment for mobile related start-ups in Indonesia.
Telkomsel to invest $1.1 bln on network expansion (Indonesia)
Telkomsel has assigned US$1.1 billion this year for expansion of its network.
According to Telkomsel President Director Sarwoto Atmosutarno, the investment is part of the company’s plan to transform the company from a mobile service provider into a data service provider. Some 60% of the planned investment will be used to improve the broadband service.
AHA to launch RIM the BlackBerry Curve 8530 for CDMA Customers (Indonesia)
PT Bakrie Connectivity through AHA, together with Research In Motion (RIM) has launched the CDMA-enabled BlackBerry Curve 8530 smartphone in Indonesia. AHA will launch the new smartphone along with comprehensive service plans to fulfill the needs of AHA’s growing customer base.
The BlackBerry solution combines smartphones, software and services to provide easy wireless access to social networking, email, instant messaging, voice calls, Internet browsing, multimedia and a wide range of mobile apps.
According to Erik Meijer, President Director of PT Bakrie Connectivity, They see very fast growth for CDMA services in Indonesia. With approximately 31 million CDMA subscribers demanding reliable and richer data services, Bakrie Connectivity is taking this opportunity to build momentum and introduce the BlackBerry Curve 8530, which supports the faster EVDO Rev A technology on the CDMA network. For the launch of the BlackBerry Curve 8530 in Indonesia, AHA is offering customers an amazing opportunity to get 6 months of free data, a choice of preferred mobile phone numbers and free lifetime voice and SMS to all AHA and Esia subscribers.
Key features of the BlackBerry Curve 8530 smartphone include: -Sleek and compact design measuring 109 mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm (L x W x D) and weighing only 106 grams (including battery) -Easy-to-use, highly tactile, full-QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad for reliable, Responsive typing and navigation -Supports voice-activated dialing and Bluetooth (version 2.1), with support for Hands-free headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals -High speed Internet access on CDMA networks -Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) -GPS with support for location-based applications -Digital camera with zoom and video recording* -Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys and a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack -BlackBerry Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync photos and music from your computer to the smartphone -Access to BlackBerry App World, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third- party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones.
-Access to email, messaging (IM, SMS, BBM) and popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace -Powerful multimedia capabilities with dedicated media keys smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, giving customers an easy, convenient way to control their music and videos -Support for BlackBerry services with access to up to 10 supported email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL and Gmail) and BlackBerry Enterprise Server support, which provides advanced security and IT administration for corporate deployments -Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot (supports up to 32 GB cards), Video recording requires microSD card, Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies. Photo syncing is currently only available for Windows-based PCs.
XL Axiata offers iPhone 4 (Indonesia)
XL Axiata has launched the Apple iPhone 4 on its network. The company is offering the device with three postpaid packages on a 12-month contract and one prepaid package.
The first postpaid package offers the iPhone 4 16 GB for US$289.88 and the 32 GB model for US$405.88. The monthly fee is set at US$34.68 which comes with 150 minutes, 150 SMS messages and 15 MMS messages, and 1 GB of data.
The second plan offers the 16 GB iPhone 4 for US$231.88 and the 32 GB version for US$347.88 at a monthly fee of IDR 399,000. The second plan comes with 300 voice minutes, 300 SMS messages and 30 MMS messages, and 2 GB of data.
The third plan, which is priced at US$69.48 per month, offers the iPhone 4 16 GB at US$115.88 and the 32 GB version at US$220.28. The plan comes with 600 voice minutes, 600 SMS and 60 MMS messages, and 4 GB of data.
The prepaid package charges US$811.88 for the 16 GB iPhone 4 and US$927.88 for the 32 GB version. The package includes 150 voice minutes, 150 SMS messages and 15 MMS messages, and 1 GB of data.
Telkom to launch mobile chatting app (Indonesia)
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) is planning to launch a mobile chatting application and boost its internet service speed to tap more subscribers.
According to Telkom’s mobile division Telkom Flexi’s Deputy Executive General Manager for commerce Muhammad Firdaus , the company was prepared to debut Flexi Messenger. The application would enable Telkom Flexi achieve its target of a 20-30% increase in its subscriber base.
As for its internet business, Firdaus stated the company would improve FlexiNet’s network quality by upgrading its technology in ten cities. The base transceiver stations that exist in the ten cities will be installed with the technology. The cities are Jakarta, Surabaya, Malang, Banjarmasin, Makassar, Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Pekanbaru and Medan.
