www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Group has become a part of the lucrative mobile application market as it announces the launch of new software to enable mobile developers to create applications that will work across its entire range of phones.
The applications will be billed directly to its subscribers through their Vodafone accounts and the company will benefit from sales through a revenue-share model.
Vodafone is in line for 30% of the revenue generated through its network. The operator has generated a set of interfaces that will enable developers to use its subscriber’s location to tailor their services, or bill them directly rather than going through a separate Web site.
The applications will ultimately be sold through an application store in the same way that they are being sold by Apple Inc. currently, and later by Nokia Corp, Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc’s Android operating platform.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Essar, the Indian mobile operator, has introduced three new monthly rental plans for its postpaid subscribers based in Kolkata and West Bengal. The first offer dubbed as Budget 500, the subscribers will receive 1000 minutes in a combo of local and STD calls along with 100 local SMS. The Budget 750 plan will offers 1500 minutes in a combo of local and STD calls along with 200 local SMS, and the Budget 1000 plan will give 2050 minutes in a combination of local and STD calls along with 500 local SMSs.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Group, plans to focus on the 3G mobile services in Turkey as the operator allots half of its earnings made this year for re-investment, Chief Executive Officer Vittorio Colao, reportedly said.
Vodafone is “determined” to grow in Turkish mobile market, which grew to $31 billion last year. Vodafone will introduce 3G services in three months time, he said.
The operator has doubled the number of base stations and improved call quality in last two years. “We will set up our 3G technologies on top of this new infrastructure,” Colao said.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Wind Hellas has introduced a new postpaid offer dubbed as ‘Split bill’, targeting business subscribers. As per the offer, there are two separate monthly bills, one issued to the company and the other one to the employee, in case staff usage crosses the monthly caps established by the firm. The limits can be set by the firm for national and international calls, SMS, MMS, video-calls, roaming, among others. Various additional services may be offered to the staff by the businesses, in case they opt for such services.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: T-Mobile Austria has posted revenues of EUR 267 million in Q1′09, down by 2.6% since Q1′08, though the operator experienced a 4% rise in its subscriber base from 3.287 million at Q1′08-end to 3.418 million at Q1′09-end.
The service revenues dropped by 3% year-on-year to EUR 256 million in Q1′09. The EBITDA also dipped by 30.3% to EUR 53 million and the share of non-voice grew from 23% in Q1 2008 to 27%.
The postpaid subscriber base rose by 6.1% to 2.3 million, with 35,000 net additions during Q1′09 whereas the prepaid base saw a drop of 0.1% year-on-year to 1.113 million, losing 19,000 subscribers in Q1′09.
The subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) grew 18.5% year-on-year to EUR 109, due to a 26.5% growth in postpaid SAC to EUR 205, while prepaid SAC fell by more than 66% to EUR 2 and subscriber retention costs (SRC) grew by 14.9% to EUR 108.
The operator reported a downfall in ARPU by 7.4% year-on-year to EUR 25, due to a 8.3% drop in postpaid ARPU to EUR 33 and an 11.1% decrease in prepaid ARPU to EUR 8.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telefonica O2 Czech republic has inked an agreement with T-Mobile Czech Republic to sort out their disputes over prices for mutual interconnection of telecommunication networks in 2001. As per the terms of agreement, Telefonica O2 will get nearly CZK 900 million (USD 45 million) from rival operator T-Mobile, with all court proceedings terminated. The amount will be booked in Q2.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bell Canada is acquiring the rest 50% stake in Virgin Mobile Canada worth CAD 142 million. The telco has also given consent to an exclusive, long-term licence to continue using the Virgin Mobile brand in Canada as well as cooperating with the Virgin Group on sponsoring and media events. The acquisition is anticipated to boost synergies between the Bell mobile activities and Virgin Mobile, from shared network infrastructure, handset acquisition and common distribution with third-party retailers. Virgin Mobile will maintain its branding and shops.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: M:tel the Bosnian mobile operator, has inked contracts with telecoms equipment vendors Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks to deliver and install 3G network equipment.
The new network will enable M:tel to introduce a range of new services, guarantee high-speed and quality of voice and data transfer, as well as improve capacity and signal coverage in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China Mobile’s Zhejiang branch in partnership with Alipay’s online payment service will launch mobile payment services for its subscribers. Most analysts agree that “the cooperation is the first one China Mobile has entered into with a third-party online payment platform operator, said market observers. China Mobile, once the outrunner in the Chinese telecom market, used to take charge of every lucrative business itself in the past 2G era.”
The service will be limited to the Zhejiang province.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news:Tigo, mobile operator based in Ghana and Research In Motion have introduced the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone to serve Tigo’s corporate subscribers in Ghana. The Blackberry Bold supports high-speed mobile broadband and features with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi as well as a set of multimedia and business capabilities. For organizations that manage their own email servers, the phone is integrated with Microsoft Exchange, Novell and other programmes and uses encryption and IT policy controls to enable secure, push access to e-mail and other corporate data.