www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The earlier statement by Sprint Nextel in which it announced that the HTC ‘Evo 4G’ WiMAX-capable handset’s first-day sales volume was three times the combined volume of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the shelves has been corrected.

Sprint clarified that the Evo did break the company’s record for the highest number of phones sold on a single day last Friday, at six times higher than on the launch day of the Instinct and twice as many as on the Pre’s first day.

Contrary to what the company announced, the Evo first-day sales figures were approximately equal to the other two models’ combined volume in their first three days.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Samsung has planned to launch a tablet computer in collaboration with Korean communications firm SK Telecom. sPad is the tentative name of the tablet computer and is expected to hit the stores in August.

Android operating system will run the device and it will have a 7-inch touchscreen display.

Samsung plans to launch an 8-inch model in October followed by a 10-inch version in December.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After posting its first quarterly net profit in the three months ended March 31, Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Japan’s Sony Corp. and Sweden’s Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson aims to maintain profitability on the basis of lower costs and new product launches.

The handset maker’s new application, “Timescape,” allows users to simultaneously see a record of their call. It also announced that it will partner with SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest wireless services operator by revenue, to offer the smartphone. The new device offered by SK Telecvom will have an 8.1-megapixel camera and a 16-gigabyte memory card and will be sold for around KRW800,000-KRW900,000 ($751).

While speaking on the sidelines of a product launch in Korea, Hirokazu Ishizuka, head of the company’s Asia-Pacific region hoped that its high-end line of smartphones including Xperia and Vivaz will help improve its bottom line in the quarters ahead. Korea has been described as one of the most important markets for Sony Ericsson with great potential for Sony Ericsson’s future as the number of smartphone users has nearly doubled from the end of last year to 2 million in May.

Analysts feel that world’s fifth vendor in terms of mobile shipments globally; Sony Ericsson has an uphill battle in South Korea to compete with local vendors such as Samsung and LG Electronics as well as Apple, which launched its iPhone in the South Korean market in November.

According to analysts, Samsung and LG will aggressively launch their Android-powered smartphones this year; it seems highly unlikely that Sony Ericsson could succeed in Korea with its new device and added that Sony Ericsson faces challenges because it has a big exposure to the European market which has been suffering from the economic turmoil in Greece and Spain.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Chief Justice of the Nigerian Federal High Court has appointed of the final member of an international tribunal to review the sale of V-Mobile Nigeria to Middle East headquartered mobile phone operator Zain, this week. The appointment has been done despite opposition by founding shareholder Econet Wireless which claimed that its pre-emption rights were breached when the sale was concluded.

In a statement issued by Econet, it had been notified of the appointment of the panel and that the tribunal was intending to commence hearings as early as the end of this month. Econet has also claimed that its pre-emption rights in respect of shares had been breached when Econet’s predominantly Nigerian partners decided to sell their shares in V-Mobile to Zain in 2006.

As a member of the consortium of the investors, Econet wireless launched Nigeria’s first GSM mobile network operation in 2001 and it has grown into country’s second largest operator, with about 20 million customers.
Econet attempt to prevent the sale of the shares to Zain through the UK courts failed as the judge ruled that the UK was not the appropriate place for such legal proceedings as the matter was more closely connected with Nigeria. After the decision, Econet has commenced ongoing legal proceedings in the Nigerian courts.

The arbitration proceedings which generally take approximately 18 months to conclude will be undertaken by the tribunal using the rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, known as UNCITRAL. London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) tribunal in a yet further arbitration concerning the disputed sale has ruled that Zain was under an obligation, if it involved itself in the Econet transaction, to act in good faith so as to ensure the minimum conflict with Econet possible.

Nigerian proceedings recently included the decision and will be a key document in Econet’s claim in the Nigerian courts going forward.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new avatar of Vodafone Mobile Box Office has been introduced by Vodafone, as a latest addition to its portfolio of value added offerings on the voice platform. The subscribers will be able to listen to the storyline, trivia, dialogues and songs of their favorite movies through the Vodafone Mobile Box Office at their own convenience.

A catalogue of over 50 movies across 7 movie industries will be provided to the customers every week from which they can chose the movie of their choice. There are also options to download a caller tune and ringtone and dedicate songs to his/her friend. According to Vodafone, this is the first time ever that a concept of mobile movie capsule has been introduced to mobile phone users in India.

Some of the key features of the service are- it will provide Entertaining Movie Capsules with storyline, trivia, dialogues and songs of popular movies and the subscribers can choose from a catalogue of 50 movies across seven movie industries every week. The Content Language Selector will allow access to movies across six languages – Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telegu, Malyalam and Bhojpuri.

Customers can also listen to exciting “Movie of the Day” trailers; stay updated about the latest/upcoming movies through the Mobile Box Office Teaser Slots, bookmark a collection of their favorite movies to “My Movies” playlist and download caller tunes, ringtones and also dedicate songs to their friends.  Various packages for subscribers are also offered by Vodafone and once subscribers exhaust this browsing limit, they can get Movie Top Up options wherein subscribers can Top Up of Rs 10 get to browse one movie three times.

By calling 56700 (toll free), the customers can request for activation of Vodafone Mobile Box Office or they can SMS MBO to 111 or 444. Once activated, subscribers can call 56700 (toll-free) and listen to their chosen movies.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Services in five new telecom circles have been launched by India’s Uninor. With the move, the telco has increased its coverage to 13 telecom circles and its population footprint to 900 million people across India. 67.25 per cent stake in the company is controlled by Norway’s Telenor.

Mumbai, Maharashtra and Goa, Gujarat, Kolkata and West Bengal are the circles where the latest launch has taken place. Uninor connections in these five circles will be available at over 85,000 points of sale through close to 440 distributors and more than 80 exclusive shops.

By increasing the national retail presence by 40 per cent, Uninor connections will now be available at close to 300,000 points of sales across India. According to Stein Erik Vellan, Managing Director of Uninor, this is a big day for Uninor as it enters some of the most promising and competitive markets of India and the battle of Indian telecom will be fought on innovation, quality and flexibility.

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Zain Kenya plans 3G launch for July

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Third generation (3G) network has been planned to be rolled out by Zain Kenya, in July, following an expected cut in license fees by the regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

The company is expecting the regulator to announce new spectrum costs for 3G during the first week of June which are going to be substantially lower than the current USD25 million.

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Orange Switzerland launches PC Games

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orange PC Games, a PC games download service has been launched by Orange Switzerland. More than 250 games are included in the offer, available on www.orange.ch/pcgames.

Play Pack consists of recreational, educational and entertainment games are available in the offer for CHF 15 per month.  Graphically and technically more advanced games are available in Action pack.  Installation of the pack also requires some special configurations on the PC for CHF 15 per month. Ultimate Pack consists of all games available from the entire games catalogue on the Orange PC Games platform and costs CHF 29 per monthly.

Unlimited access to the games included in the package is offered by all packages and all downloadable games consist of the full version in German and French.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of the new iPhone 4G/HD has been confirmed by the USA- based telecom operator, AT&T in June. The official information about the launch has been confirmed after a long spell of speculations and the employees of the company have been announced that there will be a new iPhone and it will hit the stores in June.

The handset is expected to be unveiled in the early June itself straight after the WWDC event and Apple’s unveiling. The new iPhone model is well and truly on its way reason, discontinuation of the iPhone 3G and the drop in price of the iPhone 3GS at Walmart stores. The commercial for the new handset has been completed and the Apple iPhone 4G is expected to be announced at WWDC 2010 on June 7 at the Steve Jobs keynote.

Detailed information has not been provided by the company regarding a lot of exciting things like the new iPhone and the iPhone OS 4. A sneak peak however might be provided at the upcoming Mac OSX 10.7.

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4G technology- a step ahead of 3G

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After the launch of 3G in almost every corner of the world, the mobile companies, subscribers and analysts have started talking about the generation ahead- 4G. The companies are promising faster speeds and the ecstasy of being the first one to use a new ellipsis. Sprint Nextel Corp. is the first carrier to release its first 4G phone, the EVO, this week. 25 to 30 cities will receive Sprint’s 4G service. MetroPCS Communications Inc. is also scheduled to introduce its first 4G phone around the same time.

For consumers, 4G means, in the ideal case, faster access to data but broadly speaking; it’s a new way to use the airwaves, designed from the start for the transmission of data rather than phone calls. Other than that, it’s difficult to point to things 4G can do that 3G phones can’t. According to Matt Carter, president of Sprint’s 4G divisions, the upgrade to 4G is more likely to enhance the things one can already do with 3G and one should view it as the difference between watching regular TV and high-definition TV.

Another aspect to the point is that the introduction of 3G started in earnest about five years ago, but it isn’t complete and the improvement from 3G to 4G is not as dramatic as the step from 2G to 3G, which for the first time made real Web browsing, video and music downloads practical on phones.

AT&T and T-Mobile are using different 3G technology and so they can upgrade their 3G networks. Verizon and Sprint have maxed out their 3G speeds so taking the step to 4G is natural for them, especially when they have new chunks of the radio spectrum that they want to take advantage of.

There are certain advantages of 4G which take the 3G technology a step ahead. 4G is faster for quick back-and-forth communications something which is not noticed when surfing the Web or doing e-mail. 4G will work better for multiplayer gaming, where split-second timing is important and even phone calls could benefit from shorter audio delays.

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