Leadership change in Vodafone Albania (Europe)
Haris Broumidis, Vodafone Albania’s CEO since November 2007, moves by early April 2012 to Vodafone Group Headquarters in London as Commercial Director for Europe. In this new role, he will be responsible for accelerating the implementation of Vodafone’s commercial priorities in the European markets, including Albania.
Haris Broumidis commenced his co-operation with Vodafone in 2002 and served successively as Marketing Director and Enterprise Business Unit Director at Vodafone Greece, while the last four years under his leadership enabled Vodafone Albania to become the undisputable leader of telecommunications market in the country.
Dietlof Mare has been appointed new CEO for Vodafone Albania. During his career he served for four years as CEO of Vodacom Tanzania and prior to that managed the Vodacom business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Telefonica to set up digital unit in London (Europe)
Telefonica, an integrated operator in the telecommunications sector, is making changes in its organization and structure in an attempt to reinforce the operator’s status as a global player and leader in the digital environment. The main lines of the new organizational structure are designed to speed up the decision-making process, and to balance and streamline the organization.
A new business unit, Telefonica Digital, based in London will be created in place of the Sanish businesses. The unit will comprise of 2,500 highly skilled professionals, with a mission to bolster Telefónica’s place in the digital world and leverage any growth opportunities arising in this environment.
London Undergrounds’ mobile plans scrapped(UK)
Plans to implement a mobile phone network across London’s Underground transport system ahead of next year’s Olympic Games have been scrapped due to high costs and the technical complexity of the project.
Talks between Chinese telecoms provider Huawei and the UK operators have broken down.
They had agreed to examine the idea of getting coverage on the tube in time for the London 2012 Olympics.
Putting antennas throughout the Tube’s antiquated network have proved too costly.
As per the companies’ joint statement, as a group they will continue to positively explore all other avenues available to them in order to provide a service at a later date.
Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere and Three are believed to have already spent several million pounds on the project.
Huawei had offered to donate some of the necessary equipment.
According to a statement from the Mayor of London, they are grateful to the companies who explored the possibility of getting full mobile coverage on the Tube, although disappointed that the genuine problems encountered could not be overcome on this occasion.
Plans to expand Wi-Fi coverage on Tube stations will continue.
O2 UK begins 3G in 900MHz band
O2 UK has started UMTS services in the 900MHz band in London. UK regulator Ofcom had approved the move in January, and O2 claims to be the first operator in the UK to offer 3G in the band previously reserved for GSM.
The new 3G900 network layer in London is expected to deliver a 50% increase in capacity to O2′s existing 3G network. The 3G900 services are also deployed in key cities across the UK, including Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester, with other cities set to follow in the coming months.
According to O2, customers on 3G900 compatible devices are now receiving data 30% faster than before the new spectrum was allocated for 3G use.
Verizon Ready to Activate Capacity on Europe India Gateway Submarine Cable System
Verizon enterprise customers can begin taking advantage of the newly activated Europe India Gateway cable. The $700 million high-capacity fiber-optic cable, one of the most advanced submarine cable systems in the world, will provide multinational customers additional diversity and capacity to meet their critical communications needs.
Verizon joined 15 other international communications leaders, which constitute the EIG Consortium, and formally accepted delivery of more than 11,300 kilometers (7,021 miles) of the total 15,000 km (9,320 miles) EIG cable system. The accepted cable system routes are: London to Bude, U.K.; Bude to Portugal to Gibraltar to Monaco to Libya; Monaco to Marseille, France; and Saudi Arabia to Djibouti to Oman to United Arab Emirates to India. The group also accepted 11 of 13 cable landing stations. The only remaining segment to be completed for the EIG is in Egypt where there are two landing sites.
“With the increasing demand for our strategic services and IP-based solutions, this EIG cable system is critical to support our customers’ high-bandwidth communication needs,” said Ihab Tarazi, Verizon vice president of global network planning. “This cable activation also shows our customers our strong network investment commitment around the globe. Virtually anywhere our Verizon enterprise customers do business in the world, they can count on us to use our outstanding network capabilities to deliver their communications solutions.”
Multinational customers also will be able to take advantage of Verizon’s capacity and routing on the EIG cable system by connecting directly to the company’s ultra-long-haul European network via the Verizon EIG cable terminal station in Marseille, France. Customers also can connect directly from the EIG to the Verizon network in India.
In addition to complementing existing high-bandwidth cable systems in the region, the EIG cable system will provide much-needed diversity for broadband traffic currently relying largely on traditional routes from Europe to India. This is important, considering the threat of earthquakes in this region.
With the addition of the EIG, Verizon is preparing to extend its industry-leading global mesh architecture to this cable. Meshing is a network design that connects undersea cable systems on land, allowing for instantaneous rerouting of traffic in the event of multiple undersea cable breaks. The company operates a global mesh network that circles the globe, and EIG will provide additional redundant mesh paths needed during service impacting events.
“When you combine all the customer benefits of EIG additional capacity, cable route diversity, network redundancy, direct connectivity to our European and India networks, global mesh around the world, and seamless connectivity to major submarine cables in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Asia and North America this truly demonstrates why Verizon has one of the most robust and diverse communications network foundations in the world,” Tarazi said.
When fully activated, the EIG will be the first direct high-bandwidth optical fiber system from the United Kingdom to India. The design capacity on the full system is 3.84 terabits per second (Tbps) using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide upgradeable transmission facilities.
As a leader in developing undersea cable communications systems, the EIG is the third major submarine cable project Verizon has helped launch in the last six years. The company continues its global network leadership work, delivering more capacity, reliability and speed for data, video, IP-based solutions and strategic services needed by its multinational customers. The company is involved in more than 80 submarine cables worldwide.
Verizon is a global leader in driving better business outcomes for mid-sized and large enterprises and government agencies. Verizon combines integrated communications and IT solutions and professional services expertise with high-IQ global IP and mobility networks to enable businesses to securely access information, share content and communicate. Verizon is rapidly transforming to a cloud-based “everything-as-a-service” delivery model that will put the power of enterprise-grade solutions within the reach of every business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.
Verizon Communications Inc., headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving 94.1 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 194,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
Apple to open largest store in New York
Apple is planning to build its largest-ever retail store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal.
According to sources, the retail outlet, to be known as Apple Store, Grand Central, is expected to open its doors this fall, and possibly in September. The new store is anticipated to be Apple’s largest of its more than 300 worldwide locations, meaning it will be bigger than the company’s massive Covent Garden store in London.
The source revealed that Apple will cut the ribbon on the Grand Central location as part of the 10th anniversary celebration of its first brick-and-mortar store opening. The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one.
Euroset founder mulls over introducing a phone retail chain in the UK
Euroset, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the former head of Russian phone retailing giant has stated that he is unlikely to return to Russia, even after kidnapping charges were dropped against him and that he might look at setting up a new business in London.
He admitted that his English is still a bit weak and his understanding of the UK legal system is still causing a headache. He discovered that the more regulated manner of the UK system is more expensive to deal with.
He confirmed that he no longer has any shares in his former Russian company, Euroset and no longer advises the company on its strategy. He is living in London for 2.5 yearsnow and doesn’t know anything about mobile innovations.
However, his expectations of launching a phone business in London might need more research. He also claimed that 80% of the phones sold in the UK are Apple iPhones and BlackBerry handsets. In his opinion, locals won’t buy anything else, which might surprise UK retailers.
Huawei to offer free mobile network to London underground system
Huawei Technologies is bidding to provide a mobile network for the London underground system in time for the 2012 Olympics.
According to sources, this offer, worth around US$80 million is being made from the former Olympic nation to the new one. There have been attempts to deploy a network for mobile phones in the Underground for almost a decade but no one has apparently been able to come up with a commercially viable model.
There have been heightened reports recently that Transport for London was close to signing a contract with the UK’s mobile networks with the intention to deploy the network in places for the London Olympics.
A spokesperson confirmed that transport for London and the Mayor are currently in discussion with mobile phone operators and other suppliers about the potential provision of mobile phone services on the deep Tube network. Given the financial pressures on TfL’s budgets, any solution would need to be funded through mobile operators with no cost to the fare or taxpayers.
HTC acquires stake in Saffron Digital (Taiwan, UK)
Taiwan’s HTC is making a strategic investment in the UK based Saffron Digital, a software firm based around mobile content delivery.
Saffron Digital has seen its technology integrated into products and services in Europe by HTC, LG, Paramount Digital Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile and Nokia, among others, and in the USA by Samsung.
According to Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation, Saffron Digital has developed an incredible expertise in mobile multimedia delivery. This ability to deliver optimized content in the future will be a key asset as content becomes more and more complex and localized. The company is excited to be working with Saffron to increase their global service delivery capabilities and expertise.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Saffron Digital will continue to provide its media and content services to its third party partners, which include device manufacturers, network operators and content providers in 26 countries. The company’s headquarters will remain in London and Los Angeles while its management team will continue to remain unchanged.
