BellTel sale receives green signal by NTC (Philippines)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The proposal for transfer of ownership of Bell Telecommunications Philippines Inc (BellTel) has been approved by the Philippines’ telecoms regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The ownership would be transferred to Two Cassandra-CCI Conglomerates, a holding company that once owned a small stake in Liberty Telecoms Holdings, which was bought by San Miguel Corp (SMC) together with partner Qatar Telecoms.
The move will result into PHP3.6 billion (USD78 million) cash injection into BellTel. 40% stake in BellTel was acquired by Two Cassandra on December 18, 2009 and both the parties signed an agreement according to which Cassandra will buy the remaining six million shares or 60% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of BellTel after the NTC approves the change in ownership.
Two minority shareholders of BellTel, South China Resources Inc. and Liberty Flour Mills Inc also sold off their stakes to Two Cassandra.
Vodafone Employee suspended after homophobic remarks
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A Vodafone employee has been suspended by the company after he posted a homophobic comment on the company’s twitter account which meant, Vodafone’s account had been hacked. The employee had official access to the Twitter service as part of their customer care role.
The team managing the account quickly deleted the post and spent the rest of the afternoon posting “We weren’t hacked. A severe breach of rules by staff in our building, dealing with that internally. We’re very sorry” to people who complained about the message.â€
However, the goof up resulted in an addition of a further four hundred followers as many Vodafone customers became aware of a Twitter presence for the company.
O2′s UK iPhone customers doubled to 2m
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to its exclusive deal with Apple, the iPhone customers of Telefonica SA’s U.K. business O2 has doubled to 2 million customers over the past year.
The deal also increased sales, customers and average revenue per user, and catapulted the operator ahead of rival Vodafone Group PLC into first place.
The iPhone is O2′s best-selling device, and sales have shown no signs of dipping since the two year exclusive iPhone deal expired in September.
Cosmote‘s HSPA+ network to be build by ZTE (Romania)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Cosmote Romania has contracted Chinese equipment manufacturer ZTE to deploy an HSPA+ evolved UMTS network. Infrastructure across all the major cities in Romania will be deployed by Cosmote by the end of March 2010.
The network will be installed with ZTE’s software-defined radio (SDR) technology and will be capable of theoretical peak download speeds of 21Mbps while SDR will allow seamless transition from GSM/UMTS to HSPA+ and, in future, LTE.
Cosmote which did to not receive a 3G concession in the 2004 and 2006 license tenders, acquired local 3G specialist Zapp, thus gaining access to a 3G concession and allowing it to prepare to roll out mobile broadband services of its own.
Commnet Wireless & ZTE launch LTE trials
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an aim to build the network spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, equipment has been ordered from ZTE by US regional operator Commnet Wireless. ZTE’s core dual-mode CDMA/LTE platform to meet the service requirements of roaming subscribers will be leveraged by Commnet. ZTE’s LTE platform can also be customized for other bands such as GSM and UMTS.
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and ZTE are in discussions for additional US Broadband Stimulus funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
AT&T to invest billions in network overhaul
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Billions will be invested by AT&T this year for the overhauling of its 3G network. The iPhone-related mobile data traffic explosion has resulted in dropped calls and painfully slow throughput in some congested markets and this move is aimed at keeping up with this congestion.
$18 billion to $19 billion is the expected capital expenditures investment by AT&T in 2010 which is about $2 billion more than last year on wireless network and backhaul. iPhone zones like New York and San Francisco are the main targets of this overhaul and the operator will increase its capacity, with 2,000 additional cell sites and 400,000 more square miles of 3G coverage.
The move has become even more imperative for AT&T because of the introduction of Apple iPad which has increased the data traffic even further.
T-Mobile launches 3G network in Czech Republic
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The commercial launch of 3G networks in Czech Republic has been completed by T- Mobile. The high-speed mobile internet will be available to Prague residents in its first stage and the 3G coverage will extend to the largest Bohemian and Moravian cities by the end of this year.
The HSPA technology of the T-Mobile’s 3G network is supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks and is ready for a smooth upgrade to LTE. The network will allow a download and upload speeds of 3 Mbps and 1.5 Mbps respectively while the users without 3G-enabled device can turn to any T-Mobile shop, as 80 percent of all mobile phones offered support 3G technology.
Entel PCS & Ericsson complete LTE trial in Chile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Trial of the first LTE has been successfully completed by Mobile operator Entel PCS in Chile. This is also the first LTE field trial rolled out in Latin America.
The field tests were developed in partnership with Ericsson. Entel PCS and Ericsson have demonstrated the first internet connection through LTE technology, launched on December 29, 2009.
Demonstration of first internet connection through LTE technology in a field trial has also been made by the two companies using a network configuration similar to that of a usual site.
Alcatel-Lucent to expand MobiCom 3G reach
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MobiCom, Mongolia’s largest mobile operators by subscribers, has selected Alcatel-Lucent to deploy an UMTS/HSPA network to expand the telco’s existing 3G infrastructure and coverage.
An advanced converged radio access network (RAN) portfolio will be provided by the French vendor to sustain the rapid increase of voice and data traffic and to enable a smooth transition to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
3G base stations (eNode Bs), radio network controller, network management system and critical professional services including network installation and testing are also included in the service. According to B. Gansukh, CTO of MobiCom, Alcatel-Lucent’s converged solutions and professional services offer unmatched performance and advanced features, making it the ideal choice as we transform our network to roll out next generation services.
M1 to launch Singapore’s first LTE trial
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Singapore’s third-ranked cellco, MobileOne (M1) has planned to use Nokia Siemens Networks radio and core network equipment to launch the a two-month LTE trial next month. The aim of the move is to achieve up to a 35% reduction of its telecommunications networks carbon footprint by early 2011 by deploying NSN’s Flexi multiradio base stations.
LTE services, including HDTV streaming, at its flagship store in Paragon on Orchard Road will be showcased by M1 as a part of the LTE trial. According to Patrick Scodeller, CTO at M1, the company’s network modernization contract with Nokia Siemens Networks represents its first steps in the evolution to LTE.
The deal could pave the way for M1 to begin commercial LTE services possibly as early as late-2010.
