Best Buy, Clearwire launch 4G mobile broadband service (US)
Best Buy Connect has launched 4G mobile broadband connectivity service on an expanded selection of computing devices sold at Best Buy stores nationally.
The 4G service provides consumers with high-speed internet access on-the-go, with service activation, billing, hardware and connection support from Best Buy. The 4G service offering is available through a wholesale partnership with Clearwire.
Users can purchase Best Buy Connect 4G as mobile broadband option on 23 computing models from Asus, Dell, HP, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba at most Best Buy stores across the US. Initially, Best Buy Connect will offer unlimited 4G service for US$45 per month with a month-to-month or two-year contract.
With the purchase of a two-year contract, customers can waive the US$35 activation fee and receive up to an additional US$150 off select hardware devices.
Verizon releases global mobile hotspot
Verizon has launched the first mobile hotspot to offer data service in more than 200 countries, and will also provide 3G speed to 120 of these countries.
The Fivespot comes with a built-in SIM card, and can handle up to five Wi-Fi devices at a time. It links to GSM networks as well as Verizon’s own Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network. It also Supports standards include CDMA, WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks.
There are various different international price plans which are not very pocket friendly. The lowest-cost gives a 5GB allowance in the US and Canada plus 100MB in ‘select countries’, and costs US$129.99. There’s also a Global-Access Pay Per Use option for those who sign up for the company’s US$59.99 Mobile Broadband service plan in the US; data costs US$0.002 per KB in Canada, US$0.005 per KB in Mexico and US$0.02 per KB in more than 200 other destinations.
The Fivespot itself will be on sale for US$99.99 after a US$100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Manufactured by ZTE, it measures about four inches by two by half an inch thick, and weighs less than three pounds.
Mobile ARPU Declining Across Europe and USA: TRS
Mobile broadband service has become one of the most demanded and increasingly competitive services in the recent days. At the same time, mobile data traffic is also growing drastically and has reached over 25% of total ARPU for many operators. Some operators are actually considering data share of total ARPU at over 30%.
The Strategy Analytics Tariff and Revenue Strategies (TRS) Insight, examined the impact of these trends in six countries, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and USA, identifying key factors that drive the decline in ARPU.
Between 2006 and 2010, for selected mobile operators, overall ARPU is going down because although data traffic is growing, voice ARPU is declining by 23% to 60%. Although total voice minutes have generally not declined, revenue per minute has dropped significantly due in part to lower mobile termination rates.
According to Sue Rudd, Director TRS, in the US, data ARPU has increased approximately 65%. By contrast data ARPU in Europe has increased only 10% to 43%. And new entrants in some markets – O2 Germany and Vodafone Spain – have actually stimulated lower data ARPU to gain market share. Despite the general increase, actual data prices per month are between one quarter and two thirds the value of voice service. As a result the rapid growth in data traffic has contributed significantly to the decline in total ARPU. The change from voice and messaging to data and Internet access has significantly diluted the monthly price per user. Marginal subscriber penetration and trading down during the recession have further accelerated the decline in overall ARPU.
Vodafone profits double to £8.7Bn
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone has reported a big rise in profts owing primarily to its performance in the emerging markets. Revenues generated from Africa and Asia has been extremely good and pre-tax profits for the year to March totaled £8.7bn. India too showed strong revenue growth.
Even though it was hit by one-off charges, the company more than doubled the £4.2bn profit reported last year to £8.7bn .
8.5 million Net additions have been made by the telco in the past three months taking their total subscriber base to 341 million.
According to Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, the company was in shape to endure the economic problems and benefit from economic recovery and Vodafone today is positioned to return to revenue growth during the 2011 financial year, as economic recovery should benefit its key markets.
With fixed-line and mobile broadband services continuing to grow strongly, a third of its income was now coming from products other than mobile voice.
In case of India, the introduction of six new national licenses one year after Vodafone’s entry into the market, had led to increased competition, resulting in an impairment charge this year of £2.3bn. European markets, on the other hand, reported falls in revenues, with the UK witnessing a 4.7% decline.
SFR & Alca-Lu sign 2G/3G expansion deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by French mobile operator SFR to carry out a major expansion and upgrade of its 2G/3G networks besides working together for the trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband technology.
Smooth upgrade path to HSPA+ will be possible for SFR because of the deal to meet growing demand for mobile broadband services. Converged RAN (radio access network) solution will be provided by Alca- Lu enabling the cellco to reach a greater number of subscribers and further improve its services.
Meanwhile, the trial of 4G technology under the deal will include the delivery of an end-to-end LTE solution including base stations (eNodeBs), Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and associated management systems.
Yota contracts Samsung for network deployment in Russia
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Samsung has been contracted by Russian WiMAX specialist Yota for the provision and deployment of a nationwide mobile broadband network. More than 5,000 mobile WiMAX base stations and Access Control Routers (ACR) will be supplied by Samsung to Yota under the contract from March 2010.
Both the companies aim to initially expand the company’s network coverage from three to 15 cities in 2010, before expanding the network to 180 cities nationwide over the next few years. Apart from Russia, Yota is also actively extending its mobile WiMAX services with Samsung in other markets around the globe.
According to Mr. Dennis Sverdlov, CEO of Yota, the company can maximize the time-to-market advantage by reducing deployment time with Samsung, while guaranteeing the same high quality mobile broadband service to customers across the world
Next G price overhauled by Telstra
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a bid to keep its arch rivals, Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia at bay, the pricing structure of the Next G mobile broadband service of Telstra has been overhauled. The new pricing will be implemented on January 18.
The monthly data allowance of A$29.95 ($27.83) per month entry-level Next G plan to 400MB has been doubled by Australia’s largest mobile operator. A$20 a month off its A$59.95 a month plan offering 1GB of data as also been shaved by the company besides abolishing charges for excess data usage.
Even after the overhaul, the standalone packages of Next G’s will still not be as attractive as those of its rivals. For instance, 2GB of data for A$25 with a 12 month contract is offered by Optus.
According to Ovum’s Australian mobile analyst, Nathan Burley, Telstra has introduced bundled discounts where a customer gets A$10 off their mobile broadband service if they have one other service with Telstra. The discount increases to A$20 if the subscriber has two other services with Telstra.
Besides, the company also has coverage and speed compared with its two mobile broadband rivals.
150Mbps Download Speed achieved by Telefónica, O2 by Huawei’s LTE Network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Huawei became the first of Telefonica’s trial LTE vendors to have successfully implemented a live trial LTE network performed in the Slough area, the headquarters of O2 in the UK. Cell peak downlink rate of 150Mbps was achieved during the trial.
Recently, Telef³nica, O2 announced the commencement of 4G LTE/SAE (System Architecture Evolution) technology trails. According to Derek McManus, CTO of O2 UK, the successful trials will allow the company to better understand this emerging technology besides helping them to offer mobile broadband services to its next generation customers.
Samuel Sun, Managing Director of Huawei UK feels that the trials will give an excellent reference to Telef³nica O2 for the evaluation of LTE technology.
