Bharti Infratel files legal case against STel (India)
Bharti Infratel has sued telecom operator STel for not paying outstanding rent on 1,200 tenancies it had leased from the company, according to a report by ET. As per the report, Bharti Infratel filed a suit in the Delhi High Court early this month saying STel used its towers for providing mobile services to its subscribers over the last two years, without disclosing the amount.
The report reveals that STel said that deliberations were on between the companies, in an attempt to settle the dispute. Previously, Reliance Infratel, had also taken STel to the telecom tribunal seeking recovery of dues from the operator for the infrastructure it had taken on lease in 2009.
STel held 2G mobile permits in Bihar, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and the northeastern region; and 3G spectrum in Bihar, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh.
Tele2 to re-launch mobile services in Kazakhstan
Tele2 plans to re-launch its mobile services in Kazakhstan on April 24.
The operator will start the coverage in the Aktobe region under the Tele2 name and cover Astana and Almaty, the Western Kazakhstan region and some areas in the northeast of the country in Q2. Equipment from Huawei was used for deployment of the network in Kazakhstan. Tele2 also plans to invest almost US$217 million in Kazakhstan this year.
MTS Ukraine to provide mobile services for gas company
MTS Ukraine has won a tender to provide mobile services to the state-owned gas transport and storing company Ukrtransgas.
The contract is worth US$4, 27,774 in total.
Beeline offers mobile services for Ministry of Emergency (Russia)
Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, working under the Beeline brand, has signed a deal on providing mobile services for the Volgograd branch of the national Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The operator will provide mobile services for over 500 officials of the regional branch of the ministry in Volgograd and Volzhskiy.
IBM introduces new services for communications service providers to build high quality multi-play networks
IBM today announced new services for mobile operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), communication service providers and cable companies transforming their network infrastructures to address exploding data demands while launching their next generation voice, video, data and mobile services.
With a crowded marketplace and increased price volatility, subscribers expect their providers to offer the latest cutting edge services — and furthermore, they expect superior quality of service, security and reliability. To compete, communications service providers need data and application aware networks that support new innovative consumer services and the ability to support advanced analytics in their network to ensure high quality and reduced costs.
IBM’s Communications Service Provider Network Infrastructure Services tackles the challenges in building advanced networks by enabling providers to develop new revenue generating services while controlling costs. More specifically, IBM’s services provide the professional services for solution planning, migration, architecture, detailed design, project planning, deployment, and end-to-end multi-vendor infrastructures.
Major French communication service provider, Bouygues Telecom, worked with IBM to consolidate its multiple networks — voice, data, TV and mobile — into one high end multi-vendor backbone with advanced policy control features to support quadruple play. This solution gives Bouygues Telecom the agility needed for their daily operations and provides to their consumers a higher level of quality and availability with dynamic network backup.
IBM delivered Bouygues Telecom an end to end network solution by providing services from high level design to daily maintenance,†said Jean Paul Arzel, Network Director, Bouygues Telecom. They worked with us to integrate solutions from third-parties such as BootEdge from ActivNetworks to compress and optimize data traffic over 3G to save bandwidth. Their understanding of our constantly evolving industry and the unique challenges we face has been key to the success of the project.â€
We have built worldwide expertise based on nearly a decade of helping clients build next generation network infrastructures and new services,†said Laurence, Guihard-Joly, VP, Integrated Communications & Security Services, IBM. This portfolio is the result of that experience and our ongoing investments in new solution capabilities such as mobile broadband, video distribution, cloud and the service assurance monitoring infrastructure that is the foundation for deploying the advanced analytics required by our clients.â€
IBM works with the top 1,000 communications service providers worldwide, including all 20 of the largest global providers.
Millions suffered due to Finnish mobile network fault (Finland)
Finland’s mobile network operators suffered a system failure on Saturday morning that left about a million subscribers without any service. The problem, which affected users in the northern two-thirds of the country, was resolved only by the middle of the afternoon.
The mobile network, Elisa stated that the failure started at 7:00 in the morning in Tampere, with an electric fault at one of the company’s control rooms. The fault only affected mobile services, leaving the landline and internet services unaffected.
Although emergency calls from mobiles should automatically lock onto the strongest signal, regardless of the provider, there were anecdotal reports of some people having difficulty making such calls because of drop-off of calls at emergency centers.
An even more extensive failure in the Elisa network occurred in 2007, when an estimated two million mobile phones were affected.
Macquarie Telecom increases half year guidance (Australia)
ASX -listed managed Macquarie Telecom has increased its earnings guidance to $20 million for the half year ending 31 December 2010.
The expected result would exceed the company’s previous EBITDA guidance of between $15 million and $17 million.
According to Chief Executive David Tudehope, the company experienced increased demand for its hosting services. The company also has a telco division which offers IP network, voice and mobile services. They believe the trend of outsourcing is accelerating due to the higher speed internet connectivity driving web technology and the associated demand for managed hosting.
He added that the emergence of cloud computing, which is a natural extension of hosting, will increase this trend and provide new market opportunities.
The full year financial results were now expected to be between $37 million and $39 million, a 30% increase. The half results would be released on February 24.
Tele2 Russia added 283,000 new customers in December (Russia)
Tele2 AB (Tele2), today announced that its Russian operations added 283,000 new customers in December 2010, of which 147,000 customers in new regions. Tele2 Russia has 18.4 million customers in total.
Tele2 is one of Europe’s leading telecom operators, always providing the best deal. We have 30 million customers in 11 countries. Tele2 offers mobile services, fixed broadband and telephony, data network services, cable TV and content services. Ever since Jan Stenbeck founded the company in 1993, it has been a tough challenger to the former government monopolies and other established providers. Tele2 has been listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm since 1996. In 2009, we had net sales of SEK 39.5 billion and reported an operating profit (EBITDA) of SEK 9.4 billion.
Anatel publish new regulations for national fixed, mobile services (Brazil)
Anatel, Brazil’s telecoms regulator has published new regulations outlined to extend the provision of fixed and mobile services nationwide by using the 450MHz-470MHz band.
The Brazilian government is expecting the initiative will help it to bridge the so-called digital divide by clearing and reallocating spectrum bandwidth. The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has given its open backing to the new regulations under which the 450MHz-470MHz band will be reallocated to deliver fixed and mobile services, including the full range of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) services nationwide across the country.
As per the plan, the spectrum will be allocated on a primary (non-exclusive) basis for mobile services (SMP), fixed telephone services (STFC) as well as multimedia communication services (SCM). It is understood Anatel will allocate the 451MHz-458MHz and 461MHz-468MHz bands, including a block of 7+7MHz spectrums. Current users of the 450MHz-470MHz frequency bands will be migrated to an alternative spectrum band to avoid interference and facilitate Brazil’s goal of providing coverage to areas of low population density.
According to CDG Director Perry LaForge, the agency applauded ANATEL for taking an important step toward bringing 3G voice and broadband data services to all Brazilians. He went on saying the propagation capabilities and advantages of the 450MHz-470MHz spectrum band make it ideal for delivering affordable telecommunication services to both rural and urban areas. They look forward to work with the government and the wireless industry to make CDMA2000-based services accessible to all regions of Brazil.
Chunghwa Telecom Q3 net profit increases by 10% (Taiwan)
Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom Co. has revealed its third-quarter report. The company’s net profit increased by 10% compared to last year owing to increased revenue from value-added services, like offering electronic books on smartphones.
According to the company’s statement, its net profit for July-September period totaled US$389.6 million, increased compare to last year. However, overall revenue chopped down 6.6% to US$1.51 billion from US$1.61 billion due to a decline in revenue from fixed-line and mobile services following regulator-mandated tariff reductions.
