BT monopoly to be ended to deliver superfast broadband
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to deliver superfast†broadband to the majority of Britain’s homes by 2017, the Conservatives claimed to loosen the grip of BT on the local telephone network besides using a parts of the BBC license fee.
According to shadow chancellor George Osborne, the Conservatives would support changes to the regulatory framework, adding that private investors being allowed to pay for better cabling would encourage competition.
3.5% of the license fee currently used to pay for digital switchover could be diverted to pay for broadband expansion in case the market fails to deliver them. The party also feels that UK can be the first leading European country to have speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) by using market-based solutionsâ€.
Wataniya finally launches in West Bank.
Wataniya Mobile finally began operations after months of disputes with Israel. This will break Paltels monopoly and is likely to drive down prices.
Qtel owns 57% of Wataniya Palestine and the remainder is owned by the public Palestine Investment Fund. Wataniya has invested USD 100 Million already and a further $700m is planned over the next decade.
Current penetration in the west bank is only 35% which Wireless Federation expects to go up rapidly following the launch of Wataniya. Paltel currently has 1.5 million Palestinian subscribers.
Wataniya said it has received only 3.8MHz of bandwidth from Israel, instead of the 4.8MHz that had been promised. Without this Wataniya will not be able to launch 3G services.
Apple’s iPhone comes to M1 in singapore
M1 will sell the iPhone to its subscribers later this year, breaking Singtel’s monopoly over the iPhone in Singapore.
Starhub, the third mobile operator has chosen to remain tight-lipped about its plans and negotiations with Apple.
The price of the iPhone in singapore is likely to drop with this development.
Russia’s antitrust service acts vs. 3 biggest mobile operators
MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – Mobile TeleSystems [RTS: MTSS], VimpelCom [NYSE: VIP] and MegaFon [RTS: MEGF] are facing action from
Russia’s Anti-Monopoly Service. The service said Thursday it was moving against the country’s three biggest mobile operators in the wake of a check into new tariffs used by them for mutual settlements, below the rates set for other mobile operators. It said the “big three” were using a rate of 0.95 rubles ($0.0351) per connection, whereas other operators had to pay 1.1 rubles ($0.037) for the same service, or 16% more, which put them at a disadvantage. It said regional operators and operators entering the mobile services market were in an unequal position compared with the established federal operators, which breached anti-monopoly laws.
The case will be heard on September 28.
Source- http://en.rian.ru
