Belarus 3G license granted to Telekom Austria
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Belarusian subsidiary of Telekom Austria has been awarded a countrywide 3G licence, at a price of €9.5 million and it will run until August 24, 2017. In order to support the 3G network, Velcom’s mobile network is already undergoing up gradation at a rate of 10 base stations per day.
After striking a reseller deal with CDMA operator Belcel in May 2009, Velcom has been selling mobile broadband services to its customers in Belarus. As per the 50-50 revenue sharing agreement, Velcom offered Internet services running on Belcel’s EV-DO network, which at the time was capable of supporting connection speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps.
Velcom has the second largest share of the market with 4 million customers; following MTS which currently has the largest share of the market with 4.52 million subscribers.
IPO proposals approved by SSTL
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL), an Indian mobile network operator under MTS India banner, has been given an in-principle approval to launch an initial public offering (IPO) by its board.
According to Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO of SSTL, the proceedings to list the company on the local bourses have been initiated and the company will now have to work out the details of the IPO such as the amount of stake to be divested amongst other issues. Even after getting the permission of the board, the listing will happen depending on the market conditions and the market does not look right for an IPO.
74% of the telco is owned by Russian services conglomerate Sistema and it was revealed in September 2009 that the Russian government was preparing to acquire a 20% stake in the cellco from Sistema for approximately USD680 million.
MTS Turkmenistan upgrades achievements in 2009
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The network coverage of MTS Turkmenistan had been expanded to 139 settlements across the country in 2009. A combination of newly installed base stations and upgrade to existing cell sites expanded the coverage area by some 30%.
375 new base stations have been inaugurated by MTS across the country, boosting the total number in operation by approximately 60%. Tahtabazar, Etrek, Bekdash, Kerkichi, Hodjambaz, Repetek, Erbent and Bakhardok are some of the newly covered settlements.
Besides, improved and expanded network allowed the company to overlay its entire GSM network with EDGE technology, increasing the download speeds available to its subscribers, while also boosting the reliability of internet connectivity.
Foreign operators barred from bidding in CDMA 3G spectrum auction (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The upcoming auction of 3G spectrum will be limited to UMTS spectrum only as per Ministry of Communications and Information Technology decision. The move is aimed at keeping the international companies away from the bidding auction. The decision can also block new foreign players from launching both 2G and 3G CDMA-based services.
However, scarcity of airwaves for that technological platform has been cited as one of the reason by the ministry for not allowing foreign operators to bid for 3G CDMA spectrum.
According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), only existing licensees offering CDMA services will be eligible to bid this spectrum is being provided as 3G growth path for CDMA operators.
3m subscribers mark surpassed by MTS India
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With 3 million subscribers, Mobile operator MTS India’s recorded 15 percent per month on average. Until May last year, the company reported 1 million subscribers while in September, it had 2 million users.
Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were the fastest growing market of MTS. Tamil Nadu counts close to 500,000 MTS subscribers; Rajasthan MTS has over 1.2 million subscribers, while Kolkata and West Bengal accounted for over 700,000 subscribers. Even Karnataka and Delhi/NCR telecom circles attracted over 150,000 subscribers in the last quarter of 2009.
CDMA services under the MTS brand was launched by Shyam Teleservices, a JV between Russia-based Sistema and India’s Shyam Group in September 2008.
MTS to expand into cable TV market
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: MTS, a Russian mobile operator has shown interest in expanding into the cable TV market. According to the CEO of the company, Mikhail Shamolin the company may use the networks for the expansion of broadband services.
The areas of interest of the operator are the regional operators who cover cities with over 100,000 to 200,000 residents. It would also prove beneficial for expanding their fixed-line coverage at the recently acquired operator Comstar which now covers only major population centres.
3G network launched by MTS in Moscow
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: January 2010 saw the launch of the commercial operation of the 3G network of Russian mobile operator MTS in Moscow. Besides, the company is planning to set up 300 base stations for 3G before the end of January 2010.
With 197 base stations, MTS got the permission to commission the first fragment of the street 3G networks, initially covering the central part of the city within the boundaries of the Third Ring Road, the main business districts of the capital, key highways and transportation hubs within the Moscow Ring Road.
At present, 40 trade and business centers of Moscow, including the area of Moscow City, Expo Centre, Crocus City, World Trade Centre, BC Novinsky, Alfa-Arbat-Centre, Lotte Plaza, shopping centres CUS, Atrium, European, Moscow, Gorbushkin yard and Ikea has 3G network.
Third quarter recorded an increase of 40%in the volume of traffic transmitted on the MTS 3G network in Russia as compared to first two quarters of the year.
M2M Global Unit set up by Telefonica
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to support its Machine to Machine business clients in all markets, Telefonica has set up a M2M Global Unit. A multinational and multidisciplinary team, dedicated exclusively to defining, implementing and supporting global clients as well as deploying these services backs this new unit.
The unit has more than 100 staffs directly reporting to the Telefonica Global Product and Services Unit. The Global M2M product of Telefonica is the first integrated end-to-end solution in the market which offers corporate clients a turnkey solution, not limited to mobile technology (SMS, GPRS or UMTS).
ADSL or complementary networks such as Zigbee, UWB, Satellite, RFID or NFC can support M2M by offering tailor-made global and local Value Added Services to any client anywhere.
A testing laboratory has also been developed by the operator for the use of its corporate clients. This will help them bring pilot projects and test new functionalities, applications and new handsets.
IndiaMobile 2009: India’s largest Mobile Usage study results to be announced shortly.
Wireless Federation will shortly be announcing the availability of the results of India’s largest primary research project undertaken to study Mobile usage in India. The project is titled IndiaMobile 2009.
The survey is one of the most representative, independent enumeration of mobile phone usage in India. Close to 285,000 urban and rural Indians, covering all states and union territories574 districts, 3,175 towns and over 2,800 villages were interviewed. With at least 30 plus sample each from 323 districts and 419 towns, and 100 plus sample each from 184 districts and 155 towns, the study could actually be the World’s largest mobile (telecom) usage study carried out in a single country. The survey was carried out by a reputed local research agency under the guidance of Wireless Federation.
With the Mobile sector in India seeing close to 20% of its market capitalisation knocked off in the last few days and increased momentum in the price war in India, the results from this survey will help the sector understand its customers better in order to re-gain some of its strength back.
Airtel, Aircel, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo, Etisalat, MTS India, Loop Mobile, Reliance Mobile, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, BSNL, MTNL, Telenor, Virgin can all now compare data from each and every circle and each live operator to understand demographic spread, handset usage and analysis as well as detailed psychographic analysis of the Indian mobile consumer.
The Indian mobile industry will be able to plan better based on the results from this study, which is now planned to occur each year. A large majority of mobile operators have expressed keen interest in the results of the study.
By using the IndiaMobile 2009 results, Mobile Operators will be able to further mould the study to better suit their needs from 2010 onwards.
This study will be the de-facto benchmark for Mobile Usage in India, given the thorough nature of the research, the sheer size of the sample and the level of interest from the Mobile Eco-System in utilising the results from this study.
For More information, please write to Audrey [at] WirelessFederation.com for your free copy of the headline results.
