Vodafone challenges IT order again in the Indian High court
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: India’s second largest operator by subscriber, Vodafone has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court to challenge the Indian Income-Tax department’s claim that it has jurisdiction to levy tax on Vodafone’s $11-billion acquisition of Indian company Hutchison Essar three years ago.
The disputed tax payable in India amounts to over Rs 12,000 crore. The matter is expected to be heard by a division bench of the high court, comprising Justice D Y Chandrachud and J P Devadhar on Tuesday. The tax war was ignited after a show cause notice was sent to Vodafone’s Netherlands office, asking it to explain why tax was not deducted, as it paid $11 billion to Hutchison International, Hong Kong to acquire Indian company Hutch- Essar.
The Indian I-T department has claimed that India has the right to claim tax on the profit generated in India, even if the sale of shares of the Indian company took place outside India. The High Court was moved by Vodafone last year to challenge the jurisdiction of the I-T department to levy tax on the transaction that took place outside India between two overseas parties. As per the company, all transactions related to the sale of shares took place outside India and therefore Indian tax regime has no right to levy tax on the transaction.
Failing to get any support from the High Court, Vodafone moved the Supreme Court which had asked the company to return to the I-T department to sort out the issue of tax jurisdiction. Vodafone got liberty from SC to move the High Court directly, bypassing the lower appellate forum, if it disagrees with the I-T order.
An order was again issued by the I-T department on May 31 reiterating its original stand. This is the second time Vodafone is moving the high court on the same issue.
E-Plus seeks network sharing with rivals in Germany
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: KPN’s German mobile unit E-Plus has announced that it will buy network access from competitors to keep its mobile phone service in the country going. E-Plus has been the only operator which has failed to secure spectrum in the 800MHz band in the Federal Network Agency’s recent mobile frequency auction.
The competitors will be approached by the company for ‘white spots,’ or areas where it has no coverage, and will seek network use from rivals at the right price. Thorsten Dirks, head of E-Plus Germany has already expressed his desire for co- operation with rivals.
According to Niek Jan van Damme, a board member responsible for Deutsche Telekom’s (DT’s) domestic operations, E-Plus approaches the firm, it would enter into talks with the Netherlands-based company as DT has shown in many aspects that it is open to cooperation and it has done network sharing in rolling out of the fixed network.
EC decision gives another blow to mobile sector
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Digital Agenda, part of the Europe 2020 strategy has been presented by the European Commission and increasing access to broadband services, including possible state aid for remote areas, and spectrum harmonization has been projected as important elements for the telecom sector. Willingness for a certain amount of government intervention has already being shown by ICT commissioner Neelies Kroes.
Countries like the Netherlands are already well on the way to meeting the goals and here 50Mbps is already available to around 90 percent of the population. 100 percent Broadband might not be possible but the target does not seem to be too far. One cannot consider the target of universal access to at least 30Mbps by 2020, with at least half of households on 100Mbps as ambitious.
In the statement, by 2015, the international roaming prices should be so low that a mobile user doesn’t even notice when it crosses a border at least, not from the mobile prices. Artificially high tariffs and subsidizing mobile with fixed networks soon will be things of the past.
While announcing its Q1 results, Dutch telco KPN estimated that mobile termination rate cuts cost the company EUR 55 million in revenues and EUR 20 million in EBITDA. KPN’s market expectations centre on a small revenue decline this year to EUR 13.4 billion from EUR 13.5 billion in 2009. Small increase in 2011 and 2012 to EUR 13.45 billion (both years) has been estimated by the market currently.
But if the national regulators and the EC actions are taken into consideration, it’s highly questionable whether this growth will materialize already in 2011.
Singapore starts consultation for 4G spectrum
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A consultation paper on the spectrum framework for 4G has been released by the Singapore regulator; the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). The spectrum is for the 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz bands (also commonly known as 2.6GHz in Europe).
The aim of the IDA is to promote NGA deployment through this move both through fiber and wireless high-speed broadband using LTE. Under the current plan the 2.3/2.6GHz spectrum will not become available until 2015 at the earliest and therefore, the commercial launches of LTE in Singapore could be delayed.
The 4G technology is gaing popularity worldwide, as in Europe several countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland have already auctioned the 2.6GHz band for mobile services primarily reserved for 4G. In Germany the auction is under way while in the Netherlands, Austria, and possibly in the UK, the auction might take place within two years.
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan have already auctioned spectrum for the provision of broadband wireless access (BWA) services.
Vodafone to launch Nexus One in Europe from April 1
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Google’s Nexus One will be directly sold by Vodafone through its stores and online in the UK from April 30. Google phone will go on sale in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain and in France through SFR during May.
Pre-orders are also now being accepted by Vodafone UK for the Google Nexus One handset and the handset will be made available through Vodafone retail outlets, online and telesales. The Nexus One will sell with a range of Vodafone price plans, on both 18- and 24-month contracts, with prices starting from GBP 25 a month on a 24-month contract. Customers signing a two-year contract at GBP 35 per month will get it for free.
All the customers of Vodafone UK having Nexus One can use up to 1 GB of mobile data as part of their price plan. Besides, as unlimited access to Wi-Fi in the home and free, publicly available services throughout the country can also be used. An additional 1 GB of data at premium BT Openzone hotspots can be used by the customers using Wi-Fi throughout the UK.
Netherland allocates four licenses each to Ziggo, Tele2
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: More than 50% of the licenses to be sold off by the government of the Netherlands for fourth generation wireless internet and telephony services has been allocated to the firms without an existing wireless footprint in the country.
Four licenses in the 2.6GHz frequency auction has been granted to Liberty Global Inc’s UPC Nederland division and Tele2′s Dutch unit and Ziggo 4, a company led by the chief financial officers of domestic cablecos Zesko Holding (Ziggo). Royal KPN and Vodafone Netherlands each received two licenses and T-Mobile Netherlands was issued with one.
Prices paid for each concession will be disclosed at the time when the state will allocate the exact frequencies each firm has won on April 26.
Pursway Influencer Solution moves to Dutch
Influencer Marketing Management from Pursway solution has been selected by T-Mobile Netherlands to help the operator improve customer relationship strategies and engage with hard-to-reach customers.
According to Aswyn Saktoe-Veenenbos, VP Marketing Database Intelligence at T-Mobile Netherlands, consumers are flooded with marketing messages and are increasingly tuning out of vendor communication.
In his opinion, tapping into the power of social influence gives them a whole new way to interact with their customers. It enables them to reach an audience that was otherwise difficult to communicate with, let alone get them to act.
Pursway provides them with a scalable method to reach customers in a manner that works best for them, through the people they trust.
Golden Gekko unveils its share in Yellow Pages Mobile
Golden Gekko, Mobile marketing firm has finally revealed its share enabling consumers in eight countries across Europe to access local and commercial search information from over 3.6 million businesses listed with Yellow Pages owner European Directories by developing a free, cross platform mobile service.
The service can be accessed in eight countries which are Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Denmark and is available via the mobile web and a mobile application for iPhone and Java-enabled handsets, for the initial period.
To ensure universal accessibility, the additional operating systems and platforms will be added over time. Golden Gecko and European Directories are also offering the service on a white-label basis.
According to Carey Bunks, Group Vice President of Mobile at European Directories, the work they have done with Golden Gekko has delivered truly best-of-breed mobile Yellow Pages search applications and services that provide an excellent user experience, and has demonstrated an enormous uplift in usage and leads generation.
Dutch telco KPN objects to 2.6GHz spectrum auction
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Injunction is prepared to be seeked by telecom operator Royal KPN against an upcoming Dutch wireless spectrum auction. As a reason the telco has revealed that it would allow market newcomers to acquire more spectrum than existing operators.
According to the telco, the country’s mobile market already has numerous mobile service providers, high quality services and relatively low prices.
The auction which was supposed to take place for 2.6GHz spectrum has already been delayed several times.
