Omantel’s NGN contract awarded to Huawei
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Huawei, a Chinese equipment vendor has been awarded an OMR10 million (USD25.9 million) contract by Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) to expand the incumbent fixed line operator’s next generation network (NGN).
Huawei superseded US equipment maker Cisco Systems, French company Alcatel-Lucent and Swedish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia to break the deal.
Voice, Text and Data plans revamped by Verizon
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sweeping changes were introduced in the voice, texting and data plans of Verizon Wireless scheduled to be implemented from January 18. Under the plan, unlimited individual talk plans for $70 per month, and unlimited talk and text for $90 will be offered to the consumers.
$120 will be the cost of unlimited FamilyShare voice plans and unlimited FamilyShare talk and text will cost $150 along with two lines of service. $10 per month will be charged for 25MB data plan in every 3G multimedia phone activated by a new customer.
Phones like LG Chocolate Touch, enV3, and VX8360; the Motorola Entice W766; the Nokia 7705 Twist; and the Samsung Alias 2 are required to take this data plan but phones with simple features can also pay $1.99 per megabyte in a la carte fashion.
$75 per monthly for unlimited voice and $95 for unlimited voice and text has to be paid by all those availing the voice and text service.
Apple and RIM sued by Kodak over Imaging Patents
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Lawsuits have been filed against Apple and Research In Motion in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by Eastman Kodak, alleging the infringement of Kodak digital imaging technology. The company has claimed that its patent covering technology related to a method for previewing images has been infringed by Apple’s iPhones and RIM’s camera-enabled BlackBerry devices.
According to Laura G. Quatela, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company, the company was bound to take this action as the discussions with both Apple and RIM had been carried out for years to resolve this issue amicably, but no satisfactory agreement was reached.
In the complaint, limited exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing devices, including certain mobile telephones and wireless communication devices featuring digital cameras is sought by Kodak.
LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson are among the 30 countries having Kodak’s licensed digital imaging technology
Ericsson and NSN picked by TeliaSonera for LTE roll-out
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: TeliaSonera has contracted Ericsson and Nokia Siemens to roll out its LTE networks in Sweden and Norway. Ericsson has been selected as the sole supplier of the common core network as well as providing LTE radio access and NSN is required to cover LTE radio equipment, LTE network management systems, and LTE multi-vendor integration and care services.
LTE services were started by TeliaSonera in the late 2009 in Oslo and Stockholm, covering the city centres to test the services.
Sweden’s 25 largest municipalities and recreation areas and Norway’s four largest municipalities will be covered under the network roll-out during 2010 and 2011. City network in Oslo will continued to be finalized by Huawei.
Motorola, Nokia sued by South Korean Agency
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia, Motorola and several other mobile makers have been sued by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), South Korea’s state-run telecommunications research institute, over patent violations.
Patent complaints were filed by ETRI against a total of 22 cell phone makers last year. One additional suit was filed with a California court in August. Complaints have been made against violation of seven patents covering WCDMA technologies.
US$270 million is expected to be gained by the South Korean Agency in royalties if it wins the lawsuits.
Indian telco use Value added services to generate revenue
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to make up for the depleting revenues and to deal with the fierce competition from per second tariff pulse, the Indian telecom operators are using the caller tunes, ringtones and other value added service to generate more revenues.
Amid this, telecom operator Aircel and software exporter Infosys Technologies signed a deal to launch application store, where users can browse and download applications such as, songs, videos, games and other informations related to health, finance, entertainment, some for free or others at some cost.
Both Mobile service providers and handset makers, like Nokia, have sensed a great opportunity in VAS, a concept pioneered by Apple for its iPhone users. Nokia has already launched its applications store in 2009 and the operators do not want to loose market to handset makers or third party content developers.
$1m offered by Nokia & YTL top apps
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: $1 million has been offered by handset giant Nokia and Malaysian startup YTL to create winning apps. Nokia launched its Growth Economy Venture Challenge at CES in Las Vegas, with the hope t encourage innovators to create a mobile product or service that raises the standard of living or enhances the lives of those in growth economies.
According to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, mobile solutions can be quite profitable, but not exploitiveâ€, leading to financial win-win scenarios for both innovators and consumers.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Wimax operator YTL Communications also announced a $1 million Global Developer Challenge at CES.
Tata Teleservices contracts Nokia Siemens for mobile backhaul
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia Siemens Networks has been appointed by Tata Teleservices Limited to implement part of its next phase transmission network. With this, Tata Teleservices Limited, the leading dual-technology telecom service operator in India is gearing up for the upcoming growth in data traffic and enhancing IP capabilities of its existing mobile backhaul network.
FlexiHybrid microwave radio, which is leading the market, will be supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks under the contract, to efficiently support both legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and newer IP traffic on a single platform. FlexiMetro radio for high capacity and improved bandwidth efficiency and FlexiHopper, a cost-optimized, low-capacity microwave radio for connecting base stations are also included in the contract.
NetAct Operations Support Systems platform for the efficient monitoring, management and optimization of the network to ensure high-quality end-user services has been deployed by Nokia Siemens Network. Project management, network planning, installation and commissioning are included in an array of services of full turnkey solution.
Just 0.67 decline in the global sales of mobiles: Gartner
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In the latest prediction for the mobile market, market research firm Gartner said that global sales of mobile devices are expected to remain flat at 121 crore units in 2009. Earlier, the firm said that the sale will
go down to 3.7 percent. Gartner also said handset sales will grow by 9 percent in 2010.
Strong sales in Western Europe and acceleration in the grey market during the third quarter of this year are attributed for the not so bad market condition. However, there is a decline of 0.67 percent from that in 2008.
According to Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi, although the grey market or ‘white label’ is not a new phenomenon and has been generated by Chinese device makers who do not have a licence to sell and manufacture devices without a valid international mobile equipment identity, today grey- market sales are no longer limited to China and among all this Nokia will be the biggest sufferer of this grey market.
14 percent of total mobile devices sales in 2009 will be represented by smartphones. Milanesi also feel that it is useless to expect more than 20 percent growth, as mature markets are saturated and most growth will come from emerging markets.
Legal battle spiced up between Apple and Nokia
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to the latest development in the legal battle between USA’s Apple and Finland’s Nokia, Apple has countersued Nokia over 13 alleged patent violations of its technology. The move is followed by a lawsuit filed by Nokia in the month of October, accusing iPhone maker Apple of ten patent infringements.
The US based company has said that its competitors have to compete with them by inventing their own technologies and not by just stealing it from Apple.
Earlier, Nokia had said that it has not yet been compensated for its technology. The ten alleged patent infringements by Apple involve wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption applied to all models of the iPhone since its launch in 2007.
According to Nokia, it had agreements with about 40 firms allowing them to use the firm’s technology, but Apple had not signed an agreement.
