Une-EPM wins 2500MHz-2690MHz spectrum (Mexico)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The tender for mobile spectrum in the 2500MHz-2690MHz frequency band has been won by Une-EPM Telecomunicaciones. The license is valid for ten years and can be expanded by an additional period of ten years.
According to the company, it will use the spectrum to deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE), putting it head-to-head with established cellcos Comcel, Movistar and Tigo. COP8 billion (USD4.05 million) will be paid by Une for each of the ten spectrum blocks of 5MHz it has won.
Une plans an investment of around COP150 billion in the new project and launch mobile services in the first half of 2011.
T-Mobile & Nokia to launch E73 Mode handset (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia and T-Mobile have announced the launch of E73 Mode handset, crafted exclusively for users who wish to stay connected to their work and personal lives at all times. The handset is targeted towards people who want to stay linked to their and personal lives and especially business irrespective of the distance.
The handset is claimed to be thinner than any other phone in its category. The phone has 5MP camera attributed with built-in flash and autofocus and it also provided with a full QWERTY keypad. The consumers can also have access to voice calling through Wi-Fi and cellular networks as well as connectivity to T-Mobile’s 3G network.
According to Mark Slater, VP, Sales, Nokia, the Nokia E73 Mode brings style and function in an affordable device without compromise and working together with T-Mobile, the Nokia E73 Mode enables it to bring its customers a ‘Work & Life’ solution that allows consumers and businesses to be as productive as possible, while still providing an exceptional consumer value and performance.
Switch Mode feature is also offered by E73 mode with which users can customize their home screens as per their requirements. Microsoft’s Mail for Exchange provided in the handset allows users to receive corporate e-mail, contacts and calendar directly to their device. Ovi Maps is pre loaded in the handset that complements the navigational facilities provided by its in-built GPS free of cost.
According to Travis Warren, director, product marketing, T-Mobile USA, T-Mobile is committed to providing a variety of devices that serve its customers’ needs to stay connected to the central people in their lives including family, friends and even colleagues from the office and with the Nokia E73 Mode, it is excited to offer a premium device at an attractive price that helps Mom and Dad put work aside and makes their family the top priority.
AT&T adds tethering, drops iPhone unlimited data plan (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Unlimited data plan for new iPhones to be unveiled on June 7 has been dropped by the USA- based telecom operator as it would also offer tethering to iPhone customers for an extra $20 per month.
AT&T will provide a pair of plans that cap the amount of data users can consume before paying additional fees, instead of offering new iPhone customers its current unlimited data plan, which costs $30 per month. Through this service, iPhone owners can tether their smartphones to a laptop or other device for $20 additional per month, turning the phone into a mobile hotspot that the laptop can use to connect to the Internet.
According to de la Vega, AT&T Mobility CEO, the company is breaking free from the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ pricing model and making the mobile Internet more affordable to a greater number of people.
However, the advocacy groups feel that AT&T asserts that its high-end 2GB cap will only impact the heaviest users, but the fact is today’s heavy user is tomorrow’s average user and opined that AT&T should charge the low-end users $15 per 200MB, and charge $20 for tethering capability even if no additional capacity is used.
New capped plans will be kicked off by AT&T next Monday, the same day when Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will open. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the next iPhone in the conference. Although AT&T’s unlimited data plan for the iPhone has been a hallmark of the U.S. carrier’s partnership with Apple, the carrier has regularly complained that iPhone customers consume the bulk of its data capacity, and have hinted that caps might be coming.
Analysts opined that if AT&T manages to squelch the heaviest users’ consumption, and thus improve the overall performance of its network, a sore spot with iPhone owners almost since the day Apple introduced the device three years ago, almost everyone will be happy.
AT&T has been regularly defended by Apple although it has acknowledged performance problems.
T-Mobile USA to unveil LG mobiles
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: T-Mobile USA will receive mobile phones from LG Electronics. With this tie up, LG now has partnerships with all four of America’s major wireless providers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint.
Three new phones- LG Sentio, LG dLite and LG GS170. – will be launched by LG and T-Mobile from this month. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace can be accessed by the users of LG Sentio and LG dLite via T-Mobile’s exclusive social networking service application, Social Buzz.
3G is supported by both the phones allowing users to enjoy high-speed Internet through Web2Go, T-Mobile’s mobile portal. LG Sentio features a 3-inch full-touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard and it is designed for heavy texting and social networking.
HTC to launch Aria on AT&T (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: HTC’s latest Android based smartphone Aria has been announced to be launched on AT&T’s network. The announcement follows the unveiling of Wildfire, and is bound for the US market, at least for now.
Described as the smallest Android device, Aria follows the recent trend by HTC of downsizing popular models. HTC is just following the legend of shrinking its device which it did earlier with the Desire whose smaller version was unveiled as Wildfire and now it is coming as Aria.
The device is expected to come with Android 2.1 Eclair (rather than Froyo) with HTC’s proprietary Sense UI plus a 5-megapixel camera with Flash. A microUSB slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an optical trackpad and a smallish (2.5 to 2.8-inch) screen are also included in the handset.
The mobile phone is expected to be launched on June 7, the very day Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference starts and the iPhone 4G is expected to be launched. It is also expected that the device will be available on £20 per month contracts at launch.
AT&T new iPhone to be unveiled in June (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of the new iPhone 4G/HD has been confirmed by the USA- based telecom operator, AT&T in June. The official information about the launch has been confirmed after a long spell of speculations and the employees of the company have been announced that there will be a new iPhone and it will hit the stores in June.
The handset is expected to be unveiled in the early June itself straight after the WWDC event and Apple’s unveiling. The new iPhone model is well and truly on its way reason, discontinuation of the iPhone 3G and the drop in price of the iPhone 3GS at Walmart stores. The commercial for the new handset has been completed and the Apple iPhone 4G is expected to be announced at WWDC 2010 on June 7 at the Steve Jobs keynote.
Detailed information has not been provided by the company regarding a lot of exciting things like the new iPhone and the iPhone OS 4. A sneak peak however might be provided at the upcoming Mac OSX 10.7.
Huawei hires ex- official of Bush administration (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A prominent former Bush administration official has been recruited by Huawei who worked on national security issues. With this move, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker seeks to make inroads in Washington and assuage concerns that it has ties to the Chinese military. John Bellinger, a partner at Arnold & Porter has been hired as an adviser. He has served as chief attorney at the State Department and advised the National Security Council under George W. Bush.
The move also suggests that company is aggressively seeking to convince US defense and security officials that it should be allowed to make acquisitions in the US. Huawei wants to gain market share in the US by weighing a bid for a unit of Motorola. However, there are speculations that the company will move ahead with the bid only if it can be certain that the deal would not be blocked on national security grounds by the Obama administration. After getting the indication that Bush administration would block the transaction, Huawei was forced to abandon a joint bid for 3 Com in 2008. The Bush administration was understood to have resisted the deal because 3 Com was a supplier to the defense department
Takeovers of sensitive US assets by foreign companies might be blocked by an inter-agency panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) on national security grounds especially in the case of technology and telecom assets which are considered critical infrastructure and sensitive.
Any especially controversial foreign transactions have been confronted by the Obama administration though attorneys who work on such deals in Washington say it is only a matter of time before The White House faces a politically contentious bid by a non-US company. A Chinese buyer abandoned a bid for Firstgold, a US gold mining company based in Nevada in February after it was told by the Obama administration that the deal would be blocked.
Motorola to unveil brand new Droid products for Verizon (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: New smartphones under Verizon Wireless’s Droid line has been planned to be introduced by Motorola representing the carrier’s top-tier devices and typically benefit from a more aggressive marketing push. Verizon Wireless’s push at the end of last year for the original Droid phone benefitted Motorola but Motorola’s flagship device has been pushed aside with the launch of the Incredible from HTC Corp.
This has brought up so many issues like how the company remains competitive with so many other players in the market. According to Motorola Inc. co-CEO Sanjay Jha, size, brand and software provides it with the differentiation necessary to attract customers and added that the company will launch a new version of its Motoblur user interface later this year. He also noted that company has made tremendous progress in its transformation to a smartphone maker.
While touting the strong relationship that Motorola has with its carrier partners, Jha opined that the company is focused on ensuring that consumers like the devices, and that the company can ship its products in time. The company is also considering creating its own mobile operating system under certain conditions with all its focus on Android.
The constant revisions to Google Inc.’s Android software has been hailed as the biggest problem that the handset manufacturer has to face and these changes to the underlying framework of the software has made it difficult to upgrade quickly. Introducing Android 2.2 to phones is on the priority list of the firm and expects an aggressive launching since it will enable Flash on its phones. Installation of Flash is important for the customer’s Internet experience.
In the feature phone side, Jha also opined that he was managing the business for a modest profit, and that he sees the business stabilizing with more volume next year as it starts to benefit from its original equipment manufacturing deal. The production of low end phones has been outsourced by the company in an effort to maintain its brand in emerging markets and with a hope that customers from those countries will eventually buy a Motorola smartphone.
Verizon plans landline business spinoff on July 1 (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Land line business of Verizon Communications Inc will be spinoff in 13 states plus parts of California. According to the company, the record date for the planned spinoff of New Communications Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Verizon, to Verizon stockholders will be June 7.
The sale of the landline operations of Verizon to Frontier Communications Corp resulted in the formation of New Communications.
Verizon stockholders will collectively own between about 66 percent and 71 percent of the shares of Frontier and Frontier stockholders after the spinoff.
USA subscribers surprised by unexpected fees- FCC
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a survey released by the Federal Communications Commission as part of a drive to extract clearer information from wireless carriers, unexpected monthly fees is faced by one in six U.S. mobile-phone customers. It has also been revealed that almost half of consumers subscribing to plans with fees for dropping service before the end of a contract didn’t know the amount they would be charged.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski opined that there is still more that can be done to help customers navigate what is sometimes a confusing marketplace and consumers would be helped by simple and easy to understand purchase and billing procedures. Rules similar to the ones applied in Europe might be faced by the telecom operators like Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc in the USA.
As per the research, out of the 30 million Americans who were surprised by their bills, 88 percent weren’t contacted by their carriers when charges increased and 84 percent weren’t contacted when they were about to exceed their allowed minutes, text messages, or data downloads. Only 36 percent of mobile-phone customers who are familiar with their bills believed that they include very clear information on early termination fees. More than a third of people surprised by a bill felt that the charges jumped by at least $50 and 23 percent said the increase was $100 or more.
According to Steve Largent, president of the Washington based CTIA , The Wireless Association, it seems the commission is going to attempt to micromanage what is an incredible array of choices for consumers and asserted that the wireless industry does provide simple and easy to understand plans for every type of American consumer.
3,005 adults were included in the telephonic survey that extended from April 19 to May 2 and for responses based on those with personal cell phones, or about 80 percent of respondents, the margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points.
