Leap engages in job cuts and closes stores (USA)

On 03.10.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 180 jobs have been cut and 27 company stores nationwide have been shuttered by Leap Wireless which has described its restructuring as its changing priorities for the year. 90 of the jobs cut were field positions while 90 were corporate positions.

After the move, the number of employees in the company is 4200 and the number of company-owned stores is 42. The review of the stores was taken up by the company in February and the decision to close the stores was taken in early March.  The closing is described as a part of normal repositioning that goes on in any retail business.

Recently, a joint venture has been announced by the company with regional, flat-rate wireless provider Pocket Communications to boost Leap’s position in south Texas, where Pocket has a significant presence.

Major Banks have been hired and special committee of its board has been formed to consider various strategic options, including selling the company or merging with another carrier. During its fourth-quarter earnings announcement, the plan of the company to launch a BlackBerry device from Research In Motion as well as a smartphone running Google’s Android platform was also disclosed.

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Verizon expects 2010 CAPEX of $16.8bn-$17.2bn (USA)

On 03.10.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Verizon Communication, the telecommunications giant has announced that its capital investment this year will be very similar to last year. A full-year CAPEX of $16.8 billion to $17.2 billion is also expected by the company which is roughly flat from 2009, besides expecting continued strong free cash flow this year.

Company’s strong wireless business will provide it with much of its cash flow while the joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc, Verizon Wireless is also expected to contribute much of the cash flow growth.

Customer growth is also expected by Verizon in the fiscal first quarter. Verizon Wireless still has the opportunity to grow its more lucrative contract customers which is very much unlike other carriers focusing their attention on the prepaid business.

The price of the unlimited calling plans was reduced by Verizon Wireless by $30 to $70, earlier this year. According to Chief Financial Officer John Killian, the company will have a strong first quarter for wireless subscriber growth in the first quarter, and that prepaid wireless service will start to pick up.

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By 2011 iPhone will beat Blackberry: Analyst

On 03.07.10, In Mobile Phones, By Editor

Blakberry is the buzz word in North America today. However, witnessing the meteoric rise of the iPhone, it is expected that the phone will nab RIM’s number one market share spot. This conclusion was reached following the clear outpacing of growth Apple has enjoyed with iPhone.

As per the data, the growth of iPhone sat 0.3% in 2007 and 2% in 2009 while RIM went from 1% to 3% in the same period. According to Trefis, by 2011 Apple’s mobile market share will hit 11% and RIM will reach 8%.

It is eventually obvious that Apple has a ludicrously large marketing budget, which will continue to be used to capitalize RIM’s buttoned-down image and win the dead hearts and vacant minds of the masses. However despite all the competition the model has, the latest forecast for RIM shows positivity. it says that Blackberry still has more than a little fight left in her.

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AT&T goes ‘Green,’ aims to save environment (USA)

On 03.06.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: It’s time for the mobile world to go green and after Sprint, AT&T has joined the league to save environment. New standards will be adopted by the operator for its packaging and handset designs with a mission to reduce waste, encourage recycling and reduce its carbon footprint.

Both AT&T and the manufacturers have started working on different methods that could reduce the amount of packaging that goes into its handset boxes, besides reducing the size of the boxes themselves. It has been estimated that 60% less paper and 30% less plastic will be used in its packaging by switching materials from plastic to recycled paper.

Newer and stricter standards are required to be adopted by handset makers to reduce packaging, use non-petroleum based inks and use recycled materials for in-box documentation. AT&T also believes that the GSMA Universal Charging Solution will be complied by majority of new devices, mandating a more energy-efficient charger for new devices. GSMA has already restricted the use of lead, mercury, and other hazardous materials used in electronic equipment and AT&T believes these changes will have a positive impact on the environment.

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Virgin Mobile USA to cease postpaid service by May 25

On 03.04.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The postpaid customers of Virgin Mobile USA and Sprint have already started getting the notification of the winding down of Virgin Mobile. The company is ceasing the operations of its postpaid service by May 25 with the hope to convert some Virgin postpaid customers to full Sprint postpaid customers.

According to Virgin Mobile spokesperson Jayne Wallace, no customer will be automatically migrated to Sprint’s postpaid service, however current Virgin postpaid customers are being given $50 towards the purchase of a Sprint postpaid handset with a new two-year agreement.

In order to keep the current Virgin Mobile postpaid number, the customers are required to contact Sprint or Virgin Mobile before May 25, the change applicable only to postpaid accounts.

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Apple’s iTunes exceeds 10 billion song downloads

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 10 billion songs have been downloaded by the consumers in less than seven years after Apple launched its iTunes Store. 5 billion download milestones in June 2008 have been reached by the iTunes Store which accounts for 25 percent of all music sales in the U.S., up from 21 percent in 2008.

14 percent of all U.S. music sales between its physical CD sales and online sales are accounted by retail giant Wal-Mart.
A list of the store’s most downloaded songs of all time has been released by Apple to celebrate the latest iTunes sales benchmark.

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T-Mobile USA revenue falls but Q4 growth improves

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Even after losing a considerable amount of money due to the expansion of its 3G network in USA, the Q4 growth of T-Mobile showed positive sign due to prepaid service. After losing 77,000 subscribers in the third quarter, T- mobile USA gained 371,000 new customers in the quarter past.

The growth has been entirely attributed to the company’s prepaid and wholesale operations, making up for the 117,000 customers it lost on the struggling post-paid side of its business. In total, T-Mobile’s service revenue declined to $4.65 billion in Q4.

117,000 contract customers were lost by the carrier in the quarter an improvement over Q3, but a significant drop year-over-year. In Q4 2008, it added a total of 267,000 contract customers. Wholesale customer additions were two million in Q4.

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Verizon CEO’s pay drops by 14% amidst layoffs

On 02.26.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to the decline of the company’s fixed-line phone business, the compensation of Verizon Communications Inc.’ CEO Ivan Seidenberg has decreased by 14 percent in 2009. The fall in the salary came amidst layoffs carried out in the company.

Compensation valued at $17.5 million had been received by Seidenberg down from $20.2 million the year before. The decline in the value of performance stock units from $13.1 million a year ago to $11.1 million also came as a biggest hit to his pay.

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Deutsche Telekom Q4 revenue rises 0.6%

On 02.25.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 0.6 percent increase in the Q4 revenue has been reported by Deutsche Telekom reaching EUR 16.20 billion. The rise has been attributed to the takeover of OTE which helped offset a slide in revenues in its home market Germany.

However, revenues in Germany were down 3.1 percent to EUR 6.40 billion. Due to negative currency effects and competitive pressures US sales declined 15.7 percent to EUR 3.66 billion and the weak results in the UK and Poland led to the revenues from Europe fall 11.5 percent to EUR 2.47 billion.

Group EBITDA improved 8.6 percent to EUR 5.07 billion and the lower impairment charges narrowed the net loss to EUR 3 million from EUR 730 million. According to DT, its save for Service cost-cutting programme has generated savings of EUR 5.9 billion, and will contribute another EUR 4.2 billion in cost reductions by 2012.

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Video calling interoperability completed by Canadian telcos

On 02.25.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Two-way mobile video calling trials has been successfully completed by Canada’s big-three mobile networks – Bell, Rogers and TELUS. With the launch of inter-carrier mobile video calling, video calling will be possible across multiple carrier networks and will create North America’s largest two-way mobile video calling community.

According to Stephen Howe, chief technology officer for Bell Mobility, by breaking down the barriers between video calling clients in Canada, the company anticipates strong demand for the service as it saw with past inter-carrier initiatives such as text and picture messaging.

Video calling handsets that support the internationally accepted open 3G-324M Video Telephony standard are offered by Bell, Rogers and TELUS, ensuring compatibility with other systems and carriers supporting the standard.

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