Wireless Federation

Telenor seeks help from Norway to protect Indian investment (Norway, India)

On 02.08.12, In Mobile, By Editor

Following the Supreme Court ruling in India wherein it revoked 122 2G licences, telecommunications company Telenor has turned towards the government in Norway to help protect the future of its US$ 2.9 billion investment in India. Telenor controls a 67.25 per cent equity stake in Unitech Wireless and offers nation-wide mobile services under the brand name Uninor.

According to reports, Rigmor Aasrud, IT Minister, Norway met with India’s Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to arrive at Telenor’s future in the country following the cancellation of the licences. After the meeting Aasrud said that they had a good, fruitful and constructive meeting with the telecom minister and they took up Telenor’s case along with other issues.

Kapil Sibal stated that both the IT minister and the Telenor official met him to share their perceptions and they had a dialogue on this issue. He told them that the SC verdict will bring clarity to the sector, the sector is robust and enough spectrum is available. Further, the National Telecom Policy 2011 which will be put out will be fair and robust.

Sibal added that India’s market is full of opportunities and no-one should be in doubt on the investments to come into India.

Sigve Brekke , managing director, Uninor has said that they are talking to the government because they need to protect their investment and they also need to make sure that there is a framework for continuing their operations in the country.

Telenor aims to increase stake in Unitech to 74 percent (Norway, India)

On 11.30.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Telenor Norway has reportedly revealed plans to increase its holdings in Unitech Wireless, which offers mobile services in India under the brand name ‘Uninor’, to 74 percent from 67.25 percent. The remaining stake is held by realty firm Unitech. The Norweign operator has reportedly told the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) that it would induct other resident Indian shareholders in the event that its partner refused to support the rights issue.

According to reports, the two partners have been involved in a dispute regarding the US$ 1.6 billion rights issue, as Unitech has reportedly opposed Telenor’s plans for the issue. As per sources, Fredrik Baksaas, CEO, Telenor group, had previously stated that it would look at inducting another partner for its Indian operations if Unitech does not meet its obligations and participate in the rights issue.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) • India • Norway • Telenor Norway • Uninor • Unitech Wireless

Telefonica signs network sharing agreement with China Unicom (Spain, China)

On 11.22.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Spanish telecom operator Telefonica has reportedly entered into a strategic partnership with China Unicom, wherein both operators will use each other’s networks to expand their coverage. According to reports, the deal will provide Telefonica access to China Unicom’s network in the regions of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, France and Sweden.

In return, China Unicom can reportedly increase its presence through Telefonica’s network in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, USA, Puerto Rico, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.

Reports suggest that Telefonica believes this agreement will help both operators expand their capabilities to provide telecom services to various customers in different geographic areas.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Denmark • Argentina • Australia • Austria • Belgium • Brazil • Bulgaria • Chile • China • China Unicom • Colombia • Czech Republic • Ecuador • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Greece • Guatemala • Hong Kong • Hungary • Ireland • Italy • Japan • Latvia • Lithuania • Mexico • Morocco • Netherlands • Network Sharing • Norway • Oman • Panama • Peru • Poland • Portugal • Puerto Rico • Romania • Singapore • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • Switzerland • Telefonica • USA • Venezuela

Telefonica del Sur to upgrade IPTV monitoring solution (Chile)

On 11.16.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Telecommunications firm, Telefonica del Sur, has reportedly tied up with Bridge Technologies based in Norway, to deploy a video monitoring solution for its IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service. According to reports, Bridge Technologies will provide the operator its VideoBRIDGE end-to-end monitoring and analysis system. The system reportedly includes a ETR290 monitoring capability along with a VBC controller server for analysis functionality and sophisticated graphic presentation of complex live data.

As per sources, Telefonica del Sur may purchase additional VB220 probes next year in an attempt to increase the scope of its monitoring infrastructure to better cater to its increasing IPTV subscriber base. Reports suggest that the telecom operator has a customer base of over 308,000 across its residential and business services.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Bridge Technologies • IPTV • Norway • Telefonica del Sur

Telenor Norway completes mobile network upgrade for LTE (Norway)

On 10.21.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Telenor Norway, a leading mobile operator, has upgraded over 9,000 base stations in a total of 6,379 different sites throughout Norway, including Svalbard and oil installations in the North Sea. With the new network, Telenor has acquired improved data traffic capacity, thus enabling it to offer customers higher speeds. The new equipment will reportedly be used to deploy the next generation mobile network, 4G/LTE, starting up in 2012.

As per reports, Berit Svendsen, CEO, Telenor Norway has said that this new mobile network secures its users higher speeds and greater capacity when surfing on PCs, tablets or mobile phones. He added that they’ve expanded the network to ensure that customers throughout the country can enjoy superb coverage and the capacity required to make use of all the new services to come, even in the future.

With an increasing number of people using the mobile network for various services such as sending pictures and videos, browsing the news, reading emails and sharing information on Facebook, the data traffic has been rapidly increasing over the years. Telenor estimates 15 times more data traffic by 2015.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: 4G • Berit Svendson • LTE • Norway • Telenor Norway

Nokia, RIM lead mobile market, Apple lags behind (India)

On 10.14.11, In Mobile, By Editor

While Apple iPhone’s have become quite the rage across the world, India, the world’s second largest mobile phone market, receives fewer handsets than most of the smaller markets, as per recent reports. Nokia and Research In Motion have been the most successful in India’s mobile market with 602 million subscribers.

Analysts suggest that one of the reasons for Apple’s lower market share in India is the inability of Indian wireless carriers to offer fast services that use the iPhone features to the fullest. As per reports, the 3G network in India isn’t at par with the services offered in regions like Western Europe and Northern America. Further, as Apple only sells its products through licensed resellers, accessibility to the product can also become an issue.

As per the World Bank estimates, about 900 million people live on less than $2 a day in India. With the cheapest iPhone 4 selling for $705 and the cheapest iPad 2 costing about $603, affordability is also a cause for concern for users in the nation. In contrast, Apple’s U.S. online store offers its users the iPhone 4 at $199 with an AT&T Inc. contract and the iPad at $499. Sources claim that while only 62,043 iPhones were shipped to India during the last quarter, lesser than those send to Norway, Belgium or Israel, the number of iPads shipped was as low as 21,150 accounting for only 0.2 percent of its global total.

As per sources, Nokia accounted for 46 percent of India’s smartphone shipments in the quarter ended June 30, followed by Samsung Electronics at 21 percent, RIM at 15 percent while Apple accounted for only 2.6 percent. Further, reports suggest that Nokia and Research In Motion Ltd. sell more devices in India, where smartphone shipments are forecast to grow almost 70 percent a year until 2015.

Analysts claim that RIM got the right product, the right timing and the right app. RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant-messaging service gained popularity because it was one of the first, and it functions well on 2G speeds as well. As per reports, Krishnadeep Baruah, Director of Marketing for Waterloo, Canada-based RIM in India said that RIM, which entered India in 2004, plans to extend its lead over Apple after expanding distribution to 80 cities from 15 starting last year.

As per industry estimates, smartphone shipments in India are expected to grow at an average of 68 percent a year, to 81.5 million units by 2015.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Apple • Belgium • Blackberry • Canada • India • iPhone • Israel • Nokia • Norway • RIM

Telenor to raise $ 1.64 billion in JV (India)

On 09.21.11, In Mobile Operators, By Editor

Telenor, Norway based telecommunication company, aims to raise $ 1.64 billion in its Indian joint venture, Unitech Wireless. Telenor had partnered with Indian real estate firm, Unitech Ltd., to provide mobile phone services through Unitech Ltd.

As per reports, in the event that Unitech does not participate in the rights issue, its stake in the joint venture may come down. Sources claim that Telenor, which owns 67.25% of the joint venture, can admit a second Indian partner if Unitech doesn’t participate in the rights issue.

Filed under:Mobile Operators Tagged with: India • Norway • Telenor • Unitech Wireless

Telenor buys back 855,000 of its own shares (Norway)

On 08.11.11, In Mobile, By Editor

telenor

Telenor has on 9 August 2011 purchased 855,000 own shares at an average price of NOK 83.83 per share. After this transaction, Telenor owns a total of 28,104,021 own shares.

The transaction is part of the share buyback programme announced by Telenor Group on 21 July 2011. The buyback programme comprises around 48 million shares, of which close to half will be repurchased in the open market. The rest will be purchased from the Kingdom of Norway through the Ministry of Trade and Industry on a proportionate basis, so that the Ministry’s current ownership interest in Telenor of 53.97% will remain unaffected.

For further information about the share buyback programme Telenor refers to the Oslo Stock Exchange notification made on 21 July 2011 (available from www.newsweb.no).

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Norway • operator

TeliaSonera comes on board the M2M cooperation agreement to join France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom

On 07.07.11, In Mobile, By Editor

With TeliaSonera’s joining the initial alliance inked by France Telecom-Orange and Deutsche Telekom with regard to Machine to Machine (M2M) services, it represents the expansion of the growing cooperation among operators.

France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg were brought under their coverage when the seed agreement was ratified, the first time by France Telecom-Orange and Deutsche Telekom in February 2011. Ever since, the Netherlands and the UK were also covered under the purview of this alliance as result of more operators joining in.

Presently, the footprint of the M2M cooperation agreement will include TeliaSonera’s geographical reach as well, represented by Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.

Apparently, this multi-lateral alliance stands to enhance roaming services across countries where the stake holders operate, characterized by improved service quality as opposed to the initial services offered based on bi-lateral roaming agreements, concentrated within single markets.

The troubleshooting capability that the joined forces of France Telecom-Orange, Deutsche Telekom and TeliaSonera stand to muster is being seen as a key attribute of the agreement; expected to ensure quality roaming services to customers.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Denmark • Belgium • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Netherlands • Norway • operator • Sweden

DTAC shareholder being investigated (Thailand)

On 07.05.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Total Access Communication (DTAC) is a Thailand based mobile network operator that is facing investigation. The operator may have flouted local laws that dictate Thai telecoms companies cannot cede to foreign shareholders more than 49 percent stake.

The Commerce Ministry is expected to report the investigation results to the police shortly. Apparently, it has been found that some nominee shareholders were acting as proxies for foreign investors.

Norway based Telenor allegedly owns 41.04% in DTAC directly, in addition to 49% in Thai Telco Holdings that in turn owns 23.46% in DTAC which in essence makes it more than 49% limit stipulated by laws.

According to Mr. Jon Eddy Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer, Total Access Communication PLC (DTAC), the Ministry of Commerce had affirmed DTAC’s full compliance with applicable laws and regulations in Thailand on June 16. On the other hand, they are willing to cooperate with regard to investigations to be conducted by officials appointed by the authorities.

Political turmoil in the region has affected the telecoms market to great extends in the recent past; especially, the 3G licenses being delayed. The landslide victory in the recent elections by the Puea Thai Party is expected to push the much needed imports of infrastructure equipments.

Filed under:Mobile Tagged with: Norway • operator • Thailand