EU roaming cap to stay says EU Advocate General

On 10.02.09, In Mobile, By Editor
British Mobile operators are facing defeat in their battle against EU plans to regulate international roaming rates, after the EU’s Advocate General ruled that the price caps were valid.
Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 are challenging plans by the European Commission to regulate roaming charges on voice calls.
Luis Miguel Poiares Pessoa Maduro, the Advocate General and a key adviser to the European Court of Justice, ruled recently that the regulation is in the interests of the internal market in which ‘free movement of goods, services and capital is ensured’.
His decision is non-binding but in vast majority of cases rulings by Advocate Generals are heeded by the European Court of Justice. The final ruling will be delivered over the coming months.
Maduro said in a statement: ‘The differences in price between calls made within one’s own member state and those made while roaming could reasonably be regarded as discouraging the use of cross-border services such as roaming.’
The case was referred to the European Court of Justice in 2007 by the UK High Court.

British Mobile operators are facing defeat in their battle against EU plans to regulate international roaming rates, after the EU’s Advocate General ruled that the price caps were valid.

Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 are challenging plans by the European Commission to regulate roaming charges on voice calls.

Luis Miguel Poiares Pessoa Maduro, the Advocate General and a key adviser to the European Court of Justice, ruled recently that the regulation is in the interests of the internal market in which ‘free movement of goods, services and capital is ensured’.

His decision is non-binding but in vast majority of cases rulings by Advocate Generals are heeded by the European Court of Justice. The final ruling will be delivered over the coming months.

Maduro said in a statement: ‘The differences in price between calls made within one’s own member state and those made while roaming could reasonably be regarded as discouraging the use of cross-border services such as roaming.’

The case was referred to the European Court of Justice in 2007 by the UK High Court.

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Telefonica reveals plans to test LTE in UK, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Argentina.

On 10.02.09, In Mobile, By admin
O2 has revealed plans to test long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G technology in the UK within the next few months.
Telefónica announced this week that it will do trials of the Long Term Evolution of 3G networks (LTE) within the next few months across UK, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Argentina.
Telefonica’s O2 in the UK will be the first operator in the UK to carry out LTE trials. T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange are all expected to follow O2’s lead in the future.
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE are supporting Telefonica’s initial technology trials, though it is still open to working with other suppliers.
LTE will allow Telefónica to offer its customers peak mobile broadband speeds of up to 340Mbps ‘in ideal conditions’ and will also deliver more flexible use of its spectrum as well as boost network capacity.

O2 has revealed plans to test long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G technology in the UK within the next few months.

Telefónica announced this week that it will do trials of the Long Term Evolution of 3G networks (LTE) within the next few months across UK, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Argentina.

Telefonica’s O2 in the UK will be the first operator in the UK to carry out LTE trials. T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange are all expected to follow O2’s lead in the future.

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE are supporting Telefonica’s initial technology trials, though it is still open to working with other suppliers.

LTE will allow Telefónica to offer its customers peak mobile broadband speeds of up to 340Mbps ‘in ideal conditions’ and will also deliver more flexible use of its spectrum as well as boost network capacity.

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T-Mobile UK agrees ninth major MVNO partner, Vectone. To take on Lyca and Lebara Mobile.

On 10.02.09, In Mobile, By admin
T-mobile along with Vectone intends to capture a large chunk of the increasing migration of international calling minutes on to the mobile.
Vectone is already established across Europe and has over one million customers across Denmark, Norway, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland.
T-mobile claims to have over 50% of the wholesale market already (virgin’s MVNO operation rides on t-mobile).
The Ethnic focussed, low-cost prepay service is estimated to target ten million potential subscribers in the UK generating more than seven billion calls per year.
T-Mobile, managing director Richard Moat said: ‘We are delighted to be supporting Vectone’s ambitious expansion plans for the UK market. The deal with Vectone signals our intent to become a major player in the ethnic MVNO arena.
‘With international calling card minutes rapidly migrating to mobile, this is an excellent time to be forging new partnerships in a segment which is showing signs of bucking the recession with strong projected growth rates.
‘Vectone builds on our eight existing MVNO partnerships and underlines our ambitions to target new growth areas in the wholesale market.’
T-mobile along with Vectone intends to capture a large chunk of the potential 7 billion calls per year of international calling from the ethnic community within the UK.
Vectone is already established across Europe and has over one million customers across Denmark, Norway, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland.
T-mobile claims to have over 50% of the wholesale market already (virgin’s MVNO operation rides on t-mobile) and with its ninth major partnership, there may be more to cheer about.
The Ethnic focussed, low-cost prepay service is estimated to target ten million potential subscribers in the UK.
T-Mobile, managing director Richard Moat said: ‘We are delighted to be supporting Vectone’s ambitious expansion plans for the UK market. The deal with Vectone signals our intent to become a major player in the ethnic MVNO arena.
‘With international calling card minutes rapidly migrating to mobile, this is an excellent time to be forging new partnerships in a segment which is showing signs of bucking the recession with strong projected growth rates.
‘Vectone builds on our eight existing MVNO partnerships and underlines our ambitions to target new growth areas in the wholesale market.’
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Vodafone seeks to integrate enterprise applications

On 05.18.07, In Mobile, By Editor

The service is aimed at enterprises looking to mobilise applications such as Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP, Siebel and Remedy, and is the result of Vodafone’s December acquisition of the systems integrator Aspective. Supported handsets will include BlackBerry devices, Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Symbian devices.

“This is an important part of our ongoing strategy to service the total communications needs of our enterprise customers,” said Kyle Whitehill, Vodafone UK’s enterprise business unit director, on Tuesday. “Through the Vodafone Applications Service, we are helping our customers maximise the benefits of their investment in enterprise software with a new service that combines applications, access and service in one complete package.”

Ovum analyst Jeremy Green noted on Tuesday that Vodafone had been “working on this for some time”, ever since the Aspective acquisition. However, he told ZDNet UK that mobile operators have “been relatively unsuccessful in selling any applications beyond mail” and Vodafone could face difficulty in getting larger enterprises to buy into its new role as a systems integrator.

“The larger enterprises will be very reluctant to trust mobile operators to do anything other than be a carrier,” said Green, suggesting that the service might do better among small and medium-sized enterprises, who are “less hostile and less well-served by other elements in the ICT value chains”.

Elaine Roberts, Vodafone UK’s head of enterprise marketing, disagreed with Green. “We have engaged a number of customers already with this service and started rolling it out,” she said, adding that those were large corporate accounts. “Compared to some large systems integrators, Vodafone’s real strength comes from mobility. In the past we’ve seen some systems integrators saying they can run mobile applications, but it becomes clear they don’t have the skills or competencies.”

   

 

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