Sprint Nextel CEO suffers 26% drops in his income (US)
A new analytics report has revealed that Sprint Nextel’s President and CEO Daniel R. Hesse has suffered a 26% drop in his income in 2010 to US$9.1 million in 2010, compared to the previous year.
According to report, Hesse received US$1.2 million for his 2010 salary, which was unchanged from the previous year. He also received US$4.4 million in cash-based bonuses and US$15,000 in other compensation, which included security, transportation and 401(k)-matching costs. He also got an additional US$3.5 million in stock and option awards.
The company saw its subscriber base rise slightly in 2010 after several years of decline, but it posted a wider loss than the year before.
Telefonica plans to invest $14.6 bn in Brazil
Spain’s Telefonica is planning to invest US$14.6 billion in Brazil in the 2011-2014 periods, an increase of 52% over the prior four years. This will help tap the surging demand for telecommunications services in Latin America’s biggest economy.
According to the company, the amount includes funds to finance possible acquisitions and to purchase of operating licenses. Telefonica, the largest telecom group serving Latin America, invested US$9.6 billion in Brazil between 2007 and 2010.
The Madrid-based company controls Brazil’s largest wireless carrier Vivo Participacoes and fixed-line company Telesp. The announcement came after Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta met Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia to present the company’s capital spending plan.
Telefonica plans to invest $14.6 billion in Brazilian subsidiary (Spain, Brazil)
Spain’s Telefonica is planning to invest over US$14.6 billion in its Brazilian subsidiary by 2014. According to Telefonica’s Chairman, C©sar Alierta, the expenditure would be used to upgrade and expand the network. He made the announcement following a meeting with Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff.
As per Alierta, they are investing heavily in expanding their services and networks with the aim of covering close to 100% of Brazil’s municipalities with telephone and broadband internet, both fixed and mobile. Their objective is to have the most modern networks in Brazil and to be pioneers in introducing new technologies to the country.
The announcement represents a 52% increase over its network CAPEX over the past four years, but will also include the expected cost of buying new mobile licenses in the forthcoming spectrum sales.
Nigerian President of ATCON says service remains poor
Titi Omo-Ettu, Nigerian President of Association of Telecom Companies (ATCON) has stated that the country’s telecommunications sectors’ services are poor despite massive profits and promotions.
According to Omo-Ettu, the poor quality of services is puzzling and has called on telecom companies to upgrade their services to customers immediately. Recent studies into the sector have shown unsteady and clearly substandard services. This includes the mobile services, which account for 98 percent of the total telecom services in the country.
According to MTN, the poor services have to be changed. He added that his company was moving in the direction of providing better quality service to their users.
Kyrgyzstan’s President initiates financial investigation into Megacom
The interim President of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbaeva, has reportedly formed a group to investigate alleged corruption at BiMoCom (Megacom).
The investigative team, which is made up of experts from the State Committee for National Security, Interior Ministry and the State Financial Police Service, has been assigned with looking into the affairs of the telecoms company.
According to reports, the former Megacom managers Andrei Silich and Aleksandr Borozdin fled Kyrgyzstan before a criminal investigation was opened against them in January 2011 over embezzlement allegations. The pair represented Russian-owned Company Eventis Telecom, which controls a 51% stake in Megacom.
Earlier this week Silich, who has reportedly been reinstated in his role at the mobile operator, told that the criminal case against him had been dropped. However, the Kyrgyz government’s appointed supervisor of Megacom, Azamat Murzaliev stated that Silich has regained the control over the company by force.
According to the results of a preliminary government investigation, Eventis Telecom is alleged to have taken some US$27 million from Megacom since April 2010.
Reliance Communications, TELiBrahma offer cricket video updates (India)
Reliance Communications has announced that it has partnered with mobile solutions provider TELiBrahma to offer video updates and replays of the cricket World Cup matches to its customers.
According to the company, with this partnership, TELiBrahma would deploy Bluetooth devices at a particular stadium and enable consumers to receive video highlights when they are watching the match in the stadium.
According to Mahesh Prasad, President Wireless Business, Reliance Communications, the innovation and advanced technology that Reliance Communications incorporates is ideal for today’s consumer who is always on the move. This time, their customers will enjoy cricket with their new service video updates from ICC World Cup.
Reliance Communications customers will also be able to view the highlights and action replays of cricket matches for free.
As per TELiBrahma President P.R. Satheesh, they believe it would help consumers to catch the missing action and advertisers to achieve better ROI (return on investment) from their investment in cricket. This opportunity will help brands to deliver what is relevant to consumers at the place where it matters and on a device that creates the impact.
Intel acquires Egypt based software house
Intel, through its standalone business entity Intel Mobile Communications, has acquired most of the assets of SySDSoft, a privately held software company based in Egypt. The company has hired approximately 100 of the company’s electrical engineers and computer scientists.
SySDSoft designs IP solutions in the software stack and physical layer domain, and RF/analog circuits embedded in mobile platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.
According to Arvind Sodhani, President, Intel Capital and Executive Vice President, Intel, the acquisition of engineering and design talent from an Egypt-based company in the field of cutting-edge wireless and communication technology is the first of its kind for Intel in the Middle East. The acquisition shows Intel’s continued long-term strategic commitment to the region and its appreciation of its young, growing talent pool.
According to the company, SySDSoft would add to its existing multi-communications portfolio, specifically accelerating its 4G LTE efforts.
As per Dr. Hermann Eul, President of Intel Mobile Communications, Intel is making the necessary investments to further enhance its existing world-class wireless product portfolio and to offer the most reliable platforms to their customers that will work seamlessly across a range of global networks. The acquisition supports this strategy and they believe that SySDSoft’s proven and experienced engineering team, combined with Intel Mobile Communications’ existing wireless strength, positions us well for continued growth in LTE.
TeliaSonera enables the world’s first mobile voting service
TeliaSonera’s subsidiary, the mobile operator EMT in Estonia, has created a world’s first mobile identification service which makes it possible to vote via a mobile phone. The service enabled the citizens of Estonia to cast their vote to yesterday’s parliamentary elections via their mobile phone for the first time in the world.
Estonia has become the first country in the world to allow its citizens to cast their votes in the parliamentary elections with their mobile phones. TeliaSonera’s subsidiary EMT has created a Mobile ID-service that enables verification of people’s identity over the Internet, digital signature, and now casting votes electronically as well.
It is a technological breakthrough that a mobile phone could be used for giving legally binding digital signature replacing handwritten signature on paper. We are very proud to be able to use this kind of innovative mobile service for voting in elections. Additionally all kind of other e-services can be used with the Mobile ID in Estoniaâ€, says H¥kan Dahlstr¶m, President of Mobility Services.â€
Electronic voting by ID card has been used in Estonia already for six years since the local elections in 2005. The number of e-voters has grown constantly from 1.9% to 15.8% of total voters in 2009 local elections.
Estonia has stood out with adoption of innovative e-solutions in the past as well and I’m pleased that voting with Mobile ID becomes the next step in our pro-tech development, said Juhan Parts, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications.
2011 Parliamentary elections will take place in Estonia on March 6th, 2011.
EMT is TeliaSonera’s subsidiary in Estonia. EMT launched Mobile ID service in May 2007. Mobile ID service was initially available only for EMT customers for using e-services created by both private (e-banking, e-service environments) and public (state portal eesti.ee, e-Tax Board, etc.) sectors. Other Estonian mobile operators joined the service platform created by EMT at a later time. In February 2011, new wording of Identity Documents Act that makes Mobile ID a state-approved electronic document as of February 1st 2011 entered into force. In addition to verification of an identity and digital signatures, new state-approved Mobile ID enables to cast votes in elections as well.
TeliaSonera provides network access and telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey, and in Spain. TeliaSonera help people and companies communicate in an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way. Our ambition is to be number one or two in all our markets, providing the best customer experience, high quality networks and cost efficient operations. TeliaSonera is also the leading European wholesale provider with a wholly-owned international carrier network. In 2010, TeliaSonera’s net sales amounted to SEK 107 billion, and at the end of December 2010 the total number of subscriptions was 156 million in 20 countries. The TeliaSonera share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. Read more at www.teliasonera.com
MTS Mikhail Shamolin resigns as CEO (Russia)
MTS’s current CEO, Mikhail Shamolin is stepping down from the role as he is expected to be appointed to the position of President and CEO of Sistema at its board meeting. Sistema is the controlling shareholder in MTS.
Shamolin is being replaced by the current head of MTS Ukraine, Mr. Andrei Dubovskov, who takes up the role with immediate effect.
Mr. Dubovskov joined MTS in 2004 as head of the Company’s operations in Nizhny Novgorod. In the beginning of 2008, Mr. Dubovskov became Head of Business Unit MTS Ukraine, the Company’s second largest business unit in terms of revenues.
According to Mr. Ron Sommer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MTS, they are grateful to Mikhail for the tremendous amount of work he put in and the results that were achieved under his leadership. He was instrumental in making MTS into an integrated player through the implementation of the 3i Strategy. The Board has full confidence that Andrei will continue Mikhail’s undertakings in executing on the strategic priorities of the company as it looks to extract further growth from the Russia and CIS markets of operation. Andrei’s wealth of experience in the telecommunications industry and at MTS itself provides him with the necessary skill set to take MTS to even greater heights. On behalf of the Board, he welcomes Andrei to his new position.
Following Mr. Dubovskov’s appointment, Mr. Vasyl Latsanych, the Chief Marketing Director of Business Unit MTS Ukraine will be the acting Head of Business Unit MTS Ukraine.
