KT Corp demands global free Wi-Fi roaming
KT Corp has requested mobile operators to cooperate on establishing global free Wi-Fi roaming in a bid to ease the strain on their 3G networks.
According to Hyun-Myung Pyo, president of the South Korean operator’s mobile division, as of September, 67% of the operator’s mobile data traffic, around 2,500TB per month is offloaded onto Wi-Fi. Operators need to collaborate to build global free Wi-Fi roaming to offload 3G traffic.
Certainly, with the growth of M2M communications and the proliferation of mobile-capable devices expected to drive global mobile connections to 50 billion by 2020, operators will need to squeeze as much capacity as possible out of their networks.
As per Richard Yu, chief strategy and marketing officer of Huawei, capacity requirements will be huge. Mobile network capacity needs to increase by 500 times,” he said.
Yu explained that to do this, operators will need to make the transition to LTE, refarm 2G spectrum for mobile broadband services, and bolster their macro mobile networks with picocells, femtocells and other micro base station technologies. The number of connections will dramatically change the industry’s behavior.
Vodafone introduces Freedom Account with monthly limit plan (Qatar)
Vodafone Qatar has introduced Freedom Accounts with a Monthly Limit. Freedom Accounts with a Monthly Limit give customers the ability to stay in control of what they spend each month by selecting their monthly limit plan.
This plans will help customers as there would be no hidden cost for customers who choose a monthly limit as they have a new plan added to their Freedom Account every month (30-day period) – and if they need more credit they can simply load a new prepaid Red plan. Freedom Accounts with Monthly Limit plans start from US$5.49 per month.
Freedom Accounts will offer customers great value, flexibility, and put them in control with benefits including: Great Savings wherein users can save up to 35% savings on all services – local and international calls, roaming, data, SMS and MMS. Plus users who will be registered on a Freedom Account will receive free Vodafone minutes. The bigger the plan the more free minutes they get. It will also offer the ultimate in flexibility, with no rules about how customers spend their credit. In addition to Freedom Accounts with a Monthly Limit, Freedom Accounts are also available with No Limits. A Freedom Account with No Limits means that a new plan is automatically added to the customers Freedom Account as soon as their previous plan is finished (or every 30 days, if the plan is not finished). Freedom Accounts with No Limits ensure that customers are always connected.
According to Cindy Moussa, Head of Consumer Marketing, Vodafone Qatar, Freedom Accounts with a Monthly Limit and No Limits give customers fantastic value with up to 35% savings. This saving applies across all services the customer uses. In addition to this saving all customers get great Vodafone to Vodafone minutes for FREE to use in the ever-growing Vodafone community. Freedom Accounts are a great offer for all customers who want flexibility and control with great value.
According to Dione Meyer, Marketing Manager, Vodafone Qatar, there’s never been a better time to choose a Vodafone Freedom Account, with great value local and international calls, free mobile Facebook and an extensive choice of exclusive mobiles to choose from including the iPhone 4.
Telefonica selects Syniverse to speed up Roaming Time in Latin America
If reports are to be believed, Telefonica SA has selected Syniverse Technologies to serve as its exclusive provider of roaming business management service at 11 of its properties in Latin America.
As per the agreement, Syniverse’s experts will make use of the company’s GAIN Roaming Business Management Service and speed up and streamline Telef³nica’s roaming service.
Syniverse will also complete IREG and TADIG tests on behalf of the operator to make sure that the service complies with the industry standards.
According to Sergio S¡nchez, Director of Business Development for P&S-Voice and Roaming, Telef³nica LatAm, Syniverse’s status as a long-term, trusted service provider was a significant reason why it chose the organization to manage essential roaming management business processes for its Latin American properties.
According toTony Holcombe, President and CEO, Syniverse, delays in putting roaming agreements into operation often can mean money left on the table for the operator. By relying on our highly skilled roaming specialists, Telef³nica operators in Latin America will speed time to market for roaming services and, as an added benefit, be able to dedicate internal resources to other critical areas of their roaming businesses. Because GAIN is fully customizable, Syniverse was able to assess the specific needs of Telef³nica properties and tailor the solution to meet their exact requirements.
Roaming charges in India may be a part of history soon
Roaming in India may become the talks of past times as DoT is planning to spare roaming services in India, A high-level Department of Telecom (DoT) panel that was asked to come up with strategic changes for the communications industry has recommended that the country be considered as a single region, a move that will spare customers from paying a roaming fee when traveling.
At present, the country is divided into 22 circles and consumers pay roaming charges when they make or receive calls outside their home circle. This DoT panel has recommended that doing away with the circle concept will help deal with the roaming issues.
According to the panel, if the entire country could not be considered as a single circle, then the country can be divided into four regions. In this case, it will help consumers avoid roaming charges when traveling within a region like say all the Southern states.
Mobile phone companies will oppose any moves to do away with roaming charges as this fee forms up to 10% of the industry’s revenues. All telcos combined together about US$272.4 million annually from roaming charges.
A per the existing rules, a mobile phone company can charge a maximum of US$0.03 per minute for a local call for a mobile user traveling outside his home network, while for STD calls, the limit is US$0.05 per minute for all outgoing and US$0.04 per minute for all incoming calls while on roaming, irrespective of the distance. But, existing rates are far lower than these caps imposed by TRAI in 2007. The tariff wars that gripped the sector in 2009 had also resulted in some operators slashing their roaming tariffs.
The panel has also found that cellular operators be allowed to offer financial services on mobile phones , while adding that the move would speed up the government’s efforts to ensure that the weaker sections of the society have access to such facilities at affordable costs.
As per the panel, the DoT must soon come up with a policy for renewal of telecom licenses. The panel has also called for a national policy on setting up telecom towers. According to the officials, the policy, which will be framed by TRAI, will apply to cell-sites or telecom towers in all cities and will address issues such as the minimum distance these units must maintain from schools, hospitals and tourist attractions. It will also specify the maximum radiation levels for these masts and state methodologies that will be used to measure it. This will also mark the first attempt in India to regulate the telecoms towers space in the country.
Max telecom selects Samsung for WiMAX Deployment deal
Bulgaria’s Max Telecom has chosen Samsung Electronics as its only 3.5GHz Mobile WiMAX vendor. Max Telecom is planning to improve its commercial Mobile WiMAX service with Samsung’s technology in Bulgaria at the year end, and is expecting to expand the Mobile WiMAX service to a nationwide coverage for the population of 7.6 million by 2012.
According to Krassimir Stoitcheff, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Max Telecom, together with Samsung, the world’s leading Mobile WiMAX solution provider, the company is very proud to offer the existing customers an improved wireless broadband service and also to introduce Mobile WiMAX, one of the most advanced and innovative technologies, to more of the Bulgarian people. The company is on course to become Bulgaria’s leading provider of wireless data services before the end of the year and believes that the network upgrade will bring increased awareness of the Max Telecom wireless broadband service as an economical and high-quality mobile internet service solution.
The Max Telecom network is planning to offer roaming and mobile wireless broadband services both indoors and on the move. Max Telecom will also offer paired devices providing wireless indoor solutions for the office and home with download speeds of up to 32 mega bit per second.
$40 billion per year lost by operators globally
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A massive sum of $40 billion per year is lost by the global telecoms industry as a result of revenue leakage and the telecoms providers are required to develop more effective automated revenue assurance tools to overcome this loss.
Besides they should also spread awareness of revenue assurance through their organizations, and work on obtaining accurate and timely information in order to address the situation.
In a survey conducted by a professional services firm, operators loose more than 1% of their revenues through leakage. 15% put revenue leakage at more than 3%, with some of those admitting to losing as much as 10% of their revenues.
Failure to pass on call information to billing systems, errors over roaming, incorrect billing is some other reasons for leakage. Most of the leaks remain unidentified due to the lack of good data means. Even after identification, recovering of the leaks remains an issue as 60% of survey respondents estimated that they successfully recover less than half of all leakage.
Indian govt extends pre-paid services in Jammu & Kashmir
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A directive has been issued by the Indian government extending permission for the use of pre-paid mobile voice services in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) circle for a further twelve months. The legislation to use such services was due to expire on February 23, 2010.
After the review of those mobile operators which offer services in the region, the decision was taken ensuring that correct customer verification processes are being followed.
The terms of the permission include- the validity of SIM cards will not be beyond February 22, 2011; no pre-activated SIMs may be sold; recharge of SIMs within last three months of expiry of permission will not have validity beyond February 22, 2011; SIM cards will have no roaming facility outside J&K; service providers can appoint franchises only after seeking clearance from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
U Mobile’s subscribers to roam on DiGi network
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The subscribers of 3G operator U Mobile can now roam on DiGi’s EDGE network as the company has signed a 3-year domestic roaming agreement with DiGi.
The roaming agreement with DiGi will allow U Mobile subscribers to enjoy voice, SMS and data services (GPRS/EDGE) nationwide including flawless hand-over of voice calls from U Mobile’s 3G network to DiGi’s 2G network.
DiGi’s EDGE networks will formally be inducted only after the domestic agreement with Celcom ends, thus making it an exclusive provider of domestic roaming traffic services for U Mobile. Celcom and U Mobile signed a domestic roaming agreement, limited to voice and SMS in 2007.
