Telefonica signs network sharing agreement with China Unicom (Spain, China)
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.
EU member states served notice to expedite implementation of new telecom regulations
25th May 2011 was the deadline set by the European Parliament and the EU’s Council of Ministers for the member states of the European Commission for full implementation of the new EU telecoms rules as part of their national law. Twenty of the EU member states have been sent information requests as to why they have not yet reverted with regard to the stipulated implementation of the telecoms rules.
Under the EU infringement procedures, the information requests are equivalent to letters of formal notice.
Under the ambit of the new EU telecoms rules, phones, mobile services and internet are taken into account with regard to rights of the consumers and businesses. The highlights of these rights comprise of customers being empowered to switch telecoms operators in just one day without changing their phone number, more transparency regarding the services customers are offered, in addition to securing their personal data online.
So far only seven Member States namely Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Sweden and the UK have confirmed the Commission of full implementation of the rules; a majority of the EU member states having notified the Commission of implementation to certain extents while the legislative processes are continuing.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain constitute the twenty other Member States that are yet to respond to the letters of formal notice within two months, failing which or even not being convincing, the Commission stands to issue the concerned Member States, a formal request to implement the legislation. The second request will be the form of a ‘reasoned opinion’ under EU infringement procedures. Eventually, the matter will be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Mobile network looks to deploy 3G services across 900 MHz spectrum (Slovenia)
Si.mobil is a mobile network based in Slovenia and it has announced plans to enable 3G services across its 900 MHz radio spectrum. Once the implementation has been rolled out, it is expected that 85% of the population will have access to mobile broadband internet.
Earlier, Si.mobil is known to have stated that it was looking to reconstruct close to half of its GSM network, in addition to revamping it by the use of UMTS 900 technology; eventually, to facilitate data transfer rate of up to 21 Mbps.
Si.mobil’s UMTS network is expected to reach out to the upper Gorenjska region and the whole of eastern Slovenia, constituted by the Štajerska, Koroška, Posavje, Dolenjska, and Ko?evsko, by the close of October. At the time of the transition, 20-minute interruptions at all the base station undergoing upgrades are foreseen. Given that the nearby base stations can possibly pitch in with their coverage capability, major service interruptions are not predicted.
Other than augmenting the UMTS 900 technology, Si.mobil is also looking to enhance a portion of its existing UMTS network with HSPA+ technology.
LTE services in 1800Mhz being tested by Mobitel (Slovenia)
Mobitel, a mobile network operator based in Slovenia deploys a LTE test network in the 1800Mhz bands. The operator had been allotted supplementary test frequencies by the regulator.
The southeastern part of Ljubljana has seen the firts deployment of the LTE network for carrying out internal tests only.
Mobitel is also growing as well as upgrading its HSPA network in parallel with this project. It boasts of transfer speeds as high as 21.6Mbps and is touted to go higher up in the future. At the same time, Mobitel is approaching the final stages of putting the dual carrier HSPA solution that offers speeds of up to 43Mbps, through the paces.
Mobitel’s future plans include a gradual deployment of LTE and LTE-advanced by the use of the 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz frequency bands.
One begins mobile TV promotion (Slovenia)
One, a subsidiary of Telekom Slovenia’s Macedonia, had introduced a promotion intended at new residential customers of its DVB-T provider Boom TV.
As per the terms of the promotion, Boom TV customers who activate the service by 10 July do not pay the service’s monthly subscription for the next 3 months.
With Boom TV, end-users get access to a television package offering foreign and local channels transmitted over One’s DVB-T network.
Google introduces AdSense for mobile content in 15 countries
Google has introduced AdSense for mobile content in 15 countries. Following are the fifteen countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Slovenia, Thailand, and Turkey.
AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.
For mobile websites, AdSense will automatically detect the type of phone viewing the site and deliver ads to match.
Tusmobil introduces Huawei U8800 Ideos X5 in Slovenia
Tusmobil has now launched the latest mobile phone from Huawei – the U880 Ideos X5.
The device features a 5 MP camera with flash LED, HD 720p @ 30 fps camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, Dolby Mobile sound and includes a very powerful, 1500 mAh battery.
The U880 Ideos X5 runs on Google Android and is available for US$1.44 in the “Vesolje” package.
Si.mobil offers Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v in Slovenia
Si.mobil is now offering the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v exclusively.
A device that operates on the latest version of the operating system Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), it is available for US$280 with the Si.mobil mobile internet package Freestyle (for a 24 month subscription).
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v is driven by the dual-core 1GHz processor NVIDIA Tegra 2, has 16 GB of internal memory, a built-in digital camera with a resolution of 8 million pixels, with auto focus and LED flash support recording 1080p HD video clips, plus a secondary 2 MP frontal camera. The device supports HSPA+ technology and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with dual antenna.
Mobitel overhauls mobile website (Slovenia)
Mobitel has revamped its mobile website m.mobitel.si in order to adapt it to handsets with touch screens.
The mobile website offers visitors the full range of Mobitel phones, the latest offers as well as enables the review and edit of users’ own services and settings on the mobile version of the portal ‘Moj Mobitel.’
Added to that, the mobile website offers other information such as contact information for Mobitel shops, frequently asked questions, and an option for contacting the call center.
Gradually, the mobile website will be completed with other functions that are currently only available on the operator’s website mobitel.si.
Si.mobil modernizes roaming packages (Slovenia)
Si.mobil has unveiled an upgraded offer of roaming packages: “Tujina Zame” for residential and “Tujina Podjetni” for corporate users.
The first costs US$32 per month and includes unlimited on-net calls, 101 calls to other Slovenian mobile and fixed networks, and up to 50 minutes of calls on the A1 (Austria) and Vipnet (Croatia) networks. Tujina Podjetni costs US$64 per month and offers unlimited on-net calls and for fixed numbers, 301 minutes of calls to other Slovenian mobile networks, as well as 100 minutes of calls on A1 and Vipnet.
Si.mobil also reduced the price of its roaming options: “Tujina 30″ with 30 minutes of calls abroad now costs US$12, “Tujina 100″ with 100 minutes costs US$35, while “Tujina 200″ with 200 minutes now costs US$50.
