www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new strategy for 2010-2012 has been unveiled by Telefonica based on the four pillars of customer focus, an integrated services offering, new platforms and a common culture. The strategy has been named as Bravo.

Out of the four pillars, customer focus seems obvious but financial crisis raises question. Choice of ‘customer satisfaction’ rather than the usual ’shareholder value’ can be applauded. The second pillar indicates that Telefonica wants to offer a quad-play across all its 25 markets and in most countries where it operates; this target does not imply any big changes.

The last pillar targeting a “common culture’ just indicates that the company wants to present a good image. The third pillar of new platforms sounds unclear but at the same time it can be connected to comments from chairman Cesar Alierta, according to whom, customers will have more devices, all connected (…) the domination of smart phones will play a key role.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A mobile phone enabling users to send SMS and to make and receive voice calls in areas without mobile network coverage is under development by the research and development unit of Telefonica. An application will be installed on the mobile device; which will make the mobile communication possible.

A network will be formed by all mobile phone owners using this application, in which their phones would serve as signal repeaters. Direct wireless data connections will be established by the connectivity application, between two mobile devices that are relatively close to each other.

A network would also be formed by the devices in which two phones that are 100 meters away from each other could share data and voice calls without requiring coverage.

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Apple IPad to hit the stores in April

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The technology oriented people waiting anxiously for the much anticipated Apple iPad to adore their gadgets collection will have to wait a little more as the launch of the device has been delayed and will now hit the stores on April 3.

Earlier, Apple scheduled the launch of the device worldwide by end March. No reasons have been cited by the company behind the delay. According to analysts, Apple might have to delay or limit the size of the launch because of an unspecified production problem but denied any affect of the delay on the sales of the iPad during Apple’s fiscal third quarter, which ends in June.

Depending on the data storage capacity, the range of the first iPad will vary between $499, $599 or $699 and will be connected to Wi-Fi networks only. The cost of those versions which can also be connected to 3G cellular networks will range between $629, $729 or $829.

Orders can be placed by the US customers from March 12 and all models will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. by late April.

12 new applications will be included in the iPad, especially designed for the touch-screen device. According to Apple, it will also run “almost all” of the more than 140,000 apps already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch and users will be able to access the applications they bought for those devices through the iPad.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 1.2 percent rise in the Q4 revenue from a year earlier to EUR 14.98 billion has been reported by Telefonica. The OIBDA of the telco improved 1.4 percent to EUR 5.98 billion. The lower tax bill helped the company to generate a net profit of EUR 2.44 billion, up 22.2 percent.

In the home market, revenues of the Spanish operator fell 1.6 percent to EUR 5.05 billion, while OIBDA improved 3.6 percent to EUR 2.52 billion. In Latin America, revenues increased 8.0 percent year-on-year to EUR 6.33 billion and OIBDA in the region grew 4.7 percent to EUR 2.5 billion.

The revenue decline in Europe slowed down to 3.9 percent, to EUR 3.48 billion and OIBDA declined 6.8 percent to EUR 1.03 billion.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 42.3% stake in Telco, a holding company that owns 24.5% of Telecom Italia had been acquired by Spain’s Telefonica in April 2007. However, the merger garnered the attention of Argentine anti-trust authorities since approximately 90% of the local telecommunications market was now controlled by Telecom Argentina and Telefonica de Argentina.

Telefonica of Spain’s stake in Telecom Argentina is diluted in numerous intermediary holdings and is thus equivalent to around 2%. Spain’s Telefonica and Telecom Italia’s merger has also been making rounds recently but both the companies have been denying the rumors.

Telecom Italia was ordered by Argentina’s Anti-Trust Commission (CNDC) in August 2009 setting a 12-month deadline for the sale.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With a view to assess HSPA as an alternative to DSL, Vodafone Spain has been conducting tests in the town of San Quirze del Valles, near Barcelona.

Exploding usage of broadband connections has made the operator to conduct this test which otherwise ran fixed and mobile services over a single cellular network. However, additional spectrum is required by WiMAX along with huge investments while the carrier is already struggling to see real ROI from 3G.

Vodafone is now hopeful that the latest upgrades to HSPA will make it more viable as a fixed technology and will be used as the backhaul for a Wi-Fi router.  100 households will be provided with HSPA modems and Wi-Fi access points, in a six-month pilot.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Though the Apple was absent in the world biggest event for mobile sector, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the shadow of the Apple’s iPhone hung over the event. This has made Mobile operators and manufacturers came together in Spain to try to claw back ground against Apple.

Apple has been gaining popularity since it entered the sector in 2007 even though it accounts for only a relatively small share of the mobile market at this time. Success of its App Store, where it sells mobile software for its iPhone and iPod Touch devices, is one that other handset-makers have yet to replicate.

The peaking success and popularity of Apple made 24 mobile networks to create an open platform for the development of applications known as the Wholesale Application Community allowing developers to access a larger market for their apps, with submitted software intended for all devices regardless of technology or manufacturer.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The issue of platform proliferation was confronted by the mobile operators at the mobile World Congress in Barcelona but without much success. The divide was highlighted by BBC executive who complained about OS “madness”, while a carrier CTO urged operators to accept the fragmented landscape.

Erik Huggers, director of BBC Future Media & Technology felt that twenty-one flavors of iPlayer is complete madness and as a broadcaster, the burden falls on them to reformat and repurpose their programming and content for every new device that happens to come to the market every six months.

However, according to Telstra CTO Hugh Bradlow, there were too many smartphone environments and that unification efforts like OneAPI would only go so far. He also predicted that six to ten mobile platforms would be around three years from now and the operators would have to deal with it and work with whoever wants to come in

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Vodafone Spain conducts HSPA trials

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Six months trial of HSPA-based broadband services as a fixed broadband has been conducted by Spanish mobile network operator Vodafone Spain as a fixed broadband substitute in the town of San Quirze del Valles, near Barcelona.

HSPA 3G modems and Wi-Fi base stations will be provided to more than 100 households under this pilot scheme in order to use them instead of traditional ADSL-based high speed internet services.

Ascertaining the level of customer satisfaction with mobile broadband compared to traditional fixed line services, as well as studying both downlink and uplink speeds and download volumes are the two main aim of this project. Studying the level of service and capacity its mobile network may need in order to offer such services in a medium-sized city is also the reason behind these tests.

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www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, who was in attendance at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, regulators should pay close attention to competition in the mobile telephone industry, and suggested that Google should be a focus of heightened scrutiny.

Google is trying to bulk up Vodafone’s mobile advertising capability with a $750 million bid for Ad Mob but the deal is currently being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission. Apart from advertising, Google is also making inroads into other parts of the mobile industry, with its own operating system, Android, and its own phone, Nexus One.

The chief executive of one of the world’s largest mobile phone operators, Vodafone,  also urged regulators to look at Google’s hold over search advertising on mobile phones, and to boost competition in the industry before it’s too late.