Telecom New Zealand

Alca-Lu reflects damage control mode after NZ network failures

On 02.25.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The repeated outages at the HSPA network supplied by Alcatel-Lucent to Telecom NZ have made the former go into a damage control mode. CEO of Alca- Lu, Ben Verwaayen went onto the airwaves to defend the company, but failed to explain the failures.

Verwaayen attributed the initial network problem to a serious hardware failure caused by traffic surges resulting from users trying to get back on the network which subsequently overloaded the system.

According to Paul Budde from Australian-based research firm Paul Budde Communications, the situation was getting very serious for Telecom New Zealand, damaging its credibility which in turn could weaken its chance of winning the next stage of the country’s fiber roll out project.

Telecom NZ faces another network crash, CTO resigns

On 02.23.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After the fourth outage of the XT Mobile network, the chief technical officer of Telecom New Zealand submitted his resignation. The supplier of the faulty 3G network, Alcatel-Lucent, has also announced the replacement of its NZ manager Steve Lowe.

Jyoti Mahurkar-Thombre, former general manager of Alcatel Lucent’s Next Generation Networks’ product unit, has been named as new NZ manager by the company.

The XT Mobile network was crippled for up to 12 hours on Monday, its fourth outage in two months.

Tagged with: 3G • Alcatel-Lucent • Australia • CTO • New Zealand • outage • Telecom New Zealand • XT Mobile Network

Telecom New Zealand’s Q2 earning down by 23.8%

On 02.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Net earnings of NZD80 million (USD55.84 million) down from NZD105 million has been announced by Telecom New Zealand for the three months ended December 31, 2009. 6.5% year-on-year decline in revenues for the second quarter of the 2009/10 financial year has also been reported which is again down from NZD1.4 billion in 2Q08 to NZD1.32 billion a year later.

According to Paul Reynolds, Telecom CEO, telecom’s delivery of the turnaround remains on track, the quarter saw progress on a range of fronts, including the addition of 60,000 customers in mobile, Telecom Retail attracting 64% of broadband connection growth, reduced fixed line churn and the success of our cost out programme.

467,000 connections were established December 31, 2009 out of which 57% of the connections are post-paid, and 47% are new acquisitions. The average data revenues per user increased 19% and roaming revenues increased 111% when compared to Q2 in the previous financial year.

Tagged with: Acquisition • Australia • New Zealand • Telecom New Zealand

Telecom NZ’s EBITDA rises almost 2%

On 02.12.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecom New Zealand’s EBITDA increased almost 2 percent year-on-year and revenues and net earnings slide in the second quarter ended December 31. With 1.7 percent increase, EBITDA rose to NZD 425 million from NZD 418 million.

However, the company suffered 6.5 percent decline in the revenues sliding to NZD 1.32 billion from NZD 1.41 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Telecom ended the quarter with 467,000 customers for its XT mobile network and by attracting 60,000 new mobile customers in the three-month period, the company ended the quarter with a total of 2.310 million mobile customers. Telecom Retail attracted 64 percent of the new customers during the quarter and held its market share at 57 percent.

Tagged with: Australia • EBITDA • New Zealand • Telecom New Zealand • Telecom NZ • XT Mobile Network

TelstraClear’s 3G launched over Vodafone’s network (New Zealand)

On 02.08.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Following the success of a two month pilot scheme, 3G service has been launched by MVNO TelstraClear over Vodafone’s network for business customers. The launch date has been preponed to take advantage of disgruntled customers in the wake of Telecom New Zealand’s recent 3G network failure.

The cellco used to provide services over Vodafone’s network but switched to Telecom in 2007 following a dispute but decided to move back to Vodafone after Telecom decided in May 2009 not to allow the MVNO to take credit on its 3G network.

According to TelstraClear, is targeting the post-paid market and is aiming for 100,000 subscribers within the next three years.

Tagged with: 3G • Australia • MVNO • New Zealand • Telecom New Zealand • Telstra • TelstraClear • Vodafone

Telecom NZ legacy CDMA network failed again

On 02.08.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A day after the announcement of NZ$5 million ($3.44 million) compensation package for customers affected by a prolonged network outage of 3G network, Telecom New Zealand’s legacy CDMA network again failed.

Currently, TNZ is reeling in the wake of the failure of its high-profile W-CDMA 850 service XT. Late last week, around 32 base stations on the Alcatel-Lucent built network went down.

This is the second outage of the Alcatel-Lucent supplied 3G network south of Taupo; in mid-December, the network also went down.

Meanwhile, rival TelstraClear launched its 3G service, which piggy backs of Vodafone’s WCDMA network, for business customers amid Telecom’s XT network woes.

Tagged with: 3G • Alcatel-Lucent • Australia • CDMA • New Zealand • Telecom New Zealand • Telstra • TelstraClear • Vodafone • WCDMA

1.53b handsets shipped in 2007

On 03.01.08, In Mobile, By Editor

Worldwide handset sales increased 16% to 1.153 billion units in 2007, driven by rising demand in emerging markets, says Gartner.

Nokia, the biggest phone vendor, increased its market share to 37.8%, up from three percentage points from a year earlier. In a disastrous last quarter, Motorola fell nearly ten points to 11.9% over the previous year.

Strong sales in China and India lifted Chinese handset supplier ZTE into top ten for the first time with a 1.2% market share. But the popularity of high-end BlackBerry and iPhone devices also put smartphone vendors RIM and Apple in the top ten. Taiwan’s BenQ, France’s Sagem and China-based Bird were the three displaced from the top group.

Gartner predicted growth to decline to 10% in 2008, with western Europe and North America contributing to just 30% of sales.

Gartner mobile devices research director Carolina Milanes said the strength of emerging market demand meant that handset sales were likely to be “relatively immune to a recession” in the US and western Europe.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Tagged with: BT Movio • Bulgaria • China • Handsets • IndiaGames • Italy • Taiwan • Telecom New Zealand • TMN • USA • Zimbra

XFMedia acquires Beijing Mobile Interactive

On 06.05.07, In Mobile, By Editor

Chinese diversified financial and entertainment media company Xinhua Finance Media announced its acquisition of mobile service provider Beijing Mobile Interactive. Upon close of the transaction, expected to finalize on or prior to June 15, XFMedia will pay approximately U.S. $10 million in cash. According to XFMedia, the acquisition is intended to enable integration of mobile services with its existing media assets in an effort to market new interactive products and services. In addition to messaging, gaming and ringback distribution deals with operators China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom and China Telecom, Beijing Mobile Interactive boasts handset partnerships with manufacturers including Sony Ericsson and Bird.

“XFMedia intends to integrate M-in’s MVAS platform and mobile interactive capabilities with our existing media assets such as our high-quality business, entertainment, education and drama shows, allowing viewers to interact with the shows through text messaging,” said Xinhua Finance Media CEO Fredy Bush in a prepared statement. “XFMedia also plans to use M-in’s capabilities to offer mobile interactivity with its radio and print divisions. New revenue sources are expected to be created through marketing Q&A campaigns, and voting and commentary services for TV programs such as ‘Fortune China’ via text messaging, or by providing access to our instant financial news updates via WAP or IVR services.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Tagged with: ANCEL • Belgacom • China • EU • PSTN • T-Mobile • Telecom New Zealand • Telefonica