Vodafone Qatar and GBI sign cable deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Bridge International signed a deal to provide a landing station the latter’s submarine cable in the Gulf state.
GBI cable system is scheduled to launch in 2011 and designed to operate for up to 25 years. It will connect telecommunication operators and other communications firms in the region via a core ring, which can re-route traffic thereby increasing resilience.
All the countries of the Gulf region will be connected by the GBI cable system and it will also provide onward connectivity to Europe and Asia. The cable system will have a design capacity of up to 5 Tbps on certain cable sections.
The system will also have capability to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in the Gulf.
Timor Telecom gains 50,000 customers in a month; revises target
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Gain of an additional 50,000 customers in just one month has made Timor Telecom (TT), a subsidiary of Portuguese telecoms company Portugal Telecom (PT) to revise its target for the end of 2009.
The company reached 312,000 mobile customers on December 13, raising TT’s year target from 320,000 subscribers to 330,000. The launch of seasonal campaigns and promotions played a significant role in the recent success of the telco.
However some of the promotions backfired when a recent campaign allowing customers to send SMS for free left many unable to use the service after the system could not handle the extra traffic. But the problems seems to be insignificant as the success is beyond expectation for the company.
Sasatel sign up for Seacom cable
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Sasatel became one of the few telecom companies in Tanzania to sign up for connection to the Seacom cable. The move is aimed to deliver superior service, speed and reliability to its Internet customers.
According to Sasatel Chief Technical Officer, Jonas Edgren, due to the passage of Sasatel Internet traffic through the Seacom cable, Sasatel customers can now avail the facility of efficient and high quality internet connectivity.
Sasatel also provides affordable internet connection to homes and individuals including small, medium and large businesses through its CDMA network via EVDO WiFi Routers, the EVDO Modem and the Fixed Wireless phone.
13.4% growth in Mexico’s telecom sector in the third quarter
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Cofetel, Mexico based telecommunications regulator, announced 13.4% rise in their third quarter sector index. However, the company also said that the figure is 11 % lower than last year, reflecting the effect of the international context and drop in the domestic economy on the telecommunications sector.
Mobile telephony, domestic long distance and satellite TV services grew while paging and international long distance declined during most part of the third quarter. Mobile telephony traffic recorded an increase of 18.7% and domestic long distance traffic rose 0.9%.
7.6% and 22.6% fall was recorded in Incoming international long distance traffic and outgoing long distance traffic respectively. 1.6% year-on-year growth reaching to 20.5 million at the end of September was recorded in the lines of services in fixed-line telephony in Mexico.
BSNL slashes ISD rates to Sri Lanka, West Asia
New Delhi
: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) 5.8-crore telecom service subscribers stand to benefit as the PSU announced a 40 per cent reduction in ISD rates to
Sri Lanka
and a 20 per cent cut to West Asian countries from next month.
From October 1, a BSNL subscriber would have to pay Rs. 7.20 a minute for a 10-second pulse rate from Rs. 12 a minute, a statement from the company said. The revised rates would apply to all calls from fixed line, mobile, WLL (M) as well as PCOs and trunk calls.
For West Asian countries such as
Kuwait
,
Bahrain
, the U.A.E.,
Oman
and
Qatar
, the rates have been reduced from Rs. 12 a minute to Rs. 9.6 a minute and the pulse rate has been increased from six seconds to 7.5 seconds.
Maximum call traffic
The sector comprising
Sri Lanka
and West Asian countries has the maximum call traffic from
India
. The tariffs have been reduced to offer customers a good choice and to be ahead of competition, the company said.
Current rates
Private cellular operators currently offer ISD rates of Rs. 9.99 a minute to
West Asia
with some operators offering Rs. 8 a minute to the same destination under certain plans. But, none them offer a unified package of same rate for calls from fixed lines, mobile and WLL phones.
Price war likely
BSNL’s latest rate-cut is likely to start another round of price war in the ISD segment on this busy traffic route of
West Asia
where a sizable Indian population stays.
BSNL has about 3.8 crore fixed line subscribers and a little over two crore mobile subscribers.
Source- http://www.hindu.com
