Vodafone delays the launch of Nexus One (UK)

On 03.17.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The planned release of a contract version of the HTC-manufactured Nexus One smartphone on Vodafone has been delayed till the middle of next month, due to unknown reasons.

While the Android-based handset can be easily availed from Google for around £360, what potentially is adding to both delays and cost in the form of import tax and VAT, is the availability of unlocked contract-free version from the USA.

Earlier it was planned that handset will be made available on various Vodafone contracts starting at £35 per month. No explanations regarding the delay have been made by the company despite the fact that by releasing the Nexus One in April, it will clash with HTC Legend, another HTC-manufactured Android-based smartphone.

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Indian telcos receive letter from DOT for audit

On 03.17.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Letters have been issued to all the telecom companies by the Department of Telecom (DoT) for an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, among others have been issued the notice for the CAG audit for the three financial years beginning 2006-07.

According to Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General, CAG is not in the process of immediately looking at the books but it is in the business of looking on telecom providers and operators etc. CAG is also auditing PPPs now and if there is a company which is participating with the public body and is using the government assets, CAG will be auditing them also

The move is considered to be significant as it comes after the special independent audit of telecom companies. It has been reported that Vodafone might submit the reports in a day or two.

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Bridgewater to participate in LTE Interoperability Tests

On 03.16.10, In Mobile Marketing, By Editor

Bridgewater has announced that it will be participating in the Global MultiService Forum (MSF) interoperability testing event. This event will take place at Vodafone’s Centre for Test and Innovation in Dusseldorf and the China Mobile Research Institute Lab in Beijing. The focus of the testing is on validating Evolved Packet Core network interfaces to enable multi-vendor deployment strategies for LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.

The MSF event will promote and foster compatibility and interoperability with leading network equipment vendors and operators including Vodafone, China Mobile, NEC, Starent Networks, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent, Agilent and Codenomicon.

The event will prove out to be an important step towards validating MSF architectural framework release 5 for LTE, developed to incorporate 3GPP System Architecture Evolution.

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Telecom Egypt eyes integrated telecom company

On 03.16.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Acquisition of an integrated telecom company has been considered by state-owned Telecom Egypt which is the only provider of fixed-line services in the country. If the fourth mobile license arrives in the market, the company would consider making a bid for it.

However, no timeline for the acquisitions has been given and the possibility of a fourth mobile license depends on the Egyptian regulator.

According to firm’s chief executive officer, Tarek Tantawy, the company is interested in increasing its exposure to mobile and the market can sustain a fourth player and if it comes up the firm is more than interested.

Profit contribution in 2009 from Vodafone Egypt increased 8% year-on-year to EGP1.4 billion and its total customers stood at 23.3 million at the end of December. Telecom Egypt has a 45% stake in Vodafone Egypt.

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Vodafone Ireland to clean up unused subscriber base

On 03.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Clean up of the subscriber base has been planned by Vodafone’s Irish subsidiary by disconnecting lines which have not been used for eight months. Any outstanding credit on accounts would be held by the operator under this plan and will not be returned to the end user.

The terms and conditions of the new restrictions will be explained by the company and it will be published next month. The strategy behind this move is also to recycle mobile numbers deemed to be no longer in use.

According to a Vodafone Ireland spokesperson, the changes will have a minimal impact on customer numbers but it is mindful ‘of the concerns of a very small number of customers who may consciously omit to top up their accounts for a prolonged period of time for specific reasons.

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Vodafone gives final submission in Indian $2 billion tax demand

On 03.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The final part of the submission expressing why Vodafone should not be held liable for a US$2 billion tax demand following its takeover of India’s Hutchison Essar in 2007 has been submitted by the company. A demand had been asked by the Indian government on the US$11.2 billion deal.

It was being argued that under Indian law, it is the buyer who pays transaction taxes, not the seller and that the jurisdiction that the transaction took place is irrelevant when relating to assets largely held in India.

Reply with 23 annexure had been given by Vodafone on January 29, 2010. The final reply was made on March 12, 2010 with a 24th annexure. According to a company’s spokesperson, Vodafone is confident that no tax is payable on this transaction and all of the taxation and legal advice the company has received remains consistent with this view.

The entire share capital of CGP Investments (Holdings) Ltd, a Cayman Islands based company from Hutchison International (HTIL) was acquired by Vodafone International Holdings BV, a company registered in the Netherlands. CGP, itself, owns 52 per cent stakes in Hutchison India.

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Vodafone contracted by DPDHL for MPLS network (Germany)

On 03.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Deutsche Post DHL’s (DPDHL) five year contract to provide a fully managed MPLS network in 67 countries has been won by Vodafone. Vodafone will connect over 400 sites across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Vodafone Global Enterprise will also provide an international Wide Area Network (WAN) across the three regions and a domestic WAN in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Through this solution, DPDHL would be enabled to provide improved tracking capabilities. This capability in return will allow employees to quickly and easily access the vital bespoke applications, as well as provide critical connectivity to DPDHL’s data centres in Czech Republic and Malaysia.

Gateway Business Services and Vodacom Business South Africa, which are Vodafone’s country business, have combined with Vodafone Global Enterprise to provide complete connectivity and management between the international networks.
This will also provide comprehensive project management support throughout besides ensuring that all regions benefit from its global reach and expertise.

Telefonica was selected by DPDHL’s parent company, Deutsche Post World Net last January to manage its mobile and fixed-line services across 28 European countries, also for five years.

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Vodafone announces the closure of navigation services (Sweden)

On 03.15.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The free navigation service provided by Google and Nokia has taken a toll on Vodafone which has announced the closure of its navigation business. Wayfinder, a Swedish navigational software firm was bought by Vodafone in December 2008 at a price of $30 million (19.8 million pounds). The closure will result in the loss of 95 jobs across Sweden, Romania and Britain.

After the introduction of free services in the last six months, commercial proposition for navigational services had completely changed and existing customers on the Vodafone offering will be moved over to new services provided by partners such as handset makers.

After the announcement of Google and Nokia’s plans, the business model of providing paid-for turn-by-turn navigation services has come under pressure.

Vodafone entered the navigation business in its drive to grow mobile data revenues as the mobile market became saturated.

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Nine operators qualify for Dutch license auction

On 03.11.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nine bidders have qualified for the Dutch auction of 2.6GHz radio frequency licenses which will start on 20 April. The applications from potential bidders have been evaluated by the spectrum regulator Agentschap Telecom. The government has already held the trial auction in the month of December and the other will follow before the final bidding.

The government expected to issue the licenses in late May or early June depending upon how long the auction runs. The licenses are available for Wimax or LTE services and are expected to open the way for at least three new service providers on the market.

Out of 190 MHz, 135MHz will be received by the newcomers. A cap of 20 MHz has been subjected upon the existing mobile operators Vodafone Netherlands, KPN and T-Mobile Netherlands. The operator’s existing holdings in the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands have been taken into account, among which Vodafone has the smallest amount.

Unpaired licenses are offered in blocks of 5 MHz while licenses for paired use will be offered in blocks of 2×5 MHz. Out of 25 blocks, 13 are for paired use, 12 are for unpaired use, and 38 licenses are available.

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Vodafone launches app store in India

On 03.10.10, In Mobile, By Editor

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An application store for the Indian market has been launched by Vodafone’s Indian operation, Vodafone Essar. The operator waited for 10,000 downloads before officially announcing it even though the app store has been running since the middle of last month. This is the third major app store launch in India recently and there’s a fourth one on the way.

These apps provide smartphone features for feature phones and the lineup is also not that fancy when compared to the one on the iPhone or Android app stores. Currently, almost 800 apps available are focused on being useable and cheap.

Between 15% and 25% of the apps on the store are currently free of charge while the rest cost between Rs 5 and Rs 30 to download or roughly $10 to $65 or 8 to 50 euro.

Airtel, which is the biggest rival of Vodafone Essar in India, also launched its apps store a few weeks back. Next month, Reliance will be launching a store as well and prices are again expected to be very low.

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