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T-Mobile USA cuts 900 more jobs
T-Mobile is to cut 900 more jobs

Deutsche Telecom’s US mobile operation, T-Mobile USA, is to cut a further 900 jobs, following the unit’s failed $39bn purchase by AT&T late last year. The latest cuts come on top of around 1,900 job losses announced earlier this year.

Handset sales drop for first time in three years
Phone sales showed a decline for the first time since 2009

Global sales of mobile phones declined on a qurterly basis for the first time in nearly three years, according to research firm Gartner this week. The two per cent year-on-year drop between the first quarters of 2012 and 2011 marks the first time the market has weakened since the second quarter of 2009.

Android continues to dominate smartphones

Android retains its lead position as the most popular European smartphone OS, with HTC and Samsung dominating the market between them. According to handset sales statistics released by research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android’s European market share for the three months to April is just over 50 per cent, up from 44.6 per cent last year.

Free reveals extent of its disruption

French low-cost 3G operator Free has managed to acquire nearly four per cent of the country’s market share in just 80 days.

LightSquared files for bankruptcy protection

US wholesale player LightSquared has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid efforts to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from launching its satellite service.

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Mobile Money Special
Opinion
Smart cities and Rocket steam engine: on parallel tracks?
rocket-steam-old

Back in the early 19th century, the public debut of George Stephenson’s Rocket steam engine was a harbinger of the Age of Steam, which applied the technologies of the industrial revolution to transport with great success. Funded by eager speculators, railway infrastructure soon expanded across the world and eventually usurped canals as the main form of transportation.

RIM could make comeback in connected car space
RIM's QNX platform is used on 60 per cent of cars on the road

There are great opportunities in the Machine to Machine sector, largely due to the sheer volume of devices expected to be connected to the Internet of Things. The Telematics market is the longest-standing and most mature part of the M2M industry and has been a test bed for the design of more robust, reliable and longer-lasting components.

The fact that Google has just acquired the first-ever self-driving car licence should come as no surprise. Yet a surprise participant that could make a huge impact on the market is Canadian Blackberry maker RIM, which could see its software development offset poor performance in the handset and tablet space.

Interviews
CSO, Telecom Italia: “LTE can be the foundation for new business models”
Dr. Oscar Cicchetti, is chief strategy officer for Telecom Italia

Dr. Oscar Cicchetti is chief strategy officer for Telecom Italia. Ahead of the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain, we speak to him about the telco’s use of spectrum, the future of VoLTE, and where he sees innovation occurring in the industry.

CTO, Deutsche Telekom: “There can never be enough innovation”
Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CTO of Deutsche Telekom

Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, is the CTO of Deutsche Telekom, Germany, one of the largest operators in Europe. Jacobfeuerborn is delivering a keynote on Day One of the LTE World Summit 2012 taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Ahead of the conference, Jacobfeuerborn presents his take on where the operators stand with regard to LTE.

Reducing mobile operator costs with POS solutions
It costs an average of £50 to send a unit to a repair centre

In times of economic constraint, it is vital for businesses to find ways of reducing their costs and effectively managing their resources, whilst simultaneously ensuring that customers are satisfied with the service they are receiving. This can often be difficult, with many overlapping factors to be considered. For mobile operators, achieving such a fine balance can be crucial to their success in confronting increasingly aggressive competition.

Front Line
Feature
James MiddletonSocial spending

Over The Top providers have become the staple wildcard in almost any sector set on a collision path with mobile. By and large they are very good at what they do: connecting a user with their chosen content or service by whatever means available.

Pages-from-MCI175
Hot Topic – Mobile Financial Services

Mobile financial services are back in the news, making for a substantial share of the announcements made at February’s Mobile World Congress. The aim is as simple as the ecosystem is complex, and structuring a play in this space is no mean feat.

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