China Telecom launched its long-awaited UK MVNO this week, under the snappy name of CTExcelbiz. Using Everything Everywhere’s network, it’s aimed at Chinese residents of the UK, as well as students and tourists, and promises to meet the specific communication requirements of the UK’s Chinese population, voicemail services in Chinese, bilingual customer service and free on-network calls. China Telecom is the first Chinese operator to launch an overseas MVNO, and has a potential market of around 500,000 customers of Chinese descent, in addition to the estimated 1 million Chinese tourists who visit each year. The UK is just China Telecom’s first stop in launching MVNO services throughout Western Europe and the rest of the world.
Knowing some pain is coming does not always reduce the impact when it comes, ask anyone growing up in the pre-health and safety school playground of the 1980’s were entertainment revolved around activities any marauding Viking would be proud of. The sense of impending doom coming whenever the break-time bell rang is most likely the way European operators had been feeling in the run up to the May 10th meeting to agree the final details of Roaming III. However there are strategies one can use to reduce pain for particular ailments and the current analgesic for regualtory price capping is bundling.
Africa is my destination this week. I’m on a mission that’s both personal and professional.
Officially, I’m here to work with clients, catch up with our growing regional team and speak at Informa’s inaugural Cloud Africa Summit.
Unofficially, I hope to prove myself wrong about the déjà vu that I feel about aspects of Africa’s ICT market.
The IMF just said that sub-Saharan Africa is beginning to stand on its own feet, pointing to its sustained and major progress since the millennium.
The month of May has brought a spate of LTE launches in the Netherlands, as telecoms operators scrambled to meet the coverage obligation deadline for the 2.6GHz spectrum they all bought two years ago. Cable operator Ziggo was the first, followed by the incumbent, KPN, and the rest have now followed suit, with T-Mobile the latest to announce its launch.
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.
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.
Last week’s vote by the European Parliament, which was overwhelmingly in favour of new roaming rules, has both reduced the cost of roaming services for consumers and also paved the way for greater competition among operators for roaming customers. The near unanimous vote (578-10 in favour) for the new consumer-friendly regulations means not only that EU travellers will save money on voice, SMS and data roaming, but also that companies will soon be able to sell roaming services directly to users – who will be able to keep the same number they have for home mobile services.
There is an interesting parallel between today’s announcement that Telefónica is launching an app-based rich communications play—TU Me—and the unveiling two weeks ago of its O2UK arm’s mobile wallet offering. In both situations, Telefónica is simultaneously leading collaborative efforts along similar lines with the very operators on which it is attempting to steal a march by being quick to market.
America Movil’s intention to take over a 28 per cent stake in Dutch operator KPN is an indication of two important developments in the changing global telecoms sector. While some European operators are still expanding internationally, the balance of power in the global market is shifting away from old European players to emerging telecoms giants. At the same time, new global players from the emerging markets are looking to diversify their presence with the main objective of bringing in the know-how and experience of operators from the mature markets.
Yesterday, Samsung introduced the third generation of its flagship smartphone brand, the Galaxy S III. The phone will be branded as the official 2012 Olympics phone. This device belongs to the super-phone category of smartphones which also includes HTC One X, the forthcoming iPhone 5 and LG Optimus 2X.
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