A double whammy of bad news for US wannabe carrier LightSquared this week, as reports come in that the firm plans to prune 45 per cent of its staff in order to save money. Earlier this week it emerged that satellite operator Inmarsat was claiming that it has not received a payment of $56.25m from the company.
Under the threat of a strike from Barcelona’s transport workers’ union, the TMB, that could disrupt next week’s Mobile World Congress, GSMA has issued a statement promising to reveal its contingency plans on Saturday. With more than 60,000 visitors expected to attend this year’s event, many of whom will be relying on the city’s public transport network, the disturbance to the event could be significant.
Ericsson has confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Canadian wifi firm BelAir Networks for an undisclosed amount. The Swedish vendor heralded the deal as the “next step towards a truly integrated network”, following the launch of its network integrated wifi solution in September 2011, and claims the integration of the two firms’ technologies will improve the mobile broadband experience by managing the co-existence of mobile technologies and wifi.
Operators will soon be able double mobile broadband speeds for consumers at the edge of a base station cell, by allowing devices to connect with a second base station that serves a neighbouring cell. Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm will be jointly demonstrating the HSPA+ Multiflow feature at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Social network Facebook is expanding its reach into the emerging markets through a partnership with France Telecom owned Orange in Africa.
Japanese electronics vendor Fujitsu has announced its intention to launch smartphones and tablets into the European market just as mobile operators are looking to reduce the number of device vendors they work with. Fujitsu has a 20 per cent share of the Japanese mobile device market, according to Robert Pryke, director of Fujitsu’s European device business.
US carrier Lightsquared’s fortunes are going from bad to worse, as satellite firm Inmarsat has told the London Stock Exchange that it has not received a payment of $56.25m from the company.
India’s telecoms regulator, the TRAI, has issued draft guidelines for the way spectrum is to be allocated in the country, ahead of the 2G spectrum (re)auction due to be held later this year.
Barclays bank jumped aboard the mobile money bandwagon this week with a person-to-person service for sending and receiving money using mobile phone numbers. The service, called Pingit, allows users to transfer money, for free, to anyone with a UK current account and UK mobile phone number, with no need to share bank details.
The UK Competition Commission has brought forward the deadline for when mobile operators will be forced to slash mobile termination rates (MTRs) for connecting calls from other networks or fixed lines. UK regulator Ofcom said in March 2011 that MTRs should be cut from just over 4p a minute in 2010 to less than 0.65p a minute by 2015. Operators Everything Everywhere and Vodafone lodged an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) against this decision that, with support from Telefonica.
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