Indian regional operator Sistema Shyam TeleServices has shut down its operations in ten of the country’s telecom circles. The firm said that the decision was made based on “several factors” including spectrum pricing and the levels of competition in those markets.
Japanese operator NTT Docomo has selected vendors Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Panasonic to develop its next generation LTE-A network architecture. In one of the earliest roll out of the technology, the two vendors will provide the operator with base stations that are optimised for LTE Advanced.
Australia’s shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has won headlines again for his outspoken views on the country’s National Broadband Network, this time claiming that he believes Australians could be offered on-demand access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections as part of the nationwide rollout of fibre-to-the-node (FTTN).
Norwegian operator group Telenor will cease operating in Mumbai, after being told by India’s Supreme Court to shut down its operations in the city. The operator’s Indian subsidiary, Uninor, will lose around 1.84 million customers as a result.
South Korean operator SK Telecom has announced that it has acquired one million users for its Joyn service, just 50 days after of launching it.
Last week Indian operator Reliance Communications announced a $1bn eight-year managed services deal with Ericsson, transferring network operations and management to Ericsson in Northern and Western states of India.
This follows hot on the heels of a parallel $1bn eight-year managed services contract announced in January with Alcatel-Lucent, transferring network operations and management to Alcatel-Lucent in Southern and Eastern states of India.
Indian operator Aircel has launched a mobile money programme using payment provider Visa’s plug-and-play mobile money platform . The platform aims to make it easier and more cost-efficient for mobile operators and financial institutions to offer mobile financial services to consumers. Aircel’s offering is in an equal partnership with local bank ICICI.
As emerging markets deploy and expand their LTE networks, national regulators are gravitating towards the 700MHz band to provide spectrum harmonisation internationally.
Thai operator True Corp plans to launch 4G services in the 2.1GHz spectrum in Bangkok in April, before even launching 3G services, according to local reports.
A bank in Indonesia has developed the first mobile payments service for Canadian handset maker BlackBerry’s Messenger service (BBM). PermataBank has teamed up with British mobile banking solutions provider Monitise to roll out a commercial pilot of BBM Money in the country ahead of a full launch.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has teamed up with Australia’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) to conduct a report on trans-Tasman roaming services. The report recommends increased powers for regulators in both countries to intervene in the market.
Mandar Thakur, COO, Times Music is delivering a keynote on Day Two of the Broadband Asia 2013 conference, taking place on the 9th-10th April 2013 in Hong Kong. Ahead of the show, as well as his views on the potential of LTE in India, we find about his his favourite gadgets, what he does in his spare time and what gets him out of bed in the morning.
Prashant Gokarn, is Chief Strategy Officer of Indosat the second largest operator in Indonesia with over 60 million subscribers. He is speaking on Day One of the The inaugural TD-LTE Summit, taking place on the 23rd-24th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him about where Indosat is with LTE.
South Korean operator SK Telecom’s chairman Chey Tae-won has been served a four-year jail sentence after being found guilty of stealing close to $50m from the company. The ruling comes as the country’s president-elect vowed tougher action against the nation’s corrupt business leaders.
From early February Australian carrier Telstra will focus on building OTT challenger software and applications, through the creation of a Global Applications and Platforms unit.
Apple will next week add another 36 networks to the selection of carriers that are permitted to offer the iPhone 5 with LTE support enabled. Tim Cook, CEO of the handset vendor, made the revelation as part of the company’s earnings call earlier this week. However, the expanded list does not extend to carriers in parts of Asia and Russia.
China Mobile will not stick exclusively to TDD LTE but will operate a FDD LTE network at the same time, CEO Li Yue revealed at a 4G conference held in Taipei last week. The dual path technology strategy will be taken to encourage the take up of dual-mode, multi-band devices around the world, he said.
I was in a hotel bar in Hong Kong when I got one of my first major tipoffs as a budding telecoms journalist. It came from a well-lubricated telecoms-industry executive whom I never saw again.
“Look, I shouldn’t really be telling you this, but something big is about to happen in China,” he said. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Yes, sure,” I replied.
“Well, this really is top secret, but the deal is almost done so it can’t do much harm now,” he said. “Virgin Mobile is going to launch as an MVNO in Shanghai. Unbelievable, isn’t it?”
Michael Lai, CEO OF Malaysian operator Packet One is delivering the opening day keynote on Day One of the inaugural TD-LTE summit, taking place on the 23rd-24th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him about the challenges the company faces during its on-going transition from WiMAX to LTE.
In a bid to compete with its smartphone rivals in the largest mobile market in the world, Apple has started offering instalment plans for its products in China, the first OEM in the country to do so when selling its own products directly. According to reports, the company has taken this step because it has been struggling to shift its products, which are typically more expensive than those of its competitors. Regardless of the near-term competitive environment Apple faces in China the instalment plans are a bold and innovative way for Apple to make the iPhone more attractive to consumers who are used to buying smartphones from local rivals such as ZTE for much less.
Lean and MeanWith summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.
Cross-border opportunities are there, but Telenor has work to do in BulgariaPan-European operater group Telenor is making another move into Eastern Europe, this time buying Bulgaria’s Globul. The move makes sense for several reasons, but success won’t come easy in a country with high mobile penetration and a sluggish economy.
Telecoms.com speaks with Ali Agan, who has risen through the ranks of TeliaSonera Group to become CEO of KCell in Kazakhstan. With a young population Agan is keen to deploy LTE and exploit nascent demand for data services.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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Calls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.