Equipment vendor Alcatel-Lucent has launched an extended portfolio of software and services designed to ameliorate customer experiences on both fixed and wireless networks.
In the Middle East, UAE operator Du has announced plans to provide Wifi access across the Dubai Metro, the majority shareholder in Orange Israel is looking to sell its stake in the firm and a Bahraini operator is left reeling after the Indian Supreme Court cancels its licence to provide 2G services in the country.
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Nordic operator group Telenor has said that it will do what it can to keep Indian subsidiary Uninor operating in the country. Last week, the Supreme Court of India cancelled 122 telecoms licences that were awarded in a 2008 spectrum sale, citing corruption in the sales process of the licences.
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The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has said it will be forcing down the prices that Openreach, the wholesale division of incumbent BT, can charge for broadband and telephone rental. The proposed charge controls would reduce the cost of a “fully unbundled line” from £91.50 to £87.41, and shared unbundled line, where an ISP used the line just to provide broadband, would drop from £14.70 to £11.92, while the cost for phone rental services would drop from £103.68 to £98.81.
Vodafone Group has confirmed that it has abandoned its plans to merge its operations in Greece with local operator Wind Hellas, citing the uncertainty around the Greek market as a key reason.
UK telco BT has successfully trialled the delivery of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband on an on-demand basis in St Agnes, Cornwall, delivering speeds of up to 300 Mbps
Orange Austria, owned by France Telecom, is to be acquired by Hong Kong’s Hutchison, which competes with Orange through its 3 Austria operation. The deal, worth €1.3bn, consolidates the third and fourth players in the Austrian market.
The North American carrier U.S. Cellular has announced that it will launch its LTE network in March, along with accompanying LTE ready devices. The network which will be launched in conjunction with its build partner King Street Wireless, was originally meant to come online by the end of 2011, and no specific reason was provided for the delay.
The Supreme Court of India has cancelled 122 telecoms licences that were awarded in the country’s 2G auction. The country sold its 2G spectrum licences in 2008 on a first-come, first-served basis. However, it emerged that they were sold unlawfully, with former cabinet minister Andimuthu Raja currently in jail awaiting trial for his role in the scandal. As a result, it is estimated that the country lost around $40bn in lost revenue by not auctioning the licences.
Way back in 1996, at the dawn of the digital revolution, Microsoft founder Bill Gates declared in an article that “Content is King.” Gates drew a parallel to television, saying that “The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.” This statement has proved prophetic.
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