Google is bringing fibre to Kansas

Google has confirmed that it is ready to start building its Google Fibre network in Kansas City (Kansas) and Kansas City (Missouri).

The company states that it has now developed a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans for the project, after sending out engineers to measure utility poles, study maps and survey neighbourhoods.

The first phase of construction will involve building the fibre backbone for the city (divided along the state line by a river), with subsequent phases to see the eventual connection of homes to the network.

The new network is expected to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps, but it won’t come cheap: some estimates place the network’s cost at between $ 3,000 and $ 8,000 per connection.

The HTC Velocity will be the first LTE handset available in Europe and available on Vodafone Germany

Vodafone D2, the German arm of the UK-based carrier, has revealed that it will soon have an LTE ready smartphone from Taiwanese handset maker HTC available on its network. German publication Computer Week has said that the Vodafone press office in Germany has confirmed that the HTC Velocity 4G will soon be coming to market, though the exact launch date and pricing has not been confirmed.

The HTC Velocity 4G is powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm chipset and will run Android 2.3. A Velocity supporting 1800MHz LTE is already available in Australia and the handset had already appeared on the AT&T 700MHz LTE network as the Vivid. This version is being brought to market for Vodafone Germany to support its 800MHz and 2600MHz LTE network.

The device will offer download speeds of up to 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps and 42.2Mbps HSPA+ is also supported. As VoLTE has yet to be implemented, calls will be routed over the 3G network via circuit-switched fall-back.

Vodafone Germany launched its LTE network in December 2010 and so far its customers have been limited to USB dongles and Mifi devices to make use of it. The Velocity becomes the second LTE phone to be available in Europe, with Telia in Sweden recently offering the Samsung Galaxy SII LTE. Other than this, the only LTE-ready handsets have so far only been available on US networks such as Verizon and AT&T.

HTC will be hoping that LTE will help it gain ground in Europe after poor fourth-quarterly 2011 results and low forecasts for the first quarter of 2012 cent earlier this week caused its share price to drop by 6 per cent.

The LTE Middle East and North Africa conference takes place on the 29^th-30^th April, Westin Mina Seyali, Dubai, UAE. Go to the website now to register your interest.

The deal will bring fibre to Christchurch

Chinese vendor Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply fibre equipment for the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network being built in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The multi-million contact was awarded by Enable Networks and involves the provision of all network equipment for the project, including fibre ducting, fibre optic cables and open access layer two network solutions.

It also involves the provision of service expertise required for the 3,500 kilometre UFB network that will extend across Christchurch and into growing centres in Waimakariri and Selwyn Districts.

This is the second major order Huawei has won for New Zealand’s UFB project, the first being awarded late last year and involving equipment for the network in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Wanganui regions.

Other vendors which have won a role in the UFB project include Alcatel-Lucent, which is providing its IP/MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) solution for the areas of Hawke’s Bay, Rotorua and Taupo; and Ericsson, which has been selected to provide Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) technology for the Northpower Fibre Network being built in Whangarei in the far north of the North Island.

The UFB initiative has been set up as a public-private partnership, with the state-owned Crown Fibre Holdings representing the government and forming alliances with local partners, including Northpower, UltraFast Fibre (which awarded the contract to Huawei), Enable Networks and Chorus.

The New Zealand government has allocated public funds of NZD 1.5bn ($1.2bn) for the project, which aims to connect 75 per cent of the country’s population by 2019 and deliver speeds of 100 Mbps initially, with speed increases of up to 10 Gbps anticipated further down the line.

Greg Owens, Alcatel-Lucent

Equipment vendor Alcatel-Lucent has launched an extended portfolio of software and services designed to ameliorate customer experiences on both fixed and wireless networks.

The Motive CXS portfolio is comprised of four solution suites: Motive CX Management, focused on getting new devices, applications and services up and running quickly; Motive CX Analytics, which provides monitoring tools that track the performance of the devices, applications and services running on a given network; Motive CX Optimization, which is designed to enable communications providers to make better use of network capacity; and CX Consulting, which consists of a dedicated team tasked with identifying opportunities for improving the customer experience.

The reorganisation of Alcatel-Lucent’s customer experience solutions follows the 2008 acquisition of US firm Motive for around $68mn. This deal gave access to its portfolio of software solution and the Motive brand, which had already notched up a number of high-profile customers.

Speaking to IPTV News, Greg Owens, Director of Customer Experience Solutions Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent said: “What we’re announcing today is a lot of work that we’ve done to organise our company around the area of customer experience and some new software and technology that we have to support that effort.”

“We have started seeing the term “customer experience” pop up more and more often, and realised that this is exactly what Motive is doing, but also that we have other assets in the company which are doing the same thing: in our IP division we have products that are intended to measure the experience that customers have with their mobile devices, in the wireline division we have products that are designed to test lines ahead of time, so we are basically bringing all those assets together.”

Owens observed that a number of Alcatel-Lucent’s big-name customers have recently been appointing senior executives with a focus on customer experience: Telstra for example announced a Chief Customer Officer last July, and there are a lot of companies in Europe doing something similar, according to Owens, such as Telefónica and Everything Everywhere.

One key benefit of the Motive acquisition (and one which doesn’t appear to have been immediately leveraged) is the advantageous fit between Motive’s customer care and device management capabilities, and Alcatel-Lucent’s tools for monitoring network performance.

Together, these should mean that when an irate customer calls their service provider’s help desk to complain about dropped calls or slow connectivity, for example, the agent has real-time information about the customer’s experience and can immediately say, “I see that you have had four dropped calls in the past week, we are already working on it for you, and apologise for this difficulty.”

On the device side, the Motive portfolio also offers a number of tools which can make life easier for end-users, such as self-configuration tools for IPTV customers: to take one example, Alcatel-Lucent has developed an app for AT&T which enables an IPTV subscriber to see the performance of their set-top box on their iPhone or iPad, reboot device remotely, conduct dynamic bandwidth configuration and more.

The Motive portfolio also offers a tool for mobile devices that can be pushed via the OMA-DM common standard and automatically configure the device for the customer, including pushing the apps they have bought to their new device, setting up email etc.

“Bragging about who has the best network coverage and the fastest service and that kind of thing starts to get into a difficult game – we don’t think that competing on network differentiation is the answer,” said Owens.

“We think that focusing on the customer experience and delivering the best experience possible for customers is a really unique way to differentiate, and at the same time it can also drive a lot of costs out of the business.”

Du and Huawei invest in Dubai Metro

In the Middle East, UAE operator Du has announced that it has provided 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.

Du has teamed up with Chinese vendor Huawei on a project to provide wifi access across the Dubai Metro, which will deploy its transmission network solution across the rail service. The project will see passengers and small retail businesses able to access mobile services in the stations across 18 metro stops on the Green line.

Huawei admitted that it sees a lucrative opportunity among urban rail operators. The vendor said that it has completed a number of rail projects worldwide, and that the MENA region is currently the world’s fastest growing market for rail projects and is expected to double in size in the next decade. There is more than $250bn of planned investment in the railways sector in the region and Huawei said that rail is central to its growth in the region.

“Dubai is a great place to live, work and do business in, but as the city continues to grow, congestion and traffic are becoming more problematic,” said Dr. Liu Qi, president, Middle East for Huawei Enterprise. “Better public transport infrastructure is an added draw for businesses investing in the region.”

Meanwhile, the majority shareholder of Orange Israel, Scailex Corporation, is looking to sell its stake in the operator. In Israel, France Telecom’s Orange brand is operated by a company called Partner Networks, in which Scailex currently holds a share of approximately 44.5 per cent.

The company has appointed Deutsche Bank and Lazard Freres to oversee the sale of its stake and Deutsche Bank has confirmed that it will supply a credit line of up to $1bn to the winning bidder, if necessary and subject to certain conditions.

The company is considering options including a deal that would turn Partner into a privately held company, according to Scailex’s statement.

And Bahraini operator Batelco said that it is carefully studying the detailed judgement handed down by the Supreme Court of India with its legal advisers and STel Management, following the decision from the Supreme Court of India to cancel 122 spectrum licences purchased in 2008.

Batelco invested in STel in order to enter the Indian market and said that it did so after following a diligence exercise with the support of financial and commercial advisers. The company said that it also received certain representations and warranties from STels promoter regarding the validity of the licence. However, it stressed that it was not involved in the bidding for licences, which have since been found to be marred by corruption.

“Batelco was not involved in the STel licence application process nor had any knowledge of any of the events surrounding the granting of the 2G licences in January 2008,” the firm said in a statement.

Batelco will also review the sustainability of its business operations under the revised conditions imposed by the Indian Supreme Courts. It has held 42.7 per cent equity in STel since May 2009.

“As Batelco continues to grow and diversify its operations, it intends to explore all options to remain involved in the Indian telecommunications market,” the company added.

Telenor wants to stay in India, despite having its 2G licences revoked

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.

Telenor and Indian real-estate company Unitech had set up a joint venture in India, Uninor, which was allotted 22 pan-Indian licences during the sale.

Tor Odland, VP for group communications for mobile at Telenor, told Telecoms.com that 66 million customers were affected by licences being revoked, and of that number, 36 million are Uninor customers.

He added that the Supreme Court announcement actually stimulated an acceleration in the growth of its subscriber base. Uninor has been seeing 100,000 sign-ups per day on average, but this had actually increased since the ruling.

“On Thursday, the number increased to 106,000 new sign-ups; on Friday it was 150,000, and on Saturday, we saw it increase to 175,000,” said Odland.

He attributed the growth to sales staff in India making a concerted effort to continue growing the subscriber base at a difficult time, and said that the operator may have also benefitted from sympathy and support from the general public in the country.

“We definitely don’t think of it as a lost cause. It will be challenging but we are inspired to continue.”

He added that Telenor had pledged a commitment of NOK20bn, ($3.43bn) investment in India and has spent around two-thirds of that already on setting up the joint-venture, spectrum licences and infrastructure and loan guarantees.

Odland said that the group does not think it is fair that it is currently looking at losing its licences, which came with such a price tag, adding that the investment is probably the biggest investment that any Norwegian company has ever made in India. However, he did not rule out bidding for more licences in next the 2G spectrum auction to reassign the licences, due to be held in July 2012.

“It’s particularly hard given that we had just begun to get on track with hitting our targets for 2013,” he said. “We will do what we can to operate in India. Currently, everything is an option.”

Odland added that Uninor is not currently focusing on securing compensation from the India government for the licenses being revoked, as that is an issue for a “later stage”.

UK broadband prices could drop after regulator announces wholesale price cut

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. However, BT intends to contest the decision.

The proposed charge controls would reduce the cost of a “fully unbundled line” from £91.50 to £87.41, while a shared unbundled line, where an ISP uses the line just to provide broadband, would drop from £14.70 to £11.92. The cost for phone rental services would drop from £103.68 to £98.81.

Ofcom said it has provided the European Commission with a draft of its decision, which it deems necessary due to Openreach’s significant market power. The charges would be imposed for the 2012/13 financial year and would run until 31 March 2014. Prices could decrease further in line with the Retail Price Index. The charges will only kick-in once they have been approved by the European Commission, which Ofcom said would occur in March.

How this will affect consumers is unclear as the Ofcom proposals do not force the purchasers of Openreach’s wholesale services to pass on savings to their customers. If they do however, it could mean customers of Openreach based broadband would see price drops.

However, BT has hit back at Ofcom over the decision, issuing a statement of its intentions, which could include appealing the decision.

“We disagree with some of the underlying assumptions that they have used to determine these charge controls. Our primary concern throughout this process is to ensure that we are able to achieve a fair rate of return in order to continue our investment in the future of the UK’s communications infrastructure,” read the statement.

“We will consider all options available to us, including appealing, after Ofcom confirms its final decisions.”

Last week, Openreach announced that it would make Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) services available in six locations in the UK from late October, making download speeds of up to 110Mbps available, with 300Mbps upgrades coming by spring 2013.

The Broadband MEA conference is taking place on the 25-27th March 2012, at the Westin Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina, Dubai, UAE. Go to the website now to register your interest.

Vodafone pulls out of a proposed merger with Greek operator Wind Hellas

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.

Although Vodafone declined to go into detail about further reasons for the failure of the bid, it has been suggested that the regulatory environment in Greece also played a part in the company’s decision to walk away from the merger.

The group announced discussions had started with Wind Hellas in August 2011, but stated at the time that there was no certainty that an agreement would be reached.

“We have ceased discussions with Wind Hellas,” a spokesperson from Vodafone told Telecoms.com.

“We are still committed to the Greek market. Last year we purchased additional spectrum and we continue to add subscribers each quarter. We are the leaders in the smartphone and enterprise markets in Greece, so those are the areas we will particularly focus on.”

“Going forward there are still areas that we could potentially co-operate with Wind Hellas on,” the spokesperson added.

It has been suggested that the two firms are still in talks over the possibility of a network sharing deal.

BT's 21C network will be based on fibre

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.

The trials take advantage of fibre infrastructure which BT has already installed between exchanges and street cabinets, and could lead to FTTP connections being made available anywhere in the company’s fibre footprint where a customer requires it.

BT is to conduct further trials of FTTP on-demand this summer, with the aim of making it commercially available to communications providers by spring 2013. The service is expected to be particularly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses.

The telco has also confirmed that it plans to upgrade its existing Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) connections this spring, approximately doubling currently available speeds to 80 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream.

More than 7m UK homes and businesses can now access fibre broadband from BT, and this figure is set to rise to 10m in 2012, and then to around two-thirds of all UK premises by the end of 2014.

In its third-quarter 2011 results which were announced today, BT revealed that it had a healthy 56 per cent share of all new broadband market net additions in the three-month period, having signed on a further 146,000 retail broadband customers in the period, taking its retail broadband customer base to 3.1m.

Take-up of its super-fast broadband product ‘BT Infinity’ (based on Fibre-to-the-Premises and Fibre-to-the-Cabinet) remained on track with 95,000 customers added in the quarter, bringing its total to over 400,000 customers. An average of 7,300 new BT Infinity customers are currently being added each week.

This round of consolidation will bring 3 far closer to its Austrian rivals

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.

Estimates for December 2011 from Informa put the Orange Austria subscriber base at 2.16 million, and 3 at 1.31 million. The combined base of 3.483,700 will leave 3 in third place behind T-Mobile (3.99 million) and Telekom Austria’s Mobilkom (5.3 million), but with a fight for second place now a viable option. Austrian mobile penetration was 151 per cent at the close of last year, according to Informa’s WCIS Plus service.

Hutchison said that certain of the assets that it will acquire as part of the deal will be divested to Telekom Austria as soon as the deal is completed. The firm said that these would include “certain frequencies” and “base station sites,” as well as the Orange-operated discount MVNO Yesss!. Telekom will pay €390m for the assets, off-setting Hutchison’s purchase price.

The Hong Kong conglomerate is targeting synergies of at least €500m from the deal.