Canadian mobile operator Rogers has signed a 20 year agreement with telecoms firm Vidéotron to bring LTE services to customers in the Québec and Ottawa regions.
Kai U. Wulff, access field development director, Google is speaking on Day Two of the LTE Africa conference, taking place on 9th-10th July 2013 in Cape Town. Ahead of the show, we speak to him to find out more about his role, and why he is excited about Africa and its potential for growth.
Mobile operators 3 and Vodafone are set to embark on a network sharing agreement in Ireland. A source close to the deal told Telecoms.com that the two operators are in advanced discussions regarding a joint infrastructure partnership.
UK communications firm Everything Everywhere, which owns and operates the British Orange and T-Mobile brands, has announced that it is to invest £1.5bn ($2.4bn) in a three-year network evolution programme. The project will accelerate the integration of the Orange and T-Mobile networks and ready them for LTE through the “implementation of 4G-ready technology following successful trials,” the firm said.
Under rules approved by America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), AT&T and Verizon will be required to share their data networks with smaller operators. Network sharing arrangements for voice calls are already mandatory; prior to yesterday’s ruling, network sharing for mobile data was arranged on a voluntary basis.
The second and third-placed mobile operators in the Irish market, incumbent Eircom and Telefonica’s O2, have announced that they are to share networks in a deal that Eircom described as the first of its kind in Ireland. Eircom said that the deal will “result in an unrivalled mobile experience for customers” as the two carriers seek to meet growing demand for high bandwidth services.
Ericsson has announced that the project to merge the UK 3G networks of T-Mobile and 3 has been completed, with more than 12,000 sites consolidated. The two carriers created a third party organisation, Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL) in 2007 to run the joint network, with Ericsson the primary service provider to MBNL.
The UK arms of Orange and T-Mobile began promoting the consumer benefits of their mammoth merger on Monday. But the service improvement promises made by the newly created company—Everything Everywhere—seemed to carry an acknowledgement that the coverage profiles of the two networks individually were previously somewhat lacking.
Indian fixed and mobile operator Reliance Communications (RCOM) has announced that it is to spin out its cell tower subsidiary Reliance Infratel. The move would create the world’s largest independent telecoms infrastructure company, the firm said Monday.
The past year has been particularly challenging for Europe’s mobile operators, in light of the economic downturn and the growing impact of regulatory measures. These factors and heightened competition in the industry have caused operators to focus on costs and operational efficiency.
The telecoms industry is beginning to see signs of economic recovery and can look forward to sustained, slow revenue growth in 2010, according to analyst research released by Informa Telecoms & Media.
Leading operators in Western Europe have instigated infrastructure sharing and outsourcing deals, but carriers in developing markets are now beginning to look into alliances that would relieve them of heavy costs and speed expansion into rural areas.
Mobile Communications International December 2009
Issue #162
Exclusive interviews with:
Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation
Mike Fairman, CEO of crowd sourcing MVNO Giffgaff
Plus the following features: Application Stores, Africa, Android, Network Sharing
While the large operators in Western Europe like Telefonica or Vodafone have instigated advanced active infrastructure sharing and outsourcing, telecom operators in developing markets are now beginning to look into alliances that would help relieve them of heavy costs and speed their expansion into rural areas.
Mobile operators around the world face high costs to migrate to LTE, with a tier one US operator looking at expenditure of up to $1.78bn in the first year.
The UK moved one step closer towards a single mobile network market on Tuesday as European telecom giants Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom announced plans to merge T-Mobile UK and Orange UK into a 50:50 joint venture.
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom are to build a super-network in the UK, after announcing plans to merge their respective mobile operations, T-Mobile UK and Orange UK, into a 50:50 joint venture.
Network sharing is becoming increasingly commonplace in the mobile industry, and Italian operators Telecom Italia and 3 Italia have taken tentative steps in that direction with the announcement of a co-siting agreement.
Nordic operators Tele2 and Telenor said Tuesday they are joining forces to build a 4G LTE-based mobile network in Sweden.
The rumours were true. Vodafone, the world’s biggest operator by revenues, and pan-European carrier Telefonica, owner of the O2 brand, are sharing network infrastructure across Europe.
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.