Headlines for: 13 Feb 2007

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released information regarding the 3G licences it plans to auction later this year. The auction is restricted to limited liability companies, incorporated in Nigeria, who are already licensed as network ope...

Ericsson has signed a deal with Bangladeshi mobile market leader GrameenPhone to build and integrate a nationwide IP mobile backbone network. The contract marks GrameenPhone's first step towards an all-IP network. Ericsson has been awarded the full turnke...

Motorola has signed an agreement with the GSM Association (GSMA) and Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) of Namibia to conduct a trial of wind-and-solar-powered systems to support the cellco’s remote GSM cell sites in the southern African country. The US-ba...

Alcatel-Lucent has announced it has been selected by Vodafone Spain to migrate all networking services onto an IP/MPLS based network. The converged network will support GPRS and 3G data services, signaling and billing traffic, 3G voice traffic as well as ...

ZTE Corp has won a handset procurement contract from the Vodafone Group to produce a range of Vodafone branded, ultra-low cost handsets. In a statement ZTE said the handsets will only carry the Vodafone name, adding to the branded range the UK group offer...

SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless network operator by subscribers, plans to launch a national HSDPA network in March, three months ahead of schedule. ‘We will complete the establishment of our nationwide network for high speed downlink packet a...

China Mobile Communications Corp, the parent of China Mobile, plans to invest over CNY15 billion in the rollout of TD-SCDMA networks in 2007 and hopes to launch 3G services before the end of October, writes the Economic Observer. The newspaper cited a com...

Orange UK has announced the launch of its HSDPA network. Dubbed Orange 3G+, the network upgrade is being initially concentrated on key commercial zones such as Greater London and airports. The service will be rolled out to the top five cities in the count...

Kenya’s largest cellular operator is to launch a new mobile payments service under the name M-PESA. Safaricom and its 35% owner Vodafone Group are teaming up to introduce the new offering which allows customers without bank accounts to deposit and withd...

Iran’s largest phone operator TCI says it expects eight billion SMS text messages to be sent in the current calendar year, which ends on 20 March. Taliya News quotes the firm’s head of public relations, Davoud Zare’ian, who says that customers have ...

Saudi Arabia’s second largest cellular operator Mobily has begun rolling out a push-to-talk (PTT) walkie talkie-style service. Arab News reports that Mobily is looking to introduce the service over its GPRS and W-CDMA networks but a launch date has yet ...

AT&T Cingular has announced that it is to launch mobile TV services by the end of this year using Qualcomm’s MediaFlo technology. Customers will be able to access both real-time programming and a range of pre-recorded video clips. Financial details of t...

Peruvian ISP Emax and Texan equipment supplier Navini Networks have launched a broadband network based on the latter’s 802.16e pre-mobile WiMAX solution. According to BNamericas the service has been deployed in the capital Lima, although the operator pl...

France Télécom (FT) is reported to be considering plans to offload its Dutch mobile subsidiary Orange Netherlands. According to people familiar with the situation, FT has appointed an investment bank to oversee the sale which it is thought will attract ...

French mobile operator Bouygues Télécom, which accounts for nearly two-fifths of the Bouygues group's total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, has reported revenues of EUR4.54 billion (USD5.88 billion) in 2006, up 2% year-on-y...

Brazilian long-distance operator Embratel Participações says net income in 2006 was BRL106 million (USD50 million), down 39.3% from BRL174 million a year earlier. EBITDA dropped 31.9% from BRL1.69 billion to BRL1.16 billion and the EBITDA margin slipped...

According to The Financial Times, Japanese internet conglomerate Softbank Corp stands to lose control of the mobile business it acquired from Vodafone Group in 2006 if it fails to meet strict performance targets laid down by its creditors. The UK newspape...

Hungary’s leading telecoms operator by revenues and subscribers Magyar Telekom reported a 9.1% rise in revenues in FY2006, to HUF671.2 billion (USD3.29 billion), as higher mobile, internet, systems integration and IT-related sales helped offset a declin...

Fixed line, mobile and broadband operator TeliaSonera has reported its financial results for 2006, showing net income of SEK19.28 billion (USD2.75 billion), up from SEK13.69 billion the previous year, on revenues that rose by 3.9% year-on-year to SEK91.06...

Telmex has posted a 13.8% fall in fourth quarter net profit on the back of a rise in connection charges and a jump in financial provisions. Net profit for the three months ended 31 December 2006 fell to MXP7.401 billion (USD685 million), partly due to a 9...

Telkom South Africa is thought to be close to finalising a ZAR70 million (USD9.7 million) deal to acquire the pan-African internet service provider Africa Online. Johannesburg newspaper Business Day cites a source from within Telkom who claims the telco h...

Local calls operator Telecom Fiji has backed a move by the country’s interim government to deregulate the telecoms industry. The company’s group managing director, Joe Mar, told the press that Telecom Fiji was happy to work with any administration to ...