CommsUpdate
TeleGeography's free daily email summary of the world’s top telecom news stories.
27 Feb 2013
WIRELESS
Hungary's supreme court annuls fourth licence award
Dow Jones Newswires reports that Hungary’s highest court, the Curia, yesterday annulled a mobile frequency auction that would have facilitated the launch of a fourth network operator in the country.... more
O2 LTE launching in Berlin, Munich on 31 March; post-paid mobile subs top 10m
Telefonica Germany (O2), part of Spanish telecoms group Telefonica, has announced that it generated revenues of EUR5.213 billion (USD6.8 billion) in the twelve months ended December 2012, an increase of... more
Minister says Brazil’s cellcos will launch LTE by end-April
Brazil’s communications minister Paulo Bernardo has told journalists that all domestic mobile operators holding 2.5GHz licences for the provision of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services will launch by 30 April... more
Etisalat Lanka rolling out LTE with Alcatel-Lucent; lightRadio solution chosen group-wide
UAE-based group Etisalat and technology partner Alcatel-Lucent have signed a joint agreement to extend Etisalat’s LTE coverage across its multi-national footprint including a new rollout of the 4G technology in... more
T-Mobile CR picks Mavenir for IMS Core and RCS-e/VoLTE
PRNewswire reports that Mavenir Systems, a leading provider of software-based networking solutions, has won a contract to provide converged IMS core and application servers, supporting services across wireless, wireline and... more
Movilnet launching mobile devices with DTT
Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela's Minister of Science and Technology, announced this week that cellco Movilnet, part of state-owned telco CANTV, is to offer devices with digital terrestrial television (DTT) reception, rapidtvnews... more
DoCoMo tests 10Gbps uploads from mobile devices
Japan’s leading mobile operator by subscribers, NTT DoCoMo, has carried out a joint experiment with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, to successfully transmit the first packet transmission uplink rate of... more
Ericsson provides IMS platform to KDDI
Ericsson has issued a press release saying it will provide Japanese operator KDDI with an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the foundation for communication services over LTE, from the second half... more
SFR selects Cisco Systems for mobile internet network
Cisco Systems has announced that SFR, a leading mobile provider in France, has selected it to expand and enhance its mobile internet network in order to accelerate the deployment of... more
E-Plus selects NSN for LTE rollout
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has announced that it has been selected by E-Plus, the German mobile unit of Dutch telecoms group KPN, as a partner for the deployment of its... more
Elisa expands LTE network coverage
Finnish full-service provider Elisa has announced the launch of its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Imatra, Joensuu, Kouvola, Lieksa and Lappeenranta. The latest expansion brings the number of... more
Regional Telecom taps Alca-Lu for Iraq’s first LTE rollout
Regional Telecom, a hitherto unknown operator based in in Northern Iraq, has announced that it has hired French-US vendor Alcatel-Lucent to launch the country’s first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)... more
SSTL to be only bidder in auction
India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will go ahead with the auction of 800MHz CDMA spectrum on 11 March despite registering Russian-backed cellco Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL) as the only bidder.... more
Orange inks 4G rollout deal with NSN
Orange Switzerland signed up Finnish vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to extend and upgrade its wireless network to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). Under the five-year deal, NSN will supply... more
MetroPCS LTE user base passes the three million mark
MetroPCS chairman and CEO Roger Linquist has indicated that the company's Long Term Evolution (LTE) subscriber base has topped three million, and now accounts for around 35% of the company's... more
EE claims strong growth from 4G
EE, the UK’s largest mobile network operator in terms of subscribers, has registered sales growth of 10% a week since launching 4G mobile services in November 2012, Telecompaper quotes CEO... more
Is Vodafone set for LTE announcement?
Vodafone New Zealand is expected to announce the launch of its first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile services this week, a company spokeswoman has hinted. Technology website Stuff.co.nz reports... more
Verizon Wireless pondering first international LTE roaming partner
Verizon Wireless expects to sign its first international roaming agreement for Long Term Evolution (LTE) users later this year, Reuters reports. Verizon Wireless chief technology officer Nicola Palmer told the... more
BROADBAND
BTOpenreach to launch 220Mbps FTTP pilot trial
The company responsible for maintaining BT Group’s national network, BTOpenreach, has announced that following its recent successful trial of 220Mbps/20Mbps (download/upload) fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband services, it now plans to launch... more
P&T trials Alcatel-Lucent’s Zero-Touch vectoring solution
P&T Luxembourg has enlisted Alcatel-Lucent to initiate what has been billed as ‘the world’s first trial of combined VDSL2 bonding and vectoring technologies’. The vendor explains that ‘VDSL2 vectoring is... more
Jersey boys back on song after inking new GBJ deal?
Negotiations have now concluded between JT (formerly Jersey Telecom) and its specialist contractor Frontline CH2M Hill Services Limited (CH2M), regarding the future structure of the Gigabit Jersey (GBJ) project. Both... more
WIRELINE
Alca-Lu to transform KPN’s fixed network in the Netherlands
French-US equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent and Dutch incumbent KPN Telecom have announced a five-year managed services agreement under which the former will effect the transformation of KPN’s fixed network in The... more
WiMAX
Vee trio looking to swap WiMAX for TD-LTE
WiMAX provider Vee Telecom is expected to bid for a 700MHz licence in December 2013 to facilitate a shift from WiMAX to Time Division Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE), Digi Times... more
CORPORATE/FINANCIAL
Vivendi to decide on GVT sale within weeks, paper says
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo writes that French media and telecoms group Vivendi may reach an agreement on the sale of its local alternative telecoms operator Global Village Telecom... more
PCCW’s HKT revenues up 6%
PCCW’s core telecoms unit Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) has posted a 6% rise in mobile, fixed line and broadband revenues for 2012, reaching total sales of HKD18.36 billion (USD2.37 billion),... more
Telefonica O2 CR reports solid Q4 and FY2012 results
Telefonica O2 Czech Republic has announced stable financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2012 – in line with the company’s guidance. The operator said that FY2012 consolidated business... more
Maxis 2012 revenues climb 1.9% but profits fall 26.5%
Malaysia’s largest cellco by subscribers Maxis has posted a 58% year-on-year fall in fourth-quarter net income to MYR378.0 million (USD121.9 million) on higher operating costs and taxes, while revenues rose... more
Bouygues reports 41% drop in FY12 net profits, as telecoms arm weighs heavy
French construction-to-telecoms conglomerate Bouygues says its group net profit for FY2012 fell by 41% to EUR633 million (USD829 million) as its telecoms unit – Bouygues Telecom – weighed heavily on... more
Bite Latvia revenue climbs 26%, Lithuania down 2%
Lithuanian telecoms group Bite, which provides mobile services in Latvia as well as its domestic market, has announced it generated revenue and other income of EUR184.8 million (USD241.5 million) in... more
ATNI reports FY revenues of USD741m
Atlantic Tele-Network Inc (ATNI), which boasts numerous operations in both its native US and across the Caribbean, has reported consolidated revenues of USD741.4 million for the twelve months ended 31... more
ETB to make decision on cableco acquisition
State-backed telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) is expected to make a decision on the planned takeover of cable TV provider Ingelcom by 19 March, NexTV Latam reports. The... more
Are you Sure? CICRA provisionally approves Channel Islands components of Batelco deal
The Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities (CICRA) has provisionally approved the proposed acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) in the Channel Islands, by Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco). In... more
MISCELLANEOUS
Solid as a rock? GRA shuts down CTS due to unpaid licence fee
According to local media reports, the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA) has ordered CTS Telecom to cease operations after the company failed to renew two mandatory licences that expired a year... more