Telecom industry interesting news & developments

Disclaimer: Majority of the posts are copied from online sources like RCR Wireless , etc. No copyright infringement intended. Almost all data is taken from various website sources. However for some of the inital posts posted following are there links: 1. http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20110818/CARRIERS/110819938/-1/report-inactive-customers-nearly-30-of-indias-base?elq=1d0c17a4f1504f139289bf04ac5805a7&elqCampaignId=220 2.  http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20110817/CARRIERS/110819954/-1/verizon-covers-more-than-half-of-us-popluation-with-latest-lte?elq=cfd506910d97404bbb3e2decb0593ba9&elqCampaignId=215 3. http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20110802/CARRIERS/110809992/-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=item&utm_campaign=rss&elq=ba26a47b36674a7c84eb641a3043c7d2&elqCampaignId=185   4. http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20110801/ENTERPRISE/110809997/-1/american-express-taps-carrier-no-2-for-digital-commerce-platform?elq=7d6d901059a4417ca5fd7...

A week after announcing plans to cut 17,000 jobs as part of a restructuring, Nokia Siemens Networks said today that it was selling off the WiMAX assets it acquired from Motorola Solutions to NewNet. Those WiMAX assets were acquired earlier this year for $1.2 billion and included Motorola Solutions’ CDMA assets. The NewNet deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, includes all related assets, active customer and supplier contracts, and about 300 NSN employees. Many of the employees are based in Chicago and Hangzhou, China. Financial terms of the deal were not released. As part of its restructuring plan, NSN said it would focus its efforts on mobile broadband equipment, which apparently does not include WiMAX technology. NSN recently was included in an announced trial of LTE services across London with Telefonica’s O2, as well as garnering a network upgrade contract in Finland from TeliaSonera.

Shares of Research in Motion ( NASDAQ: RIMM ) shot up today after the company announced the introduction of BlackBerry Fusion Mobile, a unified system for managing BlackBerry, Android, and Apple iOS devices. After years of watching competing operating systems cut into its market share, RIM says this enterprise mobility solution will allow corporate IT managers to “confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organizations.” RIM’s expansion into management of other device OS gives it a competitive edge in an already existing stronghold for them – the enterprise segment,” says Frost & Sullivan analyst Martha Vazquez. RIM outlined the features that it will and will not provide to all supported devices through Mobile Fusion. It will provide asset management and configuration management, secure lost or stolen devices through remote lock and wipe, user and group-based administration and connectivity management. RIM say...

The market for LTE base stations in the Asia Pacific region is set for a new top dog this year, according to a report from NPD In-Stat. The region has seen the markets seven largest players – Alcatel-Lucent ( ALU ), Ericsson ( ERIC ), Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Samsung and ZTE – dominate with a combined 94% of the market. The report found that Samsung will garner the largest market share for LTE infrastructure in the region for 2011, with more than one-fourth of base stations coming from the South Korean company. NPD In-Stat predicts that Samsung will have deployed 10,000 LTE base stations across Asia Pacific by the end of the year, with a high concentration in its home market with operators LG Uplus, KT ( KT ) and SK Telecom .

The Indian Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA), in a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, asked for a level playing field for the home grown telecom equipment manufactures. While appreciating the government’s resolve to support the Indian telecom equipment manufactures in terms of rightful share in the telecom network business, the TEMA communication highlighted the lack of implementation strategy on part of the government. Besides creating a level playing field for the Indian Telecom Manufacturers, TEMA has suggested the adoption of the following six points which would create further impetus to the Indian telecom story. Identification of clear milestones and implementation plans for the telecom manufacturing sector Set up a ‘Nodal Expert Council’ for monitoring the implementation of NTP2011 Preferential treatment to be mandated for ‘Indian Products’ Introduction of R&D Cess on all licensed Telecom Service Provide...

Bharti Airtel has joined hands with Healthfore (a division of Religare Technologies Ltd) and Fortis Hospitals as knowledge partner to launch MediPhone, a mobile health initiative launched in northern India.MediPhone allows subscribers to avail quality health advice through mobile their Airtel mobile phones 24×7. Mr. Nitin Goyal, senior vice president, Healthfore said “Although India’s healthcare sector has entered into a high growth trajectory, it still has to go a long way to penetrate into the remotest of locations in urban as well as rural India. Through Mediphone, we hope to help people meet their health related demands by reaching out to a large segment of the society.” The service is currently launched in the Northern region comprising of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and, Jammu and Kashmir. The service can be availed by dialing 5-44-45. Also, in order to ensure that Mediphone delivers accurate medical diagnosis, Healthfore has appointed accredited doctors and...

Two days after learning the Federal Communications Commission would seek a hearing on the deal , and on a national holiday presumably to diminish the attention, AT&T ( T ) said it was withdrawing its FCC application to acquire T-Mobile USA. AT&T, along with T-Mobile USA’s parent company Deutsche Telekom said they would now focus on gaining Department of Justice approval on the proposed $39 billion deal, which the DoJ filed a lawsuit in August to block . “Both the companies are taking this step to facilitate the consideration of all options at the U.S.’s Federal Communications Commission and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice either through the litigation pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:11-cv-01560 (ESH) or alternate means,” AT&T stated in a release. According to media reports, both the companies said they h...

Nokia Siemens Networks said Wednesday that it will eliminate almost 23% of its workforce in a major restructuring aimed at streamlining operations and concentrating on the mobile network infrastructure and services market. The Finnish network equipment maker, a joint venture formed in 2006 by Finland’s Nokia ( Nasdaq: NOK ) and Germany’s Siemens AG (SI), is a market leader in both wireless and wireline network equipment and services around the world. Going forward, the company says it will target end-to-end mobile network infrastructure and services, with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband “We believe that the future of our industry is in mobile broadband and services, and we aim to be an undisputed leader in these areas,” said CEO Rajeev Suri. “At the same time, we need to take the necessary steps to maintain long term competitiveness and improve profitability in a challenging telecommunications market.” The restructuring will cut 17,000 j...

AT&T’s ( T ) attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA appears to have hit another hurdle today as the Federal Communications Commission has reportedly asked for a hearing on the deal. The decision follows the U.S. Department of Justice’s filing of a lawsuit in late August to block the proposed $39 billion transaction. The FCC hearing is expected to be conducted after the DoJ lawsuit concludes. If approved, the deal would remove the nation’s current No. 4 largest operator and propel AT&T Mobility past rival Verizon Wireless as the nation’s largest operator. In a conference call late yesterday, the FCC seemed to indicate that there were still questions that needed to be resolved and that it doubted many of the claims from AT&T, including benefits for consumers and job creation. “The FCC’s action today is disappointing,” said Larry Solomon, senior vice president of corporate communications at AT&T. “It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent ...

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Spanish telecom Telefónica (TEF) has signed an agreement with China Unicom (CHU) to use each other’s networks to expand their coverage. The agreement builds on a previous deal and extends and reinforces Telefónica’s footprint by sharing the use of points of presence (PoPs) on their international networks. Under the agreement, Telefónica will be able to use PoPs on China Unicom’s network; in return, China Unicom will enhance its network with PoPs set up on Telefónica’s network. The two companies have a combined 640 million customers worldwide. This agreement represents another step in the strategic alliance signed by the two companies in 2009, based on cooperation in different business areas and on their cross holdings. It also includes cooperation between the two groups on marketing and customer-service related activities. Companies said they will be able to offer fixed voice and data services to their customers in a more efficient and cost-effective manner, and with a...

Slow browsing, few apps, and an embarrassing service outage. Can BlackBerry recover from its biggest crisis yet? FORTUNE -- Addictions are tough to break, yet Research in Motion seems to be doing whatever it can to help users cast aside their CrackBerrys once and for all. Consider just a few of the reasons the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is ailing:   an international outage   in mid-October; the   Playbook tablet , a weak answer to the iPad; and phones with web browsing that is both laughably low-quality and slow as molasses. All of these woes mean that RIM ( RIMM ) faces its greatest existential crisis yet. At a time when its product lineup and network service have never been weaker, Apple ( AAPL ) and Android users are fiercely attacking BlackBerry's greatest strength --   the business market . Sure, BlackBerry had its moment of hipness, when advertising built around the likes of U2's Bono helped convince kids its smartphones were cool. But "t...

AT&T Mobility ( NYSE:T ) could be Nokia’s new window into the U.S. smartphone market. Reports that AT&T is working on a deal with Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) come as Nokia’s new Lumia smartphones are selling very well in Europe — this week, U.K. service provider Orange said it has had more preorders for the Windows-based Lumia 800 than for any other Nokia phone in history. Nokia has not announced plans to offer the Lumia phones in the United States, suggesting that it wants to create custom phones for U.S. carriers. That’s a strategy that has worked well for Samsung and HTC. Finland’s Nokia has seen its market value plummet since the introduction of Apple’s iPhone changed the game for mobile phone makers. Competitors jumped on the Android bandwagon while Nokia forged its own path with its Symbian operating system. In August, Nokia said it would stop selling U.S. phones based on the Symbian operating system once it launches Windows-based phones. Nokia is still the global...

First responders in emergencies often send video and data to other public safety officials as they call for backup. The U.S. government wants a dedicated broadband network to ensure that these critical data feeds don’t compete with interference from consumers using their mobile devices. Motorola and Verizon Wireless are working with state, local, and national agencies to create an open-standards LTE network and a portfolio of devices for public safety officials to deploy with that network. Deer Grewal, executive account manager for LTE at Motorola Solutions, and Tony Martwick, public safety vertical technology/solutions manager at Verizon, presented an overview of their public safety LTE network at the RCR Wireless Conference Orange County.

Reliance Communications, one of the leading telecom operators in India, is in the midst of exclusive negotiations with a consortium of private equity players, including Blackstone and Carlyle, to sell its tower unit, according to media reports in India. Quoting source familiar with the talks, the Times of India reported that a deal is likely to happen by December. “The transaction is expected to value the tower asset in excess of $3.5 billion, making it India’s largest private equity deal to date,” the Times reported. “Blackstone is likely to be the lead investor in the buyout transaction for which discussions were now advanced. Anil Ambani-controlled RCom may conclude a tower-sharing deal with his elder brother Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Infotel ahead of the tower unit sale, which could buoy the PE investors.” The tower-sharing deal with Reliance Infotel may also help increase the valuation of RCom’s tower unit. The deal will also strengthen the tenancy ratio ...

India’s top telecom official says 4G services could be launched in the country as soon as the second half of next year. “We have large capacities in spectrum to move forward in 4G, which is hopefully going to be launched towards end of next year. Later half of 2012…we should be ready to launch 4G,” Telecom and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal was reported as saying. The 4G services will enable data transfer speeds of up to 100 Mbps on a device moving at a high speed and up to 1 Gb per second on devices with low mobility. The auction of 3G spectrum took place in India only in 2010, and the demand for 3G services has yet to fully take off. Analysts say this is because of the relatively low number of 3G devices being sold in the country, a trend that could change dramatically. But Sibal expressed concerns about the lack of 3G content for the masses and said that most of the content available on 3G services currently only caters to elites. “We welcome the fact 3G...

In a clear signal that one of India most bitter corporate battles may be coming to an end, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is expected to team up with younger brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication (RCom) in a bid to revolutionize 4G in India. RIL is likely to use RCom’s access systems, fiber-optic backbone, international cable systems and Internet gateways to provide high-speed data services. This will be the first major collaboration between the Ambani brothers since the division of the Reliance conglomerate in 2005, according a company news release. “After the termination of the noncompete agreement between the Ambani siblings in 2010, RIL re-entered the telecom industry. It acquired licenses for nationwide broadband services for $2.64 billion, the only company to do so,” the release said. For the first phase of RIL’s foray into wireless broadband, it plans to lease around 26,000 towers from telecom power operators. The major source of i...

With LTE North America just a few days away, many carriers are focused on the standard’s next generation: LTE-Advanced. LTE-Advanced may finally offer “true 4G” data rates, with stationary peaks of 1 Gbps, and carriers say small cells are the key to achieving this. Mobile operators say the use of small cells and HetNets in the current LTE standard may provide a learning curve, and that implementation of these new technologies may be easier and cheaper when deploying LTE-Advanced networks. In a recent survey of almost 300 mobile operators worldwide, Rethink Research asked carriers for their top objectives in deploying LTE-Advanced over the next four years. Cutting the cost of delivery was the number one goal, followed by reducing power consumption and increasing average data rates. Carriers overwhelmingly reported that small cells and HetNet are the most critical contributor to the LTE-Advanced business model. (Industry analysts will explore small cell deployment in dep...

Sprint Nextel’s recent announcement that it planned to begin deploying LTE services across its network as part of its Network Vision initiative was not a surprise to most industry observers as the industry in general is moving in that direction. What did catch some off guard were the carrier’s plans to have a larger LTE footprint than its current CDMA network by the end of 2013. At this week’s 4G World event in Chicago, Bob Azzi, Sprint Nextel’s SVP of Networks, provided RCR Wireless News some additional insight into those plans as well as touched on the carrier’s plans to update that network as equipment becomes available. Sprint Nextel is currently on track to use the 10 megahertz of its 1.9 GHz G-Block spectrum attained as part of its 800 MHz re-banding efforts to support its initial LTE rollout. That would provide the carrier with a 5 megahertz by 5 megahertz deployment scheme, which is less than the 10 by 10 being used by rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. ...

With just over a week on the market, Apple’s newest iPhone iteration – the 4S – has already made its presence felt across the mobile space. Apple reported earlier this week that it sold 4 million devices over the first three days of availability, while AT&T Mobility claimed more than 1 million devices sold and Sprint Nextel boasted about record sales through all of its channels. The device’s impact was so strong that its lack of availability until the opening days of the fourth fiscal quarter impacted the third quarter results of both AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, which analysts noted saw a lull in postpaid customer additions in September as consumers waited for the new model to launch. Wells Fargo Securities L.L.C.’s research team completed a post-iPhone 4S sweep of direct and indirect retail channels, noting that most locations are still scrambling to fill orders and sales people have pushed the latest model to the forefront of consumer recommendations. ...

Device manufacturer HTC and software giant Microsoft unveiled Brazil’s first Windows Phone 7.5-powered device at a press conference in São Paulo. The device, dubbed the HTC Ultimate, will be offered through Brazilian operator Vivo. “Brazil is a strategic country. We plan to sell 16 million smartphones next year,” said Lee Ittner, VP for Latin America at HTC. “At the begging we are focusing on the consumer market, but we know that they will bring device to corporate environment, what is called the consumerization phenomenon,” said Cristina Palmaka, director for consumer channels at Microsoft Brazil. The device is expected to face stiff competition in Brazil’s enterprise market from entrenched incumbent Research In Motion and its BlackBerry line . The HTC Ultimate launch has been in the works for almost a year, said executives. Vivo, which is part of Spain-based Telefónica, will have exclusive access to the Ultimate for the first few months. “We started talks with Micros...