Telecom industry interesting news & developments

The Telecom Regulator Authority of India issued direction to all access providers and international long distance (ILD) operators for blocking bulk international text messages. “If any source or number from outside the country generates more than two hundred SMS per hour with similar ‘signature,’ the same should not be delivered through the network. However, such restriction shall not be applicable on blackout days,” TRAI said in the directive. The regulator said that during the implementation of “The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010″ it was observed that promotional text messages were being routed through the servers located at international destinations and were getting delivered to customers registered in the National Call Preference Registry. “It was observed that generally such SMSs were getting originated from locations within Germany, Sweden, Nauru, Fiji, Cambodia, Bosnia, Albania, Grenada, [the United Kingdom], Jersey,

Research in Motion ( Nasdaq: RIMM ) reported that its co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have stepped down. The beleaguered Canadian device maker said Balsillie and Lazardis will be replaced by former COO Thorsten Heins. “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now,” said Lazaridis in a press release . Heins has great challenges ahead both in attempting to boost RIM’s sagging shares price and trying to regain a loss of precious market share. Heins said that RIM has a strong foundation on which to build. “We have a strong balance sheet with approximately $1.5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt. We reported revenue of $5.2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75

Verizon Wireless ( NYSE: VZ ) has wasted no time putting to use the AWS spectrum it bought from Comcast Corporation ( NASDAQ: CMCSA ) and other cable companies for $3.9 billion last month. Next week Verizon and Comcast will begin offering wireless service, landline service, cable and residential Internet to customers in Seattle and Portland. The Verizon Wireless/Xfinity “quad-play” bundle is expected to be in most major US cities by next year. Customers in Verizon retail stores will be offered the service, and Comcast will promote the offer on the phone and online. In a sign that they plan to market the service aggressively, the nation’s largest wireless carrier and leading cable company are offering new “quad-play” customers prepaid Visa cards worth $100 to $300. The upcoming launch was first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer , which is also reporting that Comcast and Verizon are developing technology that will allow customers to easily move content from wireless

Walmart got a bit more with the times and increased the competitive pressure in the no-contract space by announcing the addition of “unlimited” data services to its Family Mobile offering. The service, which runs across T-Mobile USA’s network , now includes a bucket of data for lines on a family plan. That bucket includes 5 gigabytes per month, per line “at up to 3G speeds” for customers signing up for the service by March 31. For those that sign up after March 31, each line will receive 250 megabytes of 3G data speeds before having those speeds throttled. Pricing for the first line of service on the plan will remain at $45 per month, though each additional line has had the price increased $10 per month to $35. Walmart is currently offering four devices for the plan, with only one being a smartphone in the LG Optimus that sells for $159. The remaining devices include a pair of keyboard-equipped feature phones and a single flip phone. T-Mobile USA recently launched

PCS Wireless has signed a deal to distribute a range of ZTE devices to U.S. and Canadian carriers, saying the companies will target regional carriers. “This agreement with ZTE begins a new chapter for PCS by expanding our open market distribution activities into regional carriers,” said Ben Nash, CEO of PCS Wireless. “Outside of a select number of carriers, access to customized devices for regional carriers has been very fragmented.” PCS said carriers will have a wide selection of phones compatible with both CDMA and GSM bands, ranging from from feature phones to Android Smartphones. Carriers will be able to work with ZTE to develop phones branded with their own custom flash screens, retail packaging, and other brand identity. Lixin Cheng, CEO of ZTE USA, says his company is already supplying all the top tier U.S. carriers. Worldwide, he says ZTE shipped more than 100 million handsets (16 million smart devices) last year and saw its handset revenue grow by 50%.

The oceans are the last ‘white spot’ for the mobile communication industry to connect. Global shipping company Maersk Line has appointed Ericsson to address this by introducing end-to-end integration and deployment of mobile and satellite communication to its entire vessel fleet. The Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 500 container vessels. Over the next two years, Maersk Line will outfit 400 of these vessels with Ericsson antennas and GSM base stations, with upgrades to be made to the remaining vessels soon after, the company said. As part of the agreement, Ericsson will provide seven years of global managed services support, including 24/7 network monitoring and onboard maintenance services in a large number of ports across all major regions. “We’re proud to be able to connect Maersk Line’s fleet with our technology. We believe in a Networked Society, where connectivity will only be the starting point for new ways of innovating, collaborating and socializing.

When the chips are down, mobile computing is not so much about the device as about the experience that device provides, according to Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Of course Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) wants to power the experience on as many devices as possible, and this week at CES the world’s largest chipmaker said its Atom processors will finally power new smartphones launching this year. “I’m thrilled to announce that the best of Intel’s computing is coming to smartphones,” Otellini said in his keynote address . “It’s coming first to China, with 100 million users, and growing rapidly.” (Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Lenovo senior VP Liu Jun took the stage with Otellini to show off the first Intel architecture-based smartphone, Lenovo’s K800. The Android phone will be available through China Unicom this spring. Mike Bell, recently put in charge of Intel’s mobile and communications group along with Hermann Eul, demonstrated the K800. “This is why you don

Visa announced it has approved NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Research In Motion for use with Visa payWave, its mobile application for payments at the point of sale. Samsung Galaxy SII, LG Optimus NET NFC, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 have been added to the list of Visa compliant payment products available for commercial deployment by financial institutions. All the new devices certified host the Visa payWave application on a secure SIM card and feature near field communication technology, the short range communications standard that enables mobile phones to transmit payment information to a contactless payment terminal. In a statement, the head of Visa Europe’s mobile business unit and innovation strategy, Sandra Alzetta, said that now the players are in place for mobile payments to become a reality. Visa said that the company is working with member banks, mobile ne

Sprint Nextel’s LTE plans received some clarity as CEO Dan Hesse announced the first four markets to receive the carrier’s new network offering scheduled to launch later this year, with plans for 10 markets in its initial launch. Hesse, speaking at the Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference, said that Dallas, Atlanta, Houston and San Antonio would lead the carrier’s LTE network rollout. The carrier originally announced its LTE plans last October , noting it planned to begin deploying the technology using the 10 megahertz of G-Band, 1.9 GHz spectrum it controls and updating about 22,000 cell sites. The initial deployment will rely on a somewhat limited 5 megahertz by 5 megahertz channel plan (5×5) that is roughly half the 10×10 spectrum plan Verizon Wireless is using for its LTE service operating in the 700 MHz band. Hesse further clarified Sprint Nextel’s spectrum plans noting that the carrier wanted to move to a 10 x 10 megahertz spectrum cha

AT&T Mobility has expanded its LTE network to 11 new markets, pushing the network to 26 total markets covering 74 million potential customers. The newly launched markets include: New York; Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill and Raleigh, N.C.; Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; and Phoenix. Consumers are also to be warned that the “4G” marketing used for the LTE service is different than the “4G” marketing AT&T Mobility has been using for its HSPA+-based offering , which while slower does have a much larger footprint. AT&T Mobility originally launched LTE services in mid-September with five markets, and said it expects its LTE network expansion to be completed by 2013, though did not put a coverage number to that expansion. The carrier had said it could cover about 250 million potential customers with its spectrum holdings prior to its failed attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA , a number that would rise to 97.3% of the U

Placing a huge bet on Wi-Fi, Republic Wireless quietly announced during the holidays that it will remove all “cellular usage” charges from its $19/month price for unlimited wireless service. In a blog post , the company told customers that it is “all-in” and that they will no longer see extra charges on their bills. Republic uses Wi-Fi to deliver voice, SMS and data for its customers, supplementing with Sprint’s CDMA network when Wi-Fi is unavailable. Republic pays Sprint for the bandwidth it uses, so the more it can rely on Wi-Fi the better its chances of survival. Until late last month, Republic was trying to pass on to customers the cost it incurs when using Sprint’s network. It used a so-called celluar usage index to compute these charges, but customers feedback ranged from “confusion to extreme criticism,” according to the company’s blog. Just before Christmas, Republic said it would eliminate the cellular usage index, leaving customers with a true $19 monthly bi

LightSquared has reportedly garnered a 30-day extension from potential network host Sprint Nextel ( S ) to gain governmental approval to use its controversial 1.6 GHz spectrum holdings. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint Nextel has extended the deadline for LightSquared to win approval from the Federal Communications Commission to use those spectrum assets until the end of January. That initial agreement included a clause that the deal could fall apart if LightSquared did not receive government approval by the end of 2011, a scenario that did indeed play out despite a last-minute attempt to force the issue. LightSquared signed the network and spectrum hosting agreement with Sprint Nextel last year. The deal was seen as crucial for LightSquared to get its network plans to market in a cost-effective and timely manner, and was touted by Sprint Nextel as part of its LTE plans. The deal calls for Sprint Nextel to “host” LightSquared’s controversial L-band s

Aakash, touted as world’s most inexpensive tablet, has a new competitor. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi and the Indian Institute of Management at Kolkata has launched Classpad, an tablet running on Google’s Android 2.2 operating system. The Classpad is aimed at students and teachers, said Rohit Pande, who launched the device. “Classpad’s user-friendly interface makes it convenient for the students and teachers to get acquainted with the application. The device is equipped with a software that is designed to integrate smoothly with an existing school platform. It also provides the content in a ‘school friendly’ manner by supporting commonly used school applications,” said Classteacher Learning Systems, the company behind the device. The tablet will enable teachers to provide content to the students instantly and conduct tests and assessments without any hassle. They can also share classwork through the tablet application. The tablet will

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless company, cancels its plan to charge customers two dollars every time they pay their bills online. As it turns out, the company seems to be coming to the same conclusion as its customers. "So you have to pay more even though you're trying to pay your bill?" Beth Harriage is unimpressed. "What's the incentive there? You should get a reward for paying your bill," Beth says. "It's stupid." Friday afternoon, Verizon nixed the plan altogether. In a statement on the Verizon   website , President Dan Mead says Verizon wants to "...encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time." Clint Bircheat says he could understand a "convenience fee" if it went toward processing paper payments, but the online fee doesn't make much sense to him. "But I mean, make you pay to pay your bill? That

Wishing Everyone a very Happy New Year 2012.