Cellular-News for Friday 13th January 2006

Cellular-News -

[[ 3G ]]

Chinese 3G Handset Using Japanese Software

As China prepares to roll-out its third-generation digital phone service, Japan's ACCESS Co. has announced that Hisense Communication, a major handset manufacturer in China has selected ACCESS' NetFront Mobile Client Suite for deployment in its Hisen...

TTPCom Announces First 3G Chipset Customer

TTPCom has signed a contract for its cellular baseband chipset design, CBEmacro 3G. Semiconductor vendors adopting CBEmacro can expect to sample silicon within nine months of project start. The customer details remain confidential at this stage....

[[ Financial ]]

France Telecom Stung By Sales Growth Warning

France Telecom dropped as much as 9% on Thursday after the company warned sales growth next year won't be as strong as hoped, leading it to roll out new services more quickly than it originally wanted. ...

Brazil Telcos Seen As More Attractive Investments In '06

PREMIUM - Brazil's telecom industry has been risky for investors since the state-run behemoth Telebras was dismantled in 1998, ushering in a period of complicated cross ownership deals and a restrictive regulatory environment. ...

Russia's Altimo says won't sell its stake in VimpelCom

Altimo, a subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Group does not plan to sell its stake in Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom, Altimo said in a statement Thursday. ...

[[ Handsets ]]

Carphone Warehouse Xmas Sales To Boost Profit

Carphone Warehouse Group, the UK mobile phone retailer and telecommunications services company, Thursday said it anticipates stronger-than-expected full-year profit after a bumper Christmas trading period. ...

Blackberry To Support Google's Mapping,IM Progs

NEW YORK (AP)--BlackBerry e-mail devices will soon support the Google Talk instant-messaging and Google Local mapping programs, the handheld maker said Thursday, extending the Internet titan's push to put its services on mobile devices. ...

[[ Legal ]]

Telenor top exec says work with Alfa in VimpelCom impossible

It is no longer possible for Norway's telecommunication company Telenor and Russia's Alfa Group to work together in Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom, Goran Olson, director of Telenor's representative office in Russia, said in an in...

[[ Messaging ]]

Teens View Text Messaging Plans as Restrictive

According to a new survey conducted by the US based cellular operator, MetroPCS Communications, nearly a third of today's teens and young adults believe their current text messaging plan is restrictive, with over 40% saying it led to a higher cell ph...

[[ Mobile Content ]]

BT Names Live Mobile TV/Radio Wholesale Service BT Movio

BT Group PLC, the UK telecommunications and IT services company, Thursday said it has renamed its live mobile television and radio wholesale service BT Movio after completing a large user trial of the fledgling service. ...

[[ MVNO ]]

Spain Regulator To Release Report On MVNO Soon

Spanish telecommunications regulator CMT said Thursday it will shortly release a report to include measures that favor the launch of mobile virtual network operators, or MVNO. ...

Besen Group Announces its MVNO Portfolio

The Besen Group, an international management consulting practice to the mobile data industry headquartered in the Washington DC area, with representatives in Paris and Tokyo, announced its Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) service portfolio. The...

[[ Network Contracts ]]

Nokia To Supply Push To Talk To Fujian MCC In China

Finland's Nokia, Thursday said it will supply a platform for push to talk over cellular, or PoC, to Fujian Mobile Communications of China. ...

[[ Network Operators ]]

Colombia Mobile fees jump 5-7%

New mobile telephony rates have come into effect in Colombia, increasing user fees by 5-7%, reported local daily La Republica. ...

TIM launches client retention campaign

Brazil's second largest operator TIM has launched a promotional campaign in a bid to focus on client retention in 2006, reported local news service Agencia Estado. ...

[[ Offbeat ]]

A Cellphone Powered by Urine

Physicists in Singapore have developed a battery that can be powered by human urine. Aimed at disposable health-care kits for use in rural areas, we naturally couldn't pass up the opportunity to comment on such a product being used for those "emergen...

[[ Personnel ]]

Schwarzenegger Appoints Telecom Expert To California PUC

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday appointed Rachelle Chong, an expert in the regulation of the telecommunications industry, to the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). ...

Sony Ericsson Hires New Staff, Cuts Consultants

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications plans to hire 150 to 200 new engineers in Sweden to replace approximately the same number of consultants, a spokesman said Thursday. ...

[[ Regulatory ]]

Brazil's Anatel OKs Mobile Co Vivo Restructuring Plan

Directors of Brazil's telecommunications regulator, Anatel, on Wednesday approved the proposed restructuring of Vivo, the country's largest mobile telephony group. ...

Mexico Regulator Tells Cell Cos To Swap SMS With Nextel

Mexico's telecommunications regulator said Thursday it has ordered mobile-phone operators in the country to let their customers exchange text messages with those of trunking operator Nextel Mexico, the local unit of NII Holdings Inc. ...

USTR calls for telecom reform before implementing Cafta

US authorities have called on the Guatemalan government to reform several laws, including intellectual property and telecoms laws, to meet requirements of the Cafta free trade agreement, local newspaper Telediario reported. ...

NGOs study telecoms privatizations, abusive practices

Two Central American NGOs are carrying out a study of the effects of privatization on the telecoms and electricity industries in the region, investigating abusive practices allegedly carried out by some of the companies involved, Rubiel Cajar, presid...

[[ Statistics ]]

Telecom revenue in Kazakhstan up 27.7% on yr in 2005

Kazakhstan's telecommunication companies provided services worth 216.7 billion tenge in 2005, up 27.7% on the year, the national statistics agency said Thursday. ...

Uzbekistan's telecom revenue rises 32% on year in 2005

Revenue from telecommunications services in Uzbekistan rose 32% on the year to 374.1 billion sum in 2005, Uzbekistan's national telecommunications company Uzbektelecom said Thursday. ...