Cellular-News for Monday 14th November 2005

Cellular-News -

Changes to cellular-news.

Based on some of the feedback from our recent reader survey, we are introducing "news categorization".

Henceforth, all news articles (and eventually, the archive) will be listed under upto 5 categories. The newsletter and main web site will use the primary category for display, and you will be able to see news articles from each category by using the "News menu" on the main web site.

If you have not completed the survey, then you can guide cellular-news by completing it here --

[[3G News]]

Russia's Reiman says may hold tenders for 3G licenses 2006

Russia may hold tenders for third generation (3G) telecommunication licenses in 2006, IT and Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman told reporters Friday. ...

EDGE Launched in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's Azercell Telecom says that it has launched EDGE services in the country. The service has been under test for the past few months and has now been launched commercially. According to results of the tests, data transfer speed reached 200 k...

Three Bid for Malaysian 3G Licences

Malaysia's telecoms regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) says that three companies have submitted tenders for its 3G licences. The tender invitation commenced on 22 August 2005 and closed at 12 noon, 11 November, 2...

EDGE Coverage Increases in Moldova

Moldova's Moldcell says that it has extended its EDGE coverage to just over 30% of the population. The company has also put 8 new GSM stations into operation in the last two months, which extended the coverage in the capital and 2 other cities of the...

Tajikistan Gets a 3G Network

ZTE Corporation has clinched a WCDMA contract with Indigo Tajikistan, a joint venture belonging to the American multinational carrier MCT. The project is also ZTE?s first WCDMA contract in Central Asia. Under the contract, ZTE will deliver a complete...

[[Financial News]]

VimpelCom Buys Ukrainian RadioSystems For $231.3M

OAO Vimpel Communications, operator of Russia's second-largest mobile phone network, Friday said it will buy Ukrainian RadioSystems for $231.3 million. ...

KPMG says Russia's Euroset minimized taxes in 2004

U.K.-based accounting company KPMG has announced that Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset used non-affiliated companies in order to minimize tax payments in 2004, Russian business daily Vedomosti said Friday citing Euroset's an...

Russia's VimpelCom CEO eyes 15% of Ukraine's mobile market

Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to get a 15% share of Ukraine's mobile telecommunication services market, VimpelCom's CEO Alexander Izosimov told a news conference Friday. ...

Norway's Telenor says still opposes VimpelCom' buy of URS

Norway's telecommunications company Telenor still opposes Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom's purchase of Ukrainian Radiosystems mobile operator (URS), Telenor said in a press release Friday. ...

Regulatory Hurdles Might Delay 3 Italy IPO - Sources

Regulatory hurdles might delay to 2006 the initial public offering of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s Italian unit 3, people close to the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Saturday. ...

South African Operator Invests in Botswana

South Africa's MTN has acquired an effective indirect interest of 44% in Botswana's Mascom Wireless. Mascom is the leading mobile operator in Botswana with a market share of over 70% and a subscriber base in excess of 440,000....

How Much was BenQ Paid to Take Siemens Handsets Division ?

An analyst at Merrill Lynch, Bram Cornelisse, has questioned the price that Siemens paid to dispose of its ailing handset division to BenQ. When the sale was originally announced back in June, the estimated loss to Siemens was put at around the US$41...

[[Legal News]]

Telephone & Data, US Cellular Subjects Of SEC Probe

Telephone & Data Systems Inc. and United State Cellular Corp. are the subjects of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation regarding their recent restatement decisions. ...

FOCUS: Court ruling hurts Sistema, control of MTS under threat

Major Russian holding AFK Sistema was dealt a disappointing blow on Monday after the Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the Federal Tax Service's claim and ruled to liquidate TOO VAST company, which holds

3% in the country's largest mobile operator Mobi...

KPN Fails to Secure Deal with Trades Unions

KPN and the trades unions have failed to reach agreement on a new collective labour agreement. Trades union negotiators refused to accept the pension proposals. KPN's final offer comprised a structural salary increase totalling 3% over 27 months, cha...

Registration Required for New PrePay Customers

South Africa is about to impose regulations that will require all purchasers of cell phones to provide proof of identity when buying a new phone. The government says the move is to ensure that new phone tapping legislation will be correctly implement...

[[Mobile Content News]]

Developing Mobile Commerce in Canada

Canada's national wireless service providers, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility, have announced the launch of Wireless Payment Services. The jointly owned venture will act as a mobile commerce, or m-commerce, gateway, facilitating sec...

[[Network Contracts News]]

Two Phone Numbers - One SIM Card

Singapore's SingTel says that it is offering its customers the ability to use two mobile phone lines with only one SIM card and mobile phone with a new 2-in-1 SIM value added service. The new 2-in-1 SIM card stores two mobile numbers and will enable ...

Rural Operators Order Fault Manager

Telsasoft has announced that two more regional wireless service providers have chosen it's alarm fault and performance metrics analytics tools solution to enhance their GSM network management operations....

[[Technology News]]

AirNet Reports on Two New Field Trials

AirNet Communications says that it has been showcasing the capabilities of the RapidCell base station at various locations in the U.S. for a Government Communications end user. An undisclosed OEM aerospace and defense contractor who has purchased Rap...