Cellular-News for Monday 6th February 2006

Cellular-News -

[[3G News]]

Bulgarian Operator Orders 3G Billing Platform

Bulgaria's GloBul has ordered a new platform from LHS to manage billing for its 3G services. GloBul has just recently been awarded a

3G license. LHS will implement the system at GloBul replacing an old legacy system. BSCS iX is a fully convergent end...

EDGE Coverage Expanded in Bulgaria

Bulgaria's M-Tel says that it has increased the coverage of its EDGE network to 9 new cities. Starting from the end of December 2005, customers living in Kardzhali, Samokov, the Borovetz resort, Sandanski, Dimitrovgrad, Dupnitsa, Bankia, Radomir and ...

3G Based Mobile TV to Dominate - But Not For Long Northern Sky Research (NSR) has released a report, which concludes that mobile TV will represent an increasingly compelling content offering to mobile subscribers and will enable new methods to deliver video programming and advertisements to consumer...

T-Mobile Expanding German HSDPA Coverage

T-Mobile Germany says that it plans to offer HSDPA coverage at the upcoming CeBIT 2006 consumer and trade fair in Hanover. T-Mobile will offer transmission rates of up to 1.8 Mbit/s and uplink speeds of 384 Kbit/s in large parts of the UMTS network. ...

[[Financial News]]

Telenor Blocks VimpelCom 2006 Budget For 2nd Time

Russia's second-largest wireless operator VimpelCom said Friday its board had failed for the second time to approve the company's 2006 budget. ...

FOCUS: Russian operators want to expand abroad, opportunities limited

Russia's largest mobile operators have divided the saturated domestic market and are now looking for opportunities in neighboring countries but there are not many assets available for sale and they may be pricey. ...

CenterTelecom sells stakes in two regional mobile cos

CenterTelecom, a hub telecommunications operator in Russia's Central Federal District, has sold its 30% stake in Belgorod Mobile Communications and its 40% stake in Smolensk Mobile Communications, according to information released by CenterTelecom ...

Telenor supports cooperation between VimpelCom, Kyivstar

Norway's telecommunication operator Telenor supports establishing cooperation, such as a service provider agreement, between Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom and Ukrainian mobile operators, including Kyivstar, Telenor said in a pre...

IDC: Mobile telephony to continue growing at 2 digits

The mobile market in Latin America is expected to grow above 10% this year, although not as high as the 33% growth recorded in mobile handsets during 2005, Romina Aducci, Telecom Services Director for Latin America at tech consultancy IDC told BNamer...

Virgin Mobile Australia Merging with SIMplus Mobile

Australia's Optus is planning to merge its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Virgin Mobile Australia (VMA) and SIMplus Mobile. Mr Matt Davey has been appointed Chief Executive of the combined operation. Mr Davey replaces Jonathan Marchbank who has decid...

Mid-East Operator Seeks Route Into Europe

Mohammed Hassan Omran, Chairman and CEO of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation - Etisalat, says that the company aims to be among the Top

10 telecommunications corporations in the world, having successfully grown from a local to international oper... [[Handsets News]]

Brightstar 2005 revenues boosted by Motorola sales, Brazil launch

Entry into the Brazilian market, a partnership with Motorola and renewed agreements in Latin America were behind the US$2.2bn record revenues regional wireless equipment distributor Brightstar posted for

2005, the company's global marketing and publi... [[Legal News]]

Maxim Enters Settlement Pact With Qualcomm In Patent Suit

Maxim Integrated Products Inc. said Thursday that it entered into a settlement agreement with Qualcomm Inc. to resolve patent litigation. ...

Telekom Malaysia Pays $232 Million To Deutsche Telekom Unit

Government-controlled Telekom Malaysia said late Friday it has paid $232 million to DeTeAsia Holding, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, after it lost a dispute over a contract. ...

[[Messaging News]]

Telecom Rio de Janeiro selects First Hop to offer SMS platform

Brazilian mobile services platform provider Telecom Rio de Janeiro has selected the Wireless Broker platform sold by Finland's First Hop to connect its value-added services to mobile phone operators across Brazil, the companies said in a joint stat...

Mobile operators sign up for multimedia service

El Salvador's four mobile operators have signed up to receive multimedia services from provider LPG Mvil, local daily La Prensa Grfica reported. ...

[[MVNO News]]

Spain Regulator To Force Mobile Operators To Allow MVNO

Spanish telecommunications industry regulator CMT Friday said it will force the country's mobile operators to share their networks with mobile virtual network operators, or MVNO. ...

[[Network Operators News]]

Wireless Broadband for Kenya

Japan's Kyocera has announced the commercial introduction of iBurst wireless broadband services in the Republic of Kenya. iBurst base stations and terminals designed and produced by Kyocera will be provided to Africa Online, the Kenyan Internet servi...

Celtel Launches Technical Center in Kinshasa

The pan-African operator, Celtel International recently launched a US$7 million Technical Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new infrastructure will serve as a technical hub for not only the DRC but also other Celtel operations such as;...

[[Offbeat News]]

Greek Phone-tapping Didn't Endanger National Security

ATHENS (AP)--Greece's governing conservatives said Friday the country's security wasn't at stake despite the discovery government mobile phones were tapped by unknown individuals during the Athens

2004 Olympics and for nearly a year. ...

Snow Leads to Exceptional Increase in MMS Traffic

Vodafone says that it experienced a significant increase in traffic as the result of the snowfalls that swept across Portugal on Sunday 29 January. On that day, the Vodafone network registered a traffic peak between 3 pm and 4 pm, with the number of ...

[[Personnel News]]

KPN's Head Of Mobile Operations Resigns

Dutch Telecommunications operator Royal KPN Friday said Guy Demuynck, the chief executive of its mobile division, will leave as of July 1 to join another company. ...

Thailand Information And Communications Tech Min Resigns - Government

BANGKOK (AP) _ Thai Information and Communication Technology Minister Sora-at Klinpratoom resigned Saturday, a government spokesman said, without citing a reason. ...

[[Reports News]]

Nightmare Customer Service Slashes Profits - report

A backlash at shoddy customer service and unrelenting sales pitches is hitting British business where it hurts most -- on the bottom line -- warns a new report from the National Consumer Council (NCC). The report reveals a sorry picture of businesses o...

[[Statistics News]]

Belarusian GSM operator BeST user base at 2,000 as of Feb 1

The subscriber base of state-controlled Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, which started commercial operations in the capital city of Minsk on December 21, 2005, amounted to 2,000 users as of February 1, the company said late on Thursday. ...

Russia's MegaFon user base in Orenburg Region up to 300,000

The subscriber base of Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon in the Orenburg Region rose to over 300,000 people as of December 31,

2005 from about 100,000 people as of January 1, 2005, MSS-Povolzhye, a MegaFon subsidiary operating in the r...

Vodafone Gains 100,000 3G Customers in Romania

Romania's Connex Vodafone says that it added 602,832 net subscribers in the quarter to December 31, 2005, giving it a total customer base of 6,131,839 which is 25% higher year on year. As of December 31,

2005, postpaid subscribers accounted for 36% o...