Cellular-News for Wednesday 19th April 2006

Cellular-News -

[[ Financial ]]

Ireland's Eircom Receives $2.9 Billion Buyout Offer

Eircom on Tuesday confirmed Tuesday it has received a US$2.9 billion buyout offer for the Irish telecommunications services provider, adding to the growing trend of European telecom mergers. ...

VimpelCom US GAAP net profit up 75% in 2005

The net profit of Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom increased 75.6% on the year to US$615.131 million in 2005 as calculated under U.S. GAAP, the company said in a press release Tuesday. ...

Amdocs Buys Qpass

Amdocs has finally confirmed that it is acquire Qpass, a provider of digital commerce software and solutions, for approximately US$275 million in cash. Through this acquisition, Amdocs can enable its customers to create additional sources of revenue ...

[[ Handsets ]]

Samsung to give Russia's Euroset distributor status

South Korean electronics equipment producer Samsung is likely to grant Russian mobile handset retailer Euroset status as an official distributor of Samsung products, a source in Samsung said, Vedomosti business daily reported Tuesday. ...

Report: Mobile market to import 10 million handsets

The Argentine mobile market is expected to import 10 million mobile handsets this year, down from the 12 million imported in 2005, local newspaper Infobae reported. ...

[[ Legal ]]

Sprint Nextel Settles With NY Consumer Affairs Dept On Adverts

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday said it has settled its dispute with New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs. ...

[[ Messaging ]]

Research In Motion, T-Mobile USA Introduce New BlackBerry

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) and T-Mobile USA Inc. introduced the Blackberry 8700g which can be used as a phone, as well as to access the Internet and email. ...

[[ Mobile Content ]]

The Growing Market for Mobile DRM

They reside at the convergence point where content providers, service carriers and platform makers are aligning to develop digital entertainment. They play a key role in the development and growth of digital content for both home-entertainment and mo...

[[ Network Operators ]]

MegaFon ups number of base stations in Moscow

The number of base stations of Russia's MegaFon subsidiary Sonic Duo in the Moscow License Area (MLA) rose to 1,600 as of now from 1,500 as of November 30, 2005, the company said in a press release Monday. ...

Comarcoop to invest upwards of US$120mn to launch services

Argentine mobile telephony firm Comarcoop, created by a group of local cooperatives, plans to invest US$100mn-120mn to launch services, local press quoted Comarcoop executives as saying. ...

[[ Offbeat ]]

Cellphone Forensics at Crime Scenes

Logicube has developed a portable kit which can extract data from over

160 handset when needed by the police and forensic staff. The CellDEK has been developed in cooperation with the UK's Forensic Science Service (FSS). Built to perform in the field... [[ Regulatory ]]

Cofetel applies CPP to domestic LD calls to mobiles

Mexico's telecoms regulator Cofetel has passed a resolution mandating that domestic long-distance calls to mobile phones be subject to calling party pays rules, newspaper El Financiero reported. ...

Russia's Sibirtelecom unit gets GSM 1800 license for Kemerovo Region

Mobile operator Stek GSM, a subsidiary of Russian regional telecommunications operator Sibirtelecom, has received a license to provide mobile services in the GSM 1800 standard in the Kemerovo Region, Stek GSM said in a press release Tuesday. ...

Egyptian 3rd Mobile License Deadline Delayed

The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Egypt says that the deadline for submission of proposals for third mobile operator network has been extended to the 4th of May 2006. The bid was due to last until April 17th, and the winner will ...

[[ Reports ]]

Informa Sees Global Fixed-Mobile Revenue At $28 Billion By 2011

Informa, the research company, Tuesday forecast that fixed-mobile convergence services will generate $28 billion in revenue globally by

2011. ...

Market Segmentation Driving Future Handset Sales - report

The mobile handset market looks set to take a curious path over the next year as it is fuelled by two distinctly different forces. On one hand, the growing segmentation of saturated markets has prompted a rise in replacement rates. On the other hand,...

Mobile Phones To Rival the PC As Dominant Internet Platform

Today, the personal computer remains the dominant platform to access the Internet globally. However, Internet access via the mobile phone actually outpaces wireless access from a notebook PC in many of areas of the world - a statistic driven largely ...

Apple's Deeper Mobile Play is Inevitable - report

Visiongain says in a new report that it believes that the years 2006 and 2007 will see Apple's product offerings accelerate as it focuses on convergence technologies. Apple shipped over 14 million iPods during fiscal Q1 2006 ended December 2005, repr...

[[ Statistics ]]

Fitec expects 106 million mobile users by year-end

Brazil could boast 106 million mobile users by year-end and 170 million by 2010, according to local technology research company Fitec president Jose Luis de Souza. ...

Colombia's Mobile Phone Lines Rose To 25 Million In 1Q

The number of mobile telephone lines in Colombia in the first quarter rose to 25 million, 14% more than in December, President Alvaro Uribe's press office said late Monday in a statement. ...

[[ Technology ]]

Nokia Expands Chinese R&D Center

Nokia says that it will further strengthen its R&D operations in China and expand its Chengdu R&D Center to carry part of Nokia mobile network infrastructure products development for global and local markets. Nokia Chengdu R&D Center, established in ...