Cellular-News for Thursday 2nd March 2006

Cellular-News -

[[ 3G ]]

Samsung Launches First TD-SCDMA Handset

Philips, Samsung and T3G have announced that they are bringing TD-SCDMA handsets to the Chinese market. The Samsung video phone, announced in August 2005 is available now and has already been experienced by Huang Ju, China's Vice Premier. The Samsung...

[[ Financial ]]

NEWS SNAP: Telefonica 4Q Net Profit +52%, Spain Still Grows

Telefonica, Wednesday posted a 52% jump in fourth-quarter net profit, boosted by several Latin American acquisitions and Internet-driven revenue growth in its key Spanish fixed-line division. ...

Cesky Telecom To Join Forces With Eurotel

Cesky Telecom said Wednesday that a new integrated telecommunications operator Telefonica O2 Czech Republic, a.s. is to be formed. ...

Poland's KGHM: Polkomtel 2005 Net Profit Up 16%

Mobile telephone operator Polkomtel, increased its full-year net profit by 16% in 2005, to 1.07 billion zlotys ($1=PLN3.1618), according to figures issued Wednesday in the consolidated fourth-quarter report of shareholder KGHM Polska Miedz. ...

Unefon revenues decline 10% in 2005

Mexico's fourth placed mobile operator Unefon saw revenues fall 10% in

2005 to 4.0bn pesos (US$382mn) from 4.4bn pesos in 2004, the company said in a statement. ...

Sonae confirms bid for control of Vivo

Portuguese industrial conglomerate Sonae SGPS has clarified that a desire for control of Brazilian mobile group Vivo is one of the considerations in its recently proposed takeover of Vivo shareholder Portugal Telecom, according to a note to Portugal'...

[[ Handsets ]]

Nokia Opens Mexico Handset Factory

Nokia has opened the expansion to its Reynosa, Tamaulipas plant in Mexixo, which is intended to boost its mobile-device production. With an investment of more than US$50 million, the expansion provides greater capacity and flexibility to meet the req...

Top Six Vendors Drive Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales in 2005

Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 816.6 million units in 2005, a 21% increase from 2004, as the leading six vendors increased their share of the market at the detriment of smaller vendors, according to Gartner. The top six vendors accounted for 79...

[[ Legal ]]

Court to hear Telenor claim against VimpelCom's URS buy on Apr 5

The Moscow Arbitration Court adjourned on Wednesday until April 5 the preliminary hearings of a lawsuit filed by Norway's telecommunication company Telenor, seeking to void VimpelCom's purchase of mobile operator Ukrainian Radiosystems (URS). ...

[[ Mobile Content ]]

Mobile Data Services set to score at World Cup

Ceon, a provider of service fulfilment software for next generation IP-based services has revealed the findings of an NOP survey examining consumer attitudes towards mobile digital services at the Football World Cup. With kick-off less than four mont...

[[ Regulatory ]]

PRESS: Russia's MTS applies for long-distance license

Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has filed an application with the Russian Communications Supervision Service to get a long-distance license, MTS' Press Secretary Galina Istratova said, Kommersant business daily reported Wedn...

IN BRIEF: US desists from push to force telco privatization

Colombia has managed to convince the US government to back off from its demands to privatize public telcos and to include mobile operators in the free trade agreement the two countries have recently finished negotiating, local daily El Universal repo...

Russian telecom official slams antitrust for Far East frequency comments

An official with the Federal Telecommunication Agency criticized Wednesday the Federal Antimonopoly Service's (FAS) recent statements on frequency allocation in Russia's Far East as "groundless." ...

[[ Statistics ]]

Ukraine's DCC subscriber base down 39% in Oct-Dec 2005

The subscriber base of Ukraine's Digital Cellular Communications of Ukraine (DCC), which operates using the DAMPS standard, decreased 39% in October-December 2005 to 42,700 users as of January 1, a source in the company told Prime-Tass Wednesday. ...

Belarus' MDC subscriber base up to 2 million users

The subscriber base of Belarus mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Communications, or MDC, rose to 2 million users as of March 1 from

1.885 million users as of January 1, the company's press office said Wednesday. ... [[ Technology ]]

Cellphones Pose Greater Risk to Airplanes Than Previously Thought

A study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) has found that cell phones and other portable electronic devices, like laptops and game-playing devices, can pose dangers to the normal operati...