Cellular-News for Wednesday 14th December 2005

Cellular-News

[[ 3G ]]

Malaysian 3G Coverage Expanded

Malaysia's Maxis Communications has expanded its 3G service coverage to Penang. Since the launch of its 3G services on 1 July, Maxis has significantly increased its 3G coverage in the Klang Valley and will soon offer 3G services in Johor Bahru. To da...

Temporary 3G Expansion in New Zealand

Telecom New Zealand says that it is investing about $1.7 million in additional temporary mobile coverage to meet the demand at New Zealand's favourite holiday spots during the local summer. The extra mobile sites and increased capacity will cover the...

CDMA Upgrade for Venezuela

Venezuela's Movistar has announced the commercial launch of it's 3G CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network to serve the country's 26 main cities. Lucent upgraded Movistar's existing Lucent-supplied base stations and mobile switching center (MSC) to support CDMA200...

[[ Financial ]]

Vodafone Buys Telsim In Turkey For $4.55 Billion

Vodafone Group said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Telsim, the number two mobile operator in Turkey, from the Turkish Savings Deposit and Investment Fund ("SDIF") for a consideration of US$4.55bn. ...

Telefonica Moviles' Brazilian JV To Lower Capex In 06-07

Telesp Celular Participacoes, the largest company within the Brazilian joint venture of Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom SA, plans to cut sharply capital expenditure in 2006 and 2007, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

PRESS: VimpelCom's directors may block 2006 capex in Ukraine

Three members of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom's board of directors may vote against the company's investment program in Ukraine for 2006, Vedomosti business daily reported Tuesday, citing a letter sent to VimpelCom's Chairman D...

Russia's MegaFon to bid for Uzbekistan's Buztel

Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon plans to participate in the tender for Uzbekistan's mobile operator Buztel-GSM, MegaFon's Press Secretary Marina Belasheva told Prime-Tass Tuesday. She did not elaborate. ...

SonyEricsson Increases Chinese Investment

Sony Ericsson has received Chinese Ministry of Commerce approval to take control of Beijing Suohong Electronics (BSE), a Sony China controlled manufacturing facility, by raising its share holding to

74.5%. The BSE site, which is 60% dedicated to the ...

Celtel Buys Madagascan Network

The Pan-African GSM operator, Celtel International has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Madagascar's mobile telecom operator, Madacom for an undisclosed amount. The agreement was reached with the current shareholders led by the Dis...

[[ Handsets ]]

Japan October Mobile Phone Shipments Up 32% On Year

Japan's shipments of mobile phones, including personal handy-phone system devices, soared 32.0% in October from a year earlier to 3.17 million units, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said Tuesday. ...

Emblaze Mobile Buys Handset Distributor

Israel's Emblaze Mobile says that it has acquired a strategic interest in the European handset distributor, Global Telecoms Distribution. GTD is one of Europe's leading distributors of multimedia handsets with a

3 year trading history and 100 staff... [[ Legal ]]

EU Delays Review Of Telefonica Takeover Of UK's O2

The European Commission Tuesday delayed by two weeks its antitrust review of Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica's planned takeover of U.K. mobile communications company O2 PLC. ...

Ericsson Employees Charged On Tax Crimes In Sweden

The Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau Tuesday charged four current and former employees at telecommunications equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. with severe evasion of tax controls. ...

Russia's Rezervspetsmet says MTS' buy of Bitel illegal

The purchase of Kyrgyzstan's largest mobile operator Bitel by Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) was illegal, little known Russian company Rezervspetsmet said in a statement Tuesday. ...

[[ Mobile Content ]]

Gambling Via Vodafone Live

Austria's GSM network operator, A1 has launched a gambling service through the Vodafone live! portal. Mobile phone bets can even be placed while games are in progress. Every newly registered customer will also receive a gaming credit of EUR5....

Mobile Gamers Likely To Replace Handsets Twice a Year

IGN Entertainment has released a new report which finds mobile gamers are key growth drivers for the mobile industry. The survey documents spending habits of mobile gamers, which shows more hardware buys per year, higher minute usage and bigger wirel...

[[ Network Contracts ]]

Vodafone To Invest $600 Million To Upgrade Telsim Radio Network

Vodafone Group PLC said Tuesday that it will invest $600 million over three years in upgrading the radio network of Turkish mobile phone operator Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon. ...

[[ Network Operators ]]

Vodafone in a Strop, a FlexiStrop

The Czech Republic GSM operator, Oskar Vodafone has launched a service that enables customers to impose limits on the cost of their monthly phone bill. Following the Smart Overview service, the operator is introducing FlexiStrop. With this free servi...

[[ Personnel ]]

Eva Lindqvist Appointed Senior Vice President of Mobile Business

Eva Lindqvist has been appointed new Senior Vice President of Mobile Business at Marketing, Products & Services at TeliaSonera's Head Office as of January 1, 2006. She will have the strategic responsibility for the mobile business within the TeliaSon...

[[ Regulatory ]]

French Regulator Cuts Mobile Phone Tariffs

France's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday it will force the country's mobile-phone companies to slash wholesale tariffs by 24% from 2006, a move that will cost the three network operators an estimated EUR900 million in sales. ...

[[ Statistics ]]

UK is the Music Download Capital of Europe

Motorola have released a report into the attitudes of Britons towards new technologies. The MotoWithMe study reveals that Britons' attitudes have considerably matured since the millennium dawned. Five years ago the talk was of gimmicks like intellige...