Top articles
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Is bill the next step?
The EU telecom ministers agreed to cut mobile phone roaming fees. It is a big victory for the EU Commissioner Viviane Reding. The agreement could pave the way for a law on maximum roaming charges to be passed in early June. A price cap of €0.50 per minute...
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France Telecom 2006 results
FT posted 2006 results. 2006 net profit was down 27% to €4.1bn, on revenues of €51.7bn, up 1%. Results are in line with latest forecasts. The drop in profit is due to restructuring and impairment charges, and pricing pressure. The good news is that broadband...
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Go out mobile! Why not? But...
In the past few years, we increasingly heard mobile operators speaking offering fixed broadband services. Such offerings have emerged in the past months, even from large multinational operators, such as Vodafone or Orange. Why? They are facing with declining...
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Mobility in the Americas
3G Americas and Informa Telecoms & Media announced that the region accounted for about 22% of the 461m new GSM additions in 2006, and reached 310m subscribers at the end of the year. LATAM added 81m new GSM customers to bring the total customer base to...
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FTTA is coming
A new acronym you need to know. FTTA means Fiber-trough-the Air, and could the future technology of choice. It is a broadband (up to 100 Mbit/s) wireless technology using satellite frequency bands, allowing triple play services, multi channel HD video...
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Increasing concerns about new EU rule
EU has proposed to apply the same requirements on advertising content and production quotas imposed to traditional television to many Internet "broadcasts". IPTV, mobile TV and online gaming should be hit by the rule.The European Parliament is scheduled...
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DT 2006 results and future strategy
DT announced 2006 net profit down 43% to €3.1bn on revenues up 3% to €61bn. EBITDA fell 6% to € 19.4bn, in line with DT' s forecasts. Fixed telephony revenues amounted to €21bn, down 5%, while mobile revenues were up 10% to €31bn. T-Mobile USA reported...
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Telefonica results
Telefonica said its 4Q06 net profit fell 12% to €1bn, on revenues of €14bn, up 37%. Full year results were: net profit of €6.2bn, up 41%, on revenues of €18.4bn, up 11%. OIBDA stood at €4.5bn, up 5%, for the quarter. The mobile arm, Moviles, reported...
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Things moving in China?
The world is still waiting China for granting 3G licenses and start deploying networks. Many questions are pending: which technologies?, how many licenses, networks and opertors? Which suppliers? And analysts regularly are waving between pessimism and...
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Cisco strategy in video
It is clear, Cisco is building its video strategy. The move starts last year when Cisco bought Scientific-Atlanta. But S.A. Is mainly focused on the cable marketplace and has little to go in the IPTV market. It was nevertheless the first step. Several...
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Network portability effect
KDDI is the clear winner of subscriber additions since the number portability rule went into effect in Japan. KDDI has increased its subscriber base by 600k new users, when its direct competitors have seen a net reduction. It garnered 67% of the total...
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Sprint Nextel 4Q06 results
Sprint Nextel said its 4Q06 consolidated OIBDA was $3.2bn, up 13%, on revenues of $10.4bn, up 7%. Capex was $2.6bn, up 42%. For the year, revenues were $41bn, up 7%, adjusted OIBDA was $12.7bn, up 12%; and capex was $7bn, up 13%. On the ARPU side, CDMA...
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3G/ WiMAX comparison
According to Pyramid Research, WiMAX spectrum is far cheaper than 3G spectrum. Numbers can witness of the gap: in the UK, a 30 MHz national 3G license had cost €7.5bn, while a regional WiMAX license for the London area has cost €2.5m. When comparing the...
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FON strategy
FON, the Spain-based “social router” company, is providing La Fonera Wi-Fi routers for $30 to anyone who accepts to share its wireless access. In a attempt to enter the US market, it now offers free the La Fonera Wi-Fi router to anyone living within 1500...
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PT Series continues
The hostile take over bid by Sonaecom on Portugal Telecom is not finished. Even if Sonaecom has increased its offer to €10.5 a share (+10%), it does not include any significant premium. So, major PT shareholders have already rejected the offer. In addition,...
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Low-cost PCs
China is manufacturing a €100 PC. It is not an OLPC (One Laptop per Child) developed by the MIT, but a classic low-cost PC developed for the rural Chinese population. The Tian En GX-2 is manufactured by Sichuan Sinomatic Technology in Chengdu, and includes...
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EU BPL : OPERA
OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance) will launch the second phase of its project of boosting BPL adoption in Europe. The first phase was made of the adoption of the broadband over powerline technology at 200Mbit/s and developed by 37 companies....
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Solution in sight in Turkey?
Let me recall facts: in 03/2005 Teliasonera signed a deal to buy a stake in Turkcell from Cukurova for $3.1bn, but later, Alfa offered a $3.3bn package and Cukurova canceled the deal and gave a 13% stake in Turkcell to Alfa. An international arbitration...
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Alcatel-Lucent 4Q06 + Full Year Results
The results for the fourth quarter are clearly disappointing. For 4Q06, Alcatel-Lucent reports pro-forma net loss of €(618)m, vs an income of €381m in 4Q05, on revenues of € 4.4bn, down 16% to €4.4.bn. For 2006, it announced pro-forma revenues of €18.2bn,...
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BT 4Q06 and 9-mo reults
BT announced 4Q06 revenues of €7.7bn, up 5%, EBITDA of €2.1bn (+2%), a profit before taxation of €958m (+17%). For 9-mo, revenues were €22.4bn, up 4%, EBITDA grew 2% to € 6.2bn, and profit before taxation rose 23% to €2.8bn. Capex rose 8% to €3.5bn. The...
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Power for mobile phones
It is the weakest point of mobile phones. On one side, power consumption is increasing with new power-hungry features (color screen, camera, memory capacity, .;) and the other side batteries frequently need to be reloaded and there always have a short...
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U-turn: not only mobile ?
U-turn: not only mobile ? Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg explained during the earning conference call that Ericsson does not want to be exclusively in the mobile market. With less optimistic view on the mobile market (lower growth in 2007+, lower margins),...
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2.75G + review
196 networks have commercially launched EDGE in 105 countries, and 62 more have committed to the EDGE enhancement. Geographical breakdown reveals 96 networks in Europe, 81 in Americas, 44 in MEA (Middle East & Africa) and 37 in Asia. 96 operators are...
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Mobile radio network sharing
Important move by two mobile giants. Vodafone and Orange announced they will share their radio access networks (RANs) in the UK. Of course, such a move will not be completed short term, but will be gradually implemented over a number of years. Rationales...
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Near Field Communications in EU
The EU Commission will fund a new pan-European consortium (made of companies, universities and user groups) to develop an open architecture for the development, deployment and use of Near Field Communications or NFC-enabled applications in mobile handsets....