In a move designed to differentiate its offering from the competition and to gain some media attention we might add, United Airlines announced a new service on their international flights to enable passengers to use and charge their iPods and iPhones. Not only will passengers be able to use their Apple products of choice —…
Mobile network revenues exceed fixed telephony in Sweden
With Swedes increasingly placing calls, surfing and sending text messages – the country’s mobile operators are rejoicing and experiencing increased traffic and revenues. For the first time, total revenues from services in mobile networks exceed revenues from fixed telephony according to a report from the telecoms regulator, the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). In…
Nelson Mandela charities launch huge SMS fundraising campaign
To celebrate the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, his charitable organisations are launching an international premium SMS service to allow millions of people to text their own birthday message to the former South African president. A mixture of shared and dedicated PSMS codes have been set up in over 20 countries around the world including…
Telenor to merge with TeliaSonera?
After TeliaSonera rejected France Telecom’s bid, the saga of the industry consolidation in the far north of Europe continues. Apparently, Norway-based Telenor is interested to merge with TeliaSonera. The chairman of the Norwegian parliament’s business and industry committee Ola Borten Moe thinks it could be a good industrial solution for Telenor to buy TeliaSonera. “They…
TeliaSonera rejects France Telecom’s $42 billion offer
TeliaSonera and its largest shareholder, Swedish government, have rejected France Telecom’s SKR252.5 billion ($42 billion) bid for the mobile operator. France Telecom used the so called unsolicited approach, which includes both cash and stock, and which values TeliaSonera at 56.23 kronor a share, or about 26% higher than the Nordic operator’s valuation in mid-April. TeliaSonera’s…
China Telecom to migrate to LTE withing next three years
China Telecom plans to migrate its newly-acquired CDMA mobile operation to LTE technology within the next three years. According to the company’s CEO Wang Xiaochu, the operator will initially focus on rolling out EV-DO Rev. A in key cities before moving to LTE “in two to three years’ time.” Earlier we reported that China Telecom…
Telecom Italia to cut domestic costs by 40% by 2015
When you have operating costs of 2 billion EUR ($3.1 billion) per year, it’s only obvious you want to cut them down. Telecom Italia acknowledged this problem and is embarking on a wide-ranging cost cutting strategy to reduce the expenditure. The goal is to cut a total of 40% of cost base within the next…
China Unicom merge with China Netcom in a $56.3 billion deal
Consolidation of Chinese telecoms market is well underway. A week ago we reported that China Mobile Group is acquiring China Railcom, and now China Unicom is merging with fixed-line player China Netcom, while at the same time spinning off its CDMA business to China Telecom. The two companies are merging in a share swap deal…
Russia’s MTS gets a new CEO – Mr. Mikhail Shamolin
Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems announced the appointment of Mr. Mikhail Shamolin as President and CEO, who has served as the head of MTS Russia. Mr. Leonid Melamed, Shamolin’s predecessor will be assuming the duties of President and CEO at Sistema, the largest private sector consumer services company in Russia and the majority shareholder of MTS. Under…
Two Indian companies enter the handset market
Two Indian companies have announced plans to enter the country’s fast-growing mobile handset market by launching low-cost devices. According to India’s Economic Times, the electronics and home appliances company Orpat is launching two new GSM handsets based on NXP Semiconductors’ chips. It will promote the devices at its 50,000 retail outlets and is targeting sales…