The Iliad Group, which offers broadband services in France under the banner Free, has submitted an application to the regulator Arcep for the country’s fourth 3G licence. According to AFX News, Iliad says the State Council has said that the government cannot rule on the financial terms of the concession until operational specifications are adopted. Iliad believes ‘the success of the fourth mobile operator’ is dependent on the winner being allowed to make a deferred annual payment of the licence fee instead of an up front one-off payment of EUR619 million. ‘Iliad believes that a single payment of the rental charge represents a barrier to entering the market,’ the company said. The operator is also calling for access to the 900MHz bands alongside 2.15GHz frequencies, and applauds the decision to allocate a 5MHz carrier in the 900MHz band from end-2009 to the operator chosen for the fourth licence.
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Singaporean mobile operator StarHub today announced plans to launch a high speed packet access (HSPA) service. It also claims to be the first operator in the southeast Asia region to launch high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) technology. StarHub’s announcement comes two months after rival mobile operator SingTel Mobile rolled out a HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) network in selected parts of the island-state.
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Ecuadorian mobile network operators ended the first half of 2007 with 9.25 million subscribers compared to 7.67 million at end-June 2006, local telecoms supervisory body Suptel said in a statement, quoted by BNamericas. Porta, a unit of Mexican giant América Móvil, remained market leader with 6.19 million subscribers, followed by Movistar Ecuador, a unit of Spain’s Telefónica, with 2.64 million users, and locally owned Alegro with 412,597 clients. The total GSM customer base at the end of the period was 7.66 million (82.8% of the market), with the remainder using CDMA and TDMA services. Earlier this month Movistar asked local telecoms regulator Conatel to establish a single method for counting mobile subscribers, as according to the operator, all three main players currently use different measurement criteria.
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Demand for mobile broadband services is booming in the Republic, according to new research by local operator Vodafone Ireland. The company has revealed that a third of small businesses are using wireless services as their primary internet access connection, compared with just 20% using narrowband ‘dial-up’ alternatives. The cellco says those using wireless for their main connection were opting for one of a range of solutions such as fixed wireless access (FWA), 3G Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi and satellite technology to access the internet, rather than sticking with traditional fixed line technologies. The study, conducted in May and June this year, found that while ADSL predominates in the market, a growing number of companies are taking mobile broadband technology options. Vodafone’s data also concludes that 7% of larger SMEs no longer use a fixed line connection at all.
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Moroccan telecoms regulator ANRT has reported that the country’s fixed telephony subscribers rose by 20.48% quarter-on-quarter in April-June 2007 to 1.94 million, mostly thanks to the recent introduction of limited mobility wireless in the local loop (WiLL) services. According to the watchdog, fixed telephony penetration rose to 6.36% from 5.39% over the same period. The fixed line market had seen an unprecedented 27.24% rise in subscribers over the first quarter of the year to reach 1.61 million at the end of March, up from 1.266 million at the end of December 2006. Meanwhile, internet subscribers grew by 10% in the second quarter of 2007 to 476,909, from 433,399 at end-March and 341,859 at mid-2006. ADSL services accounted for 444,633 of the total customers, up from 424,713 the previous quarter and 331,746 a year ago. The fixed line monopoly of the incumbent Maroc Télécom was broken with the launch of fixed-wireless services by its mobile sector rival Médi Télécom (Meditel), backed by Portugal Telecom and Spain’s Telefónica, in May 2006. A third national licensee, Wana (formerly ISP Maroc Connect), owned by domestic conglomerate Omnium Nord Afrique (ONA), launched residential fixed and limited mobility services in January 2007 under the Bayn brand, and CDMA-based fixed-wireless internet access two months later. Meditel is planning to launch WiMAX fixed-wireless internet access, but is initially concentrating its online efforts on its cellular HSDPA service for laptop users, launched in April.
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The head of Telefónica O2, Peter Erskine, revealed in a conference call yesterday that he anticipates consolidation among German MVNOs. Asked whether there was a chance Telefónica might make a bid for E-Plus, Erskine told reporters there was absolutely none. ‘The only consolidation I do see is that of the many, many MVNOs in Germany, only a very, very few get any traction … there will be a lot less or many different ones inside twelve months. Beyond that I can’t see where the consolidation is going in our markets,’ he said. Turnover at O2 Germany slipped 2.9% to EUR861 million for the three months to June 2007. Commenting on the results amid tough conditions for German cellcos, the CEO stated: “It’s flat quarter-on-quarter [but] we’re confident we’ll exit the year on an ARPU growth trajectory in Germany’.
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Claro Peru, the local operating arm of America Movil, and digital trunking operator Nextel del Peru have won wireless spectrum from ProInversion, the state investment agency. Claro won the Band B licence, which carries spectrum in the 835MHz-845MHz, 880MHz-890MHz, 846.5MHz-849MHz and 891.5MHz-894MHz blocks, with a bid of USD22.2 million, USD20,000 above the minimum price. Nextel del Peru won the Bands D and E concessions, with an offer of USD27 million. Band D covers the 1865MHz-1870MHz and 1945MHz-1950MHz blocks, while Band E band covers 1882MHz-1895MHz and 1962.5MHz-1975Mhz. The Band B concession requires Claro to install 500,000 lines outside Lima and Callao; it must also cover 200 districts which currently have no coverage. The operator of Bands D and E must put 500,000 lines in service, in total.
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New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (ComCom) has published a draft proposal for the prices at which Telecom New Zealand must make its local loop infrastructure available to rivals. The monthly rental charge for unbundled local loops in urban areas has been set at NZD16.49 (USD12.56), while in rural areas the charge is NZD32.20. The one-off cost of transferring a customer has been given as NZD83.70. The draft determination is open to comments until 29 August, with a final ruling set to be made in November. Telecom is due to begin offering unbundled local connections in early 2008, with a progressive rollout of the service across much of the country.
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The second largest US cellular operator, Verizon Wireless, has announced it is to buy smaller rival Rural Cellular for USD2.67 billion in cash and assumed debt. The deal will add 716,000 subscribers to Verizon’s customer base, which stood at 62.1 million at the end of June, taking it closer to market leader AT&T, which claimed 63.7 million at the same date.
Rural Cellular has licences which cover a population of around 4.7 million people in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. The smaller operator currently uses both CDMA and GSM technology, and Verizon says it plans to transfer all GSM customers to its own preferred CDMA network. Verizon Wireless is paying USD45 a share for Rural Cellular, to a total purchase price of USD757 million; it will also assume around USD1.9 billion of debt. It expects to realise more than USD1 billion in synergies from the takeover, in reduced roaming and operations expenses. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2008.
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Russia’s second largest cellular operator in terms of subscribers, Vimpelcom, says it is expanding its Wi-Fi hotspot coverage to twelve major airports this week. The operator is charging RUB243 (USD9.50) an hour for access, with airports covered including St Petersburg and Sheremetyevo, Moscow Times reports. Rival firms are already offering extensive Wi-Fi networks; number one cellular operator MTS has around 300 hotspots nationwide, while Golden Telecom offers a Moscow-wide network and is expanding to round 7,500 sites across the country.
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Iliad on fourth licence odyssey
