India: Aircel Chooses Ericsson For 3G/HSPA Network Roll Out

Aircel, India’s leading mobile operator, part of Maxis Communications Berhad, Malaysia, has selected Ericsson to roll out its 3G/HSPA network across six out of thirteen geographic market areas. The new network will serve more than 100 million customers and will offer different services such as video telephony, mobile broadband, mobile TV, video on demand and others including music downloads, video tones, instant messaging and online gaming.

Gurdeep Singh, COO of Aircel says: “For many people in India connected for the first time, 3G mobile broadband will bring completely new types of services and benefits. We are confident that with this partnership, we will benefit from Ericsson’s global expertise of 3G deployments, and will be able to offer our customers a world-class 3G experience”.

The six Aircel circles in which Ericsson will provide are: Tamil Nadu Bihar; Orissa; Jammu Kashmir; North East; and Assam.

VimpelCom Group and Alcatel-Lucent Launch LTE in Kazakhstan

KaR-Tel LLP, an affiliate of VimpelCom group which is offering communications services in Kazakhstan under the Beeline brand, has selected Alcatel-Lucent as its sole equipment supplier for the launch of the first live 700MHz LTE market pilot in post-Soviet territory. The new LTE network will cover the central districts of Amalty, the business capital of Kazakhstan.

VimpelCom and Alcatel-Lucent are now working to offer a range of advanced mobile broadband services, which comes in accordance with the strategic program of Kazakhstan’s development up to 2030, which aims at increasing Internet penetration in the mass market. Operation of the new network in the lower frequency band (700 MHz) allows the operator to ensure the maximum coverage more efficiently. Customers can look forward to seamless connection to the Internet while on the go, increased efficiency for business users and rich, broadband multimedia services such as high-definition video, music, multiplayer video gaming, any time any place.

Taiwan: Chunghwa Telecom Testing LTE In Cooperation With Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent and Chunghwa Telecom have joined forces to conduct an end to end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, using both the 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz bands. The trial, which will begin in October 2010, will enable CHT to test the performance of LTE-based services and multimedia applications, and assess the related business models.

Under the deal, Alcatel-Lucent will provide a unique, pre-integrated end-to-end solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), its Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements, application portal for innovative services as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) system. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.

Alcatel-Lucent has been selected so far by seven customers for commercial deployments, including two of the world’s largest service providers, and is being involved in more than 50 customer trials.

Telstra and Vodafone to end network sharing joint venture in Australia in 2012

Telstra Corp. announced its network sharing joint venture agreement with Vodafone Hutchinson Austrlia would end on August 31 2012. Their agreement uses the 2100MHz mobile spectrum. Telstra will focus on its Next G network, thus the company believes it did not make sense to invest in another network. The company anticipates annual earnings for 2013/2014 and expects to rise EBITDA by more than $50million, there will be no impact in earnings for 2010/2011 and 2011/2012.

Kate McKenzie, Chief Marketing Officer of Telstra, said “The exit of the joint venture will go unnoticed by most of the customers still using the earlier network because their handsets will automatically roam to the GSM network for voice calls and SMS.[...] The coverage, speeds and services available on the Telstra Next G network are far superior to the 2100MHz network so it made little sense to continue investing in the joint venture.[...] We will encourage customers using the earlier 2100MHz network to upgrade their handsets before 2012 so they can take advantage of faster data speeds, wider network coverage and mobile content available on Next G.”

Nokia Siemens Networks To Acquire IRIS Telecom

Nokia Siemens Networks, the leading global enabler of telecommunications service, will acquire IRIS Telecom, a telecom and engineering services firm headquartered in Istanbul Turkey. The acquisition will combine IRIS Telecom’s strong multi-vendor Network Planning and Optimization (NPO) business with Nokia Siemens Networks’ global capabilities, to create a regional leader in telecom services. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the deal should be completed during the first quarter of 2011 according to NSN’s press release.

The company will continue to use the IRIS Telecom name and be operationally independent with its head office in Istanbul, Turkey, regional offices in Ankara and Izmir, and subsidiaries in Uzbekistan and Belarus. The current CEO, Mete Gokdemir will continue in his role, and Johan Bruce, currently chairman of IRIS Telecom’s Board, will be nominated Executive Director of the company. After closing of the deal, Nokia Siemens Networks will honor all existing commitments made by IRIS Telecom, including those to other equipment vendors. Future multi-vendor services opportunities will be evaluated on a case by case basis in line with Nokia Siemens Networks’ strategy.

Foxtel launches its Xbox360’s TV service

Foxtel announced a partnership with Microsoft to launch its TV service through Xbox360, the service will be available from November. Live pay TV channels, catch up TV and Foxtel On Demand will be included in the service. A minimum speed of 1.5Mbps is recommended for the service, in addition to a Xbox Gold membership.

The basic package will cost less than $20 for 11 channels (Fox8, MTV, Nickelodeon, Channel[V], LifeStyle, YOU, Discovery, National Geographic, TV1, Sky News, Fox Sports News and CNN). Additionnal packages will be available at $10 per package.

India: Ericsson Named Exclusive 3G Supplier For Vodafone

Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular service providers, has chosen Ericsson to equip India’s most populated cities: Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata with latest 3G HSPA mobile broadband network. Vodafone Essar will deploy the latest technology to  deliver new type of services like video telephony, mobile broadband, mobile TV, video on demand and others such as music downloads, video tones, instant messaging, on line gaming.

Marten Pieters, Managing Director, Vodafone Essar, said, “Globally, Vodafone provides enhanced 3G experiences to a large base of customers. India is now ready for 3G, and we are committed to offer similar high-quality 3G services to our Indian customers. Ericsson is one of the specialists in this area and we view this as a very strategic alliance, in order to deliver and maintain a high quality network which customers will expect from Vodafone”.

Gowton Achaibar, Head of Region India, says: “We are extremely honoured to be chosen by Vodafone Essar for their 3G HSPA network deployment in India. The contract further strengthens Ericsson’s position as the leading mobile communications supplier in the Indian market and demonstrates yet again our long-term strategic partnership with Vodafone Essar. We are confident that our undisputed technology leadership and global experience will contribute to the rapid expansion of India’s mobile Broadband market”.

Tata Tele To Launch 3G Services By Diwali

Tata Teleservices, Indian private operator in which Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has 26% stake, has confirmed plans to launch 3G services by Diwali. The service, which is likely to be launched under the DoCoMo brand, will be launched in nine circles simultaneously. A Tata Teleservices spokesperson said: “We will be sourcing the equipment from Nokia Siemens. With our partnership with NTT DoCoMo, the inventor of 3G, we have access to a repertoire of proven products that can be customised for the Indian market”.

Tata Teleservices, which offers both GSM and CDMA technology, is present in 22 circles and will be the first private operator to offer 3G services in the domestic telecom market. Other private operators such as Reliance Communications (R-Com) are expected to launch their 3G services by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

Vietnam: VNPT To Launch Mobile TV

VNPT, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, is planning to extend its MyTV IPTV service to mobile phone by 2011. VNPT’s IPTV service was launched in September 2009 initially in Hanoi. MyTV provides multi services such as TV Broadcasting, Audio Channel, Time-Shift TV as well as on demand services like Video on Demand, Music on Demand, TV on Demand, Game, Karaoke… etc. The service offers over 60 domestic and international channels and has attracted more than 150,000 subscribers which is the double of its original expectations according to VNPT.

Digital Cable Subscribers reached 3 million in Korea in June 2010

The Digital Cable market in South Korea is very competitive with tens of Cable systems operators. In June 2010, this market reached 3 million subscribers, in a 15.225 million cable subscribers market. It represents a digitalization of 20%.

CJ Cablenet continue to lead the digital cable market with 903.300 subscribers but is followed just brhind by C&M with 865.900 subscribers. KDMC is the largest cable operator with more than 3.353 million cable subcribers but its digitization is low compared to its competitors.

On other side, IPTV reached 2 million subscribers milestone. Live IPTV was launched in Korea end 2008, so with this successful growth, we can predict that IPTV will probably surpass Digital Cable subscriber base.

Cable Digital merket in Q210 :

Source : Dataxis Intelligence