TelecomWeb News Digest articles from July 2007

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from July 2007

Bay Area Leaders Take Next-Gen-Network Bull By The Horns.
July 9, 2007... Leading employers - including Apple, AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, Hewlett- Packard, IBM, Nortel, Oracle and Verizon Wireless plus the region's largest governments that include the cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and the Association of Bay...

India Telecom Subs Top 200 Million.
July 9, 2007... India's total telecom subscriber base (wireline and wireless) crossed the 200-million mark in March, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The total number of subscribers increased to 205.86 million in the...

Consumer Watchdog Targets Potential iPhone Problems.
July 9, 2007... In the wake of the over-the-top release of the iPhone more than a week ago, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights founder Harvey Rosenfield has warned the CEOs of both Apple and AT&T that they need to agree to new consumer safeguards...

Survey Sez: U.S. Broadband Adoption Slowing.
July 9, 2007... After exhibiting relatively strong growth between early 2005 and early 2006, home broadband adoption in 2006-07 grew at its slowest rate in recent years. As of March 2007, 47 percent of adult Americans surveyed said they have a high-speed...

C&W, Inuk Prepare U.K.-Wide IPTV Rollout.
July 9, 2007... Earlier today, Cable & Wireless said it will be first U.K. carrier to deliver national IPTV services via broadband, via what it's calling a "groundbreaking wholesale deal" with Inuk Networks. C&W will deliver this triple-play offering to...

Cellular M2M Module Sales Grow, Differ By Region.
July 9, 2007... The global markets for cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) modules reportedly will experience a "smooth and solid growth trajectory" during the next several years. According ABI Research, the compound annual growth rate during the forecast...

In Great Britain, It's Now Mobiboo-Hoo.
July 10, 2007... Wi-Fi provider Mobiboo US Inc. admits it revoked the business operating licenses belonging to Mobiboo (Europe) Limited and Mobiboo Mobile Limited in Great Britain late last month. In a statement released today, the carrier said it had...

Verizon Tries To Save Face Re: Copper/FiOS Story.
July 10, 2007... In the wake of a damaging story regarding existing copper and its new FiOS network, Verizon is trying to explain its way out of what could turn out to be a PR nightmare. At issue is an Associated Press article that questioned Verizon's...

More Mobile Fund Transfers Will Force Carriers To Partner.
July 10, 2007... The market for mobile fund transfers will grow to a revenue opportunity of nearly $8 billion for wireless carriers by 2012, up from some $10 million last year. By enabling subscribers to send and receive money using their wireless...

AsiaPac CDMA2000 Continues On Accelerated Growth Path.
July 10, 2007... According to the CDMA Development Group (CDG), CDMA2000 continues to dominate the Asia Pacific 3G wireless telecommunications market with more than 161 million 3G subscribers in the region, representing a 30-percent CAGR. More than 60...

Bouygues Telecom Admits ADSL Launch, Little Else.
July 10, 2007... Bouygues unit Bouygues Telecom says it will launch a national ADSL service and that it's begun the tender process to seek a suitable builder. Aside from that, the carrier is keeping mum. The French press say the tender process "is already...

Italy Adds A Little Chinese To Its Network Menu.
July 10, 2007... Telecom Italia has tapped China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to expand and upgrade its High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) networks covering southern Italy, including such important markets as Sicily's capital of Palermo. No...

Portugal Telecom Says 'No' To Hefty Vivo Bid.
July 11, 2007... Portugal Telecom has rebuffed a reported $4 billion-plus offer by Spain's Telefonica to buy its share of their Brazilian joint cellular venture, Vivo. Portugal Telecom's refusal to sell is said due to a series of factors ranging from a...

Survey Sez: Cable Trumps Telco For Bundles Services.
July 11, 2007... Bad news for telecom carriers and service providers: The "J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Residential Regional Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study" released today says cable companies, which for the first time lead the customer- satisfaction...

BSkyB Growth Tops U.K. Broadband Market.
July 11, 2007... In less than a year, U.K. direct-to-home (DTH) satellite-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has become Britain's fastest-growing broadband provider as well, with broadband now driving overall growth of the company. In a "business...

Maybe There Needs To Be A 700 MHz Auction Primary?
July 11, 2007... The wireless industry as a whole has been waiting decades to get its hands on the spectrum that will be vacated by broadcasters in 2009, and the talk and posturing now resembles what's happening in the race to be the next U.S. president....

XO/Nextlink Expands, Launches Largest Wireless U.S. Broadband Net.
July 11, 2007... XO Holdings subsidiary Nextlink Wireless has launched wireless broadband service in another 25 markets, bringing its total to 37 and leading it to lay claim to operating the largest U.S. wireless broadband network. The Nextlink services...

Converged Communications 'Not Just For The Big Boys'.
July 11, 2007... All new technologies start out as playthings for the fabulously wealthy before they become widely adopted by the general public (judging from the popularity of VCRs, personal computers, cellphones and flat-panel TVs). The same holds true in...

Motorola Admits To Worsening Cellular Sales Disaster.
July 12, 2007... Motorola, admitting to continuing disaster in its cellular handset business, has revised its sales estimates sharply downward and resigned itself to a year in the red. Some analysts are now predicting the once-mighty Mot might end the year...

Antigua Threatens To Jail VoIP Users.
July 12, 2007... The tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, saying that the government is being cheated out of substantial revenues, has ruled that the use of VoIP to make long distance calls is illegal and is threatening to throw violators...

Public-Safety Groups Support 700 MHz Auction, Network Partnerships.
July 12, 2007... The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) finally have revealed their stance on the upcoming 700 MHz auction (TelecomWeb news break, July...

New Zealand Regulator Trims Wholesale Broadband Rates.
July 12, 2007... New Zealand's Commerce Commission has ordered Telecom New Zealand to cut the wholesale rates it charges Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide service via Telecom's facilities - but the rate cut is so small as to leave ISPs still...

Confusion Over Offerings Will Cut Biz-Data Spending.
July 12, 2007... Spending growth on fixed business-data services in Europe will slow dramatically starting next year, thus putting pressure on service providers and forcing them either to innovate or consolidate to stay in business. "Competitive pressures...

TerreStar Taps Alcatel-Lucent For First American 4G Network Trial.
July 12, 2007... TerreStar Networks, which is about to build an integrated mobile satellite and land-based communications network in North America that it is touting as the first of its kind using the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), has tapped Alcatel-Lucent to...

Bush Taps Nortel CEO For Security Duties.
July 13, 2007... President George Bush yesterday said that he is going to nominate Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). The prestigious appointment was the crowning glory to a week...

Pipex Finally Finds A Buyer As Virgin Keeps Looking.
July 13, 2007... In what's shaping up to be a major upheaval in the torrid U.K. broadband business Pipex has finally found a buyer for at least part of the company - Italy's Tiscali, which is going to pay $427 million for Pipex' ISP business. Multiple system...

NextWave Buys Faltering Japanese 4G Carrier.
July 13, 2007... Mobile device semiconductor and systems house NextWave wireless is buying majority control of would-be Japanese 4G cellular house IPMobile, in a move that would make NextWave the only foreign-owned carrier operating in Japan - assuming it...

Nokia's Eseries ROKs With Its Very Own Video Service.
July 13, 2007... Mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment Group has inked a pact with Nokia under which ROK will deliver both live and on-demand video - to users of Nokia's Eseries smartphones only. The highly unusual arrangement is based on estimates that...

KVH Goes To Sea With 'mini-VSAT' Broadband.
July 13, 2007... KVH Industries has gone to market with what it is touting as a new type of Maritime satellite communications service that uses small 24 inch antennas and spread spectrum technology to dish up broadband and VoIP at a fraction of the cost of...

Spider Bite Kills Postmaster Free E-Mail.
July 13, 2007... Spider Networks, the current owner of what was Europe's very first free web-based e-Mail service - Postmaster - is going to start charging for the service, which had long been promised as "free for life." As it turns out, the 'life' was the...

SunRocket Fizzles.
July 16, 2007... In an ominous event for the entire pure-play VoIP community SunRocket, putatively the second largest carrier in the United States, appears to have crashed and burned this morning. At this point it's technically only a rumor - and we'll...

India's Reliance Buying Yipes In Move To Dominate Metro Ethernet.
July 16, 2007... India's second largest mobile phone company, Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCOM), this morning signed a deal to buy San Francisco-based Yipes Holdings, the seventh largest Ethernet service provider in the U.S., for $300 million in cash. ...

Vodafone Denies Verizon Bid Plan.
July 16, 2007... Vodafone this morning issued formal denials that it is readying a bid for Verizon, reportedly planning to pay $160 billion for the entire company and then spit out the landline unit and keep the cellular operation. The denial came after...

Computer Viruses Turn 25 ; Et Tu iPhone?
July 16, 2007... This past weekend marked the 25th birthday of what's said to be the first microcomputer virus - back in 1982 no more than a high school prank but of course these days something that's evolved into a virulent scourge. The quarter centenary...

California CLECs Launch Drive To Save Legacy Copper Lines.
July 16, 2007... The California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (Caltel) has asked the California Public Utilities Commission to begin proceedings to develop processes for the retirement of copper wires. Caltel frets that Verizon and...

Telecom Italia May Finally Unload Stake In Brasil Telecom.
July 16, 2007... Telecom Italia (TI) has finally cut a deal to sell its interest in Brasil Telecom Participacoes (BrT), the country's third largest fixed line operator, according to reports over the weekend. It's been trying to sell off the stake for a year....

U.K. Regulator Demands 'Instant' Mobile Switchovers.
July 17, 2007... The U.K.'s Ofcom this morning floated a scheme that would guarantee British wireless subscribers the ability to switch providers, taking their phone numbers with them, in no more than two hours. The regulator says it now takes about five...

Neglecting Enterprises Could Be Risky For Carriers.
July 17, 2007... Wireless carriers are being warned not to neglect enterprises' mobility- solution needs or they will be marginalized. According to new research from Analysys, enterprises account for a large proportion of total mobile service revenue,...

ROK Rocks On With Live Mobile TV.
July 17, 2007... U.K.-based mobile-TV specialist ROK Entertainment Group has laid claim to being the first content provider to stream a live concert over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to mobile phones. It said the seminal event took place last Saturday in...

ZTE Wins Sprint WiMAX CPE Contract.
July 17, 2007... Earlier today, Sprint Nextel signed a master purchase agreement with ZTE's U.S. subsidiary under which ZTE is to supply it with what is described as WiMAX customer premise equipment. The deal includes fixed modems for home networks, the...

Inner Mongolia Mobile, RAD Team For Enhanced GSM.
July 17, 2007... Inner Mongolia Mobile tapped RAD Data Communications for a solution the carrier says will "significantly increase GSM connectivity in remote villages" without increasing costs. The carrier is a subsidiary of China Mobile Communications...

Survey Sez: Use Perks, Upward Mobility To Attract IT Hires.
July 17, 2007... As chief information officers (CIOs) are tasked with driving business growth and, thus, need to have an IT workforce whose strengths lie in core areas of information and technology, it apparently has become increasingly harder to fill vacant...

A New Step In The Motorola Shuffle.
July 18, 2007... Word out of Chicagoland has it that Motorola, in an effort to contain costs and to align its business segments, is combining its wireless handset business with its cable-television set-top-box division. Pink slips have not been discussed....

Ericsson Tapped For India Wireless Expansion Plan.
July 18, 2007... Ericsson bagged one of the world's larger network expansion deals, a $2 billion order from India's Bharti Airtel to expand its GSM/Edge network during the next two years. At the same time, the Swedish manufacturer learned this morning it...

Vivendi Pledge Wins EC OK For SFR/Tele2 Deal.
July 18, 2007... The European Commission (EC) has given its blessing to the French Societe Francaise de Radiotelephone (SFR) plan to buy the French fixed and broadband businesses of Sweden's Tele2 for $450 million, following a pledge by Vivendi that it won't...

Banks Could Profit As WISP Providers.
July 18, 2007... Texas-based ERF Wireless, which provides enterprise-class wireless and broadband products and services, says its ERF Enterprise Network Services subsidiary just wrapped a successful three-year testing and certification process for the...

Europeans Push DVB-H As Mobile TV Standard.
July 18, 2007... The European Commission (EC) today said it's considering a move to establish Nokia's Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds (DVB-H) technology as the standard for mobile TV on the continent. The lack of a standard, the EC adds,...

More Text Ads Coming To Your Handset.
July 18, 2007... ConsumerBase, a multi-channel e-marketing agency with clients in North America and the U.K., is kicking off what it says is a highly targeted, opt-in, text-messaging data product that will allow advertisers to reach consumers via their...

Sprint, Clearwire Team To Hedge Their WiMAX Bets.
July 19, 2007... Sprint Nextel and Clearwire this morning said they will partner for the construction of a nationwide mobile wireless broadband network, based on IEEE 802.16e or so-called "mobile WiMAX," rather than each building a competing network of its...

Indians 'Spice' Up Their Cellular Investments.
July 19, 2007... India's Spice Telecom, the seventh-largest cellular carrier in that country's booming wireless market, went public this morning and investors went wild, driving the price of shares up by as much as 46 percent within minutes. Spice had...

Memo To SunRocket Survivors: Here Comes ooma.
July 19, 2007... VoIP provider SunRocket now is no more than a distant memory - gone four whole days (TelecomWeb news break July 16) - to everyone other than the 200,000 subscribers now in search of a new dial tone. But venture capitalists, undeterred by the...

Vegas Set For Hiwire Act.
July 19, 2007... A partnership between Hiwire, a subsidiary of giant 700 MHz licensee Aloha Partners, and SES Americom will showcase cable in its upcoming Las Vegas consumer trials of a multicast mobile-TV network. Starting later this month, participants...

Good News And Bad News For Verizon Wireless.
July 19, 2007... Prior to discussing its 2Q07 financials, which are slated for release July 30, Verizon Wireless is touting the addition of 1.6 million new retail net customer adds during the quarter. Wholesale customers, however, fell by 0.3 million. ...

To No Surprise, FCC Faces Video-Franchise Court Challenge.
July 19, 2007... In a brief filed yesterday, a coalition of local government and non- profit groups asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to overturn the video-franchising order issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last spring...

Airvana IPO Price Drops First Day.
July 20, 2007... Wireless broadband-network gearmaker Airvana Inc. went public today under the ticker symbol AIRV, offering 8.3 million shares of common stock at a reduced $7 per share in an attempt to raise $58 million. However, at TelecomWeb news break's...

Broadcom, Verizon Wireless Kiss And Make Up.
July 20, 2007... Broadcom Corporation and Verizon Wireless apparently have buried the legal hatchet, crafting a licensing agreement they say "permits the continued importation and sale by Verizon Wireless of mobile devices that are the subject of the current...

U.K. Broadband Battle Cry 'Free' Takes On New Meaning.
July 20, 2007... The once-alluring offer of "free" broadband has been trumped by a new offer of a "free" laptop computer as the bloody battle for the British broadband market moved into new and uncharted territory this week. First, France Telecom's...

IPTV Challenges Cable In Singapore.
July 20, 2007... Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) tomorrow will launch its IPTV service, the first-ever pay TV challenge to monopoly cable-TV provider StarHub. SingTel also is the first operator in Asia to commercially launch an IPTV...

Qwest Berated For VoIP Patent Violations.
July 20, 2007... A relatively unknown company named Rates Technology Inc. has charged both Qwest and Primus Telecommunications with allegedly violating a pair of patents it holds regarding their VoIP services. Rates is best known for demanding $5 billion...

Capitol Hill Adds Telecom Heat To Washington's Summer.
July 20, 2007... Consumers, business and agriculture all stand to benefit from several congressional telecom initiatives passed in committee during the last two days. First, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation unanimously vetted...

MVNO Amp'd Texts Customers The Bad News.
July 23, 2007... The end is nigh for mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Amp'd, a costly half-billion-dollar experiment in cellular niche marketing (Amp'd was aimed at the youth market) that went totally awry. Service will end, and cellphones will...

Rumor Du Jour: Nokia Siemens Sniffs Around Tellabs.
July 23, 2007... With merger-and-acquisition activity in the telecom industry during the past year at near-fever pitch, the latest rumor has Nokia Siemens offering a healthy $16 or $17 per share for router vendor Tellabs, which traded at $11.85 at the end of...

Vodafone Could Make Verizon Wireless Decision Tomorrow.
July 23, 2007... U.K. giant Vodafone is being pushed to sell its minority holdings in Verizon Wireless (TelecomWeb news break, June 19), and the issue will be discussed at the carrier's annual meeting tomorrow. One Vodafone shareholder, Efficient Capital...

AT&T Launches Cellular Video Service.
July 23, 2007... Here's looking at you, kid. AT&T Wireless (the erstwhile Cingular) this morning launched what it says is the first-ever U.S. service to enable users to transmit live video over their wireless phones while on a voice call. Essentially, it's...

Thai Mobile Vows A Return To Market Dominance.
July 23, 2007... Despite its financial and competitive woes, Thai Mobile, a joint venture between TOT Plc and CAT Telecom, wants to have 300,000 subscribers on the books by year's end - a stretch, considering it only has 70,000 today. The wireless...

Alvarion/KDDI Team Takes On Southeast Asia.
July 23, 2007... Israel's Alvarion Ltd. is partnering with Japanese carrier KDDI to bridge the digital divide in Cambodia and Vietnam. KDDI promotes telecommunications and information and communications technology (ICT) services via its own specific...

AT&T Financials Fine Despite iPhone Failures.
July 24, 2007... AT&T today reported good financial results for its second quarter, with the only glitch being a massive shortfall in initial iPhone sales. That disclosure sent Apple stock shares tumbling this morning. But the iPhone was only available...

Crown Castle Ditches DVB-H Mobile-TV Effort.
July 24, 2007... In a move that's put a big question mark next to the future of DVB-H mobile TV in the United States, tower operator Crown Castle says it's essentially abandoning the nationwide spectrum it had planned to use for its nascent Modeo mobile-TV...

IEEE Group Agrees To Dual 40/100 Gb/s Ethernet Standard.
July 24, 2007... The IEEE group set up to plot the future course of Ethernet standards has issued a recommendation that a single working group simultaneously develop both 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s standards. Such a move would end the debate over future...

Survey Sez: Nokia Platforms Rule.
July 24, 2007... More wireless developers worldwide plan to support Nokia platforms than any other brand, according to Evans Data's new Wireless Development Survey that will be released to subscribers this week. The new survey says Nokia's established...

Verizon Wireless Tops In Customer Service.
July 24, 2007... Vocal Laboratories Inc. (VocaLabs) put Verizon Wireless at the top of its most recent "SectorPulse" survey of customer service among the largest wireless phone companies. VocaLabs' SectorPulse reports compare the customer service quality...

Commissioners Talk Auctions, Broadband On The Hill.
July 24, 2007... As expected, the top five employees of the Federal Communications Commission focused on the 700 MHz auction and on better broadband proliferation when they testified in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier today. Here...

Amp'd Gets A Brief Reprieve.
July 25, 2007... Like a death-row inmate already walking to the chair who suddenly is told he's getting one last appeal, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Amp'd has been given a last-minute reprieve. Its phones, set to be turned off yesterday...

The Internet Flies Again, With Quantas First In Line.
July 25, 2007... We knew it would only be a matter of time before one airline or another announced a deal with the handful of companies gearing up to provide in-flight Internet access - picking up the slack from the death of Boeing's pioneering but ill-fated...

EC To End GSM Spectrum Monopoly.
July 25, 2007... The European Commission (EC) today proposed ditching the 20-year-old law that gives GSM a monopoly on use of 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz frequencies in order to open up those frequencies to deliver 3G wireless data and multimedia using Universal...

Update: Vodafone Voters Reject Verizon Wireless Spinoff.
July 25, 2007... Vodafone shareholder group Efficient Capital Structures (ECS), headed by former Marconi finance director John Mayo, saw its demand that the U.K.-based wireless carrier sell off its partnership shares in Verizon Wireless go down in flames at...

Next FCC Meeting Focuses On Auction, Roaming.
July 25, 2007... It will be an all-wireless-all-the-time open meeting at the Federal Communications Commission next Tuesday, with the most excitement swirling around rules governing the upcoming auction of 700 MHz spectrum. Commissioners will consider a...

Chinese Smartphone Users Prefer Pleasure Over Business.
July 25, 2007... Driven by the continuous functional improvement of smartphones along with the introduction of middle-range models, better designs and the enrichment of third-party applications, nearly 10.5 million smartphones shipped in China in 2006,...

Rumor Du Jour: Koreans Eye Sprint, Attempt To Salvage Helio.
July 26, 2007... Is South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, sniffing around Sprint Nextel? Some reports out of Seoul this morning say a takeover offer, in conjunction with unnamed venture-capital firms, is being considered while others say SK has...

Virgin, BT Ditch DAB-Based Mobile TV.
July 26, 2007... The tiny screens of Virgin Media telephones in the U.K. won't be showing any more TV shows once Jan. 1, 2008, rolls around. The decision to shut down the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)-based service provided by Virgin and BT, which was...

T-Mobile Continues J.D. Power Winning Streak.
July 26, 2007... In the battle for customer-service domination, T-Mobile USA Inc. once again has earned the highest ranking from J.D. Power and Associates, marking the sixth consecutive period the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary has held the top spot. ...

More Reports Confirm iPhone Sales Continue To Lag.(Financial report)
July 26, 2007... Despite all the iPhone hype, newly released 2Q07 data from the Strategy Analytics "ProductTRAX" program indicates that only 250,000 iPhone units were sold to U.S. consumers through the combined AT&T and Apple outlets during the last two days...

Federal Signal Beefs Up First-Responder Software Portfolio.
July 26, 2007... Federal Signal Corporation has acquired the business and assets of Birmingham, Ala.-based Riverchase Technologies LLC, a privately held public- safety software developer. No financial details were disclosed. The Riverchase...

British Broadband Battle Tightens.
July 26, 2007... Both BT and Carphone Warehouse this morning released financial results, claiming major inroads in the broadband business. However, neither topped the phenomenal broadband growth claimed earlier this month by direct-to-home (DTH) satellite...