Telecompaper Africa/Asia articles from September 2011, page 8

Telecompaper Africa/Asia archives from September 2011

South Korea - SK Broadband gains 4,460 IPTV subs in August.
September 19, 2011... Korean internet provider SK Broadband ended August with 4.13 million internet customers as the company signed up 14,723 new customers in the month. The company also gained 25,888 telephony customers bringing its total to 4.15 million. The total...

Macau - 3 Macau launches e-book service, Galaxy Tab 10.1.
September 19, 2011... Mobile operator 3 Macau, part of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong, has launched 3Books, a mobile multimedia e-book platform. The operator partnered with 24Reader to launch the service and plans to partner with other e-book providers,...

South Korea - KT wins 70,000 IPTV customers in August.
September 19, 2011... South Korean communications firm KT ended August with 7.69 million broadband customers as the company added 31,000 new subscribers in the month. KT also had 19.23 million fixed-line customers, down by 13,000. The operator had 16.11 million PSTN...

Philippines - SMS revenues forecast to drop in Philippines.
September 19, 2011... Revenues from SMS messaging in the Philippines are expected to drop by 2015 as other communication modes will become more popular. Philippine operators earned an estimated USD 1.768 billion last year from messages, up 1.5 percent from 2009....

Singapore - IDA lifts restrictions on resale of international services.
September 19, 2011... Following a consultation in April, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has decided to remove the restrictions on Resale of International Leased Circuits (RLC) and International Simple Resale (ISR) services from the relevant...

Viet Nam - Beeline Vietnam launches Ty Phu package.
September 19, 2011... Mobile operator Beeline Vietnam has launched a new package called Ty Phu. The package offers free calls to other Beeline numbers from the second to the twentieth minute. The first minute and twenty-first minutes are priced at VND 1,350. Calls to...

South Africa - MTN supports conference of African journalists in Cape Town.
September 19, 2011... MTN said it is once again supporting the Highway Africa Conference in Cape Town, the world's largest annual gathering of African journalists. In 2011, Highway Africa will be attended by more than 500 journalists and will focus on sustainability...

Kenya - Huawei broadband roadshow reaches Kenya.
September 19, 2011... Huawei's annual Mobile Broadband (MBB) roadshow has arrived in Nairobi after a tour of South Africa, and will later visit Tanzania and Uganda, among other countries in Africa. Huawei said SMART MBB is an end-to-end all-IP technology to increase...

Kenya - Airtel Kenya staff make donations for Nairobi fire victims.
September 19, 2011... Airtel Kenya staff have donated clothes and bedding to victims of the recent fire at Sinai in Nairobi. Staff had already donated 45 pints of blood at a special clinic at their offices. CCO Shivan Bhargava said the company has now opened a...

Kazakhstan - Tele2 Kazakhstan sees KZT 5 interconnect rate as optimal.
September 19, 2011... A KZT 5 interconnect rate for mobile calls would be optimal given the current situation on the Kazakhstan market, according to Andrey Smelkov, the CEO of mobile operator Tele2 Kazakhstan. He said Kazakhstan is among the countries that has set...

Uzbekistan - Ucell halves postpaid roaming fees on T-Mobile network in US.
September 19, 2011... Uzbek mobile operator Ucell announced that it has reduced roaming rates in the US for its postpaid subscribers. The cost of calls using the network of T-Mobile there has been halved.

Tajikistan - Megafon Tajikistan launches free incoming calls in Russia.
September 19, 2011... Mobile operator Megafon Tajikistan said is offering free incoming calls while using roaming services in Russia. It also announced that it has invested USD 110 million in expanding its network over the past three years and the amount of base...

Macau - 3Macau launches mobile multimedia eBook platform.
September 19, 2011... 3Macau has launched 3Books, a mobile multimedia eBook platform. The service provides flat-rate charging system and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, customers access e-reading service via a single platform with a range...

Philippines - Smart unveils new account management portal.
September 19, 2011... Philippine mobile operator Smart Communications has introduced my.Smart (my.Smart.com.ph) for customers to manage their mobile accounts. my.Smart enables Smart prepaid, postpaid and broadband subscribers to manage all of their accounts under one...

Ghana - MTN Ghana donates towards Kundum Festival.
September 19, 2011... MTN Ghana is supporting this year's Kundum festival of the chiefs and people of the Axim Traditional Area of the Western Region with cash and assorted items. MTN said it has donated GHC 3,000, recharge cards worth GHC 500, a drinks hamper and...

Ghana - Ghana's NCA to sanction mobile operators for poor service.
September 19, 2011... The Ghanaian National Communication Authority (NCA) said it will sanction mobile operators if they fail to address poor network services. Mawuko Zomelo, a Deputy Director at the NCA, told the Ghana News Agency that the sanction could be in the...

New Zealand - Chorus deploys fibre-fed broadband cabinets in Rolleston.
September 19, 2011... New Zealand network operator Chorus has begun switching on fibre-fed broadband cabinets in Rolleston as part of an NZD 1 million project to enable high speed internet access. Each cabinet is worth more than NZD 100,000 and can connect up to 384...

Japan - J:Com ends August with 3.57 mln customers.
September 19, 2011... Japanese cable operator Jupiter Telecommunications (J:Com) ended August with 3.57 million customers, up 6 percent year-on-year. Combined revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable television, internet access, and telephony services reached...

Bahrain - Batelco launches IPTV service.
September 19, 2011... Bahrain operator Batelco announced that IPTV will soon be available for broadband customers in certain areas. Batelco will deliver IPTV in partnership with Selevision and plans to extend the service to more areas and additional subscribers....

Kenya - Alcatel-Lucent donates USD 147,000 to drought-hit Kenya.
September 19, 2011... Alcatel-Lucent has donated USD 147,000 to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) to help combat the severe humanitarian crisis devastating East Africa brought on by the worst drought in some 60 years. This donation is a result of a Global Matching...

Armenia - VivaCell ups MMS price on 2 plans.
September 19, 2011... Armenian mobile operator VivaCell-MTS has increased the price of MMS messages for the 'Personal' and 'City Talks' plans. MMS messages will be priced at AMD 20 from 27 September, up from the current price of AMD 15 per message.

India - DoT extends deadline for network security rules.
September 16, 2011... India's Department of Telecom (DoT) has set fresh deadlines for mobile companies to comply with the security rules announced in June, reports The Economic Times. Mobile operators will have to submit an organisational policy on security...

South Africa - MLab South Africa officially opens.
September 16, 2011... MLab Southern Africa (SA), the new regional lab for mobile technology entrepreneurs, application developers and innovators, has officially opened at science park The Innovation Hub in Pretoria. According to The Innovation Hub CEO McLean Sibanda,...

South Africa - South Africa's Mobile TV moves closer to commercial launch.
September 16, 2011... South Africa's Mobile TV, which is planning to introduce mobile television services using the DMB broadcasting standard, said it could be ready to start broadcasting commercially within three months in Gauteng. It is also planning to introduce...

India - Samsung triples handset production capacity in India.
September 16, 2011... Samsung Electronics has tripled its mobile handset production capacity in India, following the commissioning of new facilities at its Noida manufacturing plant through an investment of approximately USD 70 million, reports The Financial Express....

Algeria - Nedjma kicks-off six-month national retail drive.
September 16, 2011... Algerian mobile operator Nedjma has begun a six-month retail drive that will reach many counties across the country's four regions. The first phase of the campaign launched on 12 September in the western Wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou. A Nedjma-liveried...

UAE - Mannai AGM clears 1-for-5 share issue to part-pay Axiom deal.
September 16, 2011... Shareholders at conglomerate Mannai's AGM approved a 20 percent capital increase to part-fund its acquisition of a stake of over one third of UAE-based mobile retailer Axiom. Mannai will issue new shares at the rate of one for every five shares...

Middle East - Aptec signed as VMware training centre.
September 16, 2011... Aptec Distribution has signed up as the VMware Authorised Training Centre (VATC) in the Middle East region. Aptec will open a training centre at its UAE regional head office, with sites in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to follow soon. The distributor...

Ghana - GTUC, Huawei ink partnership deal.
September 16, 2011... Huawei and Ghana Telecom University College have signed a MoU to promote capacity building and the exchange of best practices. The agreement aims at enhancing professional skills at GTUC and among Huawei staff through training, staff...

Iraq - Asiacell sponsors Iraq football team for WC qualifier.
September 16, 2011... Iraqi operator Asiacell announced its sponsorship of the Iraqi national football team during its upcoming participation in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Asiacell sponsored the Iraqi national football team's participation in the 2011 Asian Cup...

UAE - Du launches BlackBerry Torch 9860 in UAE.
September 16, 2011... UAE operator Du and Research In Motion have launched the new BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone in the region. The phone features the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, an all-touch handset design, and a large 3.7-inch display. The BlackBerry...

Ghana - Vodafone, Airtel gain market share in Ghana.
September 16, 2011... Ghana's operators MTN and Tigo are gradually losing their grip in the country in terms of market share. According to the National Communications Authority (NCA), MTN's market share, which stood at 50.7 percent in January, has dropped to to 48.75...

Ghana - Vodafone Ghana unveils Samsung Galaxy II.
September 16, 2011... Vodafone Ghana has launched the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone. The Android phone is sold with Vodafone's 3G data packages. Pricing details were not announced. Vodafone offers the original Samsung Galaxy S for GHS 1,035.

Saudi Arabia - Sourcefire signs deal with Mobily.
September 16, 2011... Internet security firm Sourcefire has finalised a deal with Saudi operator Mobily to implement its intrusion prevention system (IPS) across the operator's network. Sourcefire, founded by Martin Roesch, the creator of open source intrusion...

Hong Kong - Acentic opens Hong Kong office with subsidiary Acentic Asia.
September 16, 2011... Germany-based supplier of digital interactive TV systems Acentic has opened its subsidiary Acentic Asia, which is located in the Hopewell Centre in Hong Kong Island. Acentic Asia will bring Acentic's in-room entertainment Hotel TV system and...

Algeria - Algeria invites bids for 3G licences.
September 16, 2011... Algeria has invited bids from operators for the country's first 3G licences. According to the terms of the tender outlined by state telecoms regulator ARPT, bids are due on 7 October and it will announced the winners on 23 October. The winners...

Japan - JAL selects Panasonic's eXConnect for in-flight connectivity.
September 16, 2011... In-flight entertainment and communication systems provider Panasonic Avionics will install its broadband Ku connectivity service, eXConnect, on Japan Airlines Co (JAL) aircraft. Under terms of the agreement, Panasonic initially will provide...

Israel - New consumer-oriented mobile regulations debut in Israel.
September 16, 2011... The Israeli ministry of communications said the new, consumer-oriented regulations for the mobile market will go into effect from 13 September. The rules will affect how operators communicate with their customers, so that the main terms and...

India - Loop offers special Friday programme for users in Mumbai.
September 16, 2011... Indian mobile operator Loop Mobile has unveiled a special loyalty programme for all subscribers in Mumbai. The Loop Mobile Friday Special programme is valid for all postpaid or prepaid Loop Mobile subscriber in Mumbai. This offer having started...

China - China Mobile selects Trunkbow for mobile payment terminals.
September 16, 2011... Chinese mobile application enabler Trunkbow International Holdings has won a MPS contract by China Mobile to support its deployment of POS-based MPS network in the Hebei Province, China. Trunkbow targets to complete the installation of this...

South Korea - BroadLight, ETRI to develop XGPON technology in Korea.
September 16, 2011... Fabless semiconductor company BroadLight has collaborated with Korea's National Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to enable a standardised XGPON (ITU-T G.987) initial deployment in Korea. BroadLight and ETRI are using...

Pakistan - Warid offers free handsets with top-ups.
September 16, 2011... Pakistani mobile operator Warid Telecom has launched its Double Dhamal offer for its customers in and around the regions of Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala. The company is also offering two handsets free in this offer. All customers who buy...

Japan - IIJ to launch services at 7th data centre in October.
September 16, 2011... Japanese network and internet services provider Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) will launch services at its new Mitaka centre on 1 October. The Mitaka data centre is IIJ's seventh data centre in Tokyo.

Australia - NBN goes live in Willunga.
September 16, 2011... Australia's National Broadband Network has been officially launched in the rural town of Willunga in South Australia. The first release fibre network in Willunga covers 940 premises, with residents in approximately 91 percent of properties...

Malaysia - Celcom aims to win 10,000 subs with Blackberry Torch 9860.
September 16, 2011... Malaysian mobile services provider Celcom Axiata is aiming to attract some 10,000 new customers with the BlackBerry Torch 9860 within two months. Furthermore, Celcom expects to gain around 20,000 customers within four to five months, Bernama...

Thailand - Forth unveils educational tablet PC.
September 16, 2011... Thai electronics maker Forth has unveiled its educational tablet PC in a move to join the government's THB 4 billion One Tablet per Child programme. The tablet is priced at THB 3,000 and features a 7-inch display and provides settings to control...

Indonesia - Telkom to pick appraisers for its Telkomsel share buy plan.
September 16, 2011... Indonesian state-owned telecommunications company Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) will shortly appoint financial appraisers to assess the company's plan to buy back SingTel's 35 percent stake in mobile operator Telkomsel. Five local and...

Bangladesh - Grameenphone plans loan of BDT 11.02 bln.
September 16, 2011... The board of directors of Bangladeshi mobile operator Grameenphone have approved a plan to loan up to BDT 11.02 billion. The loan will be used to optimise the company's capital structure and finance strategic initiatives and projects, a filing...

Thailand - OAG allows DTAC's 3G launch.
September 16, 2011... The Thai Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) has said that DTAC's launch of commercial 3G services is within the bounds of its concession from CAT Telecom. DTAC launched the HSPA service on 16 August in Bangkok. The service uses the company's...

Thailand - TrueVisions to launch HD set-top boxes in October.
September 16, 2011... Thai pay-TV provider TrueVisions, part of communications group True, is investing over THB 2 billion to introduce HD set-top boxes to replace older set-top boxes over the next two years. The new set-top boxes will be launched next month and the...

Thailand - DTAC releases BlackBerry services.
September 16, 2011... Thai mobile operator DTAC has released a prepaid credit borrowing service for BlackBerry users and adjusted some of its other BlackBerry services. The Jai Dee BB Borrow Service, which targets young users, allows customers to continue using the...

New Zealand - Chorus completes network upgrade in Tauranga.
September 16, 2011... New Zealand network operator Chorus has completed work to upgrade broadband networks in Tauranga. The company deployed 60km of fibre optic cable and installed 147 new fibre fed cabinets to enable broadband speeds of at least 10 Mbps to homes and...

New Zealand - Regulator sets draft price for low frequency voice services.
September 16, 2011... The New Zealand Commerce Commission has issued its draft determination on the price and non-price terms for the Unbundled Copper Low Frequency Voice Service (UCLFS). The UCLFS will enable telecommunications companies to provide a voice service...

Australia - Vodafone Australia launches Infinite Sim Only Plan promo.
September 16, 2011... Vodafone Australia has launched a promotion for its AUD 45 Infinite Sim Only Plan. Customers that subscribe online before 30 September will pay only AUD 10 for the first month.

Australia - Optus to defend copyright infringement claim for Now TV.
September 16, 2011... Optus will defend itself in Federal Court from claims it is infringing copyright by providing AFL and NRL games online via its TV Now service. The AFL and NRL allege that Optus is infringing copyright by providing the matches online with a delay...

Taiwan - Taiwanese smartphone shipments hit 990,000 in Q2 - study.
September 16, 2011... Smartphone shipments in Taiwan reached 990,000 units in the second quarter, up 145 percent year-on-year. Smartphone shipments accounted for over half of all handset shipments in the quarter, the Digitimes writes citing data from IDC. Total...

Singapore - IDA offers advice service for connecting to NBN.
September 16, 2011... The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is offering home owners the 'Home Networking Clinic' for advice on connecting to country's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network. Located at iExperience, the Home Networking Clinic is...

South Korea - SK Telecom develops NFC-enabled Usim.
September 16, 2011... Korean communications provider SK Telecom has developed a Usim card equipped with a Near Field Communication chip, called 'NFC on Usim.' The Usim card was developed with SK Telecom's own technology and comes embedded with a 13.56 MHz antenna,...

Japan - UQ expands Wimax to 11 airports.
September 16, 2011... Wimax operator UQ Communications has expanded Wimax coverage to eleven airports. With the expansion, UQ's service is available in 26 airports nationwide. At the end of August, the operator's coverage reached 72 percent of Japan and over 95...

Fiji - Vodafone Fiji launches Webbox.
September 16, 2011... Mobile operator Vodafone Fiji unveiled Webbox, a device that provides internet access through a customer's existing television set. Webbox is basically a computer keyboard with a provision for a Sim card to access internet using Vodafone network...

Saudi Arabia - Zain Saudi Arabia launches LTE network.
September 16, 2011... Zain Saudi Arabia has launched a LTE network, in the cities Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. Zain said it will extend the 4G offering in stages in the coming months and eventually cover all the Kingdom's major cities by the end of 2012. Further...

Ghana - Vodafone Ghana launches package for students.
September 16, 2011... Vodafone Ghana has launched a new package for students. Called Red League, the offer is solely for students in tertiary institutions, particularly at universities, polytechnics, nursing training and teacher training colleges, and who are prepaid...

Kazakhstan - Tele2 sets new financial targets in Croatia, Kazakhstan.
September 16, 2011... Tele2 announced new financial targets for its operations in Croatia and Kazakhstan at its capital markets day. Tele2 Croatia is forecast to reach positive free cash flow in Q3, and its EBITDA margin should reach 20 percent by Q3 2013. The EBITDA...

Uzbekistan - Beeline Uzbekistan introduces online customer support.
September 16, 2011... Mobile operator Beeline Uzbekistan has introduced an online customer support service, run from its call centre. The service is available worldwide from the operator's website.

Malawi - TNM in talks with strategic equity partner.
September 16, 2011... Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) announced that it has received an expression of interest from and entered into discussions with a potential strategic equity partner, the outcome of which may affect the TNM share price. In a statement to the stock...

Africa - Redknee appoints sales directors for ME, Africa.
September 16, 2011... Redknee announced that it has strengthened its presence in the Middle East and African market with the appointment of two new senior sales directors, reinforcing the company's commitment to increasing its footprint in the region. At a time of...

Africa - Airtel Africa names product and innovation director.
September 16, 2011... Bharti Airtel announced the appointment of Willie Ellis as its Product and Innovation Director for Africa. Ellis brings over 16 years experience in telecommunications. Most recently, he was the managing executive responsible for new product...

Japan - Sharp scales back Galapagos tablets range.
September 16, 2011... Sharp announced it will stop taking orders for its Galapagos Android tablets launched last December in Japan. The 5.5- and 10.8-inch devices will no longer be available after 30 September, the company said in a statement. Sharp launched a 7-inch...

Georgia - Mobitel wins contract at SocGen.
September 16, 2011... Mobile operator Mobitel, working under the Beeline Georgia brand, has been chosen as the single provider of mobile services by the Georgian branch of the Societe Generale Group. All staff at the bank will receive mobile services from Mobitel,...

Pakistan - OT confirms Waseela Bank takeover.
September 16, 2011... Orascom Telecom confirmed it bought Waseela Bank in Pakistan in November 2010 for USD 11.05 million. In a statement issued to the Egyptian Stock Exchange, the company said the deal was not disclosed earlier due to its small value. Alborsa daily...

Pakistan - PTCL launches FTTH services.
September 16, 2011... Pakistan incumbent PTCL has deployed its first fibre-to-the-home services. Based on GPON technology, the services are first available in parts of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and include broadband, digital TV and fixed telephony.

Asia - Twitter adds support for five Asian languages.
September 16, 2011... Twitter added support for five Asian languages, namely Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Tagalog and Malay. With these new languages, Twitter will now be more easily accessible to almost half a billion people around the world. Twitter...

Kenya - Kenya govt to publish SIM card cut-off laws by end-September.
September 16, 2011... The Kenyan government says it will gazette the laws formalising the disconnection of unregistered SIM cards in two weeks' time to give service providers the legal backing needed to act, The Nairobi Star reported. Information and Communication...

Rwanda - Rwandan government mulls acquiring iPads for officials.
September 16, 2011... The Rwandan government is considering purchasing iPads for its officials, among them cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries, in an effort to reduce paper consumption, the New Times reported online. According to the Minister in charge of ICT...

Qatar - Qtel will not raise prices after govt staff pay increases.
September 16, 2011... Qtel said it will not raise prices, after the Qatari government announced hefty pay hikes for its employees. CEO Saud bin Nasser Al Thani said the state-owned telecommunication operator will not increase prices and said there would be more...

Zimbabwe - Africom interconnects with Econet, TelOne.
September 16, 2011... Zimbabwean operator Africom has connected its CDMA network with Econet's mobile network and TelOne's fixed line network, TechZim reported. It is already connected with Telecel. Africom took the opportunity to remind the market that making calls...

Saudi Arabia - STC stages National Day competition.
September 16, 2011... Saudi operator STC is running a 'Let Me Listen with the National Day' competition via the Sam3ni voice portal service, in cooperation with MBC group and 2Share Company. Customers, citizens and residents are invited to answer questions about...

Zambia - Airtel Zambia provokes most customer complaints - ZICTA.
September 16, 2011... Airtel Zambia is the most complained-against mobile phone provider while MTN Zambia remains the cheapest and most efficient, said ZICTA public relations manager Ngabo Nankonde, The Post Zambia reported online. Nankonde also said the bulk of...

Africa - Bharti Airtel sees Africa sales at USD 5 bln by May 2013.
September 16, 2011... Bharti Airtel said it expects revenues from its African operations to touch USD 5 billion by May 2013. Bharti Airtel CEO (International) and joint MD Manoj Kohli told PTI that the company is extremely satisfied with its acquisition of Zain...

Namibia - Alvarion, RamPoint team up to serve Namibian market.
September 16, 2011... Alvarion South Africa has appointed Namibian telecommunications system integrator RamPoint Communications as its new partner for the licence-exempt market. The two companies have been working together in the Southern Africa Development Community...

Kenya - Yu makes free on-net calls permanent.
September 16, 2011... Kenyan mobile operator Yu said its recent promotion offering free on-net calls will be made permanent. The promotion, which allows Yu subscribers to make free on-net calls daily between 06:00hrs and 18:00hrs, was scheduled to end next week....

Oman - Omantel connects stock exchange with brokerages.
September 16, 2011... The Muscat Securities Market (MSM) has activated a new high-speed virtual link developed with Omantel, to connect the sites of 25 banks and brokerages with the bourse for quicker and safer transactions, Muscat Daily reported. The virtual network...

Bahrain - Viva Bahrain launches mobile shop.
September 16, 2011... Viva Bahrain has launched its first mobile shop, a specially fitted van that will bring its products and services closer to customers, Trade Arabia reported. The mobile shop made its inaugural stop in Juffair on 13 September where it will...

Bahrain - Batelco, Qtel sign VPN interconnection deal.
September 16, 2011... Bahrain operator Batelco said it has signed an interconnection partnership deal with Qatar Telecom (Qtel) aimed at extending corporate VPN services between the two markets. It will provide MPLS VPN services to Bahrain and Qatar-based businesses...