Archive for November, 2008
India – telecommunications growth
November 30th, 2008 | 
Author: India?s telecom services industry revenues is projected to reach $54 billion in 2012, as compared with $31 billion in 2008 according to the CII Ernst & Young report titled ?India 2012: Telecom growth continues.?
Mr Prashant Singhal, Telecom Industry Leader, Ernst & Young India, said, ?The telecom sector has witnessed exponential growth in the past decade. However, the global economic scenario is expected to have a low to medium impact on the overall telecom industry. Despite this scenario, the interest shown by global telecom operators in the domestic market has been very encouraging.?
He further added, ?Going forward, rural telephony, 3G, WiMax and data services will drive sector growth in 2012. The industry will witness sustained growth in mobile services and data revenues. Network expansion will continue in order to support the rural growth. It is imperative for the government to revisit high levies on the telecom sector and lay down a clear roadmap for future spectrum allocation. A positive and pro-active approach from all stakeholders in defining the future course of the sector will ensure a positive outlook for 2012.?
SUBSCRIBER BASE TO GROW
Findings from the report indicate that the total telecom subscriber base is expected to reach approximately 690-700 million by 2012 to include about 640-650 million wireless users and approximately 45-50 million fixed line users.
This is going to be primarily driven by a rise in communications demand from semi urban and rural India.
Circle B and Circle C would experience the highest growth and would contribute to about 60 per cent of the total mobile subscribers.
?That said the availability of adequate spectrum could remain a hurdle for wireless growth. The telecom sector will witness another round of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). As new operators roll-out networks, there could be 10-12 operators in each circle. However, by end of 2012, industry consolidation will result in about five to seven large operators,? it said.
3G & WiMax
The report emphasises that the launch of 3G and WiMax services will drive the data revolution. In 2012, 3G services will have just begun to spread in India and mobile entertainment and mobile banking are likely to be the biggest drivers for data services. 3G and WiMax services are expected to gain popularity initially in the top 20 cities and gradually penetrate to the rest of the country. By 2012, India would have about 25-30 million 3G subscribers and 3G revenues would reach around $4-5 billion by 2012. WiMax, on the other hand, could attract about 8-10 million subscribers and could account for about $1-1.5 billion by 2012.
Posted in Communications | 
Tags: 3g, amp, ash, Banking, business, Communications, Mobile, mobile services, mobile subscriber, Network, rim, wimax, Wireless | 
Comments Closed
Tanzania – growth of telecom sector
Dar Es Salaam: Tanzania expects the number of phone users to rise by about 25 per cent to 13 million in the first half of 2009 with most growth coming from mobiles, the telecom regulator said on Friday.
Telecommunications is among the fastest growing sectors in the country. Government statistics showed it grew by 20.1 per cent in 2007, compared with 19.2 per cent a year before.
“Hardly four years ago we were less than two million. Towards the middle of 2009, we should easily reach 13 million,” Tanzania Regulatory Authority (TCRA) Director General John Nkoma said.
“We do expect that by the end of this year, we should be hitting maybe 10.5 million or 11 million. It’s largely driven by mobile.”
At the end of 2007, Tanzania had 8.48 million subscribers, while by the middle of this year, it had 10.43 million. According to the regulator, Tanzania has a penetration rate of about 25 per cent for both mobile and fixed lines, making it still attractive for other players entering the sector.
Licences
Nkoma said TCRA issued licences last week to two local firms – MyCell and Egotel – for fixed line and mobile networks, among other services.
TCRA has also given Zain Tanzania, part of Kuwait’s Zain, a licence to install an international gateway. Zain said in October it would invest $180 million (Dh662.04 million) on its network. It joins four other firms, including state-run Tanzania Telecommunications, lic-ensed to own international gateways.
A third application is pending from Smile Communications Tanzania Limited, owned by Mauritius’ Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited with 65 per cent and local stakeholders, he added.
Two other companies, including HITS Telecom Tanzania, majority owned by Saudi firm HITS Telecom through its subsidiary HITS Africa, and locally-owned Dovetel, are also in the process of rolling out their networks, Nkoma said.
Other companies in the sector include market leader Vodacom Tanzania, a unit of the South African company jointly owned by Telkom and Britain’s Vodafone. Others are Zantel, majority owned by etisalat and Tigo, owned by Millicom Cellular.
The east African nation of 40 million people, regarded as relatively calm in a volatile region, has been attracting investment in telecom and other sectors apart from traditional areas like tourism, mining and agriculture.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: application, Audi, business, Communications, Culture, Mobile, mobile network, Network, vodafone |
Comments Closed
Turkey – 3G licences granted
An official from the tender committee cuts the ribbon holding the dossiers of the mobile operators? bids soon before the auction for 3G licences started.
A tender for the 3G mobile communication system ended yesterday with the participation of Turkey?s three GSM operators, bringing a total of 822 million euros into the Treasury with another 148 million euros going to the Finance Ministry as the value-added tax (KDV).
This extra revenue is expected to increase confidence in Turkish markets and improve the budget balance.
Despite some pessimism that the tender would not achieve the expected returns and the prospect that it might have been postponed again due to a lack of demand, the result was a success amid the global financial crisis which has rendered it difficult for companies to find credit to finance their bids. The mobile operators that shared the 3G licenses in yesterday?s standoff announced they would pay the amount as a lump sum.
The tender marked the dawn of a new era in mobile communication technology, as the introduction of 3G will bring a number of novelties such as visual communication, watching TV on phones and much faster Internet connections.
Avea, Turkcell and Vodafone bid in the tender, which was held at the headquarters of the Science Technologies and Communication Council (BTK) in Ankara. Separate bids were held for the four separate licenses on offer.
Turkcell, Turkey?s largest mobile phone operator as measured by the number of customers, offered 358 million euros for the ?Type A? 3G mobile phone license, with the highest bandwidth of the four that were auctioned (40 MHz). The company outbid rivals Vodafone, a British GSM operator, and Avea, a Turkish-Italian GSM company.
Vodafone withdrew from the auction in the first round, Avea offered 348 million euros in the second round, but withdrew in the third round. Thus, Turkcell was awarded the tender for the Type A license.
The tender will be concluded after it is ratified by the relevant authority.
In the tender for the Type B (35 MHz) license, Vodafone gave the highest bid of 250 million euros. Avea won the tender for Type C (30 MHz) license with its bid of 214 million euros. The tender for the Type D (25 MHz) license was canceled as none of the three operators submitted bids. Vodafone and Avea then won licenses for lower 3G bandwidths, with offers of 250 million euros and 214 million euros, respectively.
BTK President Tayfun Acarer said the total payment after the tender will amount to 970 million euros. He said the companies are supposed to begin 3G services within five months. “3G services will be introduced by the beginning of summer 2009,” he said. Acarer noted that the 3G system will stimulate the Turkish telecommunications market. He underlined that the tender was fair and ended without any problems and sides were content with the results on their behalf. He noted that the winning companies will have to recruit more than 500 research and development engineers from Turkey over the next three years. “This fact will affect research and development studies in Turkey positively,” he added.
He said the tender for the Type D license would be held again only after they get approval from the government.
Acarer further said the winning companies will be held responsible to expand 3G coverage to the whole country within the next 10 years. “I believe that the companies will offer service earlier than expected,” he noted.
Companies happy with the result
Turkcell CEO S?reyya Ciliv said that they were please to support the Turkish economy. Speaking after the tender was concluded, Ciliv said this was an important step to create an extra source of funds in such a time of difficulty.
Ciliv thanked Transportation Minister Binali Y?ld?r?m and the BTK for their efforts to hold the 3G tender. Regarding the ongoing global financial turmoil, Ciliv asserted that further investments in communications technology would help the Turkish economy overcome the negative effects of the crisis. He stressed that they will introduce 3G technology by July 2009. “We should attempt to further improve this technology. It will not be enough for the future,” he said, underlining that Turkcell was always looking to develop and innovate. He also said that the 3G infrastructure will take time to establish throughout Turkey, saying they will first launch the technology in large urban centers.
Avea CEO C?neyt T?rktan said they were happy that Avea was able to get the Type C license. “This was what we were looking to get out of the tender and we are glad that we have achieved our goal,” he said. T?rktan said they expected to start offering 3G service soon, underlining that they had already carried out studies into infrastructure for the implementation of 3G. “We want every single house in Turkey to have access to the Internet. There are currently 67 million GSM subscribers in Turkey, why shouldn’t all of them use Internet services via mobile Internet? We would like to contribute to this as much as we can,” he noted. He said they would start offering 3G service by June 2009. He also stressed that Turkey was not too late in its shift to 3G technology. Current infrastructure costs, the fall in the price of mobile devices and the recent government decision to reduce the private communication tax (??V) on Internet use are all facts which will encourage 3G technologies to become widespread in Turkey in a short time.
Ian Gray, the CEO of Vodafone Turkey, said yesterday that they were happy to get the “Type B” license and they were expecting to continue 3G infrastructure studies in Turkey, in conjunction with studies in other countries, underlining that Vodafone had the largest 3G network in the world. “We offer 3G service to 33 million subscribers all around the globe, and we expect to share our experience with Turkish mobile phone users,” he noted. He noted that they had been conducting studies into 3G technology for a long time and they will build their new infrastructure building on the base they had established from 2006, when they first entered the Turkish market. “We will finish our studies as soon as possible. We are excited to introduce our customers the privilege of being a Vodafone customer,” he added.
T?rk Telekom also said they expected communication investments in Turkey to accelerate now that the tender for 3G communication has ended successfully. Releasing a written statement yesterday, T?rk Telekom noted that the tender was an important step to improve the telecommunication sector of Turkey. “The T?rk Telekom family constantly invests in the field of communication with the vision of developing Turkish technology and exporting it. We hope that the long-awaited 3G technology will be to the benefit of the Turkish telecommunication sector and its customers,” the statement said.
Government hopeful for future
Minister Y?ld?r?m said that the 3G tender showed that foreign entrepreneurs had no hesitations in investing in the Turkish market, which he stressed is currently a safe haven for investors despite the current financial crisis. Speaking in Antalya yesterday, Y?ld?r?m noted that prominent international mobile telecommunications companies had decided to invest in Turkey’s future and this was really encouraging. “I hope that this tender will be for the benefit of our country,” he said. He also said the government was content with the amount of money bid in the tender.
3G services scheduled for June 2009
Upon the completion of the bidding, the BTK approved the tender. Later a draft for a concession agreement between the three GSM operators and the BTK will be prepared by the BTK. This agreement, an understanding between the companies and the BTK, will specify the rules under which the companies can operate, is expected to be sent before the end of December to the Council of State for an opinion from the council. The Council of State will then send the agreement to the next stage within two months. If this agreement reaches the council by the end of February 2009, it is expected that operators will be able to sign it by the start of next March.
Operators offering the next-generation service will only begin to be able to offer these services three months after the date that they sign the agreement, at the earliest. For this reason, 3G telecommunication services will only begin to be offered in Turkey next June.
– ——————————————————————————
Operators to receive control of networks for next 20 years
Operators that win bids for licenses in a tender for third generation (3G) mobile communication systems will also have the right to be authorized for every new type of new generation technology to be developed in this area over the next two decades.
According to information supplied by the Science Technologies and Communications Council (BTK), operators that win licenses in the tender, will not need to re-enter bidding to get licensed for new technological developments, such as the upcoming 4G system currently undergoing testing in the US. In fact, operators who acquire licenses for 3G will automatically be authorized for new generation technology over the next 20 years.
Turkey enters new era in mobile communication with 3G
The third-generation (3G) networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4 Mbyte/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink. 3G networks are wide-area cellular telephone networks that evolved to incorporate high-speed Internet access and video telephony.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: 3g, amp, budget, car, communication service, Communications, Environment, Finance, information, Internet, internet access, internet service, Investing, Mobile, mobile device, mobile devices, mobile internet, mobile operators, mobile phone, mobile phone users, mobile telecom, mobile telecommunications, money, Network, research, system, t mobile, Technology, telephone network, third generation, transmission, vodafone, Wireless, world |
Comments Closed
Belgium – a fourth mobile operator?
In an effort to increase competition in the market, the Belgian government will offer a new 3G licence next year.
Business minister Vincent Van Quickenborne recently talked about plans to promote competition in the telecoms market. ?The agreement within the government is that we want to break open the market,? he said to Belgian daily ?De Tijd.?
Next year, Belgium plans to issue its fourth UMTS/3G licence that is reportedly worth 40 million EUR.
Broadband provider Telenet wants to acquire the licence, but a number of other operators had also expressed an interest.
At present, the Belgian market is dominated by former monopoly Belgacom, which is still partly owned by the government. Other ?players? in the industry include France Telecom-owned Mobistar and KPN, which is a unit of Dutch KPN.
Europe – telecom reforms
A proposal by the European Commission for an EU-wide regulator to coordinate telecom rules was rejected by ministers from member states
EU telecoms ministers have rejected European Commission proposals to harmonise oversight of communications networks across Europe under a commission-controlled “super-regulator.”
Meeting on Thursday (27 November) in Brussels, the ministers dashed the commission’s hopes of seeing the establishment of a new EU-level telecoms body that would supercede national regulators and give the EU executive the right to veto member state decisions in the area.
Under the commission’s original November 2007 telecoms proposals, the new body would have replaced the current European Regulators Group (ERG).
Where the ERG gathers together national regulators to co-ordinate telecoms regulation, the commission’s preferred solution would have been controlled by the EU executive, supervised domestic regulators and been able to overrule national decisions.
Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding called the agreement amongst telecoms ministers today an improvement on earlier suggested compromises, although she said she was “disappointed” with the outcome.
“I continue to believe that Europe’s telecoms sector requires better rules than those now on the table here.”
Expressing her frustration, she made reference to a US intelligence report published on Friday (21 November) that predicted the EU would become a “hobbled giant” by 2025 ? powerful economically but powerless politically ? if it did not overcome its internal bickering.
She warned that if telecoms regulation was not harmonised under the commission’s surveillance, the dire predictions contained in the report would come true.
“Last week, an American intelligence report painted a picture of the world in 2025. The EU was predicted to have a diminished status as a ‘hobbled giant’,” she said.
“It is decisions that we take now that will determine whether this is indeed our fate, whether our giant market of 500 million consumers and many innovative companies remains hobbled by 27 varieties of regulation, by fragmentation, and by the absence of a level playing field for our industry.”
Ms Reding called on France, currently chairing the EU presidency, to call a meeting of ministers, the commission and the European Parliament to attempt to achieve a final agreement before Spring.
The parliament has an equal say with national ministers in the realm of telecommunications. The agreement between national ministers made on Thursday provides the basis for the negotiations on a final deal on the subject between them and the European Parliament.
The parliament’s position ? established in September- is to give the ERG a new name, but to keep its current loose co-ordination role, with the sole move towards the commission line being that the new body could take decisions by qualified majority, rather than unanimously.
The 11 cent cap
Ministers on Thursday also rejected the commission’s wish to see EU-level co-ordination of the allocation of radio frequencies ? or “spectrum” ? that will be no longer be in use after television has completed the shift from analogue broadcast to digital.
But they did back commission plans for limiting the price of sending text messages or email via a mobile when abroad but still within the EU.
The EU has already imposed price limits on mobile phone calls from abroad ? also known as “roaming” ? as Ms Reding felt that it was unfair that consumers should pay substantially more when calling from another EU state, if the union is supposed to have a single market.
This price limit will now be extended to text messaging and data traffic.
Mobile operators will now be required to introduce a “Euro-SMS tariff” by July 2009 that should not exceed 11 euro centes, excluding value-added tax. Wholesale charges for sending data over mobile networks ? such as surfing the web or sending emails ? would be limited to ?1 per Mbit. The commission did not propose to limit retail prices in order to give what it feels is still a young market the chance to regulate itself.
Three strikes rule struck out
The commission and national capitals also came together on criticising French proposals to force internet service providers to cut off subscribers that repeatedly download copyrighted material without permission.
The French government is considering the so-called graduated response law that would see users lose their internet connection after three strikes. First an email would be sent to the offender, then a letter in the post and finally the subscriber would be cut off from the internet for a year.
Internet users have reacted with horror at the plan, and the commission and parliament are not fans, arguing that access to the internet is increasingly the main avenue of accessing information, connecting to health service providers and other essentials. Cutting off an internet connection is almost akin to cutting off someone’s electricity, many believe.
In September, the European Parliament approved by a large majority an amendment to the telecoms legislation package outlawing internet cut-off. The commission afterward backed the parliament’s amendment, with the telecoms ministers now also on board.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: ash, business, Communications, consumers, Electric, electricity, Health, information, Internet, Mobile, mobile phone, Network, world |
Comments Closed