MetroPCS and Leap worry cellco giants as AWS auction ends

The US auction of AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) spectrum in the 1.7GHz and 2.1GHz bands has at last drawn to a close, raising $13.9bn for the government in the sale of the largest block of spectrum (1,112 licenses) offered by the FCC regulator.

As had become clear in the later rounds, the main winners are T-Mobile, the Sprint-cable partnership, the other major cellcos and two regional operators, MetroPCS and Leap. While the Sprint-cable plans for national quad play services spell the greatest medium term threat to the big two cellcos, Cingular and Verizon Wireless, in the immediate future they may be more stressed by the progress of flat rate carriers MetroPCS and Leap, which will now be positioned to undercut the incumbents’ rates in every major US city, exerting more pressure on the giants’ already squeezed margins.

In the 141st round, just four new bids were cast (the auction ends when no further bids are submitted, so does not have a fixed end point). At this point, net bids totalled $13.7bn and TMobile topped the table with 119 licenses provisionally snapped up, for a total of $4.2bn.

Sprint Nextel and its cable partners – Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Advance/ Newhouse – had high bids on 137 licenses for $2.4bn. The needs of these two players are starkly different – T-Mobile had to acquire a decent chunk of spectrum to have any chance of entering the 3G market in force and closing the gap with the other national cellcos, Cingular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint itself.

Sprint, by contrast, has almost a surfeit of spectrum, with an average of 100MHz across the country in 2.5GHz plus its existing CDMA and iDEN capacity, but feels it needs more in order to support a hugely ambitious multimedia, wireless quadruple play roadmap that will, it hopes, put both its own brand and its cable partners ahead of the major telcos and satellite players in next generation converged services.

Other big winners are the other major cellcos – Cingular, Verizon and T-Mobile stand to win 60 per cent of the new licenses between them, with Verizon spending an estimated $2.8bn and Cingular $1.3bn – and two regional players, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, both of which target lower income consumer groups with flat rate calling plans.

So far, MetroPCS has spent at least $1.4bn on new spectrum and will be able to expand its services into Las Vegas and New York, among other areas; and Leap has totalled $710m in bids, winning licenses in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

This will mean increased competition for the big three mobile operators, which will now face at least one low cost rival, ether MetroPCS or Leap, in every major market across the US.

Source- http://www.theregister.com

India Telecom Regulator Recommends 3G Service Guidelines -2-

Misra said he expects mobile phone operators to introduce 3G services in the country by June.
He said the highest bidder for each telecommunications zone will get to choose the best spectrum band, but the other four will have to offer a price no less than 25% lower than the highest bid.
Currently, companies such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY), Reliance Communications Ltd. (532712.BY), Tata Teleservices Ltd. (532371.BY). and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL.YY). have a nationwide presence in the country.
India is divided into 23 telecommunications zones, or circles. The mobile operators in the country offer their services using either global system for mobile communications – GSM – or code division multiple access -CDMA -technology.
TRAI recommended that the spectrum for immediate allocation for 3G services should be in the 450 megahertz, 800 MHz and 2.1 gigahertz bands.
“As per present estimates, 32.5 MHz of spectrum will be available in a time scenario of six to nine months for 3G services.”
Chairman Misra said TRAI has suggested the setting up of a National Frequency Management Board to ensure availability of additional spectrum, its efficient utilization and plan for future requirement of spectrum.
TRAI has recommended that 3G should be a stand-alone service as it shouldn’t be considered an extension of the existing second-generation, or 2G, services.
Companies offering 3G services would also have to fulfill obligations regarding coverage in the urban and rural areas, said TRAI.
Earlier Wednesday, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran said 3G services will play a vital role in development works such as delivering education electronically and tele-medicine, besides offering better voice and multimedia Internet content.
South Korea and Japan have already introduced 3G services, while China is also expected to soon introduce such services, he said.
Globally, there are around 60 3G networks in 25 countries.

Source- http://www.easybourse.com

Marketing Nokia 1255 & Reliance- Cheapest Mobile

Nokia and Reliance Communications have joined hands to market the sleek Nokia 1255 mobile handset for an attractive market price of just Rs. 1,999
This is Nokia’s maiden offer of a CDMA handset in the sub-2K range (below Rs. 2,000). This objective of the initiative is to provide a new impetus to the burgeoning Indian telecom market by providing consumers a high quality mobile experience at an affordable price level.
Nokia 1255 is an entry level black & white handset targeted at first time mobile phone users. The handset is sleek and light and includes a range of productivity enhancing feature tools such as a two-way hands-free speakerphone, voice recorder and a calendar with an alarm clock among others.
S.P. Shukla, President Wireless Business, Reliance Communications said, “Indian telecom sector is currently witnessing an unprecedented growth- curve and a mobile phone has become a multifunctional device. Reliance Communications is committed to provide the best service offering on quality handsets to our many million customers. This association with Nokia aims to further enhance our superior value offerings, both in terms of service experience as well as functionality, at affordable prices to Reliance Communications’ customers.”
Commenting on this association with Reliance Communications, Sunil Dutt, Director, Sales, Nokia India said, “Nokia is committed to provide the mobile phone users in India a high qualify and affordable mobile experience. We are confident that our alliance with Reliance to promote
the Nokia 1255 at a never before pries point, will be well received by our discerning customers.”

Source- http://www.cybernoon.com/

Comptel handling CDMA for Telecom Namibia

Comptel says that it has been selected by Telecom Namibia, to provide provisioning and mediation solutions for their CDMA voice and data services. Comptel Instantlink is a complete provisioning solution that covers all the processes from accepting an order to activating a billable service. Comptel Eventlink is a convergent mediation solution that is designed to collect and process usage information from many diverse sources, and forward them to billing systems. Huawei will act as systems integrator for the delivery of the project.

As Namibia’s incumbent operator, Telecom Namibia needed provisioning and mediation solutions that would be able to work with their CDMA network, which is currently being deployed by equipment vendor Huawei.

Oiva Angula, Acting Head of Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Telecom Namibia, said: “Enabling us to rapidly activate services for customers without any delays, and collecting information to reliably charge for these services, are obviously fundamental requirements for the success of Telecom Namibia. It was, therefore, vital that we chose the right solutions for provisioning and mediation. We selected Comptel InstantLink and Comptel EventLink because we knew that Comptel solutions interoperate smoothly with the CDMA networks of our chosen supplier, Huawei”.
Source- http://www.cellular-news.com/story/19274.php