We recently conducted an exercise looking very closely at the major strategic initiatives that have been implemented by the European telco community. It was a fascinating exercise that revealed a perhaps surprising level of consensus amongst all major European telcos. Whilst the tactics in reaching the goals may vary, our analysis showed the long-term strategic priorities are shared and fall into four very clear and focused aims. Read more »
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator by subscriptions, has reached an agreement with 11 operators worldwide to co-operate on TDD-LTE. The move underlines China Mobile’s intent to create a sizeable global market for TDD-LTE, a technology the operator is heavily invested in. Read more »
If Apple decided to make a CDMA iPhone, the whoops of jubilation would be heard all the way from Verizon Wireless’headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ, to AT&T’s HQ in Dallas, TX, where the news would no doubt be greeted with stunned silence. Latest reports cite unnamed sources as confirming that Verizon Wireless will offer the iPhone in January, when they say AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple ends.
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A number of Latin American operators are reporting good results from deployments of SIM-based mobile VAS. For example, Telecom Personal is seeing a high level of adoption of its SIM-based mobile VAS in Argentina. Telecom Personal and Oi in Brazil are offering the Windows Live IM service on mobile SIM cards.
French mobile vendor Gemalto has acquired German M2M vendor Cinterion for €163 million (US$198.8 million) in cash in a bid to position itself to capitalise on the fast-growing M2M market. Read more »
The iPhone 4 launched today in the UK and was greeted by queues of people eager to buy the device before it sells out. Vodafone’s flagship London store only had 50 handsets and the 32GB version was sold out in most stores. The next batch of devices isn’t expected for a month in that store, according to store representatives speaking with Informa analysts. Read more »
Two days of presentations and panel discussions at SaudiCom clearly demonstrated that there are lots of great ideas about how the world (or the telecoms market in KSA) could be a better place. Black Swan theories, co-opetition, partnership, new business models and all that highly worthy jazz abounded. But I think anybody could be forgiven for taking it all with a large pinch of salt.
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It was apparent at the East Africa Com conference, which was put on in the Kenyan capital Nairobi this week by Informa Telecoms & Media, that the East African telecom market is undergoing profound change. Read more »
With Bharti’s acquisition of Zain Africa now agreed by the two parties, it’s a good moment to look at how to operate successfully in Africa. Read more »
One era ends and another begins.
Last night Zain agreed to sell its Zain Africa unit to India’s Bharti Airtel, marking Zain’s departure from sub-Saharan Africa and Bharti’s arrival on the continent.