According to TMCnet.com, Alcatel-Lucent has reached agreements with China Mobile, China Telecom (News - Alert) and China Unicom to provide network and application solutions, and integration and maintenance services. In addition, the company has reached a major agreement with Verizon Wireless. The agreements with the Chinese companies will be signed on Nov. 5, in Paris, during the visit of Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, and witnessed by the key government officials of the two countries.  

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Source: TMCnet.com

Africa is set to receive a significant broadband boost with  France Telecom (FT)  signing a construction agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for the new Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable.  The vendor said its share of the 17,000km fibre-optic link is worth USD500 million and will connect West African countries to the global broadband network.  The ACE consortium is a newly formed group of 20 telecom operators. The ACE cable relies on wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). With WDM, cable capacity can be increased without additional submarine work.

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Source: TeleGeography

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) seem to be the natural next step in service competition, particularly in those markets that are highly competitive. Although they seem to have taken root in South Africa, they are much less popular in other African countries. With it's ability to add business at minimum cost, Brussels based Effortel is looking at Africa for new MVNO growth.

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Source Balancing Act

Outremer Telecom says it tabled an application for a mobile licence for Mauritius with that island’s regulatory authority, the ICTA, for the deployment of GSM and 3G networks by 2010. The application has been tabled by City Call, a Group subsidiary that has been present in fixed telephony in Mauritius since 2005.

The company said that the application for a licence is part of the development strategy implemented by the Group in the Indian Ocean, after it launched its mobile telephony services in Mayotte in December 2006 and in Reunion in April 2007. ICTA’s decision is expected before summer this year.

See Press Release
Source: Balancingact-africa

In today’s Europe, citizens are free to work in and re-locate to any EU Member State and companies carry out business across the EU. When doing so, they need to communicate with administrations of other Member States. Member States in turn need to communicate with each other to serve the citizens and businesses in the best possible way. To avoid the creation of electronic barriers (e-barriers) between European administrations, the Member States and the Commission need to strengthen their efforts to ensure barrier-free communication within the internal market. In response to the need for coordination and cooperation at EU level, the ISA programme proposes to establish and promote commonly agreed solutions to avoid e-barriers at national borders. Over the period 2010-2015, the ISA programme aims to support and promote cooperation between European public administrations. ISA focuses on providing cross-border solutions for public administrations by making available common frameworks, common services and generic tools and promoting reuse as well as exchange of experience and good practices.

ISA is the follow-on programme to the IDABC programme (interoperable delivery of pan-European e-government services to administrations, businesses and citizens) which comes to an end in December 2009. The IDABC programme was itself launched in January 2005 as the successor of the IDA programme “interchange of data between administrations”. The ISA programme will be based on the achievements of the IDA and IDABC programmes and will, as its predecessors, contribute to the further development and implementation of the European e-government strategy.

See Press release

Source: Europa

Verizon Business will begin an aggressive rollout of its next-generation optical transport network in Europe next month. The first phase will include ultra long-haul (ULH) equipment deployed on the core backbone network routes between Verizon Business' main European network hubs in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels, providing the first 3,230 kilometers (2,007 miles) of ULH transport in the Verizon Business European network.

This next-generation technology, which will support speeds up to 40 gigabits per second (Gbps), will give Verizon Business customers in Europe an opportunity to use new high-bandwidth intensive services for years to come. The first phase of ULH deployment is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2008.

Press Release

Source: Verizon

Geneva, 4 September 2007 — ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. In its 8th edition, Trends reports on the evolution of circuit-switched telecommunication into "next-generation" networks, as operators around the world fight to remain competitive. The Report aims at enabling regulators and policy-makers in developing countries to better understand the changes transforming the ICT sector so they can evolve their policy and regulatory frameworks to leverage today’s technological and market developments.

What does NGN mean for regulators? They have many choices to make. Some view NGN as the intersection of the telecom and Internet worlds. If so, which regulatory regime should apply? The current heavily-regulated telecom regulatory model? The lightly-regulated Internet model? Or some new hybrid model? The migration to NGN affords an opportunity for regulators to analyze current practices and revise them in light of what makes sense going forward. This Trends report offers a detailed discussion of the kinds of measures that are needed to ensure that regulation keeps pace with technological and market developments so that the best of NGN is available to all of the world’s people.

The ITU press release is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the content of the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

Truphone today announced Truphone Out+, a new feature that enables free and VoIP-rate calls to be made from a customer's existing phone number. Truphone Out+ also brings carrier pre-select to Truphone customers, ensuring free Truphone-to-Truphone calls are set up whenever possible. Truphone is a mobile operator for the internet age, delivering a UK-based service accessible from around the world. Truphone Out+ is an evolution of the Truphone service that will be evolved to a full Truphone service when the following conditions are met:

- number portability becomes possible in a country;

- E.164 compliance is implemented in that country;

- Truphone introduces a local number range in that country.

Truphone is actively working with national regulators and operator partners around the world to bring about one or more of these conditions.

Source: Truphone Press Office

Apple seeks exclusive distribution deals for its iPhone  in France, Germany and the U.K. Winning  contracts  come at a high price for the telcos in question. The iPhone maker will receive more than 10% of  revenues the mobile operators generate from the handset. 

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Source: Financial Times

Apple has succeeded in committing European mobile phone operators that want exclusively to sell its new iPhone to share parts of their revenues with the technology group.

The contract, which was signed by three European mobile operators in recent days, requires that the operators hand over to Apple 10 per cent of the revenues made from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones.

For complete article

Source: Financial Times

By means of the Electronic System of Public Procurement (SEAP), available from March 2002 on the website address www.e-licitatie.ro, the registered public institutions organize award procedures of the public procurement contracts by electronic means, in which any economic operator may participate. 

Starting January 1, 2007, according to the Government Emergency Ordinance no.34/2006 regarding the award of the public procurement contracts, public work concession contracts and services concession contracts, all state institutions have the obligation to publish the individual service contract forecast, the service procurement notice and the award notices, as well as the invitations to tender related to the requests for quotation within SEAP. So far, the 8,166 contracting authorities registered within the Electronic System of Public Procurement have published 106,134 notices and invitations to tender related to the public procurement procedures. 6,028 of them were published in the Official Journal of the European Union, thus Romania holds the first position in electronic transmission of notices towards OJEU. Full Press release

Source: ANRC, Romania

The Namibian government has announced that it will enter a new round of discussions with Botswana and Angola to secure a landing point for Namibia on the SAT-3 international submarine cable. The three countries have had four rounds of discussions on the issue since July last year. Both Namibia and Botswana both proposed an alternative international broadband connectivity route to SAT-3 to address the high costs of communications in the respective countries. ‘The transit costs to route telecommunication calls through Cape Town to the SAT-3 have become unsustainable,’ Namibia’s acting Permanent Secretary of Information, Wilma Deetlefs, said in a statement yesterday. Full Press release

Source: Telegeography

72 per cent of board directors believe BRICS businesses are less advanced in terms of technology

 

A major new international study by BT has revealed that Western business is not fully prepared for the imminent impact of emerging markets.  While more than six out of ten (64 per cent) directors of large American, British, French and German corporations accept that emerging economies will “reshape” the global business landscape, many seem to have only a rudimentary knowledge of their business environments.

Even though a clear majority (61 per cent) of respondents admit it is “crucial” their business is able to work with the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the so-called ‘BRICS’ nations – to succeed in the long term, many of them demonstrate worrying ignorance of the realities of those countries: almost nine out of ten directors (88 per cent) could not name the currency of Brazil and 14 per cent believe that vodka is the main product of Russia, for example.µ

BT commissioned Datamonitor to undertake the study of 800 senior executives in the US, UK, France and Germany for its study, “Building Business With BRICS.”  The study discovered that more than seven out of ten (72 per cent) Western directors believe that organisations in the ‘developed’ world are better equipped technologically to work internationally than those in BRICS. 

Francois Barrault, CEO, BT Global Services, said: “This is a troubling finding.  The message hasn’t filtered through yet that these nations are already equipped to make an impact on the global stage.  They have shown remarkable agility and speed at adopting new collaborative tools and technologies – quicker, in many cases, than in the US or Europe.  Western organisations need to increase collaboration in and with BRICS businesses or risk being left behind. Western executives have the systems in place to work with BRICS. In terms of the technology that enables collaboration between organisations and countries, there is an effective global network in place. But Western businesses need to do more to fully engage with BRICS countries. Successful collaboration between organisations in the West and those in BRICS will be a sign that globalisation has come of age. ”

According to the study, four in five (80 per cent) of directors realise that the necessary information and communication technology is readily available to allow their businesses to work effectively with those in BRICS.  Despite this, the study found that directors perceive data security to be the main barrier to effective collaboration with international businesses, followed by different legislation and/or regulations and political interference. 

The full report, “Building Business With BRICS”, can be downloaded from www.bt.com/global/collaboration/BRICS/.  Other findings include:

• 35 per cent of directors do not know the currency of Russia, 55 per cent do not know the currency of India and 65 per cent do not know the currency of South Africa

• India is perceived as the most comfortable BRICS economy in which to do business, significantly more than China, which was rated second (30 per cent to 23 per cent)

• Russia is perceived as the least comfortable BRICS economy in which to do business (24 per cent)

• Businesses in the manufacturing industry are the most active in the BRICS economies; 82 per cent of respondents said that their company was already working with other businesses within BRICS

• 51 per cent of companies within the financial and professional services sectors are active in the regions. The BRICS economies are an opportunity for these companies to apply their specialised knowledge to a rapidly developing economic model

• Few government & non-profit and education & healthcare companies are active; such companies are generally prohibited in their expansion overseas

• Companies with revenues in excess of $1 billion are currently the most active within the BRICS economies. The increasing trend towards globalisation has a wider effect on such firms who must look to developing economies to enhance sales, diversify their geographical portfolios and minimize costs through low-cost labour and energy

 

Notes to editors

About the research
BT commissioned Datamonitor to undertake the study of 800 senior executives in companies from a range of sectors, with turnovers from $10 million to over $1 billion, in the US, UK, France and Germany for its study.  The full report, “Building Business With BRICS,” can be downloaded from www.bt.com/global/collaboration/BRICS/

Celtel International announced on 6 June 2007, that it is expanding its One Network service to more than 160 million people in six African countries, as part of its roll-out plan targeting the entire African continent.

In September 2006, Celtel was the first mobile operator worldwide to offer its customers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda the opportunity to move freely across geographical borders without roaming call surcharges. Since, Celtel offers its customers the same services abroad that they could access in their home country such as airtime transfer from friends, voicemail and customer service in their local languages.

The One Network service is now available in the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo. The extension of the service from East Africa into Central Africa, means post- and pre-paid Celtel subscribers within the six countries, will be able to make calls at local rates, receive incoming calls free of charge and top-up their pre-paid phones with locally bought airtime cards.

Source: Celtel International, 6 June 2007

Washington DC – The United States and Korea have simultaneously released the full draft text of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (“KORUS FTA”).  Negotiations on the agreement were completed on April 1.  U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab issued the following statement:

“As we have underscored since we completed negotiations on the Agreement, the KORUS FTA is a strong, comprehensive deal that will bring concrete benefits to U.S. manufacturers, services providers, farmers, ranchers, and workers, as well as the people of Korea.  The text lays out the details of this historic Agreement between two large countries with complex, modern economies,” said Ambassador Schwab.  “The agreement will advance U.S. efforts to deepen and strengthen its trade and investment ties in a strategically significant part of the world.”

The Agreement contains 24 chapters, which provide for significant reductions in tariffs on industrial and agriculture products, and include state-of-the-art commitments in competition policy, e- commerce, transparency, pharmaceuticals/medical devices, intellectual property rights (IPR), investment, and services.  The Agreement also includes an unprecedented and strong package of automotive provisions, which will level the playing field in this important sector.  The automotive provisions are found throughout the text, including in the chapters on market access and national treatment for goods, technical barriers to trade, and dispute settlement. 

This draft text does not yet include provisions that reflect the recently-concluded agreement between Congress and the Administration on labor rights, environmental safeguards and other issues that have created a new, bipartisan path forward on trade.   The Administration and Congress are still in the process of converting this agreement into formal text.  When that process is complete, the United States looks forward to working together with Korea to reflect that agreement. 

The draft KORUS FTA text is available on the USTR website at http://www.ustr.gov/.  As is the case with all FTAs, the draft text is subject to legal review for accuracy, clarity, and consistency. 

See also :

Strong Support for the U.S.-Korea (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement


Source: USTR

Brazil's telecom regulator Anatel has warned that América Móvil (NYSE: AMX) could face local regulatory obstacles if its pursues its plans to buy an indirect stake in Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI), the owner of Brazil's second largest mobile operator TIM (NYSE: TSU), newspaper Valor Econômico reported.

Anatel board member Jose Leite Pereira was quoted as saying the same would go for Spain's Telefónica (NYSE: TEF) if it were to decide to seek a stake in Telecom Italia.

Almost two weeks ago América Móvil made a bid together with US telco AT&T (NYSE: T) for 33% each of Italian holding company Olimpia, which has an 18% controlling share of Telecom Italia.

AT&T announced on Monday it had withdrawn its bid, fuelling speculation that the Spanish giant might enter the race. International media reported that América Móvil was reconsidering its alternatives.

"There are regulatory and anti-competition obstacles if a deal is closed between Pirelli and either of these two interested parties," Pereira said.

"The main problem is the overlap of mobile telephone [concession] licenses."

Telefónica has a joint venture with Portugal Telecom (NYSE: PT) in Vivo (NYSE: VIV), Brazil's leading mobile phone company that ended February with a 28.6% market share, according to Anatel. América Móvil controls Claro, Brazil's third largest mobile operator, which had a 24% market share at end-February.

According to Brazilian telecom regulations, the same operator cannot control two competing mobile phone companies in the same concession area.

Brazil's antitrust agency Cade would also need to assess the repercussions of the deal on the local market, which could leave Claro and TIM with almost a 50% share or Vivo and TIM with more than 50%.

Telecoms analyst Thomas Abreu of US consultancy Pyramid Research agrees that América Móvil's bid is by no means guaranteed to succeed.

Notwithstanding the regulatory concerns, an acquisition of TIM by América Móvil's Claro or Telefónica's Vivo would lead to a very strong market share in Brazil's most important market São Paulo, where there are three main players, Abreu said.

In some ways, this would be similar to América Móvil's position in Mexico, where it holds around 70% of the market, he said. "This [situation in São Paulo] would be cause for concern," he said.

But everything still depends on whether a potential buyer can acquire the stake in Telecom Italia, the analyst noted. The Italian government has been desperately lobbying for an Italian suitor to buy Olimpia's stake in Telecom Italia.

Source: Business News Americas

The completion of a series of regulatory reviews which facilitate technological and market developments, including fixed-mobile convergence and wireless broadband technologies, will be the priority tasks of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) in 2007, as projected by the Director-General of Telecommunications, Mr M H Au, in the year-end media briefing held today (29 January 2007).

"Technological development is the driver for growth of the industry. As the regulator of the telecommunications market, we have the responsibility to update our regulation and create a favourable environment for investment in new technologies, which ultimately will bring innovation and choice to users and economic benefits to the community as a whole," said Mr Au.

"We have already made considerable progress in 2006 by identifying and analysing the relevant issues, making preliminary proposals in our consultation papers and engaging the industry in discussions of the issues. In 2007, we aim to conclude the reviews so that we can move ahead to implement whatever we consider to be the most appropriate outcome of the reviews," continued Mr Au.

The public consultation on the review of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) commenced in 2006. Submissions are being studied by OFTA.

"OFTA will complete, as early as possible in 2007, the review on FMC to pave the way for investment in convergent technologies," said Mr Au.

"The rapid development of wireless technologies is another important trend. OFTA will have regard to the Government's spectrum policy, which is now under review, make available spectrum to the market, including the spectrum which enables the provision of mobile services based on the CDMA 2000 standard and the spectrum for broadband wireless access (BWA). Considerations and finalisation of the procedure for the open bidding of the spectrum will be another major task of OFTA in 2007," said Mr Au.

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

Venezuelan state-owned telco CVG Telecom has signed an agreement to install a submarine fibre-optic cable linking the country with Cuba, reports BNamericas quoting Cuban daily Juventud Rebelde. The project aims to connect La Guaira, in the Vargas state of Venezuela, to Siboney in the province of Santiago de Cuba. Feasibility studies, including the possibility of connecting the network to other countries, are scheduled for completion by 31 March. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms notes that in November 2006 CVG Telecom lit a 320km fibre-optic cable link connecting Venezuela and Colombia.

Source: Telegeography

The Federal Network Agency last Friday submitted a draft regulatory ATM bitstream access order to the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities of the other Member States.

Under the draft, Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG) is required to provide ATM bitstream access. The conditions are non-discriminatory access, accounting separation and publication of a reference offer. The rates are to be subject to ex post controls.

ATM bitstream access is a wholesale service designed to enable competitors to offer high quality DSL connections on the downstream markets, chiefly to business customers. This is where ATM differs from IP bitstream access, which DTAG was put under obligation to provide last September already and which is handled on the Internet Protocol basis and targeted primarily at the DSL mass market. Thus the draft that has been submitted to Brussels, once in force, will complete the regulatory measures in the wholesale bitstream access market.

The European Commission and the national regulatory authorities now have a month in which to respond to the draft. The Ruling Chamber responsible will then make a final decision, taking the representations into the utmost account.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur, Germany

 

British-registered Ramford Alliance Ltd has notified Bulgaria's anti-trust authority that it plans to pursue the acquisition of CableTEL, the local cable TV, Internet and voice company, and Vicom Bulgaria, a radio and TV broadcaster. According to the Commission for the Protection of Competition, the suitor is active in finance and investment and acquisitions in the telecom and media industries.

Ramford Alliance Ltd has set 3 preconditions for the execution of the deals. Under the first precondition, Vicom Bulgaria should take control of local company Grelman. According to legal database Daxi, that conditions appears to have been fulfilled as Grelman is registered as a wholly-owned unit of Vicom Bulgaria.

The second requirement is for Evrocom Sofia Cable, wholly-owned by Grelman, to take control of cable and Internet company Vereya Cable which yet to be fulfilled. Ramford Alliance Ltd has also insisted that Evrocom Sofia Cable acquire the assets, rights and legal relations concerning the cable TV and Internet access services provided by Estnet in Sofia and Kozloduy.

According to the Bulgarian anti-trust monopoly, the acquisitions pursued by Ramford Alliance will affect several market segments: cable TV, Internet, telephone service and leased lines. The regulator is bound by law to review the deal no later than 2 months after the notification.

Source: Dnevnik News 

Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, the wireless arm of incumbent fixed line operator NTT, says it has received regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, clearing its 100% acquisition of Guam Cellular & Paging, Inc (Guam Cellular) and Guam Wireless Telephone Company, LLC (Guam Wireless). According to DoCoMo, the agreement was concluded on 20 March this year for an agreed sum of USD71.8 million.

Under the terms of the deal, DoCoMo will buy all the outstanding equity of Guam Cellular through an established holding company, after which it will move to buy Guam Wireless through Guam Cellular and subsequently merge the two companies. In addition, DoCoMo has promised to provide funds of up to USD6.5 million to expand and upgrade the enlarged company’s facilities and infrastructure. As a result of the deal DoCoMo will be able to offer an improved service to the large number of Japanese travellers who visit Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands each year. Local inhabitants will also benefit from improved services such as an improved GSM network with a GPRS overlay. In the future the new Japanese owner says it hopes to introduce a W-CDMA network for 3G services utilising frequency owned by Guam Cellular.

Source: Telegeography

Digicel Group has announced that it has acquired the Guyanese mobile operator TWT Guyana, which operates under the brandnames U-Mobile and Celstar. The acquisition was a surprise, given that it had been expected that Digicel would be awarded the country’s third wireless licence to operate in competition with TWT and the Guayana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T). Indeed, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, President Jagdeo announced back in August that he would award Digicel a national GSM licence, but no date was given as to when the concession would actually be awarded, nor were any terms revealed.
GT&T held a ten-year monopoly on the mobile market in Guyana which ended in February 2001 when TWT Guyana, a division of US-based Trans World Telecom (TWT), was awarded a GSM-900 concession. However, GT&T's exclusivity actually lasted much longer than could have been expected, and it was not until December 2004 that TWT actually managed to get services off the ground thanks to a series of delaying regulatory issues. In June 2003 the newcomer took a step forward by signed a roaming agreement with GT&T, giving it use of the latter's network in areas where it had not rolled out its own, but five months later the contract was deemed invalid because of a dispute over TWT's ownership. In February 2004 the Court of Appeal said there was no case to be answered, freeing TWT once more to negotiate commercial terms for roaming.TWT’s launch finally took place at the end of 2004, and the company has since begun to challenge GT&T by focusing on the youth market.

Source: Telegeography

Belarusian national fixed line telephony provider Beltelecom and Russian national long-distance telecoms operator Rostelecom yesterday announced the completion of a project to link their respective fibre-optic cable networks, providing additional access between the two countries. The pair say they have completed Phase 1 of the project which includes the linking of a fibre-optic cable between Yartsevo in Russia and Velizh on the state border to Vitebsk in Belarus. The throughput capacity of this high speed terrestrial link – based on DWDM and STM technology – will be 400Gbps with the ability to upgrade in the future. The Yartsevo-Vitebsk cable is the second broadband link between Russia and Belarus.

Source: Telegeography

 

Jordan Telecom is planning to acquire a 50% stake in Bahrain-based fixed-line operator Lightspeed Communications in 2007, according to its Chairman Shabib Ammari. This marks the first phase in its international expansion plans, with some US$300mn set aside to buy stakes in other Middle East telecom and internet operators, as it diversifies its revenues away from its highly competitive domestic telecoms market. Jordan Telecom's mobile unit MobileCom has been overtaken in terms of subscriber numbers by rival foreign-owned mobile operators in the sector, with Kuwait's MTC acquiring a user base of 2.364mn as of June 2006 through its Fastlink Jordan mobile unit. In comparison, MobileCom managed just 1mn over the same period. Struggling in both the fixed-line and mobile markets has led the operator to predict flat profits for FY06 on par with its 2005 earnings of JOD86mn (US$121.4mn).

Source: BMI Research