The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) announced today (10 June) that three mobile network operators have successfully bid for a total of 9.6 MHz of radio spectrum in the 1800 MHz frequency band at a total of upfront spectrum utilization fee of HK$ 46.1 million.

"The demand for public mobile telecommunications services has been growing continuously. The number of mobile users has reached 11.58 million by March 2009, representing a penetration rate of 165%. The assignment of the radio spectrum through the auction enables the successful mobile network operators to expand their network capacity to meet the increasing demand," a spokesperson of OFTA said.

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Source: OFTA Office of the Telecommunications Authority

Azerbaijan Business Center writes that Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies (MCIT) is planning to distribute frequencies required for the provision of third generation services soon, with the aim of enabling cellcos to launch commercially by the end of 2009. The report states that the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov said all three of Azerbaijan’s GSM operators - Azercell, Bakcell and Azerfon (Nar Mobile) - have already applied for a licence to launch 3G services.

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Source: Telegeography

The Philippines’ dominant telecoms company Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) yesterday launched a nationwide service offering unlimited calls to all areas, but the move was greeted coolly by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) which said such promotions break local telecoms rules and as such, must be stopped.

According to a report from online journal Business World, the telco’s ‘Call All’ offer promises unlimited calls all over the Philippines for an additional PHP250 (USD5.27) on the user’s landline phone bill. Anyone taking the add-on will be given a PLDT ‘Landline Plus’ subscriber identification module (SIM) for a fixed-wireless connection. ‘We are targeting over 1.3 million PLDT retail landline subscribers and we are also aiming to capture at least 200,000 additional applications each month,’ PLDT retail voice acquisition head Patrick S Tang told reporters.

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Source: Telegeography

Orange, the sole bidder for Jordan's forthcoming 3G license auction has had its application rejected by the regulator, allegedly due to failure to comply with the tender rules.

The TRC spokeswoman said that Orange Jordan’s bid did not comply with the financial or technical aspects of the process. “They did not present their financial bond, which is JD10 million,” a spokeswoman told ITP news.

The 3G license tender has been delayed several times, and the TRC had intended to release the Tender document last December, but it was postponed due to requests submitted by Zain, Orange and XPress, in order to have more time to complete studying their business plans, and due to the public holidays in December which prevented them from completing the needed procedures.

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Source: Cellular-news

Ofcom has  published a short guide to telecoms regulation for companies looking to invest in new build super-fast broadband networks. The guide provides a summary of existing telecoms policy for ease of reference and is published alongside a glossary of terms on super-fast broadband.
 
See the document 

Source: OFCOM

The study aimed to collate and analyse existing eHealth monitoring and benchmarking sources (in EU27, Iceland, Norway, Canada and the United States), in order to identify good practices in data gathering and to develop an indicator framework for an EU-wide eHealth benchmarking approach. It found 94 sources of eHealth benchmarking data (with more than 4,300 eHealth-related indicators), identified 12 good practice cases and filled 31 country briefs that describe the situation in each of the surveyed countries. The study proposes an indicator framework that covers the most relevant actors, activities and applications in the area of eHealth.

Contact: eHealth@ec.europa.eu
See also: ICT for Health Studies

Source: Europa

There seems to be no end to the crisis generated by the 2.3GHz licensing round. While the Ministry of Information and Communications is standing by the cancellation of the process citing lack of transparency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) remains adamant, warning of far reaching consequences if the Ministry maintains its stand.

While the dust has yet to settle, the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC) charged with carrying out bulk trans-sectoral allocation of spectrum to authorised statutory bodies has officially released the 2.3GHz frequency spectrum to the NCC to pave the way for the commencement of a new licensing process.

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Source: BalancingAct-Africa

It’s good news for locals making international calls as Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) has announced a discount rate of up to 50%.

International calls made from landlines in Swaziland to cellphones either to South Africa, or any other country in the world will also be discounted same as international calls made from one landline to another.

The discount rates, which will range from 35% to 50% will come into effect from the 1st of July.

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Source: BalancingAct-Africa

The Ghanaian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the interconnection of fibre optic networks with Burkina Faso to enhance communications between the two west African neighbours. The Ghanaian communications minister has said the signing of the MOU is in line with the commitment of ECOWAS member states to foster economic integration.

Ghana and Burkina Faso also declared their determination to prioritise their optic fibre development plans to achieve interconnection by 2010.

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Source: BalancingAct-Africa

A price comparison service that allows consumers to get cheaper mobile phone deals by monitoring their online bills was has been accredited by the UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom. BillMonitor’s price comparison calculator has been awarded the Ofcom price accreditation scheme logo for meeting the terms of a rigorous independent audit. The audit checks whether the information provided to consumers is accessible, accurate, transparent, comprehensive and up to date.

BillMonitor is the first mobile price comparison service to have their calculator accredited by Ofcom.

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Source: cellular-news

The European Commission has set out clear guidance for EU telecoms regulators on the cost-based method to be used when calculating termination rates - the wholesale fees charged by operators to connect the call from another operator's network which are part of everyone's phone bill. The guidance is in the form of a "Recommendation" that national regulators are obliged to take "the utmost account" of. The Recommendation indicates specifically that termination rates at national level should be based only on the real costs that an efficient operator incurs to establish the connection. Eliminating price distortions between phone operators across the EU will lower consumer prices for voice calls within and between Member States, saving business and household customers at least EUR 2 billion in 2009-2012, and help investment and innovation in the entire telecoms sector. Mobile termination rates varied widely in the EU in 2008 from 2.00 euro cents per minute (in Cyprus) to 15 euro cents per minute (in Bulgaria). Mobile termination rates (on average 8.55 euro cents per minute) are also typically 10 times higher than fixed termination rates (on average ranging from 0.57 to 1.13 euro cents per minute). Higher mobile termination rates make it harder for fixed and small mobile operators to compete with large mobile operators. These divergences, and differing regulatory approaches, undermine the Single Market and Europe's competitiveness.

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Source: Europa