Range network enhances open source software with data and internet users

Enhanced features and increased accessibility - OpenBTS-UMTS is 3G compatible, allowing data throughput of 384 kbit/s per user. This enhanced data speed enables Internet access and use of mobile applications on 3G-enabled handsets.

Meets global 3GPP standards - The enhancement is 3GPP-compliant (3rd Generation Partnership Project), operates on any of the 3GPP-defined UMTS frequencies and supports network and handset authentication.

Available as a controlled release - OpenBTS-UMTS is suitable for early adopters and telecommunications labs interested in testing mobile applications.

SUPPORTING QUOTE: Faith Sedlin, COO of Range Networks said: "The release of OpenBTS-UMTS is a milestone in the development of single-core, low-cost and easy-to-implement cellular networks. Enabling high-speed data and Internet capabilities is a natural progression in our strategy to apply IP networking to mobile infrastructure, and we look forward to extending these services to rural populations."

source: www.allafrica.com

vodacom warns Icasa it could 'adjust' capex

Vodacom has come out guns blazing against proposals by its regulator, Icasa, that mobile call termination rates be slashed over the next three years while giving the company’s smaller rivals a leg up through “asymmetry”.

Icasa wants the new rates — which operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks — chopped in half, to 20c/minute, on 1 March 2014. It then wants them cut in half again, to 10c/minute, by 2016.

At the same time, it has proposed aggressive asymmetry that favours Cell C and Telkom Mobile— the smaller operators will pay less to Vodacomand MTN for calls between their networks than the other way around. Both MTN and Vodacom have objected strenuously to Cell C, which was licensed 13 years ago, being advantaged in this way.

Icasa has proposed increasing the level of asymmetry offered to smaller players from 10% now to 95% in March, to 120% in 2015, and to 160% in 2016.

“The proposed new rates are significantly lower than the rates that were published in previous years and [there is] a higher degree of asymmetry,” Vodacom said in notes accompanying its interim financial results for the six months ended 30 September 2013.

“The new rates will require adjustment of our forecasts, including capital investment and operating expenses, if approved in the current year,” the operator said. “They are also likely to impact our price transformation programme. We are actively participating in the consultation process [with Icasa], with the aim to get to a more reasonable outcome.”

On Monday, Vodacom reported that group revenue had risen by 6,6% compared to a year ago, with strong growth in its non-South African operations and “improved growth trends” in its home market. Headline earnings per share rose by 10,9% “as a result of strong operating profit growth”.

source: techcentral.co

vodafone spends billions to upgrade network coverage

vodafdone is  to spend £7bn upgrading its networks, with an extra £300m committed to the UK, as it prepares for an end to the European economic crisis.

Hundreds of new masts and radios will be installed to boost coverage, with London benefiting from £150m of spend over the next two years, and a 30% increase in masts.

A further £150m will go to the rest of the UK, bringing to £1.2bn the sum Vodafone will spend on its British network over the next three years.

The money is earmarked to improve 3G coverage and roll out faster 4G technology, and to expand Vodafone's retail empire.

"Whilst trading conditions in Europe remain very tough at present," said the Vodafone chief executive, Vittorio Colao, "we are encouraged by the forecast return to economic growth over the next two years and the potential for a shift in regulatory focus to support greater industry investment and consolidation."

Vodafone on Tuesday added £1bn to the £6bn of cash earmarked for Project Spring, which will pay for faster and wider mobile internet coverage and expand the group's TV and broadband activities on the continent following the $130bn (£81bn) sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless.

The company is betting that a European turnaround will counter another half-year of rapidly falling revenues in its major markets.

Organic service revenue – which includes calls, texts and data charges but excludes handsets – was down nearly 5% in the six months to 30 September across the group, with northern and central Europe down 5% and southern Europe nearly 16%. Revenues in Asia and Africa rose nearly 6%.

UK service revenue decreased 4.4%, while in Italy the decline was nearly 17%.

As well as providing cash for networks, the Verizon sale allowed Vodafone to book nearly £17bn of deferred tax losses that it will use to reduce its tax payments over the long term.

source: www.theguardian.com

African telecom landscape looks towards landscape

number of factors have contributed to Africa’s increasing adoption of mobile phones for internet use over PCs — cost and lack of ethernet infrastructure for two. The cost of computers versus the lower prices of mobile phones in addition to the lack of physical internet cable implementation has spurred the growth of mobile devices in Africa — a trend that is now of global proportion. But Africa’s mobile scene presents unique challenges, and the recently reported interest in the continent’s digital communications from Mideast and European telcos has spun a larger conversation over the future of the continent’s growth.

MidEast telcos have been developing their presence in North Africa for a while. Etisalat — an Emirates-based telco — took over France’s Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom in July, heightening its presence in West Africa. (Maroc Telecom was also Morocco’s largest operator, according to reports.) And European companies such as Orange have been increasing their investments in various countries to get a foothold in the developing markets. These growing investments from operators have accumulated throughout the year, and made for conversation at AfricaCom 2013 — a telecom conference held in Cape Town, South Africa earlier in November which calls together global technology leaders.

An executive from Gemalto — a digital security company — spoke after the conference and called for operators to take advantage of the unique communications landscape in Africa in order to bypass 3G implementation and escalate quickly to 4G. While attaining high speed wireless seems unlikely in regions that have barely reliable 2G, Sherry Zameer, head of Africa and Middle East telecommunications for the company, described the lack of regulation and restrictive platforms actually make Africa ripe for the buildout of 4G.

Naturally, this lofty goal still seems out of reach given the general lack of connectivity around the continent in the face of obstacles like cable theft and the availability of spectrum. But some regions have made more hefty moves in the 4G direction than others; Rwanda made significant progress in late October signing a deal with Korea Telecom to deliver 4G to its citizenry over the next three years. And Alcatel-Lucent just partnered with YooMee Africa to bring LTE to Cameroon and other countries.

As foreign investors and native companies alike band together to develop high-speed wireless in Africa — despite the tangible results from work in 2013 likely being years away — the continent will still see increasing web traffic as more mobile devices connect to the internet through these new, spreading networks.

blogs.bloiun.com

Maroc Telecom posts revenue drop, big rise in African subscribers

Maroc Telecom, the leading Moroccan telecommunications company currently the subject of an acquisition bid by Etisalat, has reported a 4.7 per cent drop in revenue for the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period last year.

HumanIPO reported last month Etisalat had been given until  to complete negotiations with Vivendi over the acquisition of the latter’s 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom, but there has been no further update regarding the takeover.

Etisalat posted its own , which included a 38 per cent hit on its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in Africa for the third quarter of 2013.

Maroc Telecom has, however, continued to grow its customer base, with a 15.2 per cent rise in postpaid mobile subscribers, 31.2 per cent increase in 3G internet customers and a 21.8 per cent rise in ADSL subscriptions.

“Despite ongoing intense competition and a difficult economy, Maroc Telecom Group is seeing its strategies pay off,” said Abdeslam Ahizoune, chairman of the management board at Maroc Telecom.

“As a result of the quality and innovation that characterize its offers, and thanks to cost-cutting efforts, the Group is able to maintain its annual targets.

“To satisfy the rapid growth of voice and internet use over all its networks, the Group continues to invest in Morocco and in its sub-Saharan African subsidiaries, with an emphasis on providing a rapid transition from high-speed to very-high-speed broadband.”

Maroc Telecom also has African operations in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania.

The results showed that its international businesses grew by 9.5 per cent during the first nine months of 2013, with operations in Gabon performing the strongest with a 13.1 per cent increase in revenue, followed by Mali, where revenues rose by 10.7 per cent.

Despite revenue growing by 8.4 per cent in Mauritania, its customers numbers dropped by 8.8 per cent to 1.88 million.

In Burkina Faso, Maroc Telecom increases its subscriber numbers by 11.4 per cent to 4.22 million, while in Gabon the operator now has 975,000 customers, an increase of 21.3 per cent.