Ukrtelecom is considering a proposal to establish a joint venture with the UK’s Vodafone Group to develop 3G mobile services, reports local online paper rynok.biz. The two companies are reportedly holding negotiations on the possibility of cooperation in the 3G sector. Observers also noted that the Ukrainian mobile sector is already very competitive and that taking a stake in Ukrtelecom, or forming a 3G joint venture with the state-run company, represents the only way for Vodafone to gain entry to the market, where it would also enjoy the status of a 3G monopoly. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 22nd, 2007 No Comments »

Turkey's telecommunications regulator has postponed to Sept. 7 a tender for four third-generation phone licences, an official from the Communications Ministry said on Tuesday. Bids had been due by Thursday, and the tender was scheduled for Friday. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 22nd, 2007 No Comments »

Mobile operators around the globe are busy rolling out 3G services and upgrades, dreaming of a day when users casually make video calls and download movies, allowing companies to reap several times more revenue per phone. But that rosy future remains elusive. Despite the billions of dollars spent on new networks and marketing, operators are still struggling to find the new features customers cannot live without that will finally make 3G pay. "I've got a 3G phone but I don't use '3G features'," said Kang Hatan, a research fellow in a lab in Seoul. "Video calls are too expensive and it's hard to find time to watch mobile TV." [Source] Comment: It's better for 3G operators to create many creative contents and ...

Posted by Budi Putra on May 18th, 2007 1 Comment »

A recent study has indicated that the worldwide 3G market will rise by 55 percent per year from 2006 to 2010. China and India are major areas of growth. In other news mobile web use in the UK appears to be taking off, despite reports of poor user experience. 20 percent of the UK, or 5.7 million people, accessed the mobile web in January 2007. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 18th, 2007 No Comments »

China's Ministry of Information Industry said Wednesday it has set the technical specifications for two third-generation mobile-phone technologies developed abroad (WCDMA and CDMA2000), bringing China one step closer to issuing 3G licenses. In a statement on its Web site, the ministry said the standards for WCDMA and CDMA2000, together with that for a locally developed 3G technology (T-SCDMA) issued earlier, will provide clarity on developing products and services based on these technologies. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 18th, 2007 1 Comment »

Due to widely use of 3G, 3G mobile bandwidth will increase fast in the coming years. iGR has published a new report which is forecasting that 3G mobile bandwidth usage will experience a nearly tenfold increase by 2011. The report reached this conclusion by modeling: the current bandwidth usage among mobile data users; the future bandwidth usage of IMS-based applications among those same users; and forecasting the increased bandwidth consumption based on those mobile data and application usage profiles. The models created by iGR for this report show that in 2006, light mobile data users consumed approximately 5.92MB per user per month; medium users consumed approximately 17.68MB; and heavy mobile data users consumed about 44.4MB per user per month. The types of mobile ...

Posted by Budi Putra on May 18th, 2007 No Comments »

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua News has reported that Nepal Telecom launched a 3G network yesterday. According to Nepal Telecom director Buddhi Acharya, the SIM card for 3G service will cost 4,195 Nepali rupees (US$64.50) and its charges will be similar to that of prepaid mobiles. For the time being, the 3G services will be made available to area within the Ring Road in the capital city of Kathmandu. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 18th, 2007 No Comments »

The first unit of Nokia E90 Communicator sold in an auction today in Jakarta.

Posted by Budi Putra on May 16th, 2007 1 Comment »

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile service operator, said it has attracted 237,000 customers over the past year to its third-generation HSDPA service and nearly half of them were tech-savvy consumers in their 20s and 30s. SK Telecom said it analyzed its subscription base and found that around 47 percent of its 3G service users were in their 20s and 30s. Currently, SK Telecom, Korea's No. 1 mobile service operator with more than half of the voice-centered 2G customers in South Korea where four out of every five people carry mobile phones, is competing with the smaller KTF Co. which also launched its nationwide HSDPA service in March. KTF reported that its 3G users exceeded 300,000 in April. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 15th, 2007 No Comments »

Apple is eyeing the potential of 3G industry. Apple seems intent on jumping into the mobile broadband game, too. The rumor, courtesy of AppleInsider, suggests that Apple is looking for a PCI Express mini-card that could be factory-installed in order to give Apple laptops 3G capability. Apple is being Apple, though, and isn't content to just stuffing a 3G card somewhere in the bowels of a laptop. Instead, they're looking to put it somewhere rather unusual: in the lid. Source

Posted by Budi Putra on May 15th, 2007 No Comments »