The Indonesian government does not expect 4G services to become widespread in the country until 2014 at the earliest. ‘The adoption of 4G is not easy and if we are not careful we may be blamed later. Maybe in two years, 4G nationwide will be possible,’ Muhammad Budi Setia, from the Ministry of Communication, told the Jakarta Post. He added that the government needs to study how other countries are allocating 4G radio before moving ahead, in order to maximize handset and roaming compatibility. One option under review is to make refarmed 1.8GHz the main LTE band.
Kodak has won court approval to auction its IPR assets as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. US Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper has approved an order allowing a sale process for more than 1,100 digital imaging patents, despite an ongoing battle with Apple over ownership of 10 of those assets, which the iPhone maker claims to possess.
Swedish mobile operators Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 Sweden launched a WyWallet mobile wallet service.The four operators said the service uses technology supplied by local developer Accumulate and is initially available as a mobile app on Android, iPhone and Java devices, with support for Windows Phone scheduled to be available this autumn. WyWallet supports NFC, P2P money transfers, payment for SMS-based services such as public transport, ticketing and voting, together with online shopping and prepaid top-ups.
Vimpelcom, Russia’s third largest cellco, has finally achieved full coverage of all of the regions in the Far East Federal District with its GSM network. These include the Primorsky Krai region, the Sakha Republic, the Jewish Autonomous District, the Chukotka Autonomous District and the Magadan Oblast, all completed in the first half of 2012. Some of these areas had 3G networks, rolled out as a stopgap while Vimpelcom waited for new 900MHz and 1.8GHz GSM licences, but only 20% of subscribers in the region have 3G handsets. Vimpelcom’s 2G network will cover around 99% of the Far East territory by early 2014. In 2011, the operator acquired KT’s majority stake in New Telephone Company, at that time the only carrier operating in the Primorsky Krai, which is bordered by China and North Korea.
Oman’s second national operator Nawras has signed an agreement with Huawei to upgrade its network and start rolling out LTE in 1.8GHz spectrum.
Orange France is deploying SIM cards throughout its domestic market, working with smartcard firm Gemalto. It says it is the first cellco in Europe to put next generation UpTeq NFC SIMs into the hands of customers.
Romania’s regulator, Ancom, has published the details of its planned auction of spectrum in four 3G/4G bands, which it has scheduled for September 2012. Two types of licences will be awarded, some for 15 years and some for just 15 months. The long term licences will cover 42 paired blocks of 5MHz each (six in 800MHz, seven in 900MHz, 15 in 1.8GHz and 14 in 2.6GHz), plus three unpaired blocks of 15MHz each in the 2.6GHz band. The short term concessions will include 10 paired blocks of 2.5MHz each in the 900MHz band and six paired blocks of 5MHz in the 1.8GHz band, resources which are currently used by Orange and Vodafone.
MIPS has provided long time customer Broadcom with a multi-faceted, multiyear patent and technology licence for $26.5m, but the chipmaker has not, as some expected, made a bid for the processor IP firm. Broadcom uses MIPS-based processors heavily in home equipment such as gateways, but some have speculated that it would move to an ARM-only strategy as it increases its focus on the mobile market, where it uses the rival architecture. Broadcom has been a MIPS licensee since 1998. The smaller firm recently announced three new families of Aptiv processor cores.
Juniper Research predicts that in-app advertising spend across all mobile devices will reach $7.1bn by 2015, up from $2.4bn in 2012. The increasing spend on in-app ads will be driven by greater use of rich media as well as higher overall mobile software usage. This growth, from one of the key mobile advertising segments, will help to triple spend on mobile advertising by 2017.
US wireless broadband provider SpeedConnect has acquired DigitalBridge Communications (DBC) and its subsidiary BridgeMAXX Internet Services, which operates in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota. DBC was a flagwaver of the WiMAX generation, while SpeedConnect owns 2.5GHz EBS and BRS spectrum and technology.
Test equipment vendor Ixia is to acquire security testing specialist BreakingPoint Systems for $160m in cash, giving the buyer a broader portfolio of tools to target network and data center operators.
Vodafone is reported to be in talks with Hutchison Whampoa ‘ owner of 3 Group – about an infrastructure sharing deal in Ireland. The two giants are said to have agreed the terms of a joint venture which would take over the ownership of their respective tower assets, aiming to save £200m over five years.
TDC and a joint venture of Telenor and Telia picked up 800MHz spectrum in Denmark’s latest auction. TDC gained four blocks of 2x5MHz in the B Block for DKK628m ($105.5m), while the TT Netvaerket venture bought 2x10MHz in the A Block ‘ which has some restrictions on mast locations because of TV interference – for DKK111.5m. The spectrum is earmarked to extend 4G coverage in rural areas. Telenor and Telia have signed a deal to merge their 2G, 3G and 4G networks. Telia has 18,000 LTE customers on its 2.6GHz network while TDC has 9,800.
Apple celebrated the iPhone’s fifth birthday on June 29, and analysts at Strategy Analytics calculated that the device has netted the firm $150bn in cumulative revenues to date. Apple has sold about 250m units though most expect the handset to face a tougher time in the coming five years.
America Movil’s Claro unit will invest $249m in Argentina this year to extend its networks and its fiber backhaul. The spend is in addition to its $1bn capex plan for 2011-2012, and will allow it to create 150 more cell sites than originally envisaged, a total of 450 this year.
US Cellular is the latest carrier to throw its weight behind the upcoming Windows Phone 8, as cellcos look to support its as a ‘third way’ alongside iOS and Android. AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have all said they will launch WP8 devices this fall.
Three Japanese operators ‘ NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and eMobile ‘ have secured so-called ‘platinum band’ 700MHz spectrum and DoCoMo expects to begin offering LTE in the band by January 2015, boosting capacity for its Xi 4G network. Softbank recently gained low frequency LTE spectrum in 900MHz.
Germany’s regulator FNA has approved an application from E-Plus to refarm its 1.8GHz GSM spectrum for mobile broadband services, including LTE. In May 2011 E-Plus filed an application to use its 900MHz 2G frequencies for mobile broadband services in rural areas and the regulator gave its approval.