TeliaSonera, the first operator in the world to launch 4G services, has selected its vendors for the next stage of its 4G/LTE rollout across Sweden and Norway. The common 4G/LTE core network will be delivered by Ericsson and the radio networks by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

4G mobile broadband allows users to access high-bandwidth services such as video conferencing, real-time web, online gaming or social media collaboration, while on the move

In late 2009, 4G services were made live to subscribers in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. The network will be expanded to cover Sweden’s 25 largest municipalities and recreation areas, and to Norway’s four largest municipalities.

“The use of mobile broadband in the Nordic countries is exploding and customers need higher speeds and capacity. Both Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks have been able to provide high quality technology and competitive offers,” stated Lars Klasson, senior vice president and CTO of Mobility Services, TeliaSonera.

The operator has nationwide 4G/LTE licences in the 2.6 GHz frequency band in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The agreement with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks covers network rollout during 2010 and 2011. Meanwhile Chinese vendor Huawei will continue to finalise the 4G city network in Oslo.

Ericsson has signed commercial LTE contracts with three other operators in addition to TeliaSonera, including Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS in the US, and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. Together with NTT DoCoMo, Ericsson initiated LTE standardisation at the international standardisation body 3GPP in 2004, and has made the largest amount of approved contributions to the group. Ericsson also expects to hold 25 per cent of all essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry.

Batelco has inked a deal with Global Banking Corporation (GBCORP) laying the foundation for a strategic partnership that would allow GBCORP to acquire 11 per cent of S-Tel in India. S-Tel is a joint venture between Batelco and India’s Siva Group that has licences to operate in six Indian states. Batelco owns a 49 per cent stake of S-Tel.

Batelco and GBCORP believe 35-45 per cent of S-Tel’s subscriber based in 2012 will come from the North East telecommunications circle

Batelco group CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos stated that since launching operations in December 2009, the mobile operator had acquired more than 300,000 subscribers in three of the six service areas. These are Orissa, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, with services yet to be launched in the North-East, Assam, and Jammu and Kashmir circles.

“Together with our investment partners, GBCORP and the Siva Group, we aspire to make S-Tel a leading and formidable operator in India’s rural sector,” Kaliaropoulos commented.

Ahmed Al Khan, senior executive director and head of investment banking at GBCORP, said that in terms of the telecom market in India, the next significant growth area for S-Tel is the potential C Circle, comprising India’s North -East region, which covers 26 per cent of the land area and 20 per cent of the population.”

“Subscribers in this segment will account for 35-45 per cent of the total subscriber base by 2012, making it one of the fastest growing telecom market segments,” stated Al Khan.

Siva Group is a US$3 billion group with diversified business interests in verticals such as wind energy, shipping and logistics, hospitality and realty, media, EPC, education and agriculture.

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Batelco enters India for US$225 million

Image: GSMA & Decisive Media

Uninor, Telenor’s venture in India, has added 1.2 million subscribers within its first month of operation. While the company has spectrum to roll out mobile services in 21 of India’s 22 telecommunications circles, the first stage of its launch began in eight circles.

Uninor operates out of 11 regional offices and in less than one year has recruited more than 1800 employees

Services were launched on December 3 in Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, followed by the Orissa circle on December 22.

"We are building on our launch – scaling up our network and our distribution. We will continue to focus on customer experience and compete for every new subscriber. In a competitive market it will never be easy, but we have a long term ambition and we have made a positive start," stated Stein-Erik Vellan, managing director of Uninor. "Considering that our subscribers currently come from only eight circles, of which one was launched towards the end of the month, these numbers are encouraging," he added.

Uninor launched its services with two price plans – a base plan called talklonger@29p designed for customers who make longer calls and a subscription plan called callmore@29p for those who call more often.

Egypt’s telecom regulator today postponed the bid deadline for two cable, voice and Internet licences from yesterday, January 12, to a new date of March 15.

"The authority’s decision on this matter came in response to the request of more than 50 per cent of the companies that bought the bid documents for the two licences," Amr Badawi, head of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority told Egyptian press.

Analysts believe the licences’ limitation in geographical scope and range of services does not pose much of a competitive threat to state-dominated Telecom Egypt’s fixed-line monopoly.

Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator has announced it will auction at least four blocks of 3G spectrum later this year, in an effort to attract billions of dollars of investment. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said the 3G licensing guidelines would be finished by June 2010.

The regulator will also open up its international telecommunications gateway to the private sector, which would allow operators for the first time to lay underwater cables and connect terrestrial lines with India.

The announcement follows Indian giant Bharti Airtel receiving the green light to purchase 70 per cent of Warid Bangladesh for US$300 million. Unconfirmed sources say that UK’s Vodafone has approached the commission for a 3G licence.

Grameenphone leads the Bangladeshi market with 23 million subscribers and a market share of 45 per cent, followed by Orascom’s Banglalink with 25.7 per cent, Axiata with 17.54 per cent, Warid with 5.78 per cent, PBTL (Citycell) with 3.9 per cent, and finally Teletalk Bangladesh with 2.1 per cent market share.

The combined subscribers reach 52 million, equating to a mobile penetration rate of roughly 35 per cent. Analysts estimate the number of subscribers will exceed 100 million by 2015.