Teliasonera

TeliaSonera secures LTE modems for 2010 launch

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:43 -0400

Determined to be the first European operator to go live with LTE next year has seen TeliaSonera sign a modem supply deal with Samsung. The company said that it planned offer the LTE modems with data speeds up to 10x currently experienced to subscribers in Stockholm and Oslo in 2010.

According to Kenneth Karlberg, president and head of mobility services at TeliaSonera, the company had teamed up with Samsung to meet customers' continuously increasing demands for high speed mobile broadband services and to acquire an early understanding of end users' ways of using LTE.

However, both firms are labelling the service as 4G - with the modem carrying prominent 4G branding, which might be considered as over-hyping the capabilities given that true 4G specification, known as "IMT-Advanced" will not be ratified by the ITU until late 2010. This particular modem is apparently seen as an interim solution - given it is LTE-only, and new multi-wireless technology modems from vendors including Samsung are expected sometime next year.

In January 2009, TeliaSonera signed a Stockholm-only contract with Ericsson for LTE network deployment, followed swiftly by a similar deal with China's Huawei for an LTE rollout in Oslo for its Norwegian unit NetCom.

For more on this story:
Telegeography and 3G

TeliaSonera secures LTE modems for 2010 launch

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:06:39 -0400

For more on this story:
Telegeography and 3G

Spotify signs TeliaSonera for mobile music, but questions raised

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:32 -0400

Having started its ‘free' music service only 12 months ago, Spotify has unveiled a milestone deal with TeliaSonera that will enable the telco's subscribers to access the music service using their PCs, TVs or mobile phones. Spotify said that the two-year contract would see TeliaSonera launch a specific mobile phone (said to be under development by INQ) within the next few months to support the Spotify service.

"I can say that we are really glad to work with Spotify. The main idea of this deal is that we found a service that meets our customers' demands," said Stefan Trampus, TeliaSonera's head of broadband services in Sweden. However, Trampus also admitted that the service should also attract new customers as well as acting on building subscriber loyalty.

Currently, the Spotify application runs on the iPhone, Android and Symbian S60 platforms, and generates around a third of all digital music sales in Sweden. Around 5.5 million people worldwide currently use the music service, according to TeliaSonera.

However, a war-of-words has broken out following a plea by Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, claiming that the music industry had to fundamentally change the way it charged for tracks. Ek has called for music labels to stop the practice whereby Spotify had to pay them a fee every time a track was played. Instead, he said the future lay in a system where money was made through different routes, such as music downloads, advertising, merchandise and tickets to live events.

While Spotify's catalogue is fast approaching the size of Apple's iTunes, Dan Nash, a senior executive at Napster, has responded by asking where will Spotify be a year from now with its free service? "All these ad-supported models have burned out already; why is Spotify going to be any different?"

For more on this story:
TechCrunch and The Times

Telefonica O2 to test LTE in six countries, but no deployment plans

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:35:31 -0400

A significant boost has been given to the future success of LTE with the announcement from Telefonica O2 that it planned to conduct field trials of the technology in six countries within the next six months. However, the company said that these tests would only act as a guide to any future LTE roll-out, helping Telefonica O2 to be fully prepared when a decision became necessary.

The countries chosen include Spain, the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic and, surprisingly, Argentina and Brazil. The vendors selected to support these trials are Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NSN, NEC, Huawei and ZTE, with each being given a separate country in which to build a network for the six-month test period. However, Telefonica O2 said that the trials would not necessarily be limited to six infrastructure vendors or six countries, which might open the doors to players like Fujitsu or Motorola.

The company is being vague about the commercial deployment of LTE, only confirming that it is continuing to define its LTE strategy and the trial results would help with this effort. In several markets selected for the test, Telefonica O2 does not own free spectrum suitable for LTE. COO, Julio Linares, added that the trials were also about "offering the best service from the moment that the equipment and terminals can support the new standards and are available for sale."

The first European commercial LTE network is scheduled by TeliaSonera to go live next year in Sweden, whereas Telefonica O2 demonstrated mobile VoIP and video conferencing over LTE six months ago in Madrid.

For more on this story:
Cellular News

France Telecom hints at more European acquisitions, Belgium tops list

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:19:19 -0400

Having agreed to swallow T-Mobile UK, France Telecom (FT) has dropped heavy hints that Switzerland and Portugal were two countries where partnerships or deals would make sense, to alleviate intense competition.

But the focus would appear to be centred on Belgium where shares in the country's second-largest mobile operator, Mobistar, jumped by nearly seven per cent following speculation that FT was close to making a takeover bid. The notion was given further credence following comments from Gervais Pellissier, FT's CFO, that consolidation would make sense in Belgium. Mobistar is already majority-owned by FT which holds 52.9 per cent of the shares. However, the FT rumour reignited gossip that Mobistar and the Belgium cable operator, Telenet, could form a close partnership. Telenet is keen to become a bigger player in the mobile sector and has already agreed an MVNO deal with Mobistar.

Adding fuel to its expansion plans, Pellissier said that its interests were centred on where Orange had a minority shareholding in a European operator, and not elsewhere in Europe, adding that the main focus remained in Africa and the Middle East, including Zimbabwe and Tanzania. He ruled out a move into South Africa or Nigeria, where the investment required would be too big to justify the risks involved with trying to control operations in those countries.

Having thoroughly stirred up the market, FT has poured cold water on the likelihood that it was again mounting a takeover of the Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera--which again had seen its share price boosted by industry speculation. FT abandoned an unpopular bid worth around US$42 billion for TeliaSonera last year.

For more on this story:
Trading Markets

TeliaSonera bids for control of 'distressed' Baltic operators

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:11:01 -0400

TeliaSonera has launched a US$688 million bid to acquire the remaining shareholdings of its two mobile subsidiaries in Estonia and Lithuania. The offer, coming at a time when both firms are struggling with severely depressed economic climates, is part of TeliaSonera's strategy to buy out smaller shareholders in core businesses, as it looks to generate greater efficiency through overall control.

TeliaSonera, which already has a 60 per cent holding in Lithuania's TEO LT and Estonia's Eesti Telekom, claimed that the cash offer represented (respectively) a 31 per cent and a 24 per cent premium. However, local commentators are calling for their governments to dismiss the offers as being too cheap. Stockmarket analysts have reported few signs that small shareholders are selling their holdings in reaction to the offer, while institutions appear to be waiting for a higher offer.

However, this would appear unlikely. The CEO of TeliaSonera, Lars Nyberg, said at a press conference that this price was fair, and there wouldn't be a new offer at a higher price. "The offer we've made for Eesti Telekom is not far from the highest share price of all times."

Stockholm-based equity analyst, Urban Ekelund, said that Sweden's corporate sector still viewed the region as a long-term growth opportunity, and suggested that "now is a good time to buy because prices have fallen and owners in Estonia and Lithuania may be under pressure to sell."

Given that TeliaSonera has been focusing on emerging markets in Eastern Europe and beyond, this move to gain further control of its Baltic subsidiaries is seen as logical. The firm recently triumphed by increasing its stake in Turkcell to over 60 per cent following the intervention of an arbitration tribunal, but has been less successful - after years of trying, in boosting its 44 per cent holding in MegaFon, Russia's third largest mobile operator.

For more on this story:
Financial Times

Video: TeliaSonera makes 'world's first' LTE Internet connection

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:58:03 -0400

TeliaSonera sub NetCom said it used a laptop with a 4G modem to make the first mobile broadband Internet connection over a live commercial LTE network in Oslo, Norway. Check it out here.

Source: YouTube

TeliaSonera makes 'world's first' LTE Internet connection; T-Mobile Austria demos LTE

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:28:22 -0400

European LTE has moved closer to becoming a commercial reality with the announcement from T-Mobile Austria that it has installed an LTE base station and is showcasing its high-speed capabilities of over 130Mbps. To further boost the case for LTE, TeliaSonera claims to have achieved a "world's first" by making a broadband Internet connection over a live commercial LTE network in Oslo, Norway.

The demonstration of LTE by T-Mobile Austria is using equipment from Huawei, and according to the Austrian company's CTO, Jim Burke, is the first time a speed of more than 130Mbps over the air interface has been reached, with four modems simultaneously active in a cell. The operator used the launch of this demo to call for the Austrian government to consider the distribution of 2.6GHz frequencies, so it can prepare to launch the technology on a commercial basis.

In Norway, the TeliaSonera subsidiary, NetCom, used a laptop with a 4G modem to demonstrate the performance and connection capabilities of LTE by downloading high-res photos, music, movies and mobile business applications, at a speed quicker than is available over today's fixed Internet. However, no details were supplied by NetCom with regard to actual LTE throughput, although the connection was made using Huawei technology.

For more on this story:
- see this press release from TeliaSonera
- this video of the event
- and these articles from 3G and Telegeography

LTE goes 'commercial', claim TeliaSonera and Ericsson

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:11:31 -0400

In what is building up to be a race, the Swedish operator, TeliaSonera, and Ericsson have cheekily announced the first commercial LTE network--albeit that it has no subscribers or services, and involves a single base station at present.

However, this lonely LTE site in Stockholm is the starting point for TeliaSonera's fully commercial network scheduled to provide LTE coverage for Sweden's capital city starting next year. But Ulf Ewaldsson, VP and head of product area radio at Ericsson, was keen to express his confidence in this move and that Ericsson was leading the charge: "The unveiling of this site shows that LTE is no longer the story of the future; it is the story of today."

TeliaSonera earlier this year said Ericsson and Huawei were its preferred providers for its initial commercial LTE contracts. The Scandinavian operator plans to roll out LTE services in Sweden and Norway, with Ericsson in charge of deploying the network in Stockholm and Huawei responsible for building the LTE network in Oslo, Norway.

While neither TeliaSonera nor Ericsson would comment on the performance of the new network, reports indicated the operator aimed to provide data transfer rates around 10x faster than existing mobile broadband networks, and that complete LTE coverage of Stockholm could be achieved within months.

For more on this story:
EE Times and Telegeography

TeliaSonera's UMA relaunch attracts criticism - femtos are the way forward

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:54:55 -0400

Although said to have corrected failings with its previous offer, TeliaSonera has announced the relaunch of its UMA service with the addition of "free calls"--in fact a chargeable package for calls made from within the home.

TeliaSonera now packages the Home Free router in two ways. The first is a below-the-line retention tool to provide better in-building coverage for those customers who have an issue and threaten to churn. Secondly, this latest announcement sees TeliaSonera turning the product into a revenue generator, offering it above-the-line with a homezone tariff package.

However, the company's revised UMA service already has been given the thumbs-down by one telecoms analyst claiming it'll only have limited long-term impact.

According to Carrie Pawsey, an analyst with UK-based Ovum, the company has solved the issues with its previous "Home Free" UMA service, making it easier to use for consumers and revamping the positioning of the service so it can be commercialised.

But Pawsey believes the TeliaSonera product still has limited appeal because of the fundamental issues around the limited range of UMA handsets that will prohibit mass-market success. "Many operators are keen to provide homezone solutions and encourage users to offload data traffic when in the home, and UMA solves both these issues. However, in the long term we believe femtocells are likely to be a more viable solution provided the price continues to decline."

For more on this story:
Ovum