Telefonica

Telefonica selects ZTE for LTE tests

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:42:36 -0400

The Chinese infrastructure vendor ZTE has announced that Telefonica is to use its equipment to test LTE in Spain. While other manufacturers, particularly Huawei, have been announcing LTE trials with leading service providers, Telefonica is the first Tier 1 operator win for ZTE.

According to a report carried by Unstrung, ZTE plans to test LTE in Spain during Q3/09 in parallel with similar trials with Hong Kong-based CSL, which is part of Australian-based Telstra International.

VP of international wireless marketing at ZTE, Xu Ming, said the field trials in Spain and Hong Kong, which will involve FDD-LTE access equipment and evolved packet core technology, are clearly important for the vendor. "Wireless is the core business for ZTE," he noted. "Our main human resources are focused on this. And LTE is the main resource for (the migration towards) 4G, so we will invest much more in LTE."

However, ZTE is not the first vendor Telefonica has selected to test LTE. Ericsson also already completed trials--and is the incumbent, and it would seem very likely that Nokia Siemens Networks will be invited in the future--and maybe even Huawei.

For more on this story:
LightReading

Telefonica and O2 play catch-up in Germany

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:54:26 -0400

The realisation that its attraction to German business users was in decline has prompted the merger of Telefónica's fixed and O2's mobile operations in the country. The new company, unimaginatively labelled Telefónica O2 Germany, will bring together the sales and marketing operations targeted at German businesses--as well as the landline wholesale business--making it a second important mainstay in addition to the O2 consumer business.

This move follows a strategy already implemented by competitors such as Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone Germany that have built business customer units focused on offering a full range of bundled telecom services to German businesses.

Johannes Pruchnow, the former CEO of Telefónica Deutschland, and now MD of the new business division, said the restructuring would create significant new opportunities. "The most important aspect is our modern IP-based landline and wireless infrastructure. But, thanks to the integration of the two telecoms businesses, we will now be able to advance with the merger of these two infrastructures even more quickly than before." The Verl location will be expanded to become a competence centre for landline and IP."

For more on this story:
Cellular News

Telefónica conducts 'real world' LTE trials

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:43:07 -0400

Having conducted LTE tests in its Madrid demo centre, Telefónica has now hooked the technology into a 2G/3G operational network for the first time to prove its maturity. The company justified this move by wanting to understand what the technical requirements might be for the commercial deployment of LTE.

According to engineers involved with the exercise, the initial tests included VoIP calls and video calls using a mini LTE installation supplied by Ericsson, with the company claiming it had recorded speeds for videoconferencing and data downloads of more than 140Mbps.

While it would appear these tests were successful, Telefónica has confirmed that, by this summer, it will start rolling out its HSPA + technology offering peak download speeds of 21Mbps. It also revealed its 3G network now covers approximately 90 per cent of the Spanish population, while its HSDPA and HSUPA coverage will expand to 85 per cent and 50 per cent respectively by the end of the year.

However, a new study into LTE by Juniper Research did raise a question for operators. According to Juniper, while LTE should offer broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps or more--at least five times faster than the best mobile broadband now, and around 20 times faster than most people experience via fixed DSL--"the challenge for mobile operators is to make profits yet keep prices attractive enough for subscribers to sign up. It's all about the business case."

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Telegeography, VNUnet and Broadband Expert

Telefonica signs massive pan-European comms contract

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:20:42 -0500

With a value of nearly 350 million euros, the deal signed this week between Telefonica and Deutsche Post World Net is Europe's largest mobile and fixed communications contract. The agreement covers 125,000 employees at 2,400 sites in 28 European countries. Only Germany is excluded from the deal.

Telefonica will be providing a complete range of communications solutions including wide area network connectivity, centralised Internet access, local-area network (LAN) services such as wireless LAN, fixed voice, mobile voice and data as well as IT services such as managed security, web conferencing, unified messaging and fixed mobile convergence.

The contract comprises more than 100,000 LAN Ports, more than 60,000 fixed voice devices and 80,000 mobile connections including 24,000 mobile and smartphone devices. The wireless communications aspect of the agreement will be covered by Telefonica O2's operations in the UK, Ireland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

For more:
- go to Mobile Europe and Mobile News

Related article:
Mobile Internet comes to the Czech Republic

Huawei wins Czech network contract

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:06:38 -0400

Telefonica O2 Czech Republic has chosen Huawei for its UMTS network infrastructure and the modernisation of its 2G network. Currently Telefonica O2 provides UMTS/HSDPA coverage in Prague and Brno offering users download speeds of 3.6Mbs.

By the end of 2009, the operator plans to expand its 3G coverage to include 20 to 30 towns in the Czech Republic, growing this to 70 per cent population coverage within three years.

For more:
- read this article DMEurope

Related articles:
Huawei gearing up for North American expansion
Huawei scores again with O2 Germany

Facebook's mobile service goes global with Telefonica

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:43:09 -0400

Mobile social networking has taken a significant step forward following a global agreement that will enable Telefonica cellphone subscribers to access Facebook's mobile services and applications. The deal expands the current UK-only relationship into a worldwide contract.

The agreement calls for a phased roll-out of the new network which will see services firstly deployed in Ireland, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, with the second deployment including Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Central American countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Every participating country may include a link in the browsing menu of its mobile handsets to Facebook's mobile service, allowing customers to send digital content (photos and videos) through integrated MMS services. Currently, more than 24 million pictures are uploaded to Facebook each day.

Mobile social networking is being hyped by the providers of such services as the next logical extension of their existing PC/laptop-based platform. Operators are keen to forge deals such as the above in anticipation of greater data usage.

For more on this story:
- go to The Unwired

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MySpace, Facebook widen mobile social networking lead. Social networking story
Facebook for Mobile Operators debuts on Vodafone. Vodafone story

Telefonica accused of unfair practices, Vodafone sues for €670m

Paul Rasmussen — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:38:22 -0400

The giant Spanish telecoms firm Telefonica faces being fined a record amount if a decision by Spain's Supreme Court is upheld. The ruling follows a complaint by Vodafone that the former state monopoly abused its dominant market position by preventing Airtel -- which Vodafone acquired in 2000, from expanding its business in Spain through unfair competition practices between 1995 and 1999.

Vodafone specifically accuses Telefonica of bullying cell phone retailers into signing exclusivity contracts that prevented Airtel from acquiring new subscribers via a channel that, in the late 1990s, accounted for more than 50 per cent of handset sales.

Vodafone's claims are based on a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that found Telefonica guilty of violating competition rules. However, while some analysts believe there will be an out of court settlement, what seems more likely is that Telefonica will lodge an appeal with a higher court. If this is successful then Vodafone will need to wait two to three years for a decision.

For more on this story:
- go to AFP and Expatica

Related articles:
Vodafone Spain gains in saturated market. Vodafone story
Spanish operators caught fixing tariff. Telefonica story

Vodafone Spain gains in saturated market

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:01:58 -0400

With penetration reaching over 120 per cent, Vodafone Spain just managed to outperform the market leader, Telefonica, during Q1/08 by recruiting (on a proportionate basis) more users.

Telefonica finished the quarter with just over 23 million customers, having managed an annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent, and recorded a very slight improvement in market share to finish Q1 on 46.5 per cent.

Vodafone Spain finished the quarter with a market share of 29.9 per cent. In real terms, its customer base stood at 14.79 million, up 790,000 year on year. While this is lower than both the previous year's figure of 1.25 million net additions and Telefonica's 1.19 million, in proportionate terms Vodafone grew by 5.6 per cent, the highest growth rate on the market excluding start-up Xfera.

France Telecom's Amena, with a 22.4 per cent share of the market, was the slowest growing by some margin with an annual increase of just 0.2 per cent. Having lost 370,000 customers in Q2/07, Amena rebounded with quarterly net additions of 230,000 and 170,000 in Q3 and Q4, but Q1/08 saw the loss of 7,000, leaving the annual gain at a paltry 26,000.

Most observers believe it is too late for the 3G operator Xfera to penetrate the Spanish market given its lowly 1.1 per cent share with 560,000 subscribers.

For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News

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Spain targeted by Mexico's Slim. Spanish market story
3G iPhone--€100 in Spain, £100 in the UK. iPhone in Spain story