Mobile Industry

Speculation: Digital Britain plan threatened by new JV?

Ian Channing — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:31:59 -0400

Following a recent meeting with the UK's mobile industry, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson was quoted as finding himself ‘encouraged' by the discussions on future spectrum plans. He also said he expected a resolution of ‘remaining issues' within a few days. Unfortunately for the noble lord, the announcement this week of the joint venture (JV) between T-Mobile UK and Orange UK seems likely to throw into disarray the UK Government's plans for a spectrum auction early next year.

Ofcom's independent spectrum broker Kip Meek in his May report on how the Digital Britain goals could be attained, recommended a reshuffle of the existing spectrum allocations held by UK mobile operators. This plan involved mobile operators giving their rivals access to frequencies they already own and putting a limit on how much spectrum each operator could purchase. But this plan was predicated on there being five mobile operators in the UK but following recent developments there seems likely there will only be four.

To efficiently provide high speed wireless data services to rural and remote areas the Digital Britain plan required the deployment of 3G in the 900MHz band, a move which was also mandated by an EU Directive which comes into force in October. But only Telefonica O2 and Vodafone have 900MHz spectrum, originally allocated to them with their GSM licences, with T-Mobile UK and Orange UK having spectrum allocations in the 1800MHz bands. All four operators plus 3UK also have spectrum in the 2.1GHz band for 3G provision.

So in order for all operators to be involved in the Digital Britain initiative, and to meet the EU requirements, Vodafone and Telefonica O2 would have been required to give up some of their 900MHz spectrum, something they were understandably reluctant to do. The new JV offers the two 900MHz spectrum holders hope as its formation will mean the current UK government will almost certainly have to defer its plans and if there is a change of government in 2010, it is likely that Ofcom's proposals will be thrown out.

Other complications arise from the fact that the Government was planning to auction off spectrum in the 800MHz band early next year, again for the deployment of 3G. However, if no decision has been reached by the EU on the merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK by the time the auction is held, the new entity will be effectively frozen out of the bidding process.

With the 800MHz auction almost certain to be delayed and ongoing uncertainty with regard to the disposition of the 900MHz spectrum, the dream of a Digital Britain powered by high speed wireless seems to be receding fast.

For more on this story go to The Register

Twelve operators commit to LTE deployment in 2010

Ian Channing — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:23:29 -0400

At least twelve mobile operators are planning to launch LTE (Long Term Evolution) services during 2010, according to a new study from ABI Research. By 2011 the number of LTE users worldwide could be close to 34 million.

The key to early LTE launch is spectrum availability, says ABI, with regulators in the US, Sweden and China leading the way in opening up appropriate spectrum.

In the absence of such helpful regulators operators are being forced to postpone their plans for LTE deployment. Amongst the first to launch will be Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS Wireless, and U.S. Cellular in the USA, NTT-DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan and TeliaSonera, Tele2 and Telenor in Europe. Korean operators KT and SK Telecom are also expected to launch but have yet to make a formal announcement. China Mobile plans to launch in 2011.

There have also been early announcements regarding LTE infrastructure suppliers with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Starent picking up major contracts from Verizon Wireless. NTT DoCoMo is also using Ericsson together with local vendors NEC and Fujitsu while TeliaSonera has chosen Ericsson and Huawei. The Chinese vendor is looking to be a major player in the LTE market with Tele2 and Telenor as early customers.

For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News and 3g.co.uk

Handset market to recover in 2010, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:49:39 -0500

The slump in 2008 shipments of mobile phones was the highest on record, dragging year-on-year growth for the whole of 2008 down into single figures, around six per cent. Of particular note, according to the market research group Gartner, was the two per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in Q4/08--the lowest ever recorded for what has been a boom period in past years.

However, Gartner claims the handset reseller channels were attempting to significantly reduce their inventory during Q4, driven by their need to reduce upfront Capex requirements. "Efforts to reduce inventory will intensify in the first quarter of 2009 and continue into the second quarter," said Gartner's mobile industry research director, Carolina Milanesi. "In the second half of 2009, the channel will have to start restocking. But, the 'real' market recovery will not happen until 2010 when demand will stabilise around the first quarter."

However, another study conducted by iSuppli maintained that smartphone shipments will, in the best case, increase to over 192 million, up more than 11 per cent from 173.6 million in 2008. "For this optimistic scenario to come to fruition, mobile operators must cut fees for data services and offer aggressive subsidies to reduce consumer smartphone prices," said Tina Teng, an analyst for iSuppli.

For more on this story:
CNNmoney and Rethink Wireless

Credit crunch bites European mobile market

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:54:35 -0500

A new report from Ovum says Europe has become the first regional mobile market to be hit by the economic downturn. After analysing the Q3 2008 financial results of mobile operators around the world, Ovum concluded that, although other markets have so far proved resilient, Europe's top mobile operators show a marked, credit-crunch-induced deterioration in performance. The US mobile market has to date resisted the downturn and developing markets such as Latin America continue to enjoy double-digit revenue growth rates.

The good news is that Ovum does not anticipate a major slowdown for the mobile industry. Although some operators may become vulnerable, says Emeka Obiodu, a senior analyst at Ovum and the lead author of the report, the mobile market remains overwhelmingly buoyant and he expects it to ride out the current financial crises.

For more on this story go to Cellular News and Mobile Europe

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