China, the world’s largest mobile phone market, passed 400 million users, the Chinese govt. said Thurs. The govt. didn’t give exact figures, but state-run Xinhua News Agency cited a Ministry of Information Industry figure that 398 million users were on wireless phones at the end of Jan. China’s mobile users have outnumbered wireline users since 2003, and text messaging and other mobile-only services are up 66% from a year ago.
Exports to China
BT will invest $21 million on a global VoIP platform, it said Fri. The project will have a significant Asia-Pacific piece, BT Asia Pacific Pres. Allen Ma said. That dovetails with BT’s $48 million IP network deployment in the region, he said. When completed this year it will connect 17 countries including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India and Japan.
Terrestrial-Digital Mobile Broadcast (T-DMB) got a leg up Tues. on rival TV-to-cellphone platforms in the U.K. with wireless operator Virgin Mobile signing up for BT’s “BT Movio” broadcast digital TV and radio service. The agreement, revealed at the 3GSM 2006 conference in Barcelona, coincided with the unveiling of the Trilogy smartphone jointly developed by BT and Microsoft.
With 3 incompatible platforms vying for slices of the forthcoming mobile TV market, erstwhile handset rivals Nokia and Sony Ericsson agreed Mon. to work together on interoperability for DVB-H enabled devices and secure multi- vendor mobile TV services and pilots this year and after. The agreement, disclosed at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona, comes as the Terrestrial-Digital Mobile Broadcast (T-DMB) platform also sought attention there, and Qualcomm’s proprietary MediaFLO mobile service makes headway in the U.S. through telecom Verizon.
The GSM Assn. said 15 leading wireless carriers signed an instant messaging pact that will allow exchange of messages across their networks. Signatories include China Mobile, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, TIM, T-Mobile, Turkcell, Vodafone and other major carriers. “More than 700 million mobile subscribers will eventually have access to an IM service that is intuitive, reliable, secure and will work across networks,” said GSM Assn. CEO Rob Conway. “Crucially, users will only pay to send, not receive, messages -- meaning they can easily control their spending and minimize spam.”
A smaller, lower power chip for T-DMB TV cellphones is coming from Frontier Silicon, the company said Wed. The Kino 2 chip, to be used in TV-to-mobile devices by Samsung and others, will enable smaller phones with longer battery life and lower cost, the company said. The T-DMB TV-to-cellphone platform is established in S. Korea and has some support in China and India. But Samsung and some operators plan deployment in Germany and Norway this year, for coverage of the World Cup soccer games. The rival DVB-H platform has the edge in European trials for TV broadcasts to handheld mobiles, but T-DMB’s backers are betting it has a shot at a share of market, because the video platform is based on existing DAB digital radio service widely in place in Europe. Cellphones using the Frontier Silicon chip also will receive DAB radio programs, the company said.
Air China tapped Connexion by Boeing for broadband on flights to and from China, Air China said. Connexion said the “preliminary agreement” includes as many as 15 retrofit in-flight broadband installations on Air China’s Boeing 747- 400 aircraft. No terms disclosed.
Korea and China are weighing in with ITU’s lead study group on next generation networks, officials said. Officials in the study group said the increasing importance of streaming services could result in formation of a new focus group to study the issue. Officials discussed IPTV enthusiastically during a closed session Wed. and Thurs. in Geneva, we're told. ITU-T Dir. Houlin Zhao wrote in a letter circulated to members Fri.: “I am convinced that there is an urgent need and benefit to consult with ITU-T members in order to receive their advice and proposals on standardization of IPTV.” The consultation is set April 4-5 in Geneva.
The House telecom package still doesn’t “have wings” after a year of work, so lawmakers should pass video choice and other provisions that have support, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke told reporters Fri. Rather than let another year pass without a law, Tauke said, “we'd like to see the House consider some alternative approaches.” Video franchising could move quickly, while universal service, intercarrier compensation and similarly complex matters could drag on, Tauke said: “If you can’t get the whole loaf, let’s get a portion of it.”
Govt. decisions that allow more consolidation in communications industries and offer a “favorable regulatory environment for incumbents” result in fewer investment opportunities in the U.S. for private equity buyers like Carlyle Group, said former FCC Chmn. William Kennard, now a managing dir. in Carlyle’s telecom group. “There are still opportunities at home and abroad, but such regulatory actions change the market environment,” Kennard said in an interview.