Posts Tagged Ericsson
Econet Wireless pushes ahead
Zimbabwean GSM operator Econet Wireless is aiming to increase its network capacity beyond its previously announced target of 1.2 million subscriber lines by the end of this year, reports IT News Africa. Econet’s corporate communications manager, Rangarirai Mberi, said that the company is working closely with its technical partners including Ericsson and ZTE to complete the current phase of expansion, whilst ‘work is already under way for further expansion to drive capacity beyond this level.’
Add comment February 10, 2009
Vodafone Portugal HSPA+ trials
Vodafone is continuing to work towards the introduction of HSPA+ in its key European territories. It has previously carried out advanced trials in the UK and Italy, and this week has launched a test network in Lisbon using HSPA+ 64QAM technology. The technology has a theoretical maximum download speed of 21.6Mbps, although Vodafone and partner Ericsson achieved peaks of 16Mbps. Vodafone Portugal expects to launch commercial HSPA+ services in 2009, as soon as compatible data devices become readily available.
Add comment February 6, 2009
Vietnamobile to launch GSM services
HT Mobile successor, Vietnamobile, is set to launch wireless services in the first quarter of 2009, after it finishes converting its CDMA technology to GSM. Vietnamobile will be the country’s fourth GSM service provider to launch services, after MobiFone, Vinaphone and Viettel. HT Mobile, a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications, launched in 2007 and received a licence to convert to GSM in March 2008, as a result of its poor service provision. It purchased GSM equipment worth USD600 million from Ericsson and China’s Huawei in August 2008.
Add comment February 6, 2009
Pelephone launches HSPA network
Israeli cellco Pelephone has announced the launch of its HSPA network, using equipment supplied by Ericsson. According to Pelephone CEO Gil Sharon the 3.5G infrastructure has required an investment of ILS1 billion (USD278 million) and represents the first in a series of strategies to improve capacity and services.
Add comment February 3, 2009
China Unicom selects W-CDMA vendors
According to The South China Post, five firms have won significant contracts from China Unicom in the tender for the deployment of W-CDMA infrastructure. The winners have been announced as Huawei, Ericsson, ZTE, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent all winning a share of the spoils. The results were released in the form of percentages awarded to various equipment suppliers: Huawei, which has a partnership with Motorola, was the largest winner with a 30.6% share of the 70,000 base station deployment; Ericsson which partners Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies and Guangzhou New Postcom Equipment won a 26.5% share; ZTE won 21.5%; Nokia Siemens Networks 11.1%; and Alcatel-Shanghai Bell 10.2%.
China Unicom plans to deploy 3G networks in 55 cities in the first half of this year, spending RMB30 billion (USD4.39 billion), and 280 cities by the end of 2009, at a cost of RMB60 billion. The firm is targeting the completion of the first flagship city networks by 17 April and the first commercial network launches on 17 May 2009, the paper says.
1 comment January 28, 2009
Ericsson Announces Plans to Axe 5,000 Jobs
Ericsson has reported that its net income for the fourth quarter fell by 31% due to restructuring costs and lower profit margins – and announced plans for a further 5,000 job cuts. Net income in the three months to Dec. 31 was SEK3.89 billion (US$460.8 million), down from SEK5.64 billion (US$671 million) in the year-earlier period. Sales in the quarter increased by 23% year-over-year and by 11% for the full year.In the quarter, gross margin was 35.2%, excluding restructuring charges. Full year gross margin amounted to 36.8%, compared to 39.3% a year ago. The sequential decline was mainly due to a high proportion of network rollout services. The network rollout sales increased sequentially by 61%.
We have had a solid performance in 2008,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. “Sales grew by 11% with good demand for our entire portfolio and across the world. Changes in currency rates had very small effect on full year growth. Professional services have continued to show strong growth. Operating margins, excluding Sony Ericsson, have steadily improved, and our financial position is strong with net cash of SEK 35 b. Sony Ericsson is affected by the economic downturn and the declining demand in the consumer market and has taken necessary actions.
Add comment January 22, 2009
TeliaSonera picks Ericsson, Huawei to roll out 4G networks
TeliaSonera has selected Ericsson for the initial 4G city network in Stockholm and Huawei for the initial 4G city network in Oslo. The 4G services in Stockholm and Oslo are slated for commercial launch in 2010. In Stockholm, Ericsson will perform network implementation services and will manage the network during the initial operation period. The agreement between Ericsson and TeliaSonera also includes a long-standing partnership where both parties will jointly evolve the way consumers use mobile broadband with LTE. The new 4G networks will offer about 10 times higher data rates compared to today’s mobile broadband network. The contract between TeliaSonera and Ericsson is Ericsson’s first for commercial deployment of LTE. Under the agreement with Huawei, the Chinese equipment maker will provide LTE base stations, core network and OSS covering Oslo. Huawei will also provide services including network design, implementation, systems integration and support.
Add comment January 16, 2009
Vodafone completes HSPA+ trials; achieves 16Mbps speeds
Dow Jones is reporting that the Vodafone Group, working with hardware vendors Ericsson and Qualcomm, has successfully completed trials of HSPA+ technology, achieving actual peak download rates of 16Mbps. The company said that it had achieved the results during trials on Vodafone Spain’s network. It has revealed it now plans to trial mobile broadband date connections of speeds up to 21Mbps in early 2009 using HSPA+ MIMO functionality. The mobile group estimates that the technology is capable of providing an average speed of more than 4Mbps over a range of locations, including urban areas. If successful it is expected that Vodafone will make the technology available on some of its networks.
Add comment January 16, 2009
Melita plans wireless launch in February (Malta)
Melita Mobile, Malta’s wireless licensee has proclaimed that Ericsson has completed a EUR40 million network deployment, and as a result will launch a commercial service on 1 February, becoming the island’s third cellco. According to Melita Mobile, it is the first mobile operator in the world to integrate HSPA into a cable platform.
CEO of Melita, Stephen Wright said, Melita plans to ‘rock the market’ with substantially cheaper prices for mobile usage. ‘Our promise to be cheaper is a long-term commitment and not just a limited time offer. Mr Wright further said, this is the first time that mobile users in Malta will experience the real benefits derived from the liberalisation of telecommunications.
Add comment January 15, 2009
Ericsson to expand Zain Madagascar network
Swedish hardware vendor has inked an agreement with the Zain Group to expand the core network and GSM radio access network (RAN) for the mobile group’s Madagascan subsidiary. The expansion of the network will be centred on the deployment of Ericsson’s Packet Core Network, including both SGSN and GGSN nodes, and Ericsson’s Mobile Softswitch Solution. The new solutions are expected to allow Zain to reduce the number and size of its main core network sites. Rollout of the first phase of the project is already underway. No financial details of the deal have been announced.
Add comment January 13, 2009
Huawei wins ICE 3G contract (Costa Rica)
Chinese telecoms equipment supplier Huawei has won a USD235 million contract to develop a 3G network for Costa Rican state telecoms operator ICE, writes BNamericas. The 3G network, which will comprise 950,000 lines and will be financed by the Central American Bank for Economic Development (Cabei), is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter. Huawei submitted the lowest of three bids in November; the other two bidding companies were Ericsson (which bid USD341 million) and ZTE (USD447 million).
Add comment January 13, 2009
China issues 3G mobile phone licenses
China assigned third-generation mobile phone licenses Wednesday to three carriers in a long-awaited step that is expected to prompt $41 billion in spending on new equipment.
Licenses were granted to China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom Ltd. and China Telecom Corp., the Ministry of Indutry and Information Technology said. Third-generation, or 3G, technology supports Web surfing, wireless video and other services and the start of service is expected to spur new revenue growth.
The awarding of licenses was delayed while China’s government developed its own technology to compete with two global 3G standards.
The Chinese-developed standard, TD-SCDMA, was assigned to China Mobile, the world’s biggest phone carrier by subscribers. That appeared to be an effort to make sure the new system has the financial and technical backing to succeed.
The two global standards, WCDMA and CDMA-2000, were assigned to China Unicom and China Telecom, respectively.
According to AIKresearch’s databse, China has 650 million mobile phone accounts, and Chinese carriers are expected to spend 280 billion yuan ($41 billion) on new equipment.
Such sales will be important to global suppliers Motorola Inc., Alcatel-Lucent SA, Nokia-Siemens Networks and Ericsson AB as demand elsewhere slumps. But they face competition from fledgling Chinese producers.
Add comment January 7, 2009
