SAUDI ARABIA
Nokia Corp. has signed an agreement with Aljawal, the GSM operator of Saudi Telecom Co., to supply the Nokia multimedia messaging service solution. Deliveries have already begun, and the service is expected to be launched nationwide during first half 2005, making it the first MMS service in Saudi Arabia. The value of the agreement was not disclosed. Aljawal has 9.6 million mobile subscribers.
SWITZERLAND
NMS Communications and LogicaCMG said they are powering a new ring-back tone service for Swisscom Mobile. The service allows users to purchase song clips that calling parties will hear instead of traditional rings. Subscribers can set ring-back tones to change based on the caller or time of day and can program the service from their handsets via text messages. Swisscom Mobile has 3.9 million subscribers.
CHINA
Alcatel Corp. signed $22.4 million in GSM network expansion contracts with Jilin Mobile Communication Co. Ltd. and Shanxi Mobile Communication Co., two subsidiaries of China Mobile. Under the terms of the contracts, Alcatel will provide base stations, base station controllers, an operation and maintenance controller and a personalized ring-back tone platform. The expansion project for Jilin Mobile covers seven cities across the Jilin province and should be completed later this month. It will increase the capacity of Jilin Mobile’s GSM network to around 6 million subscribers. The Shanxi Mobile project will further improve its GSM network capability and reliability and increase the capacity of Shanxi Mobile’s GPRS core network for up to 600,000 subscribers.
UNITED KINGDOM
MonsterMob Group plc, which sells mobile entertainment content and services, said it has agreed to acquire all the share capital of Upper Mobile Ltd. UML owns Information Gateway Inc., a mobile content and entertainment company in the Philippines, and Creative Minds Pte., a content development and production companion in Singapore.
