BROWSING: LTE

Huawei wins almost half of China Mobile VoLTE project

The Chinese company expects deployments to be completed by the end of 2015 or in early 2016 Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei was awarded the largest share of China Mobile’s voice-over-LTE project, which includes network convergence building and reconstruction across 31 provinces and municipalities in...

China Mobile and Vodafone Italy launch VoLTE

VoLTE rollouts are supported by Huawei and Nokia Networks Two major telecom service providers last week announced the launch of commercial voice-over-LTE services. China Mobile in partnership with Huawei, and Vodafone Italy with partner Nokia Networks, are rolling out the high-definition voice feature. As part of...

SK Telecom reaches 17.93M LTE subs

South Korean telco plans to launch the world’s first pilot of LTE-M technology South Korea’s largest mobile telephony operator, SK Telecom, ended the second quarter of 2015 with 17.93 million LTE subscribers, climbing 16.6% vs. the year-ago period. LTE subscribers accounted for 62.6% of the...

Telefónica reports Q2 revenue up 12.4%

Telefónica Spanish business showing signs of recovery Spanish telecom giant Telefónica reported revenue of 11.87 billion euro ($13.14 billion) in the second quarter of 2015, climbing 12.4% vs. the year-ago quarter. The company's net profits for the period reached 1.89 million euro, an increase of...

Telekom Austria acquires Bulgarian operator

The telco’s LTE trial currently reaches 28% of local population Telekom Austria’s Bulgarian subsidiary Mobiltel has acquired fixed-line operator Blizoo Bulgaria. Blizoo Bulgaria is the second-largest fixed-line operator in the country with an 8% share in the fixed broadband market and an 11% share in the...

NTT DoCoMo ends Q1 with 32.6M LTE subs

NTT DoCoMo Premium 4G service reaches 292 cities across Japan Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMo’s Premium 4G service is currently available in 292 cities and 41 prefectures across Japan, according to a company presentation. The service, which was launched in March, offers download speeds of...

Taiwan regulators set floor price for 4G auction

Taiwanese government aims to award six new blocks of spectrum year-end Taiwanese telecom regulator NCC has set the floor price for the second auction of 4G spectrum at NT$14.4 billion ($460.4 million). The watchdog said it expects to complete the whole auction process by the...

Huawei demos small cell with LAA and Wi-Fi

Huawei has demonstrated a small cell running Wi-Fi and LTE in unlicensed spectrum. The demonstration, conducted with NTT DoCoMo, showed Wi-Fi and licensed-assisted access both operating in the 5 GHz band. Listen-before-talk was used for LTE. Listen-before-talk is a protocol usually associated with Wi-Fi that...

Vodafone Portugal hits 600 Mbps using LTE-A

Trial was carried out in association with Ericsson and Qualcomm Vodafone Portugal said it reached speeds of 600 megabits per second on its mobile network, using the new functions offered by the evolution of LTE-Advanced technology. The telco said the technological innovation will provide improved user...

Vodafone LTE covers 75% of Europeans

The telco aims for LTE coverage to reach 90% of European population by end of fiscal 2015 U.K.-based telecom operator Vodafone has modernized 80,000 mobile sites and added a further 36,000 2G, 47,000 3G and 41,000 4G sites, and upgraded 71,000 sites to high-capacity backhaul...

Fiber splicing training for CWA IBEW Union Members – Inside Telecom Careers Episode 5

Educational training, specifically fiber splicing training, is a key element of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood Electrical Workers (IBEW) negotiated agreement with mobile operators including Verizon and AT&T Watch RCRtv - Fiber splicing training for CWA and IBEW workers from APT...

LatAm: América Móvil income down; $6B investment in Mexico

América Móvil posted 219.999 billion pesos ($13.7 billion) in second quarter revenue, almost flat (-0.1%) compared to the same quarter in 2014. However, the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization decreased 5% year-over-year and net income dropped 16% year-over-year. Looking at the first half...

Deutsche Telekom gets 7,700 mobile sites from Telefónica

Telefónica said the transfer of redundant infrastructure will allow the telco to focus on LTE deployments Telefónica Deutschland, the local subsidiary of Spanish telecom operator Telefónica, is transferring 7,700 mobile telephone sites to Deutsche Telekom. The sites selected by the two operators will be taken over...

Orange eyeing acquisition of Bharti ops in African markets

The four markets represent 10% to 12% of Bharti Airtel’s subscribers in Africa Orange and Bharti Airtel have entered into an exclusive agreement to explore the possible acquisition by Orange of Airtel’s subsidiaries in Africa's Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone, the companies said...

CEO: Nokia, ALU merger will up North American presence

SHANGHAI – The acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent will give Nokia Networks a stronger position in the wireless business, but also will enable the Finnish networking powerhouse to have a stronger position in North America, said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri during a keynote presentation at the...

President Obama pushes broadband initiative

President Obama: 'If we don’t get these young people the access to what they need to achieve their potential, then it’s our loss; it’s not just their loss' President Barak Obama joined the growing chorus of lawmakers who want it to be easier and cheaper...

NYC Wireless – HetNet Happenings: Episode 22

This week on HetNet Happenings, RCR Wireless News Managing Editor Sean Kinney takes a look at the booming wireless ecosystem developing in New York City. https://youtu.be/9D9Vvu-zQzU Former Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein, the current president and CEO of PCIA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association, called New...

Report: AT&T, Apple in talks on remote SIM

The way mobile operators market devices and design service plans could change dramatically if a reported collaboration between carriers and device makers comes to fruition. According to the Financial Times, AT&T, Apple, Samsung and several European carriers are close to announcing an agreement to...

Mobile adds $1 trillion to Asia-Pacific economy

The APAC region currently has half of the world’s mobile connections SHANGHAI – The Asia-Pacific mobile industry contributes more than $1 trillion per year to the area economy, mainly due to the increasing penetration of mobile broadband and smartphones, according to a GSMA report. The report...

NBN launching LTE down under

Australian telco aims to cover 600,000 premises with LTE technology SHANGHAI – NBN Co, the Australian company rolling out the country's National Broadband Network, expects to commercially launch LTE service in the fourth quarter of the year. The announcement was made by Paul Fletcher, Parliamentary...

Editorial Webinar: WebRTC, VoLTE, RCS set to reshape carrier offerings in battle with OTT

This webinar looks at how VoLTE, RCS and WebRTC are being used and will be used by operators to remain competitive. The webinar will glean insight from mobile operators that have already begun to rollout these services or are planning to rollout services, vendors supporting the...

Feature Report: Tapping RCS, WebRTC, VoLTE and VoWi-Fi to improve service, battle OTTs

Mobile operators are feeling increased pressure from over-the-top players to provide additional features and services that consumers have come to expect from the application world. Three ways they are looking to counter the OTT threat is through the implementation of Voice over LTE (VoLTE),...

GSMA predicts 913M smartphones in China by year-end

According to the study, the Asian nation will reach 1B 4G connections by 2020 SHANGHAI – China is expected to have 913 million smartphones by the end of the year, up compared to 805 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015, according to GSMA...

SoftBank to carry out 4.5G tests in Tokyo by year-end

Japanese mobile operator plans to use equipment from multiple vendors SHANGHAI – Japanese mobile operator SoftBank expects to carry out a technical trial of "TDD+" in Tokyo by the end of this year, the company’s senior director for wireless city planning, Hidebumi Kitahara, said at...