Editor’s Note: Welcome to Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.
By now everybody knows — in theory at least — that the concept of “not invented here” should...
A distribution tussle between U.K.-based wireless operators and retailer Phones 4U is set to cost nearly 5,600 people their jobs.
The retailer, which included 720 retail outlets, noted on its website that it was forced “offline” following “the unexpected decision of EE and Vodafone to...
Competition in the U.K. telecom market is so fierce that prices changed 1,800 times in one week, according to a recent Sparks Market Intelligence report. The study conducted by ForNova found an increase of 25% in the number of unique offers from January to...
Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades and enjoy the memories!
Verizon Wireless to join Vodafone in upgrade to...
All European Union countries should make the coveted 700 MHz band available for mobile broadband use by 2020, plus or minus two years, according to a recent report presented to the European Commission.
The report concerns the "ultra-high frequency" spectrum band between 470 MHz and...
Mobile Minute:
Flush with cash after selling its stake in Verizon Wireless, Vodafone is investing in broadband in Southern Europe. The carrier will spend $96.5 million to boost its stake in Hellas Online to 91%, and plans to eventually buy the rest of the Greek...
OK, maybe no videotapes. Late last week TeliaSonera released its half-yearly transparency report detailing the amount of lawful intercept requests coming from the government agencies in Sweden and Finland. You will see by the chart to the right that although these figures are comparatively...
Popular topics seem to always include LTE news, government oversight concerns (see the view in Germany) and customer service complaints. So we’ll go with these for today’s commentary.
LTE
Although it seems LTE deployments are moving slower in Europe then in the United States, there still...
We all know that Germany takes its rules, process and privacy seriously. I’m not being sarcastic; I live here, so I can say this. And you know what, there are a lot of good things about this. It’s a safe country, people are true...
Editor’s Note: Wireless operators are a busy bunch, and as such RCR Wireless News will attempt to gather some of the important announcements that may slip through the cracks from the world’s largest carriers in a weekly wrap-up. Enjoy!
--T-Mobile US announced plans to alter...
Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom reported an 83% drop in profits for its second quarter. The group's recent debt refinancing of its Wind unit in Italy is partly to blame, but CEO Jo Lunder remained optimistic about Vimpelcom's operations in the country, saying that it continued “to outperform competitors in a weak...
EMEA in Perspective is a Monday column focused on the identification of regional trends and outcomes of the prior week’s news. Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and Security. Having experience at an operator, software and...
The U.K.-based Vodafone Group released its interim management report on July 25, showing that its service revenue declined 4.2% in the quarter ending June 30, the first quarter of the company's fiscal year. While Europe continued to drag down that figure ― the region declined 7.9%...
Nokia Networks and IBM appear to have piqued Vodafone's interest with their mobile edge computing platform, first announced at Mobile World Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports that Vodafone is testing the platform, with help from the Imperial College of London.
The purpose of the...
As operators build heterogeneous networks to expand coverage and capacity, they want best-in-breed solutions and are ready to work with multiple vendors. Vodafone has shown that equipment from more than one vendor can interoperate within a single location by integrating Alcatel-Lucent's small cells with...
Vodafone selected Alcatel-Lucent as a "supplier of reference" for small cell and Wi-Fi technology as part of its Project Spring investment program. Through Project Spring, Vodafone plans to spend about $11 billion to expand and improve its LTE and 3G coverage in Europe and...
The European Union's new caps on mobile phone roaming charges began July 1, cutting data rates for users traveling to other EU countries by more than 50%. The data roaming cap dropped from 61 cents to 27 cents per megabyte. The cap on making...
Vodafone is acquiring Cobra Automotive Technologies, an Italian auto electronics maker, for $196 million. The London-based carrier has agreed with the company's main stakeholders to buy their 74% stake in the company and has an offer out to buy the rest. The deal will...
Small Cell Industry Awards
The Small Cell Forum announced the Small Cell Industry Awards for 2014 as part of last week's Small Cells World Summit in London. For small cell innovoation leadership, Alcatel-Lucent won for its site certification program. Cisco won the vendor award for...
Following América Móvil's failed bid to takeover KPN last year, the Dutch government is now floating a proposal that would allow it to intervene in any telecom acquisition that had “implications for national security.”
In a June 10 letter to parliament, the Dutch minister of economic...
On the heels of receiving European Commission approval for its $953 million takeover of Ireland O2, Hutchison Whampoa is turning its sights to Italy. Several unnamed sources told Reuters that Hutchison is resuming talks with Russian Vimpelcom to merge their Italian operations.
A merger between Hutchison's telecom subsidiary 3 Italia and...
Despite suffering from slow sales and tough competition in Europe, Vodafone Group said it was still looking to invest in its mobile network.
When the London-based carrier reported earnings for its fiscal year ending March 31, it noted $11.1 billion in “impairments” from its operations...
AT&T neutral host DAS at University of Kansas
AT&T says its distributed antenna systems business is separate from its wireless service, and can offer solutions that will serve customers of all wireless networks. The University of Kansas is onboard, having just contracted with AT&T to...
