LTE deployments in various countries

This is compiled from various sources. Readers may cross check for data consistencies.

Singapore - SingTel launched commercial  LTE service on December 22, 2011 in 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum

StarHub has completed LTE testing in 2.6 GHz and 1800 MHz and an LTE1800 network in refarmed 1800 MHz  is being deployed for commercial launch in Q4 2012

Malaysia - Celcom is trialling LTE  in 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum. DiGi plans to  launch LTE  in 2.6 GHz  by 2013. U 

Mobile announced on March 15, 2011 plans to launch a commercial LTE network in 2.6 GHz.

Japan - Softbank Mobile,  a member of the Global TD-LTE Initiative,  commercially launched  XGP/LTE TDD services  on February 24, 2012 following a  precommercial pilot service  which began  November 1, 2011. The network is deployed in 20 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum  bought from Willcom (PHS operator).

China - China Mobile HK launched commercial LTE FDD services in 2.6 GHz on April 25, 2012 and is evolving the network to also support LTE TDD this year. In  an announcement on December 29, 2011  OFCA launched a consultation on auctioning spectrum in the 2.5/2.6GHz range, offering five blocks of 2 x 5 MHz, by  auction  which would be held  in Q1 2013 at the earliest.

China Mobile plans to have  20,000  LTE TDD base sites  covering 500 million people by end 2012, increasing to 200,000 by end 2013. Commercial service launch is anticipated in 2013-2014. China Mobile has 1.9 GHz, 2.0 GHz,
2.3 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands (classified as  F, A, E and D bands). The trials use the D and F bands.

Honk Kong - 2 x 15 MHz blocks of 2.6 GHz spectrum  were obtained  via auction each by China Mobile  HK  (Peoples Phone), Genius Brand (Hutchison Telecom/PCCW JV) and CSL Limited.

Australia - ACMA announced the first formal steps toward a joint auction of new licences in 700 MHz DD and 2.6 GHz.

Mexico -Telefónica and Telcel have conducted tests of LTE. Telcel is preparing for commercial launch  to consumers  during April 2012.  Telefónica  plans to launch LTE by 2013.  The  government  plans to auction new spectrum in 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz. 

Brazil -Sky Brasil commercially launched LTE TDD services (2.6 GHz - Band 38) on December 13, 2011 in Brasilia. 

More cities will be covered in 2012.

Claro has been testing LTE in 2.6 GHz since Q4 2011

Canada -The 2.6 GHz trial  was enabled by  a development license from regulator Industry Canada. Industry Canada is preparing to auction 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum in 2012 and will hold a 6-hour  information session on May 30, 2012

Sri-Lanka Mobitel announced on May 6, 2011 completion of an LTE trial, which achieved 96 Mbps downlink speed in 

2.6 GHz. More trials are planned in other bands.

Taiwan -Chunghwa Telecom has been trialling LTE  in 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz spectrum.  The company  has 

completed LTE tests on the high-speed rail system in TDD  and FDD modes using 2.6 GHz. 

Vietnam -RusViet Telecom  (an Alltech company) trialled an LTE network in 2010 in Hanoi.  The company plans 

expanding coverage  of  its 2.6 GHz LTE network in 2012, including to Hi Chi Minh.

Armenia -VivaCell-MTS announced commercial launch of LTE services on December 28, 2011, initially in Yerevan, 

using 2.6 GHz spectrum.

Austria -Regulator  TKK completed the auction of 2.6 GHz spectrum on September 20, 2010, raising €39.5m from  A1  Telekom Austria, Hutchison 3, T-Mobile and Orange. 14 paired and 9 unpaired frequency blocks were  sold. License conditions require coverage of at least 25% of the population by 2013. A1  Telekom  commercially  launched LTE in Vienna and St. Pölten on November 5, 2010. T-Mobile Austria launched a 60-cell site pilot LTE network in Innsbruck in July 2009 and entered a soft launch phase on October 19, 2010. In May 2011, the first LTE base station in Vienna went live. On July 28 the company  commercially  launched LTE and its Internet All Inclusive LTE tariff. 

Orange Austria has tested LTE technology and acquired 2 x 10 MHz of 2.6 GHz spectrum in the 2010 auction.

Belgium -Regulator  BIPT  auctioned  4G licenses  for a total of US$ 103.7 million, comprising  45 MHz of  2.6 GHz 

TDD spectrum and 3 x 20 MHz paired blocks in 2.6 GHz for FDD systems.

Denmark -Telia  launched the first commercial LTE system in Denmark on December  9,  2010 in Copenhagen, 

Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg in the 2.6 GHz band (20 MHz). On October 10, 2011 LTE commercial service
was introduced using 10 MHz of 1800 MHz spectrum (LTE1800) as a complement to the 2.6 GHz service.
Tri-band (800/1800/2600)  LTE  dongles and routers have been available since the summer.

Finland -20-year 2.6 GHz licenses were auctioned by regulator FICORA on 23 November 2009: TeliaSonera launched the first commercial  LTE service in Finland on November 30, 2010  in Turku and Helsinki. LTE1800 was commercially launched as a complement to 2.6 GHz on August 31, 2011. Elisa commercially  launched its  2.6 GHz  LTE network  for corporate users on December 8, 2010, and announced its first client.

France -SFR trialled LTE in Marseille in 2011 and is deploying its commercial network  in 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz.

ARCEP  auctioned 2.6 GHz spectrum and confirmed the successful bidders and allocations:
 Bouygues: 2535-2550 MHz/2655-2670 MHz·
 Free Mobile: 2550-2570 MHz/2670-2690 MHz·
 FT/Orange: 2515-2535 MHz/2635-2655 MHz·
 SFR: 2500-2515 MHz/2620-2635 MHz·

Germany -A multiband spectrum auction was completed in May 2010, covering 360 MHz in 4 bands: 800 MHz (digital 

dividend), 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz.  All 4 incumbents acquired 2.6 GHz  to be used  for LTE.

Italy -3 Italia is deploying LTE1800 and from 2013 intends to offer multicarrier aggregation (an LTE-A feature) 

allowing LTE1800 and LTE2600 to be used together.

Netherlands -2.6 GHz FDD spectrum was auctioned in April 2010 and awarded to incumbents  KPN,  Vodafone,  TMobile, and newcomers Ziggo 4 (currently an MVNO on KPN’s network)  and  Tele2. The TDD spectrum 

was not bought. Ziggo launched its commercial LTE service on May 3, 2012 for its Internet Plus business customers in Breda, Oss and Zwolle.

Norway -Norway held Europe’s first 2.6 GHz auction in 2007 which  was awarded to incumbents TeleNor and 

TeliaSonera (NetCom); total allocation 2 x 90 MHz. TeliaSonera launched the world’s first LTE networks
in Oslo and Sweden in December 2009.

Russia -On February 2, 2012 MTS announced the company had been awarded the first license to provide  LTE 

services in Moscow and the Moscow region. The license granted is for  LTE TDD  deployment  in the 2595 – 2620 MHz range. 

Spain - In June 2010  Ministerio de Industria, Turismo Comercio (MITYC) launched a consultation on reallocation of  2.6 GHz  and  re-farming of 900/1800 MHz. An auction  began on  June 29, 2011  for 58 blocks of 800, 900 MHz and 2.6 GHz  frequencies, with licences valid to 2030. The auction  ended on July 29, 2011  raising  €1.65bn for 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz licenses. Spectrum  was  won by  Vodafone, Telefónica  and  FT-Orange. 

Sweden - Tele2 Sweden  and TeleNor Sweden deployed an LTE network  through a jointly-owned company 

(Net4Mobility), which  includes spectrum sharing in 900 MHz and 2.6 GHz. 

UK -O2 has tested LTE in 2.6 GHz spectrum  and  has trialled LTE800 in  Carlisle  since mid 2010. In November 2011 the company began  a large-scale LTE trial in central London, to run until June 2012. O2 has 20 MHz of test spectrum  in  the 2.6 GHz band. 

Saudi Arabia -Etisalat (Mobily)  commercially launched LTE TDD on September 14, 2011 via its Bayanat subsidiary, in 

Najran, Jazan, Al Kharj, Ras tanoura, Algurayat and Aldudam in band 38 (2.6 GHz).

South Africa -MTN  is  deploying LTE1800 as  2.6 GHz is not available.  In the longer term 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz are sought.

UAE - Etisalat launched commercial LTE  service on September 25, 2011. LTE USB modems were widely
introduced at Etisalat outlets on December 18, 2011. Etisalat uses 2.6 GHz spectrum indoors and 1800
MHz spectrum outdoors, and is seeking an allocation of  800 MHz for nationwide  coverage.

Romania 4G Auction Rusults:
Slice 2: Bands / Block Won (each block is of 15 Mhz)
800 - Cosmote (1), Orange (2), Vodaphone (2)
900 - Cosmote (2), Orange (2), RCS&RDS (1), Vodaphone (2)
1800 - Cosmote (5), Orange (4), Vodaphone (6)
2600 - Cosmote (2), Orange (4), 2K Telecom (2), Vodaphone (1)

Cross Media Ownership restriction in European Countries and New Zealand

Three European countries – France, Italy, and Germany – have developed specific legislation on cross-media ownership[1]. As per French legislation, cross-media mergers are regulated by Law 86-1067 (Loi Léotard) which was revised on 10 July 2004[2]. According to article 41.1, “at national level, an individual or legal entity can be involved only in two of the following areas: one or more television licences for analogue or digital terrestrial channels reaching four million residents; one or more terrestrial radio services reaching 30 million people; daily papers that have a market share of more than 20 percent of the national circulation”.

In the Italian law framework, where cross-media mergers are currently regulated by law n.122, 3 May 2004 (Legge Gasparri)[3]. This law regulates the media sector as an ‘integrated communications market’ (or SIC, Sistema Integrato delle Comunicazioni) which includes a broad range of industries: television, press, radio, internet, in addition to publishing, cinema and advertising. Cross-media ownership limits do not allow any owner to achieve more than 20 percent of the share of revenues within the entire SIC.

As per the German legislation, under §26 of the German Broadcasting Treaty, assumes that a broadcaster would reach a dominant position “if it achieves a 30 percent audience share, or an audience share of 25 percent if it concurrently holds a dominant position in a related, media-relevant market or if an overall assessment of its activities in television and in related media-relevant markets suggests that the influence of such activities is equivalent to that of a company with a 30 percent audience share” (Just, 2009: 11). A particular weighting system has been developed by the KEK, the German Communication Authority, in order to determine the equivalent share of a media company.

France

A law, enacted in 1986 and the subsequent establishment of the Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) in 1989 regulates the governance of the communications industry in France.  The CSA also manages issues of media ownership and concentration. While the Competition authorities are obliged to consult with the CSA on mergers and acquisitions in media matters it is the sole responsibility of the CSA to monitor mergers and cross media ownership. Shareholders have the obligation to report to the CSA when their holding exceeds 10% so the CSA can effectively monitor share capital ownership.

Specific ownership restrictions applicable to the media sector

French regulations provide for media ownership restrictions in order to preserve media pluralism and competition. In particular, any single individual or legal entity cannot hold, directly or indirectly, more than 49 per cent of the capital or the voting rights of a company that has an authorisation to provide a national terrestrial television service where the average audience for television services (either digital or analogue) exceeds 8 per cent. In addition, any single individual or legal entity that already holds a national terrestrial television service where the average audience for this service exceeds 8 per cent may not, directly or indirectly, hold more than 33 per cent of the capital or voting rights of a company that has an authorisation to provide a local terrestrial television service.[4] Further, unless otherwise agreed in international agreements to which France is a party, any foreign national may not acquire shares of capital of a company holding a licence for a radio or television service in France and that uses radio-electrical frequencies if this acquisition has the effect of raising (directly or indirectly) the share of capital or voting rights owned by foreign nationals to more than 20 per cent. This provision does not apply to publishers with less than 80 per cent capital or voting rights being held by public radio broadcasters belonging to Council of Europe Member States, or with less than 20 per cent being owned by one of the public companies mentioned at Article  44 of the Law of 30 September 1986[5]. Also, Any modification to the capital of companies authorised by the CSA to broadcast TV or radio services on an Hertz-based frequency is subject to the approval of the CSA[6]

Ownership Television and Radio: There are three limits placed on television ownership; capital share, number of licenses and audience share, and participation in more companies in the same sector. This is regulated to apply as follows: an individual person may not own more than 49% of a national TV channel or 33% of a local channel if the average annual audience is greater than 2.5% of the total audience. If a person holds two licenses, they cannot own more than 15% of the second license and if they own three then they cannot own more than 5% of the third license. A person may not own more than one analogue license or seven digital licenses. No more than two Satellite licenses are permitted. The regulations focus on not concentrating ownership in an individual’s hands but shared ownership of companies seems to be permitted.

There is a ban on owning two regional broadcast TV licenses (analogue and digital) or more than one license if the audience area is greater than 6 million.

For radio, an entity may not control one or more stations or network(s) if the aggregate audience exceeds 150 million.

Newspaper ownership: Companies are not allowed to acquire a new newspaper if the acquisition boosts their total daily circulation over 30%.

Cross Ownership: An owner may not be involved in more than two of the following at the national level:

• TV audience area of 4 million people
• Radio audience area of 30 million people
• Cable audience area of 6 million people
• Exceeds 20% share of the national circulation of daily newspapers
• Further restrictions are noted at the local level:
• Owning a national or local TV license for the area
• Owning one or more radio licenses with cumulative audiences of more than 10% for that area
• Owning a cable network for the area
• Editorial or other control of daily newspapers in the area

Foreign Investment: Non-EU investment is limited to a 20% share of the capital of a daily newspaper, or of terrestrial broadcasting (radio and TV) in the French language. Satellite and Cable foreign ownership is permitted.

Restrictions for Political parties and Organizations: There are no provisions.

New Zealand

Simply put there are no foreign ownership rules and there are no cross media restrictions in New Zealand. Beginning in the 1980s, New Zealand deregulated the entire communications sector (along with a great deal of all their industry and economy). 

New Zealand has a small population (4 million people) in what can only be described as a geographically protected market. The measures taken by the New Zealand government in the eighties and nineties, in many ways, have created truly an isolated market experiment. Most media owners of print and broadcasting companies appear pleased with the circumstances and fiercely defend the system. Predictably, cultural nationalists, academics, and journalists are not so enthusiastic and are encouraging change to a more regulated environment to create better local news and cultural expression.

In 2003 the Minister of Broadcasting Steve Maharey said: “For some years from the late 1980s and 1990s, government in New Zealand moved away from a real appreciation of broadcasting as a cultural educative force. In its embracing of market driven policies Government distanced itself from what I believe is its responsibility to ensure that New Zealanders have access to a genuinely indigenous broadcasting system…….” The government did go on in November of last year to announce funding for TVNZ to offer two distinct public service digital channels (a news and sports offering to begin in 2007 and a kids channel to begin in 2008, both commercial free with $78 million in funding over 6 years) as part of their digital transition offering. While the Government has attempted to address the issue of concentration and foreign ownership by these initiatives, they are not structural in nature and the communications sector in New Zealand remains foreign owned and highly concentrated. For example:

1. Daily newspapers are 81% foreign owned and most readers are served by one daily newspaper in their market. The foreign ownership comes from two international companies and the remainder are New Zealand owned
2. Television comprises six networks, two of which are controlled by the public broadcaster TVNZ and enjoy 49% of audience share. Media Works has two channels (19% audience share) and is owned by CanWest (currently in process of selling) and Prime TV (5% audience share), which is owned by Sky Television (comprised of Rupert Murdoch and Australian interests). The final network is the State funded aboriginal Channel, Maori TV. There is some regional TV and community based stations but they have insignificant commercial or audience value.
3. Sky Television Network owns Pay TV in New Zealand and is a monopoly including terrestrial and satellite services with 84 TV channels, radio and audio channels. Rupert Murdoch owns Sky which enjoys a 23% market share.
4. Radio is comprised of two large commercial networks; an Australian media company and Clear Channel (46% audience share) own The Radio Network with 118 stations and 8 brands. Radio Works has six network brands, operates on 140 frequencies throughout New Zealand, is principally owned by CanWest (70% with minority shareholders) and enjoys a large audience share. Radio New Zealand is a public broadcaster with two networks and modest audience share. There are some community based radio broadcasters.

New Zealand has a Broadcast Standards Authority (BSA) that does administer content standards for radio and television based on codes of broadcast standards and usually involves a process triggered by complaints. However, in terms of indigenous content vs. foreign content there is no requirement. The BSA is starting to touch some of these issues with their mandated research role and two recent papers; The Future for Media Regulation in NZ: Is There One and Issues for Broadcast Content Regulation. These studies indicate an interest in a discussion at the very least.

 As of 2011, the vast majority of NZ media (TV, radio, print) are in the hands of companies based in Australia, the UK, Ireland and USA. NZ could well contend for the right to be crowned “the world’s least regulated broadcasting environment” (Comrie & Fountaine, 2006).[7]

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[1] http://www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/MScDissertationSeries/2011/74.pdf

[2] http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006068930&dateTexte=20110823

[3] http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/mise_extra/L112-2004.pdf

[4] Articles 39-I and 39-III of the Law of 30 September 1986

[5] Article 40 of the Law of 30 September 1986

[6] Article 41-4 of the Law of 30 September 1986

[7] http://virginauthor.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/media-concentration-mega-media-ownership-in-new-zealand-by-jane-mauret/

4G frequencies bids in Italy total EUR 2.3 billion

The initial bids for the use of 4G frequencies (800, 1800, 2000, 2600 bands) in Italy amounted to EUR 2.3 billion. The bids from the four major mobile operators – Telecom Italia, Vodafone Italia, Wind and 3 Italia - were opened on 30 August at the Ministry of Economic Development. They will form the starting point for the auction on 31 August. The auction will allow participants to increase their bids, as well as bid on spectrum lots not covered in their initial offers.

LTE Network commercially launched even in Republic of Tatarstan. India still struggling to launch 3G services

Russian WiMAX to LTE network operator, Yota has announced the launch of an LTE network in Kazan, capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan - having installed the citywide network in just two months. Yota has invested $20 million in building the Kazan network, which covers the city's whole population of over one million people with 147 base stations. Kazan is Russia's third city and host to the Universiade (the world university games) in 2013.

Since commercial launch only 14 months ago, Yota already has almost 600,000 customers and recently reported 2010 half-year results of US$66 million. Yota runs successful operations in Russia and Nicaragua and will soon launch its services across Belarus and Peru.

Nokia's market share continue to slip in Western Europe

­According to IDC, The Western European Mobile Phone market recorded another quarter of year-on-year declines in the second quarter of 2009 (2Q09). Handset vendors shipped 42 million units to Western Europe, down 6% from 2Q08.

The switch from traditional mobile phones to converged mobile devices continued to be a major trend in Western Europe. Traditional mobile phones declined 12% during the quarter to 33.2 million units, and converged mobile devices (commonly known as smart phones) experienced a healthy 25% increase during the quarter to 8.8 million units, when compared to the same period last year. For the full year, IDC believes that the Western European market will decline 10%. Demand for converged mobile devices will continue to grow, but will not be strong enough to reverse the overall market decline as they represent only 21% of total shipments. On the other hand, traditional mobile phones will continue to decline, though at a lower rate, as vendors adjust their portfolios, bringing more features to the low-end devices.

But, the fact that caught my attention was that amongst the biggest handset vendors, Korean manufacturers continue to perform better than Scandinavian phone makers. For the first time, Samsung and LG together shipped more devices to Western Europe than Nokia. Nokia continues to be the market leader, with 36.3% market share, but the gap to Samsung, the second biggest vendor with 28.9% market share, continues to diminish. On the other hand, LG continues to challenge Sony Ericsson's market position, and the success of its touch screen handsets allowed LG to get 11.5% market share, the highest ever in Western Europe. The table below gives a better understanding -




Top Western European Mobile Phone Vendors,
Shipments and Market Share, 2Q09 (Units in Millions)
Vendor         2Q09 Unit    2Q09 Market      2Q08 Unit    2Q08Market    2Q09/2Q08
                     Shipments             Share       Shipments            Share          Change
Nokia             15.3                    36%                19                     43%             -19%
Samsung         12.2                    29%                10.9                  24%              12%
Sony Ericsson 5.1                      12%                6.2                    14%             -18%
LG                 4.8                      11%                2.8                      6%               71%
Apple             1.4                        3%                0.2                      0%             600%
RIM               1.2                        3%                0.8                      2%               50%
Others            2                           5%                4.7                    11%              -57%
Total              42                     100%                44.6                 100%                -6%

Source: IDC European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, August 26, 2009
Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.

Nokia needs to connect differently.

Radio Spectrum fee -Lessons from Sweden

­The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) has announced that it will gradually implement a new model for spectrum charges starting from next year that will penalise license holders who have not maximised the use of their radio spectrum. In general, it could be said that the new model means that licence holders with a large holding of spectrum and with no rollout, or a low degree of rollout, will be imposed higher charges. Licence holders with a high degree of rollout and a small holding of spectrum will have lower charges. Licence holders will have to pay more for spectrum in low frequency bands. However, the total charges imposed by PTS for the area of radio will not increase.

The new model for charges is technology-neutral and will be implemented gradually over the course of several years for various types of licence. The first category in line for implementation is block and television licences in 2010. RTTE fees will also be changed for block and television licences.

In The new model, Licence holders will find it easy to anticipate future annual charges, which will for example benefit the second-hand market.

UK telecom market sees its first quaterly net loss of mobile customers

­In Q1 09, the UK mobile market saw its first quarterly net loss of customers for three years. The total customer base contracted by 0.56m to finish the quarter on 75.59m, equivalent to a penetration rate of 123.8%. The proportionate annual growth rate fell to 3.9% from 4.9% a year earlier, and in fact this was the second lowest rate ever seen in the UK market, the lowest being the 3.1% recorded in 2006. This may not be indicative of a long-term decline in growth, however. The Q4 06 figure of 3.1% was followed by eight quarters in which annual growth hovered around 5%, and the Q1 09 rate may prove to be a similar blip.

The greatest loss in Q1 09 was suffered by Vodafone, which shed 0.45m customers to take its total to 18.72m. A year earlier Vodafone was the UK's market leader (if we exclude O2's customers through its Tesco MVNO), but at the end of Q1 09 it was 0.86m adrift of O2. Although its second place remains secure, this was the biggest quarterly decline in customers Vodafone has ever seen. On an annual basis, it added just 0.18m.

However, T-Mobile's annual performance was even worse, a 0.26m loss taking its total customer base back under 10m for the second time, with an end-quarter figure of 9.99m. Its Q1 09 loss stood at 0.21m. Virgin, which operates as an MVNO on T-Mobile's network, was the only other major operator to lose customers in Q1 09, a 94.3k decline taking its base to 4.02m. This was its fifth successive quarterly decline, and on an annual basis it lost 0.41m customers. The other operators may not have lost customers, but they did not perform well. O2 top-scored with a gain of just 110.6k, which took its total base to 19.58m. Tesco added around 40k to break the 2m barrier, Orange was up 32k to 16.44m and Hutchison gained half this number to finish on 4.43m.

The ARPU figures provided no respite from this somewhat gloomy picture. O2 was down 19.6% to €24.20 and T-Mobile down 19.2% to €21, although the strengthening of the Euro had a part to play here. Vodafone was also down, losing 3.7% to record £20.80, whilst Orange was up 1.1% to £22.58, although its rolling annual average figures obscure the real quarterly trend.

U.K.'s DTH satellite-TV giant BSkyB has become Britain's fastest-growing broadband provider

U.K. direct-to-home (DTH) satellite-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has become Britain's fastest-growing broadband provider in less than a year, with broadband now driving overall growth of the company. In the three months ended June 30 (BkyB's fourth fiscal quarter), it had added a net of 259,000 new broadband subscribers, bringing its total broadband subscriber base to 716,000. It also added 171,000 telephony customers, bringing that total subscriber base to 526,000. In contrast, on the television side of the house, it reported a far lower growth rate and netted only 90,000 new subscribers (after taking into account a hefty churn rate of 12.1 percent, which at least was down a bit from 13.7 percent in the first three months). It now has some 8.6 million subscribers to its core DTH service.
BSkyB is adding more broadband customers than any other provider. The company, which jumped into telephony and broadband last year in order to have a triple-play bundle to fend off such competitors as BT and U.K. cable giant Virgin Media, is on track to reach it target of 3 million broadband subscribers and 10 million TV subscribers by 2010.

BSkyB now is delivering service from 1,150 BT exchanges where it has unbundled local loops, representing 70 percent coverage of U.K. households. The unbundling efforts are six months ahead of plan, the company touts.

Indian telco's inrease oversea activities - Airtel enters European market; Reliance communication signs roaming pact with PBTL

Indian leading private telco, Airtel launched its first foray in telecom in the European market on Thursday, with the launch of its services in Jersey, Channel Islands. Jersey Airtel, a subsidiary of the Bharti Group, on Thursday announced the launch of its mobile services on the Island. The company will offer products and services under the Airtel-Vodafone brand to customers on the Island, over its full 2G, 3G and HSDPA enhanced network. Jersey, along with Guernsey, is a crown property off the coast of France, is one of the world’s leading offshore financial centres with an exclusive focus on financial services, and a playground for the rich and financially famous. Jersey’s GDP and per capital are among the highest in the world, topping most developed nations. The services are being launched under the Airtel-Vodafone brand name.
Customers are being offered significant discounts if they choose to keep their existing handset. Pre-paid customers will get flat rates across all networks in Jersey and another flat rate to all networks across the EU including UK. All of these are still unheard of in Europe, where customers mostly have to pay higher rates for calls from mobiles, to other networks, and so on.

In another move, Indian private telco, Reliance Communications, on Thursday announced a tie up with Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (PBTL) to provide its customers seamless roaming in Bangladesh on CDMA handsets. Following the alliance with PBTL, which runs CDMA service under the name CityCell, Reliance CDMA users would now be able to roam in 200 countries, an RCom spokesperson said. For local and national calls, charges would be Rs 18 per minute while calls into India would cost Rs 29 per minute and incoming calls Rs 18 per minute. PBTL is a joint venture between Singapore Telecom and was the largest operator in Bangladesh. The tie-up will generate revenues from lot of user in West Bengal, Assam and the northeastern part of India who regularly visit Bangladesh.