Huawei is showcasing its railway solution in Dubai Expo

Architecture of Huawei's Wireless Cluster System for Rail Transit

Huawei, a global information and communication technology (ICT) solutions provider, will showcase its portfolio of railway solutions at Middle East Rail 2012 in Dubai from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. Drawing on its experience in leading many groundbreaking rail projects worldwide, Huawei will set out the need for security and reliability to be at the heart of the region's rail communication systems. A significant focus for Huawei Enterprise in the next few years is to address the railway industry's need for security and reliability to be at the forefront of this major investment.

Huawei's HRC Solution

Huawei's range of communications solutions including GSM-R, a communication system developed specially for railways application development; Datacom, Transmission Networks; High-Speed Railway Communications (HRC) and Intelligent Video Surveillance solution are critical to the construction and operation of modern railway infrastructure. GSM-R and HRC projects such as the Maglev high-speed train, China; the TransTeleCom DWDM network, Russia; the LTE partnership with ADIF in Spain; and the video surveillance deployment with Turkish Railways, are all evidence of Huawei's position as an ICT pioneer for the railway sector.

Liu Qi, president, Middle East for Huawei Enterprise, says: "Huawei has a wealth of experience to share, having worked on a significant number of rail projects around the world and equipping more than 8,000 km railway tracks with our GSM-R solution, ensuring smooth, efficient and safe transport. Development in the Middle East region is spurring the need for greater connectivity."



(C) Arab News

NSN plan to cut work force in Finland

  

Finnish-German network equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NOK, SI) plans to cut between 1,200 and 1,300 jobs in Finland as part of a massive restructuring effort announced in November, Finnish broadsheet Helsingin Sanomat reported Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

Nokia Siemens will provide details about talks with its employees this week, the newspaper reported.

Rajeev Suri, chief executive of the joint venture, owned by Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG, in November said the company will cut 17,000 jobs globally, or 23% of its current workforce of 74,000, by the end of 2013, and restructure its business in a last-ditch effort to reach profitability and position itself for independence.

The company also doubled its target to reach EUR1 billion in annual cost savings by 2013.

NSN declined to comment.

(C) Market Watch

Huawei acquires UK based Green Photonics Technology Developer CIP

  

Chinese telecommunications business Huawei has increased its investment in UK companies through the acquisition of CIP Technologies.

The move is part of Huawei's strategy to bolster its UK research and development capabilities through the launch of a UK research centre. CIP technologies is the trading name of the Centre for Integrated Photonics. CIP has a rich heritage. It started as BT's fibre optics group. The unit was acquired by Corning in 2000 but the acquisition did not prove a success and in 2002 the group faced closure before being rescued by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). 

Ipswich-based CIP Technologies is being purchased from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), for an undisclosed amount, and is said by Huawei to 'significantly deepen' its optical research and development capabilities. EEDA is the Regional Development Agency covering the East of England.

CIP has been using its photonic integration expertise to develop compact, more cost-competitive WDM-PON optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network unit (ONU) designs, including the development of an integrated transmitter array.

CIP is also part of several EU Seventh Framework programme R&D projects. These include BIANCHO, a project to reduce significantly the power consumption of optical components and systems, and 3CPO, which is developing colourless and coolerless optical components for low-power optical networks. The technologies of 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit is based on designs with optical functions in parallel; at 400 Gigabit the number of channels only increases. Optical access will also benefit from photonic integration - from board optical sub-assemblies for GPON and EPON to WDM-PON to ultra dense WDM-PON. China is also the biggest fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) market by far.

Huawei's acquisition will not affect CIP's continuing participation in such projects. "For EU framework and other collaborative R&D projects, the ultimate share ownership does not matter so long as it is a research organisation based in Europe, which CIP will continue to be," says Wharton,  the CEO of CIP.


Will Pope, chairman of EEDA, comments: 'This is a tremendous investment success story for EEDA, which acquired CIP in 2003 from its then American owners to save it from closure.

'EEDA's mission was to ensure that a key UK technology company was not lost from the hi tech business base of the East of England.'

Huawei's investment into the UK has been ongoing for ten years, and in 2011 the telecoms company announced plans to double its UK workforce to 1,000 in addition to opening a European design centre for its mobile device business as well as an internal audit centre.

Huawei now has six European R&D centres with the acquisition of CIP

Peter Wharton, chief executive officer of CIP, says: 'We had a good level of interest form potential acquirers, but the management team and staff overwhelmingly backed EEDA's view of the Huawei bid because we believe its research and development capabilities and investment in CIP will lead us to have many more significant achievements in the future.

'The last six months of working closely with Huawei has more than met our expectations, building the foundations for an excellent working relationship.'

(C) M&A

India: Railways may soon book tickets on phone for any destination and class at the country level

 

Train passengers may not have to very soon face the travails of standing in long queues at reservation counters to procure tickets. Railways is seriously mulling over an idea to book tickets on phone for any destination and class at the country level.

According to a Railway Board official, while online ticket booking facilities for e-ticketing and cell phone ticket booking have evoked impressive response from passengers across the country, the idea to book tickets on phone calls is gaining importance among railway circles. "Efforts are going on to make this project a reality now," he said. 

Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is working on the project seriously to make it come true. There is every possibility that a new inquiry number - 138 - would be used at the country level for booking tickets on phone calls. Passengers booking their tickets by phone calls would have to use cash cards purchased from IRCTC counters, an IRCTC official said, adding delivery of tickets could be from either the PRS (passenger reservation system) or collection centres. 

Thus, railway tickets would be made available at the passengers' doorsteps. Phone calls could be made from all telecom operators, sources said. 

An IRCTC official said the new system would enable passengers to access travel-related information like availability of accommodation, 'tatkal' booking, train number, concession and cancellation as well, while the railway inquiry number 139 would continue to offer basic service like PNR details and other information. 

Meanwhile, East Central Railway (ECR) has taken several measures to prevent misuse of 'tatkal' scheme by touts or vested interests at all major stations under its jurisdiction. With a view to reducing the chances of misuse of e-ticketing, railways has already stopped 'quick book option' and 'cash booking' between 8am and 9am every day. Besides, each individual is allowed to book only two tickets between 8am and 9am to check misuse of 'tatkal' scheme, said an ECR official. 

Besides, railways has made it compulsory to carry one of the eight prescribed identity proofs by any passenger booking tickets under the 'tatkal' scheme to prevent transfer of 'tatkal ' tickets, an ECR official said.

(C) Times of India

Saudi Arabia may find more competition in call rates in the coming years

Saudi Arabia may cut call-termination rates for telecom operators in 2013, the chief executive of Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) told Reuters, in a move that would spur increased competition in the Kingdom.

Termination rates are fees that one telecom operator charges another for terminating calls on its network. The fees tend to favor more established operators because they terminate a greater portion of calls.

“Next year, I think you will see a reduction in termination fees, unless the regulator foresees a more accelerated termination (reduction) rate to be introduced,” said Khaled Al-Kaf, chief executive of Mobily, an affiliate of the UAE’s Etisalat.

“I want to stay neutral in that area,” added Al-Kaf, when asked whether he would favor a cut in termination rates.

Saudi termination fees have been unchanged for more than four years at 0.25 riyals ($0.07) for mobile-to-mobile and fixed line-to-mobile calls and 0.1 riyals for mobile-to-fixed line calls, effectively setting minimum call prices.

Termination fees only apply on cross-network calls, while consumers pay the same rate regardless, so operators have a higher margin on calls within their own network.

“Termination charges tend to fall as competition increases. Usually, operators pass on part of any cut in termination fees to consumers,” Marc Hammoud, Deutsche Bank telecoms analyst, said.

As the former monopoly, Saudi Telecom Company could have the most to lose from a fee cut, but this would also aid its aggressive push to sell fixed-line bundles.

STC competes with Mobily and third mobile operator Zain Saudi, with STC dominant in fixed-line calls.

“Cutting termination fees would probably benefit Mobily and Zain Saudi to the detriment of STC, but STC would gain wholesale revenues as well seeing inter-connection fees decline,” said Asim Bukhtiar, Riyad Capital head of research.

“Zain Saudi uses Mobily’s network in some areas – it doesn’t have full population coverage – so it could see some benefit from lower termination fees. But this would be a short-term benefit, with Zain Saudi trying to expand its network.”

STC has tried to claw back lost domestic market share by offering aggressively-priced fixed line bundles.

These typically offer unlimited internet access and unlimited domestic phone calls, yet STC remains liable for termination fees to other operators, so lower rates would boost margins and potentially spur it to cut bundle costs further.

The Saudi regulator declined to comment. Analysts said its reluctance to cut termination fees in recent years is in part to prevent operators slashing prices to uncompetitive levels.

“Termination fees in Saudi Arabia are on the high side, but not radically so – when they look out of step with other markets then the pressure on the regulator to act will increase,” said Credit Suisse telecoms analyst Richard Barker.

Saudi operators pay royalties of 15 percent on mobile revenue, 10 percent on fixed line and seven percent on data, analysts said. — Reuters

(C) Saudi Gazette

Saudi's Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) is evaluating 4G (LTE) before commercial in the whole kingdom

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) is currently running technical experiments on its 4G (LTE) network in a number of cities across the Kingdom before its actual launch in the near future; maintaining its Broadband leadership in the Kingdom especially after it made a quantum leap when it was the first to launch the 4G (TD LTE) through its subsidiary Bayanat Al-Oula.

A number of International Companies such as American AT & T — one of the largest telecom operators worldwide, according to the GSM association report, then followed Mobily's lead, and this quantum leap not only reflected on the company itself, but on the entire Kingdom when it became at the forefront of countries that inaugurated this advanced technology.

Khalid Al-Kaf, Mobily's CEO, assured that the company is working according to a clear and traceable vision where Mobily is foreseen as the Broadband pioneer in the region, therefore, it has designed its infrastructure to be compatible with the potential revolutions in telecom technologies; where Mobily will not find it hard to develop its infrastructure in the least time possible.

Al-Kaf pointed out that "priorities" are one of Mobily's many features which have reflected on its leadership, such as when it was the first to inaugurate broadband through the HSDPA and the HSUPA technology all at the same time, and today it is also the first to inaugurate the 4G (LTE) network and make all products that support this technology, available in its outlets in the covered cities.

Al-Kaf said those who have been following Mobily's financial results will notice the significant growth in the fixed and mobile data revenues, which only adds to Mobily's keenness to disperse broadband in all of the Kingdom's regions.

(C) Arab News

Batelco reduces its call rates for GCC countries for definite period

Bahrain'_s operator Batelco announced a special offer for its prepaid mobile customers. Until 7 February Batelco's SimSim customers can call their friends and families in the GCC (Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, U.A.E and Saudi Arabia) for only BHD 0.07 a minute at any time of the day or night.

The two-week offer targets the many residents of Bahrain who have family members and friends living across the GCC countries. The standard rates for calling the GCC countries are BHD 0.20 during peak hours and BHD 0.16 during off-peak hours. 

(C) Telecom Paper

UAE telecom operator du launches mobile doctor helpline

 

Dubai Health Care City has joined hands with UAE telecom operator du to launch a live round-the-clock physician helpline in the emirate.

Mobile Doctors 24-7 International will initially be offered to 40,000 select du customers for a free trial period of 60 days, the telecom firm said in a statement.

The joint initiative seeks to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and over-utilisation of healthcare services by offering phone-based access to qualified physicians – around-the-clock, and free of charge, it stated.

The service offers a scalable array of clinical management services designed to provide timely access to needed services, facilitate coordination of care, and enable alternatives to hospital care where appropriate.

Most critically for the member patients, the integrated clinical model provides the appropriate level of care at the time of need.

Farid Faraidooni, chief commercial officer, du, said: "Across the region there is already a huge burden on healthcare systems due to rising costs, scarce resources and lack of capacity."

"Supporting an innovation that allows real time access to quality healthcare from the convenience of your home and respecting the mobility our customers demand, is our goal," he stated. 

"We provide a 24-7 access to quality healthcare through our physician helpline, offering patients timely care and desired convenience by providing those who call with the opportunity to speak directly with a local, licensed and qualified physician regarding their health needs."

"If you or your family member is sick, you may not be sure what to do, and it may seem like the ER is your only option. That is not true anymore," he said. 

Adam Chilcote, vice president of strategy and business development, of Mobile Doctors 24-7 International, said patients who call the helpline with any health care needs or concerns will be able to speak with a physician, who will understand the history and assess and advise on the best options for the patient.

Dr Mansoor Anwar, director of medical & occupational health services at du, said the service will allow a platform for more visibility on the prevalence of chronic diseases and will provide a way to better monitor and control the burden of these diseases, Trade Arabia has learnt.

(C) Trade Arabia

Revenue of Telecom Sector of Pakistan is all time high in the year 2011

The revenue of telecom operators in Pakistan swelled to an all-time high of Rs363 billion in 2011, registering a boost of 5.4% compared to the previous year, according to a report published by the Pakistan Telecom Authority.

During the fiscal year 2011, cellular revenues went up by 11% to reach Rs262,761 million in comparison to Rs236,047 million in 2010.

The telecom sector also made its highest ever contribution to the national exchequer in 2011, as approximately Rs117 billion were deposited by telecom companies and the PTA with a growth of 7%.

The cellular mobile sector also proved to be the lead contributor as the telecom sector invested a total of $495.8 million in the fiscal year.

Telecom sector made its highest ever contribution to the national exchequer in the FY 2011 as around Rs. 117 billion were placed by the telecom companies and PTA compared to Rs. 109.1 billion that were deposited in the kitty last year, showing 7% growth during FY 2011.

Telecom Investment

During FY 2011, telecom sector invested US$ 495.8 million with cellular mobile sector being the leading contributor. In addition, USF invested Rs. 3.5 billion in un-served and underserved areas.

In FY 2011, telecom sector attracted over US$ 79 million FDI in the country which is about 5% of the total FDI which came to Pakistan.

(C) Pro Pakistani

Ericsson would consider to acquire NSN assets incase of sale

Ericsson CFO Jan Frykhammar revealed to Total Telecom this week that the company would consider acquiring assets from rival Nokia Siemens Networks – provided they were up for sale.

"If they put out assets for sale and there comes official processes, I think our responsibility... is – if we are invited to have a look – [to] look at them," he said on the sidelines of Ericsson's fourth quarter results presentation on Wednesday.

"If we see that an asset can add value to our company we consider acquiring it," he continued, citing recent examples including Ericsson's $1.15 billion purchase of Telcordia in June 2011 and its participation in the consortium that bought Nortel's patent portfolio a month later for $4.5 billion.

A GigaOM report on Wednesday also linked the Swedish kit vendor with a move for Canadian WiFi specialist BelAir networks.

However, Frykhammar insisted Ericsson is not specifically planning to buy parts of NSN.

"As a leadership team we do not speculate on consolidation," he said. "If assets are available we look at them; whether we go and acquire assets, that's completely different."

Nokia Siemens Networks in November announced plans to refocus the business entirely on mobile broadband and divest or manage for value any assets that fall outside that remit. The move will see 17,000 jobs cut in a bid to reduce costs by €1 billion.

So far NSN has offloaded its WiMAX business to Skyview Capital-owned NewNet Communication Technologies, and its fixed broadband access division to network specialist Adtran for undisclosed fees.


(C) Total Telecom

NSN will be Managed Services partner of Bharti Airtel in India's eight circles

Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile network operator in India by subscribers, announced it has extended its managed services deal with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). Through the five-year deal, NSN will act as a managed services partner for Bharti in eight of India's major telecom circles.

NSN will be using a global service delivery model and will offer network optimization, operations and maintenance services. Services will be delivered remotely through NSN's Global Network Solutions Center (GNSC) in Noida, India. The solutions specifically support NSN's installed base of mobile broadband equipment for Bharti Airtel, which has helped the operator realize a reduced carbon footprint and optimal cost of ownership. NSN's products and services have also given Bharti Airtel improved network and service performance.

“The data story in the country has just begun and we will witness increasing complexity due to multiplicity of network layers specifically when serving data,” said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Airtel’s India and South Asia unit. “It is imperative for any service provider to have a complete end-to-end view to manage voice and data services. This initiative is in line with our strategy to create ubiquitous networks for offering enriched customer experience. Nokia Siemens Networks has been our long standing managed services partner and we are happy to continue our association further.”

“Bharti Airtel was looking for a single managed services partner with multi-vendor capabilities, and Nokia Siemens Networks meets all the requirements perfectly,” added Ashish Chowdhary, head of customer operations Asia and Middle East at Nokia Siemens Networks. “This deal will allow Bharti to simplify processes and improve end-to-end network and service performance. More importantly, stringent key performance indicators ensure we’re helping Bharti Airtel deliver an enhanced subscriber experience.”

 (C) MSP NEWS