Grameenphone Fined For Using Illegal VoIP Services

Bangladesh based mobile operator, Grameenphone has agreed to pay an administrative fine of BDT 2500 million (US$37.3 million) to the telecoms regulator, the BTRC for providing E1 connectivity to third parties, enabling the use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology which is unlawful and illegal.

“We deeply regret that such unlawful practices were carried out and not disclosed earlier by Grameenphone,” said Anders Jensen, CEO of Grameenphone. “We have cooperated with BTRC in the investigations and the Grameenphone Board also mandated an investigation by an external auditor to look into all aspects of our operations to ensure that we fully comply with all laws and regulations.”

The allegations mentioned in the BTRC case dates back prior to February 2007. International call termination to Bangladesh is a licensed service and only the Government-owned landline operator was authorized to generate and terminate international VOIP calls.

Back in January, the regulator had threatened to shut down the company if it didn't stop providing VoIP services.

A raid by the regulator on offices of Grameenphone last December allegedly found direct connections from its switches to the internet service provider, AccessTel designed to route international calls over a VoIP carrier and bypass the national landline operator. International call termination to Bangladesh is a licensed service and is currently provided only by the state-owned landline telephone operator BTTB.

Malaysia based Digi Telecommunications has also been accused of using VoIP to terminate international traffic with Bangladesh, although Grameenphone denies any collusion. Norway's Telenor is a shareholder in both Digi and Grameenphone.

Last October, Grameenphone made a payment of US$25 million to the government after it was accused of not clamping down sufficiently on users who used GSM SIM cards to bypass the landline operator for terminating international traffic.

Posted to the site on 14th August 2008

Verizon Plans Wider Options for Cellphone Users

By LAURA M. HOLSON

November 28, 2007

In a major shift for the mobile phone industry, Verizon Wireless said yesterday that it planned to give customers far more choice in what phones they could use on its network and how they use them.

While there are technical limitations involved, the company’s move could lead to an American wireless market that is more like those in Europe and Asia, where a carrier’s customers can use any compatible phone to easily reach a wide array of online services — and take their phones with them when they switch companies. The move, which surprised industry watchers because Verizon Wireless is known to be highly protective of its traditional business, is part of a larger shift in the communications world.

With the introduction of the iPhone from Apple, one of the first mainstream multimedia devices, and Google’s plan to make the software that runs cellphones, the industry is being pushed toward a more open approach.

Carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, have spent billions on cell towers and other infrastructure, and traditionally they have tightly controlled what happens on their networks.

They decide what phones subscribers can use and then steer them toward ring tones, television shows and other products they can buy.

The details of Verizon Wireless’s alternative approach have yet to be worked out. The company did not disclose how much the service would cost or what rules would apply.

Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Wireless, said the company would hold a meeting with mobile phone makers and programmers in the first quarter of next year to talk about the service, with the goal of introducing it next summer.

“The trend we see here is an explosion of innovation,” Mr. McAdam said. “People want to take so much of what’s on the Internet and put it on the phone.”

Other companies are likely to feel pressed to follow Verizon’s lead, analysts and executives said. “If they don’t change their own business model, someone else will do it for them," said Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG Research. “This way they have control.”

Consumers are already able to add software and make purchases online with many cellphones, but often the carriers do not make this easy, preferring instead to highlight their own offerings on phone screens.

The carriers have also been at odds with Silicon Valley companies like Google that want people to be able to use phones in much the same way that they can use any PC for access to the Internet.

Verizon Wireless, too, is not abandoning its traditional service. Instead it will offer a separate service plan allowing consumers to buy a phone — one compatible with its network — and call a toll-free number to have it activated. A Verizon lab will test whether the phones can connect to the network, allowing the company to maintain control over what devices are permitted.

Still, programmers will be able to develop software to run on the phones without authorization from the company. “We will not be the gateway to go through,” Mr. McAdam said.

The company’s move won praise from Google, Microsoft and the Federal Communications Commission, among others, but consumer groups offered a cautionary note.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” said Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal affairs at Consumers Union, an advocacy group in Washington. “We have significant concerns about prices being sky high.”

Another potential hurdle is the Verizon network’s use of CDMA technology, which is less common than the GSM technology of AT&T, T-Mobile and many overseas carriers. As a result, users of Apple’s iPhone and many GSM-compatible phones will not be able to use Verizon’s service.

Still, added Mr. Kimmelman, “it’s a step in the right direction.”

That step has not come without a bit of prodding. Federal regulators are moving to encourage the creation of a more open national wireless network when they auction off spectrum licenses in January. The auction rules require bidders to partly build a network that is largely free from carrier constraints.

Among those expected to bid are Google, which many in the industry say will be a formidable competitor to the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Google has put together a consortium of companies to use its software and help it turn mobile phones into hand-held computers. Mr. Kimmelman said the Verizon Wireless announcement was fueling speculation that it would be a bidder in that auction, too.

But analysts have noted that Verizon Wireless has been sending mixed signals. It filed a petition in September with the federal courts requesting a review of the auction rules on openness, calling them “arbitrary” and “capricious.” Mr. McAdam said his company filed the petition not to halt competition, but because it believed “it was not necessary for the F.C.C. to get involved.”

He added that Google was not the enemy of the traditional telecommunications companies that the news media made it out to be.

“It’s very common and popular in the press to view Google and Verizon at each other’s throats," Mr. McAdam said. “We have far more in common with Google in meeting demands of consumers than in conflict.”

No matter the motivation, many expect the result to be good for consumers. “This is only going to drive innovation for consumers, which is a good thing," said Cyriac Roeding, who is in charge of mobile content efforts at CBS.

If Verizon’s effort is successful, then content creators, software developers and device makers, who have chafed under the control of the wireless companies, will need to show what they can do. At a telecommunications conference in San Francisco, those groups were outwardly hostile toward the carriers, complaining that they were too controlling.

Now, Mr. Entner said, “the ball is in the court of the device manufacturers and software developers.”

“They have to put up or shut up.”

Chunghwa Telecom grabs exclusive three-mode broadcast rights for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Taiwan

Kaddy Chung, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 28 November 2007]

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) on November 27 announced it has obtained exclusive rights to broadcast the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games through the Internet, IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and handset platforms in Taiwan. This is the first exclusive three-mode broadcast license in the history of Olympic Games, according to the company.

In addition to broadcasts during the Olympic Games sessions, CHT has also secured a one-year license for the use of the recordings on its VOD (video on demand) service, the company pointed out.

CHT applied for the exclusive license through Elta Technology, a Taiwan-based company integrating audio/video content distribution and related management/consulting services, CHT indicated. Elta is among CHT's partners for its value-added business operation. CHT is a shareholder of Elta.

According to industry sources, CHT spent more than NT$100 million (US$3.1 million) to secure the license. CHT's motivation of obtaining the license is to expand the user base of its MOD (multimedia on demand) platform and to bring in advertising revenues for its subsidiary Chunghwa International Yellow Pages Media, the sources analyzed.

Chunghwa International Yellow Pages has already reached the 2007 revenues goal of over NT$600 million and is negotiating with Microsoft on a deal to include keyword searches and MSN, CHT indicated.

China mobile phone user base at over 531 million in October 2007

Press release, November 28; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 28 November 2007]

There were 531.45 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of October 2007, growing by 1.55% on month and by 18.36% on year, according to statistics published by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on its Chinese-language website on November 27.

The number of subscribers at the end of October accounted for 39.9% of the country's population (user density), according to the the MII.

Also at the end of last month were there 370.68 million subscribers of fixed telecommunication networks in China, translating into a user density of 28.3%.

In October of this year, mobile phone subscribers in China sent 52.61 billion short messages, averaging 3.22 short messages per phone number a day.

Source: MII, compiled by Digitimes, November 2007

Taiwan market: CHT to launch trial NFC service in January

Kaddy Chung, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 28 November 2007]

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) on November 27 said that it will begin with a trial NFC (near field communication) service in cooperation with Taipei Smart Card Corporation in January, utilizing the T80 NFC-enabled handset from BenQ.

The Telecommunication Laboratories of CHT has been in charge of the development of the Combi SIM card needed for the NFC-enabled phone, utilizing secure smart card and NFC chip solutions from NXP Semiconductors, according to sources at CHT.

The T80 will be used for a number of NFC applications as electronic ticketing and payment in Taipei's rapid transit system as well as to store value-added records and to download advertisements and traffic information, said CHT sources.

The trial NFC service will begin in January 2008 for three months before the inauguration of commercial operations slated for the first half of 2008, revealed the sources, noting that the NFC service will be further expanded when the more advanced SWP (single wire protocol) technology becomes more mature.

In other news, Vibo Telecom, another Taiwan-based 3G mobile service operator, plans to launch on November 28 its own NFC-based service, utilizing either an integrated smart card composed of an USIM (universal SIM) and a smart transit card or a mobile phone, according to market sources.

CHT to launch NFC service utilizing the T80 NFC handset from BenQ
Photo: Kaddy Chung, Digitimes, November 2007

Potential shift by AT&T and Verizon to LTE or UMB could be a setback for Taiwan WiMAX makers

Irene Chen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 28 November 2007]

The potential focus shift in the development of next-generation mobile wireless broadband technology from WiMAX to LTE (Long Term Evolution) or UMB (ultra mobile broadband) by AT&T and Verizon Wireless may cast shadows on the prospects of Taiwan-based WiMAX hardware makers, according to sources from the Taiwan WiMAX industry.

The prospects are high for AT&T to switch to LTE as AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has said that LTE technology is a logical choice for the development of new mobile broadband technology, noted the industry sources.

Although Verizon has not yet made a decision, the company is likely to throw its weigh behind UMB due to its long-term business relationship with Qualcomm, an initiator of UMB technology, pointed out the sources.

The shift could be a setback for Taiwan network-equipment makers who have mostly bet on WiMAX products encouraged by the Taiwan-government's active promotion, said the sources.

Despite the unfavorable developments, Taiwan makers can still count on Sprint Nextel and WiMAX operators in other markets, including Japan and India, to continue to move production of their WiMAX hardware forward, the sources contended.

Sprint Nextel has vowed to continue the implementation of its WiMAX service program scheduled to kick off in 2008, despite the discontinuation of the partnership with Verizon on WiMAX services, the sources indicated.

Sprint Nextel's procurement of WiMAX products will include WiMAX network cards, WiMAX routers, IP cameras and media players, among other items, said the sources

Samsung Electronics Sheds Thousands of Jobs

11-18-2007 17:31
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, has cut more than 1,600 jobs in a large-scale restructuring move unseen since 2002, to take the brunt for weak prices of chips and flat-panels for televisions.
According to Samsung Electronics’ data submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service, the nation’s financial watchdog, the number of workers marked 85,269 as the end of Sept., down 1,630 from the 86,899 as of March this year. The number of high-ranking officials also declined by 15 to 821 over the same period.
Previously, Samsung had cut hundreds of employees in the third quarter of 2002 from six months earlier, according to Samsung officials.
``The job cuts were a reflection of Samsung Electronics’ steady restructuring efforts to find next drivers for the company in the future,’’ a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Times, Sunday.
Asked about the possibility of further cuts, the official declined to elaborate.
In August, Samsung announced a series of restructuring measures including voluntary retirement by executives and unit merges after the operating profit in the second quarter sank below 1 trillion won for the first time in five years.
Market observers said the latest large-scale job cuts have widely been expected as the operating margin for the company plunged 27 percent in the first quarter from a year ago due to disappointing performances in its key business sectors such as semiconductor and flat-panel divisions.

Samsung’s semiconductor division contributed to more than 70 percent of the company’s operating profit in 2006.
Even further, shares of Samsung Electronics, which had peaked at 687,000 won in July, have fallen near 20 percent over the past few months, closing at 557,000 won last Friday.
Industry analysts, however, said more job cuts are seen considering the bearish market situation in the global chip sector, and the ongoing moves to find new growth engines escaping from the semiconductor business.

Analysts expect the prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in personal PCs, to fall a maximum of 20 percent by the first quarter of 2008. Samsung is set to invest 6.19 trillion won in the memory chip sector of the whole semiconductor business in 2007, according to the company.
DRAM prices plunged over 90 percent to $1.03 in the spot market as of Nov. 14 from early January this year, mounting burden to the company, which is taking up 28.3 percent in the global DRAM industry in the second quarter. Samsung is diversifying its business strategies to the profitable over-one-gigabyte NAND, Non-memory chips, LCD TVs, handsets to business-to-business sectors.
``More job cuts are expected as restructuring measures by the company were in line with raising return on equity to investors,’’ an unnamed fund manager said.
yckim@koreatimes.co.kr