Vietnam’s USD200 million satellite project has attracted bids from several major foreign investors, including Alcatel’s Alenia Space, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems of the US, and Japan’s Sumitomo. The bidding process was opened on 13 February, and will last 180 days. The satellite will be launched in the first quarter of 2008 and is expected to be operational for 15 years.

More than three-quarters of Spanish mobile users would recommend mobile TV, with 55% being prepared to pay around EUR5 a month for the service, according to the results of a study by Abertis Telecom, Nokia and Telefónica Móviles. In September 2005 the trio teamed up to launch a mobile TV pilot using Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) technology. The trials took take place in Madrid and Barcelona to test the feasibility of DVB-H and mobile TV services, and offer 500 users the opportunity to watch broadcast content from Antena 3, Sogecable, Telecinco, Telemadrid, TVE and TV3 on Nokia 7710 smartphones equipped with additional accessories to receive mobile broadcasts. The study found little demand for premium broadcast content, with the overwhelming majority of users being content with the basic content provided on the cheapest packages. Around 71% of users watched between 15 and 20 minutes of mobile TV per day, with most people using the service during the daytime and immediately after finishing work.

Deutsche Telekom has announced that it will cut 1,500 jobs at its fixed line unit T-Com as part of a reorganisation to separate strategic and operational tasks in the division. The scheme is part of a wider restructuring programme announced last year, which will involve 32,000 job cuts. However, this plan has been thrown into doubt after German labour union ver.di, protested against it earlier this month and DT was forced to postpone the process.

Gambia is anticipating major changes in its telecoms market this year, including the end of the fixed line monopoly of state-owned telco GamTel, with the arrival of a new Telecoms Bill which is expected to be passed by parliament by the end of March. allAfrica.com reports that the bill includes guidelines for spectrum management, interconnection issues, the setting up of a universal access fund, the introduction of VoIP regulations and a technology-neutral licensing regime.

The government has established an independent industry watchdog to replace GamTel as the telecoms regulator. The Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) was created by the PURA Act 2001, although it is not yet operational. In January 2005 the government said the new body would be up and running by the following month, but over a year later it still lacks the legislation to give it regulatory power in the sector. The Telecoms Bill, once passed, will finally hand PURA the authority to act, giving it the responsibility of settling interconnection disputes, regulating prices and overseeing licensing.

The government says it has also decided to license a second international gateway operator, Gamsat, owned by local businessman Amadou Samba. In the mobile market, Africell is currently the sole challenger to GamTel’s wireless subsidiary Gamcel, but a third operator has recently been granted a licence to enter the sector – West Coast Investment, also headed by Samba and backed by Nigerian investors. The ISP market is open to competition and has four players – QuantumNet, GamTel, Netpage and Airtip.

RapidCloud, a sub-Saharan distributor of Redline Communications broadband wireless equipment, has announced that it will supply WiMAX Forum-certified WiMAX systems in the region. The Canadian-owned provider received the industry mark for its RedMAX Subscriber Unit, an integrated customer premise device that enables broadband connections to business and residential subscribers, as well as its RedMAX Base Station. The company said that the move gives its customers a guarantee that Redline products conform and to a framework of open standards.

Mobilkom Austria yesterday placed an order with Ericsson for the supply of HSDPA technology to its European mobile subsidiaries. Ericsson will upgrade the group’s 3G networks in Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Liechtenstein. Mobilkom Austria began a HSDPA rollout in Vienna last month.

China’s long march to third generation mobile phone services could be nearing an end, with the roll-out of new 3G licences seen this year as Beijing prepares to set up systems in time for the 2008 Olympics.

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