Bangladeshi Confirms 3G Licenses by Next March

Bangladesh's telecoms regulator, the BTRC has confirmed that it plans to award 3G licenses in the country by March 2009 - a delay on earlier promises to offer the licenses by the end of this year. During the launch of a trial 3G network by Ericsson in August, BTRC chairman Maj Gen (retd.) Manzurul Alam put a valuation of US$200 million on the licenses.

"The 3G licences will be issued by March next year ... the licences would be awarded through an open auction," Alam told the Reuters news agency.

A couple of months ago, the regulator sold a tranch of additional radio spectrum for US$204 million. Three incumbent operators brought the spectrum which the regulator said was necessary to cope with their increasing subscriber base.

Grameenphone, Banglalink and Aktel bought 7.5, 5 and 5 megahertz frequency respectively, at the rate of Tk 80 crore per MHz - giving them 21.9MHz, 17.5MHz and 17.8MHz respectively. Three other operators did not bid for the spectrum. Teletalk has 15.2MHz, Warid has 15MHz and Citycell has 10MHz.

A report by the GSMA last year had called on the regulator to issue the licenses by the 3rd quarter of this year. The spectrum should be licensed in a way that reflects its economic value and ensures it is efficiently used, the GSMA report argued.

The launch of 3G services could also assist in closing the "digital divide" which results in Bangladesh being poorly served by broadband internet services. A recent ITU report on telecoms in the Asia-Pacific region found that the minimum advertised broadband speed in countries such as Hong Kong and Japan is faster than the maximum broadband speed available in Bangladesh.

The country currently has six operators - and according to figures from the Mobile World, ended the first half of this year with just under 43.7 million mobile subscribers - which is still a population penetration level of 28.5%. Also worth noting is that while the country has six operators, only four of them are of any significant scale, Grameenphone (20.3m), Banglalink (9.5m) and Aktel (7.8m) and finally, Warid Telecom (3.3m). The two remaining long term incumbents, Citycell and Teletalk add up to 2.7 million customers between them.

Resource - cellular-news

GSM Trade Body Wants All New Phones to Have NFC by Mid-2009

The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, has called for full NFC functionality -- including the standardised 'Single Wire Protocol' interface -- to be built into all new mobile phones from mid-2009.

The GSMA's Board said that it fully supports the need for the ETSI endorsed 'Single Wire Protocol' standard to provide the interface between the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC, or SIM card) and the embedded NFC chipset within the handset. The NFC chip can communicate with existing contactless readers to deliver a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services, such as credit and debit payments.

Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, said, "There is no doubt that there is a huge latent demand for a large variety of mobile transaction services, of which there is universal interest in proximity payments, as trials across the world have already shown. We are committed to ensuring that mobile payment services are delivered as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. But this will require device manufacturers to make sure that the vast majority of commercially available handsets incorporate the Single Wire Protocol and Near Field Communications features as standard.

"Doing so would enable the industry to leverage significant economies of scale, and ensure greater accessibility of NFC services for mobile users, added Conway."

This call for handsets is supported by recent operator trial results, which indicate a growing consumer demand for mobile payment services. Trials are underway across eight countries involving nine mobile operators as part of the GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. Further pilots are planned across 14 countries by 15 mobile operators.

In Taiwan, in a trial of over 200 users, FarEasTone found that 90% of people felt positive toward to this new service. 80% of people were satisfied that the service is secure, and 40% said they would switch their monthly spending to a mobile credit card service.

Seven banks and four mobile operators -- including Orange and SFR -- involved in the "Payez Mobile" trial in France have announced the results of trials conducted with almost 500 sales outlets and nearly 1000 triallists. Over 90% of triallists said they found contactless mobile payment convenient, fast, and easy to use. In addition, 94% declared that they would recommend it to their friends and family. Merchants welcomed the possibility of offering to their customers an innovative payment solution, with over 80% saying they appreciated the speed and cutting-edge appeal of mobile contactless payment.

Equally, in Korea, SKT and KTF found that m-transportation was very popular with users, and this is likely to translate to other mobile payment services. Approximately 450,000 users of the "T-money" service were quick to adopt the service as it is convenient and compatible with existing readers. According to KTF's survey, 85% of m-transportation users indicated satisfaction levels were 'very high'. 85% of them believe that using a contactless mobile phone is much more convenient than getting their wallet out to use public transportation, and would continue to use the mobile service. "T-money" attracts users not only for the public metro and bus, but also for small transactions such as buying goods from convenient stores by simply tapping on the contactless readers.

In July the GSMA on behalf of operators issued a detailed Device Requirement document to a wide range of vendors and suppliers in the 'Pay-Buy-Mobile' ecosystem. 37 key players responded, giving a clear picture of the core requirements for any SWP/NFC device.

Resource - cellular-news