Eastern Europe Telecom-Week

The European Commission has published official guidelines for EU countries to expedite rollout of mobile TV services. According to an official statement:

“Authorisations from Member States for Mobile TV services are needed before any commercial launches by operators. Along with the addition of the DVB-H standard to the EU list of official standards in March 2008, these guidelines underline the Commission’s strong commitment to the promotion of new services for European consumers.”

Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms and Media Commissioner:

“Successful commercial launches of Mobile TV in Austria, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands have proved that efficient authorisation procedures are a key factor for the fast take-up of Mobile TV. In Austria, 5,000 citizens were using Mobile TV within the first weeks of its launch. With predicted growth in sales during the Christmas period, many more Europeans should have the opportunity to watch TV on the go. This is why we want to give Member States guidance on how to allow industry to get these innovative services on track as quickly and smoothly as possible. We stand for a collaborative approach between all actors involved including broadcasters, mobile operators and platforms operators, and we oppose heavy regulation or burdensome authorisation procedures for the introduction of Mobile TV in Europe.”

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D3 Mobile has been launched as a new mobile virtual network operator in Kosovo with 20,000 SIM cards available.

Dukagjini Telecommunications, which owns the D3 Mobile brand, says the new network will use the phone code, 043. Head of Dukagjini Telecommunications, Kujtim Gacaferri said the new operator will offer the same services currently in use in Kosovo in order to advance the telecommunication services. D3 Mobile “is a new incentive for further development in telecommunication in Kosovo,” said Gacaferri.

D3 Mobile will operate as a mobile virtual network operator and operate on the network of IPKO - Kosovo’s second-biggest mobile phone operator.

Officially, Kosovo has two mobile operators, Vala which is owned by Kosovo’s Post and Telecommunication, and IPKO introduced last year. On the other hand, Serbian telecommunication operators are unofficially operating in certain parts of Kosovo.

A mobile virtual network operator is a company that provides a mobile phone service but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum, nor does it necessarily have all of the infrastructure required to provide a mobile telephone service. Blycroft’s MVNO Directory can be purchased here.

Bulgaria and Macedonia signed an economic co-operation agreement this month, reports Bulgarian news agency Focus. The agreement was signed in Skopje by Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov and his Macedonian counterpart Fatmir Besimi.

The treaty was part of the agenda of the two-day state visit to Macedonia of Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on the occasion of 100 years of Bulgarian independence and the 15th anniversary from establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. The agreement followed, Stanishev and his host, Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, attending the inauguration of an electricity power line connecting Macedonia to Bulgaria, worth 50 million euro and part of an European power line linking Italy, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is among the leading foreign investors in Macedonia, Bulgaria’s Government press office said. Bulgarian investment in Macedonia was mainly in sectors such as banking, insurance, food industry, telecommunications, tourism and metallurgy. In total, Bulgarian investments in 2007 totalled $33.6 million, a six-fold increase over 2006.

In 2007, bilateral trade was USD 762 million, which was a 51.5 per cent increase compared to 2006, when it was USD 475.7 million. In 2008 by the end of August, the bilateral trade was USD 674.6 million.

The first official European Fibre‐to‐the‐Home (FTTH) ranking shows smaller countries leading the way in FTTH connections, however, mid‐term projections show larger economies catching up.

Slovenia is third in the rankings. Ordered by FTTH penetration, the ranking shows the percentage of homes that receive broadband communications services over direct fibre optic connections. More than 80 percent of the total homes connected to FTTH across Europe can be found in just six countries.

According to the rankings FTTH has still a long way to go in the largest countries. Joeri Van Bogaert, President of the FTTH Council Europe said: “We see evidence that the larger economies are clearing the gap quickly. This trend is very clear in France for instance. A documented overview of this uptake will be unveiled by the Council in February 2009 during our annual conference in Copenhagen.”

The official FTTH‐ranking is designed to provide the telecommunications industry, Governments and regulators with a unique snapshot of fibre access penetration across the continent. According to Joeri Van Bogaert, FTTH is a crucial enabler of economic wellbeing, “That’s why the FTTH Council Europe wanted to chart its ongoing progress as more and more connections are made across Europe. I am confident we’ll see penetration further increase, when a growing number of subscribers in Europe start to experience the superior capabilities of FTTH.”

The European FTTH‐ranking is the first in a series of in‐depth market studies conducted by the FTTH Council Europe. At the annual conference of the Council, taking place on 11th and 12th February 2009 in Copenhagen, several presentations will focus on the market development in Europe and worldwide.

The FTTH Council Europe (www.ftthcouncil.eu) is a market development organisation with a mission to accelerate the availability of fibre‐based broadband access networks to consumers and businesses.

The Council promotes this technology because it will deliver a flow of new services that make a decisive difference in the lives of consumers and companies and create value for the wider society.

Its members include leading telecommunications companies and many world leaders in the
telecommunications.

Intel Corporation, Super iMax and TS-Technology have signed an agreement to promote their products and services in co-operation in Uzbekistan.

• Super iMax, using the brandname EVO, operates a WiMAX-based network over which it offers telephony, internet and VPN services.
• TS-Technology, meanwhile, is one of the largest producers of computer and server equipment in Uzbekistan and is licensed to use Intel products.
• Intel Corporation is the world’s largest semiconductor company and provides many of the modular building blocks required in the telecommunications market segment.

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Airspan Networks, Inc., a leading provider of WiMAX-based broadband wireless access networks, and Multimedia Polska, a provider of triple play services and solutions across Poland, announced today an expansion contract for the delivery of Airspan’s WiMAX solutions in the 3.5GHz and 5.9GHz frequency bands. This order for delivery in 2008 includes both fixed and mobile-ready base station equipment as well as feature-rich Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) units enabling value-added services such as voice-over-IP (VoIP).

“We are delighted at Multimedia’s vote of confidence in Airspan’s WiMAX solutions as evidenced by these additional orders. Multimedia Polska has an aggressive vision centered on differentiation and customer satisfaction — this is a vision we share,” said Anders Rendahl, Airspan’s Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEA.

Andrzej Rogowski, Multimedia Polska CEO, adds, “High quality residential and business voice and high-speed data are essential elements of our business. We look forward to a continued beneficial relationship with Airspan.”

Poland and Eastern Europe have long been successful and important markets for Airspan’s WiMAX solutions. These economies have increasing broadband access demand that is driving WiMAX adoption. Airspan’s presence across the countries of this region, amongst carriers, distributors and field offices, continues to position the company for success.

Montenegro’s Promonte has a new CEO, Christopher Laska who succeeds Kare Gustad who will move on to new international opportunities within the Telenor Group.

Jan Edvard Thygesen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Promonte and EVP Head of Central & Eastern Europe, said: ”The Board of Directors is very pleased to appoint Christopher Laska as Promonte’s new CEO. His international experience within the mobile industry will be a great benefit to the company. Furthermore, his knowledge of the regional environment gained while working in Pannon and Telenor Serbia is an advantage. We welcome him as the new CEO and look forward to continue working together with him.”

Mr. Laska is 38 years old. He has a BSc- Hons in Business Management from Bradford University Management Centre in the UK, as well as a post-graduate degree from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London. Prior to Telenor he also worked for the Norwegian Embassy in London as well as Sallie Mae, Washington DC.

Croatian alternative telco Optima Telekom will launch commercial IPTV services under the OptiTV brand by the end of March 2009, according to a report by IPTV News.

The company has scheduled tests of the new service during the end of this year and during its first phase it will be available in ten cities currently covered by Optima’s fibre-optic network, Osijek, Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Varazdin, Zadar, Slavonski Brod, Velika Gorica, Karlovac and Samobor.

A potential subscriber base of 600,000 will have access to 75 TV channels and personal video recording, with other features to be added based on demand, according to the company. Optima plans to expand OptiTV to all other locations where it operates, as it continues its fibre-optic rollout.

The operators of cellular communications in Kazakhstan bought frequencies of the GSM-1800 standard, report the agency Interfax.

“All three operators - GSM Kazakhstan, Kar-Tel and MTS already bought 5 MHz packages of frequency, paying a total of KZT 7.5 billion,” said Deputy Chairman of State Agency for Information and Communication Republic (AIS) Askar Bishigaev.

Deputy Chairman of the State agency stressed that the operators are obliged to fulfill their investment commitments to infrastructure development in rural areas, regardless of the economic situation in the country.

Accroding to Slovenia’s Agency for Post and Telecommunications (APEK)’s quarterly telecoms market report broadband penetration reached 19.5 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2008, up from 15.9 percent a year ago, with household penetration rising from 47 percent to 58 percent in the same period.

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