Eastern Europe Telecom-Week

Fonex (also known as CATEL), the sole CDMA operator in Azerbaijan, has announced an exansion of its network in the northern region as they continue to work to fully cover the country.

The companies CDMA network has been expanded to cover, Guba, Gusar and Khachmaz. This is an addition to areas already covered including the entire Absheron peninsula, as well as Baku, Sumgait, Sangachal, Alat, Kyurdemir, Ujar, Shirvan, Gekchay, Mingechevir, Ganja, Shamkir, Agstafa , Balaken, Devechi, Nabran, Lenkaran and Astara.

CATEL plans to expand coverage to Tovuz, gas, Agsu, Masalli, Sheki, Berde and Nakhchivan AR within the first half of 2009.

ING Mobile Payments service is to be launched in Romania for the first time in December 2008. Romania is the first location ING Group would test the solution based on the Maestro PayPass system and was selected from 50 countries the bank operates in.

ING Mobile Payments was developed in partnership with MasterCard, Collis, Toro, Venyon and Nokia. The service is currently being implemented in several partner units in Romania.

“ING Romania is currently launching the first stage of the pilot-programme ING Mobile Payments following that, after an evaluation of the reaction of the consumer and traders, to develop it. In a few years payment via the mobile phone is to become something usual and we are proud ING and Romania were the first in the region to do that,” Albert Roggemans, CEO ING Retail Romania.

Although payment via mobile phone is already used in France, UK, US, Taiwan and South Korea, the ING Mobile Payments product to be launched in Romania represents also the premiere of this particular system worldwide.

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Bulgarian Telecommunications Company AD (BTC), listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange announced yesterday that a sale of BTC’s enterprise distribution of radio and television broadcasts - National Government Radio and TV systems (NURTS) of Yosterrayhishe Rundfunkzender GmbH & Co. KG [Oesterreichische Rundfunksender GmbH & Co KG] (ORS). The buyer is a major strategic investor from the EU operating in the field of broadcasting. ORS was selected due to held an international tender. Expected the deal to completed after obtaining approval from relevant regulatory authorities.

NURTS is the leading provider in the transmission of radio and television broadcasts through its unique network of over 800 strategically located sites covering nearly 100 percent of the territory of Bulgaria. NURTS offers a national network for distribution of microwaves for transmission of radio and television broadcasts, voice and data provided by Colocation customer service facilities and manages ultramodern satellite station. From 2006 onwards NURTS has developed experimental DVB-T Multiplex in Sofia.

Bernard Moskeni, CEO of BTC, said: “The activities of NURTS is not part of the main activities of BTC, namely the provision of telecommunications services. In this sense, and according to our strategic plan sale of NURTS will enable us to better focus on its core activities: fixed and mobile networks and services for data transfer. We are glad that the buyer is ORS, as the company is a strategic investor who will ensure know-how and investments necessary to introduce NURTS in the era of digital radio and television. Will run new services that will benefit customers NURTS and finally Bulgaria. ”

BTC’s consultant for this transaction is the international investment bank Lazard.

Hot on the heels of Beeline launching its 3G network in Uzbekistan, rival MTS has done the same for its subscribers in in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital.

This is a new generation of mobile communication and higher speed data transfer as well as better call quality. Now subscribers of MTS will have the opportunity to take advantage of services that are available only in the networks of 3G.

This is the first city in Uzbekistan which MTS will launch a 3G network, in the near future the next-generation network will be expanded to other cities.

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Beeline have announced the commercial launch 3G network in the Republic of Uzbekistan and launch services broadband Internet access technology-based 3G.

This service will provide subscribers Beeline Internet access at speeds up to 3.6 Mbps, which would significantly increase the speed of data transmission, as well as speed up the loading of multimedia content.

Commenting on this event, Igor Pilyugin, General Director of OOO Unitel, said:

“Beeline launches 3G network in commercial operation. We always tried to anticipate the expectations of our customers to provide service at the highest standards and ensure confidence in the reliability of our services. From today, customers «Beeline» will appreciate all the benefits of third generation communications. The immediate plans of development of new technology-based.”

Deployed in the capital of third-generation network will provide subscribers of Beeline, have a mobile phone that supports 3G, not only high-speed Internet connection and services to exchange data, but also enhance the quality of voice communication, which is especially important during peak periods on the network. Indeed, a UMTS base station can simultaneously accommodate more subscribers than the base station GSM.

High-speed Internet service from the Beeline available to any subscriber and 3G networking will cost the same per MB the companies various as GPRS (2G) services.

MTS Belarus has unveiled its new wap.itv.by service, which is a universal point of access to TV-resources with a mobile phone. It includes organized streaming broadcasts on mobile phones, television channels RU TV, RBC-TV and Belarus-TV.

The wap.itv.by site provides:

• RU TV - a music TV channel that uses in its broadcast music only in Russian. SS TV - this is music for the soul, music is the last time and our days, the most beloved and popular artists, the latest hits.
• RBC-TV - the first and only business in Russia television channel. Every day on the air of RBC-TV covers the situation in the Russian and international financial markets. At the canal before the economic, financial and political news in Russia and abroad; analytical reviews, forecasts and expert commentary, interviews with leading politicians and businessmen, business press reviews, special programs on topical issues of Russian business.
• Belarus-TV - information and information-analytical program, the socio-political projects, documentaries, history and culture of the Belarusian people, sports, musical entertainment and children’s programs, film shows the best domestic products of television, film and Video.
• News on politics, business, high technology, sports and culture, kinotreylery, videos and information about products and services MTS.

Access to wap.itv.by costs RUB 150 per MB or RUB 12,000 per month for unlimited access.

VolgaTelecom paid a coupon yield on its inconvertible interest bearing certified bearer bonds of BT-2 and BT-3 series subject to obligatory centralized custody, and also paid off the first 20 percent of the bonds par value.

The interest rate of the sixth coupon yield on BT-2 series bonds amounted to 8.20 percent per annum or RUR 40.89 per a bond. The total amount of the sixth coupon yield paid to the bonds’ holders accounted for RUR 122.67 million. The total coupon yield paid on BT-2 series bonds amounted to RUR 736.02 million.

The interest rate of the sixth coupon yield on BT-3 series bonds amounted to 8.50 ccccvpercent per annum or RUR 42.38 per a bond. The total amount of the sixth coupon yield paid to the bonds’ holders accounted for RUR 97.47 million. The total coupon yield paid on BT-3 series bonds amounted to RUR 584.84million.

The total outpayments of pay off of the first 20 pecent of BT-2 series bonds par value amounted to RUR 600 million (RUR 200 per a bond), and of BT-3 series bonds – RUR 460 million (RUR 200 per a bond).

The Company transferred the money in the Federation currency to the bonds holders in full by non-cash payment.

MTS Belarus has announced a new step in the development of telemedicine implemented by UNDP under the international initiative UN ‘Global Compact’. Minsk district became the first pilot region of Belarus, where they began the practice of telemedicine integrated technology.

The partnership project business, state and UN agencies on the development of telemedicine in the regions of Belarus, started 27 March 2008, when there was a meeting of a working group comprising representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian Center of Medical Technology, the Research Institute of Oncology, the National Academy of Sciences, Mobile TeleSystems, the World Health Organization and UNDP. The outcome of the meeting was the adoption of a joint plan of action for the provision of quality health services to the population in the country using the technology of cellular communications MTS.

Telemedicine is a new direction at the intersection of several fields; medicine, telecommunications and information technology. One of the main advantages of telemedicine - an opportunity to provide high-quality expertise leading medical centers of population in remote areas and save with the cost of patients.

Limun.hr is reporting the issues surrounding the transformation of state-owned telco HT Mostar will be resolved with a new law on privatisation in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).

Transport and Communication Minster Nail Seckanovic made the announcement, he reportedly met with executives from HT Mostar’s other major shareholder, Croatia-based T-HT; T-HT owns 39 percent of the Bosnian operator.

A draft version of the new law is expected within two weeks and it is understood that the current strategic partnership between the government and T-HT will be integrated into the draft, allowing the latter to retain its pre-emptive purchase rights.

Cyfrowy Polsat SA, Poland’s largest digital satellite pay television platform has launched mobile phone services, based on its own telecommunications infrastructure using network solutions from Nokia Siemens Networks.

Under a five-year contract, Nokia Siemens Networks has supplied a complete MVNO platform, comprising packet core equipment, applications and network management tools as well as a broad range of services within the so-called Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement, to allow Cyfrowy Polsat to offer new consumer services, known as Rodzinna Telefonia Komorkowa (Family Cellular Telephony), in an environment where fast implementation and quality are critical.

Currently, the system is ready to serve 200,000 end-users of the new service and the agreement provides for possible extensions of the telecommunications platform functionality to adapt it to a growing number of subscribers of Family Cellular Telephony.

Tomasz Gierczak of Nokia Siemens Networks:

”Mobile users are becoming ever more sophisticated and it is critical that operators are able to meet that challenge with a flexible and high quality platform, as Cyfrowy Polsat is doing. This launch marks the first implementation of our complete leading-edge MVNO solution in Poland and one of the first in Europe, and we are looking forward to a successful partnership with Cyfrowy Polsat.”