Wednesday Telecoms Digest

FIXED:
* DSL: AOL Germany launches (’16 Mbps’) in 5 cities (20 at end 2005), 40 EUR/mo
* DOCSIS: Coaxsys/STM plan 200 Mbps home-networking demo at CES Las Vegas (Jan 5-8)

WIRELESS – CELLULAR:
* 3G: Egypt plans third license early 2006; Nawras (Oman) plans launch 06Q1
* MTA: Orange cuts tariff up to 28% as of Jan 2
* TV:
- DoCoMo buys 10% of Fuji Television, $176m, launch Apr 1, 2006
- KDDI and Qualcomm plan Media Flow Japan network (on MediaFLO technology) in 80/20 joint venture, buy spectrum 2006, launch 2007
- 4 interested in Finnish DVB-H license (TeliaSonera, Elisa, Telemast Nordic, Digita), deadline and beauty contest Jan 31, 2006
- Mediaset buys Europa TV’s (= Holland Italia= TF1 29%, Tarak Ben Ammar 71%) DVB-H license, plans launch 06H2 with TIM and 3 Italy
* LBS:
- Skyhook (WiFi positioning, with GPS and IP locations) gets $6.5m funding from Bain Capital, Intel, Nokia and CommonAngels (total $8.3m)
- Navizon (software-based; GPS, with automatically generated WiFi and cell tower information; for non-GPS users) launches
- Galileo (EUR 3.4 bn, 30 satellites of which 3 spares, operational 2010): demonstrator (‘Giove-A’) launched for testing

WIRELESS – SHORT-RANGE BROADBAND:
* WiFi: Vivato (antenna supplier to muninetworks) closes; Ruckus demos TV-o-WiFi (802.11g; DTV, IPTV, HDTV) at CES Las Vegas (January 2006); Renfe launches on trains in Spain (backbone: Hispasat); Deutsche Telekom trials with Deutsche Bahn on ICE train mid 2006 (backbone: UMTS)
* ZigBee: Texas Instruments buys Chipcon (chips; rev 2004 $29.4m), $200m

WIRELESS – LONG-RANGE BROADBAND:
* WiMAX: First product certification of 802.16-2004 expected mid-Jan 2006 (air protocol interoperability); Alcatel expected to launch 802.16-2005 products 06H2 in beta, commercial late 2006; Airnet launches in New-Zealand; Barak plans launch in Israel with Alvarion, Golden Lines too; Alvarion gest order from Latam, $7m
* FCC wants part of analogue TV spectrum for nationwide public-safety network

CONVERGENCE:
* VoIP:
- CompuServe launches in the Netherlands (double play: 2 Mbps for 15 EUR/mo, 5 Mbps voor 30 EUR/mo; 8 Mbps voor 35 EUR/mo; basic plan 5 EUR/mo, PC-to-PSTN national free, excludes line-rental; total plan 15 EUR/mo + EUR 30 one-time fee with LNP includes line rental); Jordan Telecom launches (double play)
- Santa Cruz Networks releases ‘Festoon Unity’ for Skype/Google Talk interoperability, will add AIM/Yahoo! Messenger/MSN Messenger in Jan 2006
- Microsoft and Softbank cooperate for business VoIP
- I-VoIP.co.uk launches comparison service
- Google sued by Rates Technology over Google Talk
- Brightpoint builds web store for Skype
* wVoIP: Calypso (handsets) acquires Sleipner (software for handover)
* IPTV: trial Shanghai Telecom with Siemens succesful, roll-out 2006; BayanTel plans launch in Filippines
* NGN: BT signs contracts with 4 preferred suppliers (Ciena, Huawei, Lucent, Siemens); Telekom Indonesia elects Telecom Italia Sparkle (06H1)

MUNIBROADBAND:
* FTTH: City of Amsterdam Council unanimously approves Phase 1 (40k homes); Louisiana supports Layayette in suit against BellSouth
* WiFi: Vivato (antenna supplier) closes; San Francisco issues RfP; New Orleans plans free service; launch in Abuja (Nigeria)