As part of a just-announced partnership between Ericsson and Samsung, the latter has released the first USB modem fully compatible with the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G standard. The Samsung GT-B3710 modem will be sold commercially through provider TeliaSonera in 2010 in Norway and Sweden. It promises to bring peak speeds of 150Mbps downstream as well as 50Mbps uploads.
Despite claims to the contrary, Apple's iPhone is ultimately hurting the carriers that have picked it up, a Strand Consult study says. The analyst group maintains that "not one" provider offering the iPhone has seen a financial or market share boost since adding it to their rosters. In many cases, these companies have either seen reduced profit from the heavy subsidies needed for the iPhone or haven't seen the surge in data revenues they expected from customers moving to more expensive smartphone plans.
TeliaSonera has become the first carrier to set up a commercial-ready 4G site based on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. Located in Stockholm, Sweden, the tower is part of a larger network that will be ready in 2010 and promises much faster Internet than 3G. Ericsson, which helped build the site, says 4G can reach a theoretical peak of 160Mbps; real-world speeds are likely to be much slower but still above the 7.2Mbps peak of existing 3G.
Norway's Telenor has signed a deal with Apple that will allow the carrier to distribute the iPhone in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The agreement will bring new competition with TeliaSonera, the only company that offered the handsets in Scandinavia until now. Apple was expected to offer the iPhone solely through TeliaSonera in the area, although both carriers initially expressed interest in the phone and the agreement with Telenor was under consideration last year.
TeliaSonera announced on Thursday it expects to become the first wireless provider in the world to offer the next-generation 4G mobile broadband network to its customers. The company is on course to launch the service in Stockholm and Oslo in 2010, partnering with hardware maker Ericsson for the initial 4G city network in Stockholm and Huawei in Oslo. Talks with suppliers for 4G-ready devices in other Nordic and Baltic countries are currently in progress, TeliaSonera's Senior Vice President and CTO, Lars Klasson, adds.
The identity of TeliaSonera's MMS application for the iPhone may have already been revealed, an announcement hints. Mobispine has announced the creation of what it calls the "world's first true MMS for the iPhone;" critically, the software relies on the actual MMS protocol instead of a substitute, such as a text message with an embedded URL. The company is also based in Sweden like Telia, and is marketing the app as "white label" code, with the aim of having cellular carriers impose their own branding on it.
Swedish telecom company TeliaSonera is working on an MMS workaround for the iPhone, a company spokesman says. MMS is used on many cellphones to send photos and videos, but despite its commonality as a format, the technology has been left off of the iPhone in favor of e-mail and third-party applications. Some form of MMS is slated to arrive within the next two months, says Telia's Bengt Olsson. It should be incorporated in the form of an application, possibly alongside software easing access to WLAN networks.
Though having confirmed in mid-August that it would carry the iPhone, Turkcell has only just announced that the phone is to launch in Turkey tomorrow, September 26th. Three pricing options are available with an 18-month contract: at a cost of 75 YTL per month, the small package includes a phone starting at 279 YTL, along with 150 minutes of voice and 150 text messages. Data use is listed as "unlimited," but in fact includes just 100MB of free data in the first month, a 3GB bundle costing extra. The first three months of the bundle are half-price.
Swedish telecom company TeliaSonera has yet more plans to expand iPhone sales, according to an announcement. With sales already in progress throughout Scandinavia, Telia says it will soon bring the iPhone 3G to two eastern European countries, Latvia and Lithuania. A release date is in fact scheduled for this Friday, September 26th. Prices are not currently available online.
TeliaSonera today confirmed late-breaking rumors on Monday with the announcement that France Telecom has withdrawn its takeover bid for the company, putting an end to the potentially significant merger of the two companies. Sweden-based TeliaSonera maintains that France Telecom has not "significantly" improved its bid that was hinted at on Sunday and insists that the French firm would have undervalued TeliaSonera, which claims that it's strong enough without other companies' help.
France Telecom has increased the value of a takeover bid for TeliaSonera to where the two are now in serious talks, according to word from alleged sources of the Wall Street Journal. The French company, which runs the Orange brand worldwide, is said to have increased its offer per share to a level that Sweden-based TeliaSonera is no longer dismissing a takeover offer out of hand, as it did earlier this month. The talks are reported as fragile and could break off at any moment, with France Telecom having set a Monday deadline for itself if no deal is struck by that point.
Following an announcement for Sweden by parent company TeliaSonera, Norway's NetCom has revealed its prices for the iPhone 3G. Subscriptions are divided into three different levels of iTalk plans -- Small, Medium and Large -- and are roughly equivalent to the Swedish plans, providing steps of 100, 250 and 1,000 in voice minutes, SMS texts and megabytes of data transfer. These cost 399, 699 and 1,099 NOK per month, in order.
Scandinavian carrier TeliaSonera has published the complete list of Swedish prices for the iPhone 3G, an announcement reads. As previously confirmed, subscriptions will be divided into iMini, iMidi and iMaxi plans, in 100/100/100, 250/250/250 and 1,000/1,000/1,000 combinations of voice, SMS and data; new is that these will cost 299, 489 and 859 SEK a month, respectively. Telia hotspot access is free in all plans.
New details for the release of the iPhone 3G have been published in several European countries. French carrier Orange has announced that the 8GB model will cost €149 in tandem with an iPhone-specific contract and high-end options such as Origami, First and Jet. Under the same arrangement, a 16GB phone will cost €199. Owners of present 2.5G iPhones will be able to upgrade for €99 and €149, though only people who bought before June 12th will eligible, and the discount is through a €100 rebate and a renewed, two-year iPhone contract.
Norwegian phone carrier Telenor is still contemplating a deal for the iPhone 3G, a company representative claims. In response to an inquiry by a MacNN source, Caroline Ellis, Telenor Mobile's Head of Customer Relations, has explained that while the company has signed no contract for the iPhone, an agreement is currently being "considered," and a decision has yet to be made.
Norway's Telenor has expressed interest in buying its Scandinavian competitor TeliaSonera in light of the latter's rejecting an initial France Telecom bid, TeliaSonera board member Elof Isaksson says. He declines to elaborate on the seriousness of the deal but is supported by Norwegian industry committee chair Ola Borten Moe, who says the union of the two telecoms companies would be beneficial. The Norwegian government owns a majority stake in Telenor.
France Telecom has entered negotiations to buy Sweden's TeliaSonera, writes the Wall Street Journal. Although no formal offer has been made, France Telecom says it has begun discussing the idea with TeliaSonera's board of directors, as well as its two biggest shareholders. A combination cash and share offer has been proposed, valued at 39 percent over TeliaSonera's share price on April 15th; when considered with its present stock value, this makes the deal worth approximately 252 billion kronor, or $42 billion.
TeliaSonera on Tuesday morning revealed it would carry the iPhone for all of Scandinavia as well as multiple Baltic nations. The deal provides the Apple phone to Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in the North, and also offers coverage to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. As with a string of recent carrier announcements in recent weeks, TeliaSonera doesn't provide details of plans or pricing and says only that it will carry the iPhone "later this year."
