BlackBerry and Chinese 3G to live another day

RIM eventually found a deal with NTP, but millions of users have had time to sweat and to look for alternatives. Even among the most addicted CrackBerries, some could change dealers next time...
In the meanwhile, the world's first 3G TD-SCDMA videophone is out. It's a Samsung device with a combined Philips / T3G Technology Co. techno, T3G* being the JV founded three years ago between China's Datang Mobile Communications Co. and South Korea's Philips - Samsung JV (Royal Philips Electronics and Samsung Electronics Co.).

Philips are betting more than a few bucks on TD-SCDMA : according to their CEO, the techno will not only be an entry point for the Chinese market (which is anyway also open to W-CDMA, CDMA2000 & beyonds), but for other emerging markets where data isn't so important. Philips even expect some developped countries to add this feature in due time (which is supposed to be not so difficult but hey, that's a vendor talking...).

Samsung should try and sell volumes before Chinese manufacturers take over. After that, collecting royalties through T3G could prove a more profitable business : as it is, TD-SCDMA won't be for high end customers with demanding data needs.


* see T3G Technology Co. website (t3gt.com), Philips news release.

Origami Project - a crush for paper tigers ?

Second week, second teaser on the Origami Project's website*. Microsoft being Microsoft and Origami being the art of paper folding, you must be patient and expect a full basket of wasted stuff before enjoying the real thing.
MS' viral marketing campaign started last year and will culminate next week at CeBit 2006. You can tell they're not familiar with viral marketing (except when it comes to spreading bugs, malware, spyware, stuporware...) : note the quantum leap between the first "hello" and the following "hi there" - what will it be next time : "Hang on", "Wait a sec'", "Got your attention ?", "Still there ?", "Pickaboo !"...?
The suspense is unbearable. How will the damn thing look like ? I guess something less steel-waffle-ish than Dualcor Technologies's cPC**, and something less ToysRUS-ish than the Ultramobile 2007 starring in last year's mini clips.
We already know its main and optional features : the PC DNA, the tablet PC assets (touch screen, pen, always-on, easy boot, easy break...), a medium-sized screen (rather 6 than 10 inches), wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, digital TV...), multimediapps (WMA & co, games, VoIP...), bizapps (MS Office, MS Server, MS Breakdown...), a few useful excrescences and holes (camera, USB port, card readers...), and of course the full Windows environment (including state-of-the-art BBS : Bugs and Blue Screen).
This iPod-killer / PSP-killer / mXbox was first supposed to cost under $800, then under $600, then again under $500... Come March the 9th, I expect under $400 and even under $300 for the launch : Microsoft are ready to lose more money than they did to help the Xbox survive its first years. Weakening Nintendo and Sony was a walk in the park, this will take much more.



* Origami project : www.origamiproject.com
** Dualcor Technologies : www.dualcor.com

iPub by O2 - boozer friendly

InfoSpace designed this pub-like environment for i-mode ; a perfect wrap up for their popular games (Pub Pool, Pub Fruity, Pub Darts) and the ideal platform for evolutions (Pub Brawl), synergies with Telefonica (Pub Tapas ?), or even sales of music (Tom Waits' "The piano has been drinking" ?) and movies ("Barfly" ?). Even if O2 is no more listed, shareholders can order a Pub Fish & Dips, but smoking remains forbidden. The bartender charges a boring £3 per month. One could have expected a volume based billing system - by the pint.

DoCoMo 4G The Wizard of Hz - Orange Landline Landmines - BT's FRED for free - Swisscom's 5in1 for 99

Bubbles start popping again. Vodafone concede their assets were overevaluated, Florentino Perez concedes the wealthiest club on earth may not the healthiest, and BT concede their disruptive "broadband dialtone" concept won't be free.
Following an interview in "Mail on Sunday", some believed BT would invest big sums in their 21st Century Network (21CN), plus £12M just for VoIP, just to offer broadband to anyone who wants to plug in. Make that "unlimited" instead of "free". Cardiff will go live by the end of the year and the rest of the 21CN (some 30 countries) in 2008, one year ahead of schedule. The aim of the game is for people to meet with FRED (BT's Fantastically Really Easy to use Device concept). Just like in your mid-90s slides, FRED sells convergence, optimized consumer experience, or seamless multidevice environments.
The difference is FRED does sell : BT Movio (to Virgin Mobile), BT Fusion handsets (BT Broadband at home, your MNO on the go - 13,000 units sold to date), BT Equinox (fixed-line SMS), internet radio (PC based and soon an enhanced TV based version with teleshopping, televoting and telewhatevering thanks to a new red button)... FRED will even launch - this spring - the already cult Bluephone (see "Bluephone : a 2,005 pound gorilla or a GNOME ?" 20050316).

Another former PTT keeps talking convergence and furthermore, acting accordingly. Swisscom's HSDPA coverage will reach 20% of the population mid-2006 and about 40% by the end of the year. That's the equivalent of Switzerland's main cities : it will cover more surface on the industry's newspapers than on the local maps but far enough for the operator's new devices to make sense. Less glamour than FRED, but truly "ready to use" : there is a Swisscom Unlimited PC Card 5in1 (GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA and WLAN) with a CHFR 99 / month plan, but also an Unlimited Laptops solution developped with Fujitsu Siemens and Acer (embedded SIM, one touch connection, various plans including a CHFR 5 / hour concept, TTM June 2006).

Orange are a former PTT too, through France Telecom's DNA. As expected, they now claim to be "an integrated communications provider" and intend to become "the total communications provider". Orange Landline for Business means fixed line service for SMEs with one stop shopping and billing, simplified supply chain and service support models, convergent packages and bundles, discounted rates between Orange fixed and Orange mobile number ranges or to 'Business Circle' numbers (top 10 landline contacts), Orange Business customer service with a Landline Performance Promise...
But Orange Landline for Business also means Orange Landmine for Partners : the F/MNO controls the whole chain and intends to lock the customer's entry points as fully as it does in France.

How about the mother of all PTTs ? NTT DoCoMo have been talking 4G even before releasing 3G. We knew from the start they meant business because of their capacity problems : even HSDPA / HSUPA cannot solve them and DoC is bound to lead once more in commercial TTM. From time to time, the Alchemist skillfully displays a few glimpses of his witchcraft : "by increasing the number of MIMO transmission antennas from four to six and by using 64-QAM (NB : Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), data volume per transmission was increased from four bits to six bits. As a result, DoCoMo achieved a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps, which is faster than the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)'s proposed standard". The Wizard of Hz also pushed frequency spectrum efficiency to 25 bps per Hertz, the limit as defined by WINNER (the EU's Wireless world INitiative NEw Radio). In other words : I've been working on 4G on my own according to the rules and the guidelines of standardization bodies, but I've already beaten their expectations. So you'd better follow me if you want to go further and quicklier.
Technology's always been the MNO's main hobby, but they have some 50 million consumers to please and a few technologies to sell before they get obsolete (i-mode, V-Live, i-motion, FOMA...). So the DoCoMo - Nippon Television Network Corporation JV (each partner injecting 5 bn Yens) will start on April 3 under the D.N. dream partners LLP name. What's in a name... the Master Of DYI finally understanding what kind of partnerships he really needs to succeed ?

MySpace Mobile On Helio with Hero and Kickflip

This isn't the latest George Lucas flick but a series of announcements made last week by Helio LLC (SK - Earthlink's Haryuwood M-VNO aimed at the younger generation)*.
We knew SK Telecom planned a rather ambitious fun-based strategy to succeed in this year's highly competitive draft (Virgin & co). They seem to be delivering the goods : a key partnership with MySpace, and two exciting 3G EV-DO handsets :
. the Hero by Pantech & Curitel : processing power optimized for music & video plus stereo speakers (MelOn anyone ?), a 2 megapixel cam with digital zoom & flash (straight from your mobile to your MySpace blog), a superb luminescent screen and even a removable memory...
. the Kickflip by VK Mobile : a swivel handset with the Hero capabilities, said to be addictively ergonomic.
The surprise comes from the deal with Murdoch's MySpace, a competitor to SK Telecom's Cyworld (even if the latter's popularity mustn't go far beyond LA's Koreatown this side of the Pacific Ocean).
To me, this proves how determined Helio are to succeed. Size matters, as well as Time To Market : the MySpace community claims 5M new members every month and must be reaching the 50M mark...
How long will this exclusivity last ? Even if it's for a few months, that's definitely good news for the marketing and sales teams : other partnerships should follow soon.
And who knows... Why not an even bigger deal with Sir Rupert ?


* See "Hello Helio - here comes the sun" (20051118 + the previous posts related to Helio / SK-Earthlink).

Tele2 - the end of the affair ?

Tele2 for sale ? The telecom hotspur stucked in a Metro station and missing the broadband wagon ? The leader of cheap voice knocked down by VoIP and genuine category killers ? The Sverige AB nemesis laughed at by Stockholm's establishment ?
Thank the Swede Lord for small mercies : Jan Stenbeck didn't live to see this. He could have sold the business for a much higher price a couple of years ago but back then, Tele2 was still about swiftness and smartness, the most ambitious challenger getting ready for the broadband era, ready for the shift from solid value chains to more disruptive value networks.
That Daredevil somewhat turned into a rusty Iron Man ; the leader of the pack into a follower in the pack. Can the spirit revive ? Is there still something not virtual to be salvaged up there ?

Play it again, Samsung ?

Mainland Chinese mobile TV operators ordered 500,000 Samsung DMB-T phones, but in Hong-Kong SAR / Xiang-gang, big figures don't necessarily mean good news :

1. Hutchison Whampoa sold a 10% stake in 3, but to Goldman Sachs and for a lousy 420 million euros. They keep delaying the IPO and see their deal with Skype fall in the shadow of Telefonica's "Plug'n Talk" VoIPo3G solution (even if, for the beginning, it is limited to laptops & PCs through USB & Memory Sticks).
   
2. PCCW Wireless added 310,000 new 3G subscribers in January, but without disclosing the cost of their welcome packs (six month of line rental fees, 10,000 mn of local calls per month, unlimited SMS, unlimited 3G browsing... why did only 310,000 take it ?).

The Chinese jackpot was just one part of Samsung's PRsenal in Barcelona : the kings of crossbar confirmed their ambitions for DMB-T in Europe (trials with TF1 - Bouygues Telecom starting later this month, SGH-P900 on time for the 2006 World Cup, undisclosed negociations with several MNOs...), but will also be ready for DVB-H (SGH-P910) and MediaFLO. Besides, Koreans (for a start) will enjoy an exciting SPH-B4100 which allows simultaneous T-DMB and S-DMB*. There's also fish to fry about Microsoft (i320 with Windows Mobile 5 and a keyboard), HSDPA (Z560) and naturally WiBro (a new device - M8000 - and a new deal : Telecom Italia will use Samsung Wibro solutions next year).

To celebrate in music, Samsung decided to showcase a supposedly customer-oriented (but MNO / CSP driven) SecureMMC application lyrically dubbed "Music download service supporting OMA v2 DRM & MMC with Beep Science"... Play it again, Sam ?

Another player put his cards on the table : Option exhibited GlobeTrotter FUSION+ HSDPA (a HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE / Wi-Fi / PEPPERONI / ANCHOVIES combo Data Card) and GlobeTrotter GT MAX (a tri-band HSDPA / 3G UMTS Data Card already snatched by Cingular GlobalConnect for a promising new plan : unlimited at home + 100Mb abroad). Down the corridor, CSI Wireless tried to plug their fixed wireless (GSM or TDMA) phones : Series 405 (basic) and Series 415 (speaker phone capability + internet access & email via PC).

As expected, HSDPA is getting mainstream (ie Intel working hand in hand with the GSMA to boost embedded HSDPA in laptops) and HSUPA starts making noise far beyond the darkest alleys.

As expected also, "mobile TV" is more often heard than "wireless data". But even if "mobile goes TV" looks strong in the charts, this is only 3GSM radio, and we soon will move back to the "TV goes mobile" tune**.

* 2 channels at the same time, in other words. On the same mini-screen ? Korean will soon outclass Japan in miniaturization. When you think Ninendo consider adding a mobile TV tuner to their DS Portable gaming systems...

** the Murdoch lads managed to sell once again their Sky By Mobile (skybymobile.com) concept. This BSkyB's mobile counterpart to Sky By Broadband leverages on the whole Sky machine : Sky TV by mobile, Sky News, Sky Bet, Sky Digital, Sky Sports (including the Baclays Premiership and UEFA Champions League)...

Barcelona 2006 Mega SIM city

Just to wrap up my last post ("TDtv and IP fews" - 20060213) : note that Orange will try IPWireless' TDtv during Q3 2006.

That's not the only news 3GSM visitors could squeeze from "Naranjita", who definitely made the headlines* with their Mega SIM concept : a 512M SIM card meant to handle heavy multimedia stuff.
Come on... You don't want to be SIMlocked for your music as well, do you ?
Not only do MNOs compete with music retailers : they're going at the SD / CF market as well, turning their handsets into slot machines.
The equation : one machine (LG for a start) = one slot = one card provider (your usual casino operator - err... mobile network operator, sorry). And make it quick before Compact Flash takes everything.
The catch ? It's just like in Sin City : your hotel provides you with a superb card to play on all its slot machines but you cannot play across the Strip unless that other casino belongs to the same mob.
More fundamentally : you want your storage device to be compatible with all your gadgets. This Mega SIM makes sense if it boosts your online experience (voice, data) and/or helps you switch handsets quicklier than you change clothes - if it is meant for storage only, you will still need other slots or ports.
Yet, it's about time MNOs realize they can do better with this exclusive entry point.


* sorry for Nok-nok (Nokia 6136 - UMA, GSM / W-LAN, microwave oven and satellite dishwasher), Skype (voice over-hyped with 3 & co), Comsys Mobile (ComMAX, "a full Mobile WiMAX baseband processor")...

TDtv and IP fews

When I write "IPmobile have remained relatively silent" (after getting a 3G license in Japan)*, I'm only talking about the 3Greenfield operator.
Because mother company IPWireless has been fairly active lately.
In 2006 alone : Sprint Nextel injected another $10M in the venture, the CEO resigned, new & old faces joined the board, and IPW announced TDtv trials for H1 2006, not to mention partnerships with MobiTV and Vidiator.
Based on MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Standard) and, unsurprisingly enough, UMTS-TD-CDMA, this mobile TV solution will naturally be exhibited in Barcelona this week and - a little bit later - used by IPmobile in Japan. IPW's 3G-3GTV combo matches Qualcomm's cdma2000-MediaFLO package : with a slightly smaller customer base to start with, but also with the 3GSM label.
As the GSM family gathers near La Sagrada Familia, faces look much less grim than a couple of years ago. This mob used to milk the neighborhood without pain but suddenly got challenged by competitors and incorruptible regulators. The association reorganized itself in order to cope with both and now looks stronger than ever, able to lead in a world of competition and diversity, eager to market to third parties a consumer base bigger than China.


* see "J:COM's quadruple play : within the fence" (20060210)

J:COM's quadruple play - within the fence

"J:COM Mobile powered by WILLCOM" will start on March the 1st, 2006. J:COM customers will naturally get a discount fee, and the second line will cost them 2,000 yens instead of 2,500. "WILLCOM Flat-Rate" and "Toku-Toku Talk" plans are also meant to boost multiple subscriptions and intra-customer base traffic. Handsets are of course provided by Kyocera, a major Willcom shareholder.
J:COM aim for a "grand slam" on a relatively medium sized ball park ; a little more than 2M subs overall end of 2005 (3.5M for Willcom) : TV 1.8M (of which 650k digital), internet 911k, telephony 970k. Their homes-passed potential stands at 7.89M.
DoCoMo & co are not facing a power hitter either : J:COM Mobile are a 2G PHS M-VNO. A few hundreds of thousands of subs and a local flavor could mean a sustainable business model. For J:COM, that is : in the long run, WILLCOM must find a way out of 2G... or rather into 3G.
Japan's new 3Greenfield operators should be open to partnerships with wireless players bringing a few million customers along. After being awarded their licenses, IPmobile have remained relatively silent while the other two didn't seem to waste their time.
Significantly, Fidelity Investments Japan Limited just took 11.41% of eAccess last January. A few weeks earlier, eMobile would welcome aboard another financial partner : Goldman Sachs Group. But other players joined too, including Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd, a specialist in entertainment contents. eMobile keep the same TTM target : data services by the end of next fiscal year and voice services one year later.
BB Mobile Corp (Softbank) announced a nationwide mobile broadcasting service by 2012. That will be 5 years after 3G launch but content has already been locked : Softbank's Yahoo! BB are massively doping their movies, music and games portals for IPTV and other screens.
And yes, both BB & e keep talking about WIMAX... Obviously, a xDSL-3G TDD combo is not enough.
But still, there's no shame in drafting minor league cable-PHS customers for pre-season training.

See also : "3Greenfield Japan" (20051113)
J-Com : http://www.jcom.co.jp
eMobile : http://www.emobile.jp

Chindias Regal

2005 was the year China became passé. Everybody pulled out of the Middle Empire and invested massively in India where developpers speak perfect English and bubbles (real estate, financial, political, social, ecological, stock-marketal, Mittal...) are less likely to burst in the very short term. Besides, luxury brands eventually realized India would soon become their main market (the country will go from 11 to 20% in about the same time it takes a Ferrari to go from 0 to $200 fines).
Wireless India gained 3.5M subscribers last January and if big metrocities keep claiming the bulk of Bollywood consumer bases, mobile network operators seem committed to roll out in rural India and lower handset retail prices as much as they can : the race has started with the promoters of "fixed-wireless" solutions, supported by your usual suspects from Redmond, WA or Santa Clara, CA, but also by ambitious WIMAX players from Asia.
Don't expect a massive crop of antennas across the Indian horn fields, though : medium-sized cities are big enough for a sound business model, and Monsanto already sprayed Roundup everywhere.

Reinventing leadership or supersizing Nokia ?

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wants Nokia to become "the most loved and admired brand in the world". So he hires a top marketing gun from Coca Cola.
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wants Nokia "to tell a story with each product" and according to four main customer benefits "Design & Style", "Modernity", "Rational" and "Easy & Reliable". So he hires a top marketing gun from Nike.
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wants Nokia to remain the global leader, so he hires top marketing guns from other global leaders who've never reinvented themselves.
I'm not saying Nokia will turn obese, nor start manufacturing handsets by the hands of Pakistanese kids.
I just thought a leader could reinvent itself only by thinking out of the box... and definitely out of the Happy Meal or shoe kinds of boxes.

SK Telecom - the year of the milking cow

I must confess financial data tend to bore me. SK Telecom's figures for 2005 look nice enough, even after retracting SK Teletech's sale*.
Considering the competitive circumstances, keeping a 50.9% market share and adding 750,000 subs inspires respect. The success of Wireless Internet (26.6% of all cellular service revenue) should be tampered by the vastness of the definition of "wireless internet", but no one can contest the achievements of MelOn and Mobile Cyworld, or the ingeniosity of the MNO's data plans.
2005 was yet another exciting year for them (even when followed from this not so exciting blog), but also a year of restructuration with spectacular changes in management and a significant marketing rationalization (the marketing expense to sales revenue ratio went down from 17.2% to 19.2%).
2006 should be less juicy from a financial point of view : SKT must invest in HSDPA, face the competition of DMB-T and Wibro at home, and push abroad... but the year could prove much more exciting from a strategical point of view, especially in the contents / partnerships arenas and in the US**.

* see "Hardware behind, hard work ahead" (20050504)

** see "Hello HELIO - here comes the sun" (20051118)

You look WonderPhone tonight

This week, Les Echos mentioned WonderPhone were considering MediaFLO as well as DVB-H and DMB-T for the "push to store" concept they've been lobbying for since last october at the French NRA. I guess Qualcomm would love to enter by the content window after being turned down at the infrastructure door...
Along with the article came a crossbar handset, the kind of beauties dominating the airwaves in Korea since TV and movies entered mobility. T-DMB services (dubbed "take out TV") joined SKT's S-DMB Tu Media last month, but handsets are just arriving now. LG (the manufacturer) also released a T-DMB LG PDA called PM80 and big enough to tear your pockets off... judging by the size at least - I didn't read the price tag.
LG Telecom (the operator) don't offer DMB, nor even MediaFLO. So they decided to offer mobile TV for free and KTF may well follow suit.
But such devensive gifts have nothing to do with innovation, and broadband Korea will go even more broadband this year : FTTH keeps spreading* and KT will launch their Wibro services next April in Seoul. The fixed incumbent intends to compete with SKT & KTF's HSDPA much more aggressively than it did with their WiFi services (Nespot).
In the meanwhile, ReignCom Ltd (iRiver's manufacturer) are building an impressive (and not so unreminiscent of N-GAGE) platform around their new Wibro game console : partners include KT, POSdata Co. (system integrator), CJ Internet and NHN (Hangame portal).
How do you say "plenty" in Korean ? "Manta"... Which leads us back to WonderPhone : Manta happens to be the name of their mobile game portal.

* I've been enjoying it at home for one year now. In Seoul, because as far as Paris is concerned, I understand FT were just planning a few thousand lines for the next two years at 4 to 5 times the price charged in Seoul...
A few links : wonder-phone.com - nespot.com - reigncom.com

Cloned cell... phones in Korea

Dispite HWANG Woo-Suk's disgrace, Korea remains the world leader in cell cloning... Cell phones, that is.
The MIC's Central Radio Management Office already seized 860 cloned cell phones in 2004 - they scored an amazing 6,600 for 2005. We're talking actual stem cells : cloners steal serial phone numbers and use them with stolen handsets.
This shift from Hello Moto to Hello Dolly appears unethical, but not so difficult thanks to Doc Jacobs' unsecure CDMA technology. So I'm affraid this Hanryuwood remake of Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones shan't play at a theater near you if you live in a GSM area.
Yet, T-Mobile, who expect their 3G inside laptops to mushroom in 2006, will face another kind of cell duplication phenomenon : Mushroom Networks and WiBoost Inc will peer-to-peerly help individuals share their DSL home connections with their friends and neighbors. If you operate a DSL joint, the "Got mushrooms ?" moto will resonate like a fairly bad trip.

Movio Modio Modeo

Following their Pittsburgh, PA trials, Modeo LLC (the new name for Crown Castle Mobile Media) will launch DVB-H services (including audio and video podcasting) across 30 US markets (including NYC) by the end of 2007.
Meanwhile, BT released some data from their BT Movio DAB trials (1,000 users) : unsurprisingly enough considering the technology and the services, digital radio was more popular than digital TV with 90 mns per week vs 66. 50% of the time, mobile TV is home TV, with a 6 P.M. prime time... One should wonder whether the age of broadband - at least one screen in every room - will make this kind of usage irrelevant, but up to now, the Korean case proved mobile TV usages could bloom even in the dead middle of the broadband home / office spheres. The fact is mobile TV is more personal TV than the set in a teenager's bedroom, mobile TV is more seamless than TV on the go. Two thirds of BT Movio users would pay £8 per month for the service (translation : reality would put that around one fourth max, especially when they learn digital radio will be free), and one third would change for an operator with this service (make that one third max).
Because of BT's intense PR, Nokia are already asked why they chose DVB-H over DAB, whilst the latter is clearly out of the global race for mobile TV. Mainstream medias don't even mention DMB, Nokia's and DVB's biggest competitor. For the moment, argumentation appears like a walk in the park for Nok-Nok.

The ultimate wireless killer app ? Ask Stephen King

Since you are a cellular network operator, worrying about health issues is part of your daily job and responsibility. You also have to cope with irrationality and urban legends but come January 24, 2006, you will regret those peaceful days.
The launch of the year has of course something to do with entertainment but not with TV. Yet.
Stephen King is releasing "Cell" on January 24, 2006, and you don't want to consider that a minor event. We're talking millions of fans reading about a genuine killer application : over the air signals that turn your dear customer into something even scarier than a churner. You'd better prepare your hotlines for this crisis.
Otherwise, the King of ARPU (Average Reader Per Universe) could become your worst nightmare.

At the count of 3, Hutch disappears and FOMA turns 20

3 added one million subs between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7, reaching a grand total of 11M : +10% over last quarter, the sales department can be proud... but how about the CFO ?
Hutchison Whampoa Limited are giving up the lead in Hutchison Telecom International Limited : Orascom Telecom* took 19.3% of it, leaving HWL right under 50% (49.8%). They may want to strenghten their wireless activity, they obviously don't want to consolidate it anymore.
Especially after HWL and HTIL secured (two weeks ago) a 5.1 bn rupee loan supposed to "enable the companies' two indirect non-wholly owned units, JayKay Finholding (India) Pvt Ltd and Usha Martin Telematics Ltd, to acquire shares to be issued by Hutchison Essar Ltd (HEL) pursuant to a rights issue"...
Now liberated from the Orange brand, Hutch Essar (formerly known as Hutchison Max) claim 10M subs and push their own new brand : "Hutch", symbolized by an ugly drooling dog. The name definitely has something to do with HWL, but the logo doesn't look 3ish at all. Furthermore, the color switched from orange to pink. Now whenever T-Mobile wants to make it into India, they'll have to tame this pet from HEL.
Vodafone badly wanted to make it into India and that made sense : Arun Sarin wasn't born in Helsinki, India is all the rage for investors worrying about a reverse Chinese syndrom, and Master Voda just loves winners (see how they dumped ManU for McLaren ?). So after wolfing Telsim down, Vodafone take another small slice of another big cake (after China Mobile, 10% of Bharti Tele-Ventures).
NTT DoCoMo with they could rule over China and India as well as they rule over Japan : they reached the 20M FOMA users mark right after reaching the 50M subscribers plateau. As expected, they will soon take over KDDI as the 3G leader at home : their 40% migration rate** should be compared to KDDI's 95%+ (nevermind Vodafone KK's 15%).
What wasn't expected from the beginning was the time it took them to catch up : they lost about 6 months to glitches that could have been avoided. And there, I'm not talking about the baby steps. Oh, by the way... did you notice how DoCoMo now claim they launched FOMA in October 2001 instead of May 2001 ? Another example of revisionism this side of the "Sea of Korea"...

* The Egyptian operator is growing ambitions : 14.5M subs 12/2004 end of 2004, 17,5M on March the 31st, 30M end of 2005. They keep advertising on CNN International, target 50M subs end of 2006 and should open new joints after Egypt (MobiNil), Algeria (Djezzy), Pakistan (Mobilink), Iraq (IraQna), Bangladesh (Banglalink), Tunisia (Tunisiana) and Zimbabwe (Telecel Zimbabwe).
** Also : 45.4M i-mode subs (90% of all customers) of which 32.5M have i-appli enabled kentais (70% of i-mode customers).

CES2006 - beyond Gates, real openings

Billy Boy's pathetic remarks about Google's tendency to overhype future announcements (look who's talking) made the headlines, but I'm eager to see how T-Mobile performs next march with their HSDPA laptops. Less glam but more subs ?
Quite impressed also by Samsung's massive nextgen overload : Blue-ray, MPEG4, Wibro, MediaFLO, GPRS/EVDO S/T-DMB, DVB-H... you name it ! Plus another striking partnership : after Vodafone in the mobile world (by the way, Sammy just demonstrated HSDPA at 3.6Mbps), Comcast and set-top boxes.
They're starting 2006 at the top, but can they keep the pace ?

Happy birthday, happy new year of the foxy dragon

History tells us Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb back in 1989 at the CERN.
Headline news tell us the first web page was published 15 years ago on time for Christmas 1990. The first web page could be published because the key to the web had been created.
15 years later, competition seems to revive in the browser area. Thanks to mobile access but also thanks to a cute penguin and a foxy dragon.
My stats for december 2005 show that Firefox snatched 15% of the traffic for this excuse for a blog (+ 1% for Mozilla). Safari hunted another 2,5% while Konqueror ruled over 1%. Opera charmed yet another 0.3% to which Netscape added 0.2%. MSIE claimed 80% of this humble pie. Down from 90% 3 months ago.
If Netscape is almost dead, Mosaic is still alive. Behind the question mark on your Internet Explorer toolbar, that is. MSIE was not brought to you by Microsoft inventors since Microsoft never invented anything but virtual cash cows ; IE is based on NCSA Mosaic (TM), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I happened to visit the Urbana-Champaign campus back in 1989 on my way from Chicago to New Orleans. Instead of trying a few lousy pitches in the stadium that Fighting Illini built, I mighta coulda shoulda... sent better pitches.
But I waited till 1993 to use the web on a regular basis and join a online gaming company.
The thing is OS and browsers are not much fun to me. Even with a cute penguin or a foxy dragon.