iPhone 5 spurs logistics revamp for CSL. Following up on my previous post about CSL’s iPhone 5 launch on Friday – Here's one interesting aspect I thought was worth a separate post: CSL’s preparations for the iPhone 5 launch included a complete revamp of its logistics and supply chain. CSL chief marketing officer Mark Liversidge explains: "We reviewed our entire logistics supply chain from receipt of goods in our distribution center through to distribution and dispersal of the devices across the retail store footprint. And also we built a new courier service and a new redemption center. That’s allowed us to expand our daily sales rate through One2Free and 1O1O. "We then built a specific online ordering system that feeds everyone into a single queue for queue ticketing, and then there’s a tracking system so we can track where customers are in the queue and when they’re likely to get their device, and we can see all the specifics of things like where they requested their device to be delivered to.
More iPhone 5 coverage here. $50 fine for each unregistered SIM. Monday, August 13, 2012 Business Abdullah Mamun Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has increased the fine for mobile operators to $50 from $10 for every unregistered SIM card sold in its bid to cut down on misuse of mobile connection. The move comes following detection of 7,000 unregistered SIM from various operations, including SIM fairs.
Selling unregistered SIM cards is a punishable offence under the telecoms law of 2001. “Mobile operators in the country are not careful enough when it comes to SIM card registration,” said Zia Ahmed, chairman of BTRC. With regards to the increase in fine amount, he said the new amount better reflects the current market situation. A BTRC official said some of the operators are engaged in voice over internet protocol (VoIP) activities, which is forbidden under current regulations, via the unregistered SIM, so the regulator is taking drastic action against it. DigitalOne - Near Field Communication services arrive in Singapore.
Mobile payment services using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology will be launched in Singapore at the end of August. This means consumers can pay for purchases by tapping a reader with their mobile phones, as long as the user has a NFC-enabled SIM card. NFC is a short range wireless communication technology that transmits information between a mobile device and a reader. Comprising consortium partners Citibank, DBS, EZ-Link, and all three mobile operators in Singapore - M1, SingTel, StarHub - the multi-bank and multi-telco partnership will launch nationwide NFC services through a secure, third party infrastructure. The consortium will be rolling out three credit, prepaid and stored-value payment services through NFC-enabled mobile phones in the coming weeks, with respective partners announcing the launch details of their specific services including how consumers can apply for and make use of these NFC services.
NFC-enabled SIM cards can be obtained from the three telcos. TECHNOLOGY SPECTATOR: Qantas' tech takeoff | Supratim Adhikari. Singapore's fiber hiccups. Krishna Baidya/Frost & Sullivan | June 25, 2012 Telecom Asia Wait your turn IDA should be commended for proactively reviewing OpenNet's contract earlier than scheduled and also seeking suggestions on how to speed up activation. But the current activation rate looks hardly sufficient given the demand; IDA estimates an average of 3,000 sign-ups, with peak rates as high 5,600 a week.
Even with the increased installation capacity it could still take up to six to seven years before all households in Singapore are connected to fiber network. To be fair to IDA, it is difficult to predict the technology adoption and insisting on aggressive targets to vendors may not have been realistic. The newly opened up broadband market has seen the entry of new players such as SuperInternet, MyRepublic and Viewquest. OTT Times Two - TM Forum Training - TM Forum Online Community.
Mobile companies' Wi-Fi woes. When you bought your first smartphone, one of the things you would have considered is what sort of data plan you wanted. Now that the days of unlimited data plans are behind us, this is something we all have to watch, as the charges for going over your allotted megabytes can be high. There have always been a number of ways to get the most out of even a modest data plan. The most effective of these is simple: don't download anything. Sure, you can view emails and browse the web on mobile data, even pull in the odd song or podcast, but leave all the large downloads for home or a free Wi-Fi network. Everyone does this. Informa, a telecoms research and analysis company, recently published the findings of a combined study with Mobidia. Advertisement All those cafes, libraries, workplaces and public Wi-Fi hotspots, at least in the city, are becoming a viable alternative to cell phone towers. But Wi-Fi is just the start.
Gamblecr@gmail.com. Globe embarks on e-commerce foray. The case of the Philippines' over 70 million mobile phone subscribers is a curious one. While they have catapulted the small Southeast Asian nation as the world's text messaging capital, the market is traditionally constrained by low credit card ownership that hampers full participation in today's digital life. Purchasing mobile apps, for one, requires a credit card and not having one is a setback not only for the end user but for service providers always on the lookout for new revenue streams and higher levels of customer engagement. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Globe Telecom launched a customer strategy for the unbanked -- paying for mobile apps and other Web goods through GCash, its internationally acclaimed micro payment service that transforms a mobile phone into a virtual wallet for money transfers at the speed and cost of a text message.
"The challenge is in dealing with the customer experience," Bithos said. Google may offer telcos share of NFC revenue. Dylan Bushell-Embling | March 22, 2012 telecomasia.net Google is reportedly considering offering NFC revenue sharing deals, initially to US mobile operators, in a bid to foster adoption of its Google Wallet service. The search giant is weighing a revamp of the Google Wallet system due to slow adoption, sources close to the project toldBloomberg.
Two key project managers have also recently left the company. Google has struggled to make headway with Google Wallet, due to the relative scarcity of NFC handsets in use and the presence of competing services. Verizon Wireless and AT&T - the two largest carriers in the US – and T-Mobile USA all joined up in 2010 to establish a joint venture to produce the competing ISIS payment system.
Operators currently have no financial incentive to support Google Wallet, and according to the insiders Google is considering giving them a reason to. Optus flags job cuts. Optus workers are the latest to find themselves in the firing line as the telco reviews its operations. Optus today confirmed it would cut its 9500-strong workforce as management casts an eye over the telco’s performance.
Despite speculation that 700 jobs could be axed, an Optus spokesperson said no decision had been made on how many staff would be made redundant. ‘‘Over the past few months, we have been undertaking a review of our business aimed at creating a stronger organisation with a clearer focus on the customer,’’ Optus said in a statement. ‘‘Redundancies are likely to result from this review.
Advertisement ‘‘However, we are still working through the detail and are not in a position to comment on how many people are likely to be affected at this stage.’’ Optus said media reports that up to 700 jobs would be axed were pure speculation and based on a rumour published online on Monday. In February, ANZ said 1000 permanent jobs would be axed from its 24,000 workforce by September.
STI buys stake in Bakrie Telecom. 15 Mar 2012 Indonesia’s fourth largest telco by subscribers Bakrie Telecom has sold a 10% stake in the company to Sampoerna’s telecom unit, Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (STI), as part of a share swap deal between the two CDMA operators. In a joint statement yesterday, the pair confirmed that STI will acquire 10% of Bakrie Telecom for USD90 million, and in return Bakrie will take a 35% stake in STI through the share swap deal that includes options for it to become the majority shareholder in the venture in the next three years.
Commenting on the transaction, Bakrie Telecom CEO Anindya Bakrie said: ‘Both Bakrie Telecom and STI’s shareholders agreed to integrate the two business operations under one management in Bakrie Telecom. The new Bakrie Telecom aims to accelerate the penetration of true mobile convergence offerings for every customer in Indonesia.’ Telco veteran takes reins at Vodafone. Networking: Vittorio Colao, Canning Fok and Bill Morrow in Canberra yesterday. Photo: Penny Bradfield IT WAS in private conversations between Vodafone's global chief executive, Vittorio Colao, and his old colleague Bill Morrow that the decision was made to replace the chief executive of struggling carrier Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Mr Colao was unhappy with the Australian subsidiary - which lost $350 million and 554,000 customers last year - telling analysts last month he was ''not very pleased with the performance''.
He discussed this with US-based Mr Morrow, who was previously chief executive of Vodafone's UK and Japan operations and had years of experience running complex infrastructure projects. ''Vittorio and I have had a long relationship for over a decade,'' Mr Morrow told BusinessDay. Advertisement ''Every time I was in London, or he was out in the west coast of the United States, we would find an opportunity to get together.
Subscriber complaints add to pressure on Foxtel. Foxtel is concerned at subscriber complaints. Photo: Jim Rice Foxtel's new boss Richard Freudenstein has admitted the pay TV operator faces being trapped in a ''vicious circle of decline'' if it fails to improve its offering as competition in the media landscape intensifies. A worrying number of complaints about the frequency and type of ads and repeats of programs is among some of the key management concerns outlined in a series of internal documents seen by BusinessDay. They detail slowing subscriber numbers, a reduction in revenues for individual channels and a greater reliance on ads, all of which affect its ability to make compelling programs and ultimately erode its point of difference. Mr Freudenstein has made the unprecedented step of announcing Foxtel was giving away for free its Olympic channels to existing sports subscribers - who make up 80 per cent of its 1.66 million subscribers.
Advertisement to-air TV stations and a range of internet TV options. SingTel to transfer 500 workers to Huawei unit.
Decent phone prices for everyone: minister.