President calls for Chinese investment in telecom sector

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari here on Monday said Pakistan offered excellent investment and business opportunities and would welcome Chinese investment in all the sectors especially in introduction of the latest telecom technology.

A delegation of Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE) headed by Zhang RenJun, Senior Vice President called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House.

Zhang RenJun was accompanied by M. Luo PingFan, President South East Asia, Peng Aiguang, CEO ZTE Pakistan and Najeeb Sadiq, Executive Director ZTE.

Federal Ministers Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Senator A Rehman Malik, Syed Naveed Qamar and Dr. Asim were also present during the meeting besides other senior officials of the concerned departments.

Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar was also present.

Briefing about the meeting Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that Zhang RenJun briefed the President about his company's business in Pakistan in the telecom sector.

The President appreciated their interest in further expanding business in Pakistan reiterating that the Government would provide all possible facilitation to the foreign investors.

Zhang RenJun thanked the President for meeting. He also appreciated the government's support to them in their business pursuits.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2012

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Airtel 4G with ZTE: Business opportunities in TD-LTE in Indian telecom market - telecomlead.com

ZTE Headquarters (source : flickr .com) Telecom Lead India: 4G / LTE services will be launched by Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile operator, in Kolkata today. Industry has been debating about the business opportunities and why Reliance Industries is taking more time to zero in on the best technology and business plan for its BWA launch. Telecom Lead is publishing a whitepaper from ZTE, the LTE network provider for Airtel's 4G launch in Kolkata, to share the business opportunities of TD LTE.

Growth in mobile data traffic has brought new profit to mobile operators across the world. Statistics show that data revenue of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone and other mainstream operators has increased by an average of 30 percent. Therefore, much attention is now being focused on data and broadband services. Obtaining more spectrum resources and increasing spectrum efficiency has become of great importance.

Spectrum resources for Time Division Duplex (TDD) are abundant. 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz are the most common TD spectrum bands for TD-LTE, but most of these bands are not being used. TDD spectrum resources are available in many countries and available for many operators. Of the 300 operators who have TDD spectrum resources, 66 percent own 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz bands.

Promising Market Opportunities

TD-LTE is attracting leading operators around the world. Many of the top 500 telecom operators own a chunk of TDD spectrum and are vigorously pushing forward TD-LTE development.

China Mobile owns 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz TDD bands and is leading in the promotion of TD-LTE. After completing the fourth phase of its TD-SCDMA network construction, China Mobile will boast the world's largest 3G network with 220,000 TD base stations by Q1 2011. The operator will call for bids on the evolution of its TD-SCDMA networks in the first half of 2011. Its commercial TD-LTE network is expected to be deployed in one to two years.

Mainstream European operators Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, and O2 have all acquired TDD spectrum and are actively researching TD-LTE technologies and application models. Deutsche Telekom completed its trial TD-LTE network in the second half of 2010 and has started testing the network.

In June 2010, Qualcomm won India's 2.3GHz Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum auction for TDD development in four regions of the country. Qualcomm has promised to set up a joint venture to build an LTE network. This demonstrates that Qualcomm has TD-LTE in its strategic plan.

Mobile operators in the U.S. including AT&T, Verizon, and America Mobil have promised to support TD-LTE. Leading operators in Japan and Korea have also played an active role in promoting TD-LTE. Other operators with WiMAX, PHS (1900-1920MHz), and TD-SCDMA will also choose TD-LTE as their migration path.

TDD spectrum is easy to acquire, and there is less competitive pressure in acquiring it. The price of TDD spectrum in each country is much lower than that of FDD spectrum. Because FDD spectrum is very limited and expensive, more and more operators are considering TDD for feature-rich data services and hotspot area coverage.

Using time division technique, TD-LTE allows flexible timeslot allocation in the downlink and uplink. This meets both voice and asymmetric data needs and greatly increases spectrum efficiency. TD-LTE can share the same core network with an FDD system and can support flexible networking. It can serve as an independent network for hotspots and blind area coverage or as a supplement to the FDD system for data services. LD-LTE has promising and widespread applications.

Fast-Growing TD-LTE Industry

Driven by operators, standardization organizations, equipment vendors, and chipset makers around the world, the TD-LTE industry is growing rapidly. Members of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance include China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone Orange, T-Mobile, AT&T, as well as 29 mobile network and terminal suppliers including Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE. Together these companies are actively promoting standardization of TD-LTE. So far, 3GPP R9 specifications have been completed, and the standardization progress of TD-LTE has kept pace with that of LTE FDD. Testing of TD-LTE technology and networking organized by the LTE/SAE Trial Initiatives (LSTI) was first conducted by China Mobile and has produced favorable results.

The TD-LTE industry chain has been established and is growing fast. It comprises chipset providers, terminal providers, infrastructure equipment manufacturers, and testing instrument providers.

All chipset providers plan to launch 3G/LTE multimode chipsets in early 2011. The development of LTE chipsets drives the development of terminal products. Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, ZTE, and Shanghai Bell will unveil a number of LTE terminals in 2011. LTE TDD/FDD dual-mode terminals will be the mainstream offerings, and this will further promote the flexible deployment of TD-LTE.

Equipment manufacturers Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE, and Huawei have all developed TD-LTE series equipment that can be applied in different scenarios. These products have been tested in the TD-LTE trial networks of China Mobile and overseas operators. Presently, they support 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz bands and will support 1.9GHz and 2.1GHz bands in the future.

Test instrument manufacturer Anritsu has announced its MT8820C will support TD-LTE radio testing. Rohde & Schwarz and Anite also provide many types of testing and measuring equipment.

As the industry chain matures, commercial TD-LTE is just around the corner.

By ZTE

editor@telecomlead.com

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Research and Markets: mWomen: A Win-Win Opportunity for Mobile Operators - Global Telecom Insider Vol. 3, No 3, Edition 12 - Business Wire

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fb6b59/mwomen_a_winwin) has announced the addition of the "mWomen: A Win-Win Opportunity for Mobile Operators - Global Telecom Insider/Vol. 3, No 3, Edition 12" report to their offering.

“mWomen: A Win-Win Opportunity for Mobile Operators - Global Telecom Insider/Vol. 3, No 3, Edition 12”

Although there has been a notable uptick in mobile phone subscriptions around the world, statistics increasingly point to the fact that there are still a number of women without access to mobile phone technology.

In February 2010, the GSMA released a landmark report that found that at least 300m fewer women than men have a mobile phone subscription. This difference in mobile phone access and ownership has been referred to as the mobile phone gender gap, and a number of groups and organizations are now racing to bridge this divide.

The impact that mobile phone access and usage can have on women has never been greater. The proliferation of projects in the fields of mobile health, mobile education, mobile agriculture, mobile money/banking, mobile social networks and mobile innovation in general have all demonstrated that women in particular can benefit both directly and indirectly through time and cost savings, access to life-saving information, the ability to communicate with others (who may be at long distances), increases in access to business opportunities, the ability to perform monetary transactions, and even nurturing their ability to read and write.

Cumulatively, these benefits for women can help mobile network operators (MNOs) create a situation that is equal parts altruistic and lucrative. Pyramid Research believes that by supporting access to mobile phones, operators can help women leverage the information and tools that they need to assist them in the realization of their own personal and professional development goals. At the same time, MNOs can establish a broader customer base that could result in more mobile phone subscriptions for female end users and eventually generate more revenue for the industry.

In this Insider, we examine the inhibiting factors as well as the conditions that drive interest in mobile phone adoption by women around the globe. Next we highlight examples of the benefits that mobile phones have played a role in producing for women. Then a discussion follows of the potential gains that MNOs and governments will derive from a female citizenry with better and increased mobile phone access. We conclude with case studies of mobile women (mWomen) in action from the regions of Latin America, Africa & the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

Key Findings:

Providing women with access to mobile phones can present tangible opportunities for mobile network operators, governments and private vendors to support development goals. Direct investment in mWomen projects and programs should reward early supporters in the long run. Although there are a number of challenges such as gender relations, cost of use` and literacy that must be surmounted, the idea of increasing mobile phone adoption among women remains feasible given the varied interests that women have in accessing the technology. Advantages of the development of mWomen can include increased productivity, heightened feelings of personal safety, and even a reduction in maternal and infant mortality rates. As demonstrated through the case studies, the introduction of mobile phone access can have multiple levels of impact in different areas of the lives of the women and girls who have the opportunity to benefit from the technology.

Key Topics Covered:

mWOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A BREAKTHROUGH

A. What hurts and what helps: Mobile phone adoption by women worldwide

B. Perspectives on the benefits experienced by mWomen

C. When women win mobile access, MNOs and governments become winners, too

MARKET DETAIL

CASE STUDY: Palestine/mEmployment/Souktel

CASE STUDY: Tanzania and Kenya/mHealth and mMoney/Fistula Care project

CASE STUDY: India/mEntrepreneurship and mEducation/Hand in Hand Citizen Centres

CASE STUDY: Zimbabwe/ mBanking/Eco-Cash

CONCLUSIONS

Key findings

Recommendations

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fb6b59/mwomen_a_winwin

Source: Pyramid Research, Inc.

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