Orange UK

Rumour Mill: Another UK network sharing deal on the cards?

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:26:25 -0500

UK media reports are claiming Vodafone and Orange are mulling a network sharing partnership. The two companies already share the Radio Access Network (RAN) elements of their two networks so any agreement would build on existing arrangements. It is understood the two operators would agree to share the costs of engineering, maintenance and technology upgrades, bringing each of them savings estimated at around US$1.45 billion a year.

A partnership agreement is made simpler by the fact Vodafone and Orange have signed agreements with UK landline operator BT to act as its backhaul partner for the next five years. There are strong precedents for such arrangements. T-Mobile UK and 3 UK have had a RAN sharing partnership for over a year and Vodafone shares its passive network infrastructure in Italy with TIM.

For more:
- go to Cellular News and Moconews

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Femtocells: Orange, Starhub and Chunghwa make the pace

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:45:53 -0500

The commercial deployment of femtocells has increased several notches with announcements from three mobile operators that they plan to use femtocells to improve 3G coverage. However, each operator is approaching the deployment of the technology in a different manner.

Firstly, as reported by Unstrung, Orange UK and Orange France plan to launch an enterprise femtocell service next year, having already selected Huawei and NEC as suppliers. According to Robert Swift, head of voice marketing at Orange's enterprise line of business, the service will be targeted at SMEs and large corporate customers with no plans for a residential femtocell service. Downplaying the capabilities of the technology, Swift said that Orange did not want to put any commercial offer behind the service because not everyone needs it. "We don't want to give the impression that you need a femtocell to enjoy these 3G services."

Starhub in Singapore says that its Home Zone service will be the first commercial 3G femtocell network in the world, and was designed to enable subscribers to access high-speed data services indoors such as streaming video, IPTV, video conferencing and mobile broadband.

Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan is claiming that its femtocell network will be the first deployed in the country with the aim to improve 3G coverage. The operator will be using femtocell equipment developed by Alcatel-Lucent which incorporates the company's service routers and Home Device Manager from Motive, now part of Alcatel-Lucent. The company will also be responsible for the deployment, project management and end-to-end network integration for the project.

For more:
- go to Unstrung, MIS Asia and Euronext

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Orange goes ZAP, and launches its ad-supported video service

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:27:56 -0400

A video magazine, featuring clips from a range of well-known entertainment brands, has been launched by Orange UK. The new ZAP service will reside on the company's World portal and can be accessed by subscribers with video-enabled 2G or 3G handsets. The content is being provided by the major U.K. TV broadcasters including ITV, Sky, BBC Worldwide and ITN and will be free of charge, in exchange for watching advertising before the customer's chosen video.

Mobile ad outfit Rhythm NewMedia will be selling and serving the ads on the service, and has already signed up advertisers such as Twentieth Century Fox, Barclaycard, Cisco, Nissan and Paramount. Orange has already conducted a number of ad-supported video trials, but ZAP is the first to be offered for free across the company's U.K. network.

For more on this story:
- go to Brand Republic, Mobile Entertainment and Mobile News

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