GSMail News May 5, 1998
### Ericsson "Free Phone" ###
Sweden (gsmag) - As this newsletter reported earlier, older Ericsson
telephones were romored to be usable for placing free calls with
prepaid cards. The mechanism used in this procedure, according to
reports from a number of readers from the Czech Republic and Romania
was based upon the advice of charge feature apprearing in prepaid solution,
and the abortion of some older Ericsson models to communicate with the
SIM-card to decrement remaining air time on SIM.
In the meantime, other authors on GSMag's discussion forum WWW-board have
started hinting at additional security measures, obviously taken by
Norwegian operator Telenor Mobil charging users through hot billing
procedures in case of AoC fraud attempts.
In a coming edition of GSMail, some comments by our readers will be
forwarded.
### GSM1800 News (contributed by Y. Pursun) ###
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From: YANKI PURSUN (e-mail address known to GSMag)
Subject: GSM-1800 News
Existing networks
- Shanghai GSM1800s commercial will be at the end of the 1st half of 1998.
- Denmark (gsmag) - Telia and France Telecom were both awarded GSM 1800
licenses, while existing network operators Tele Danmark and Sonofon were
both awarded GSM 1800 licenses on top of GSM 900 networks.
- Finnet covers Rauma and Telia covers Turku this way.
- GSM1800 in Italia: TIM in Roma and omnitel Milano
- Nokia has been given a contract by Connect Austria for a turnkey solution
to start delivering a GSM1800 network there before the end of the year.
They plan to cover 95% of the population by 2001. Start this summer.
- Austrian mobilkom is still fighting for GSM 1800 frequencies.
- Norway (gsmag) - Only one week after definitive allocation of its GSM
1800 license, Norway's Telenor has taken its first GSM 1800 base station
into service on top of its corporate HQ in Oslo's Universitetsgata, on
March 20.
- Now we test the system. Probably, GSM-1800's commercial start will be in
March 1998. E-Plus roaming in April. Start coverage of all cities with more
than 250.000 inhabitants: (Warszawa, Trójmiasto, aglomeracja Katowicka,
Kraków, Poznań, Łódz, Lublin, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Wroclaw).
http://www.centertel.pl/dcs/okno_c.html
- SWISSCOM GSM-1800 is covering Basel (May 1997), Bern (September 97),
Geneva (October 95) and Zurich (July 97). Im 1. Semester 1998 folgen die
Hauptstadt Bern (endlich), Lausanne, Luzern und St. Gallen.
- NEWS: http://www.goldentelecom.com E-Plus started roaming with Ukrainian
Golden Telecom mid-March 98. "As far as expanding to other regions is
concerned, the regulatory and economic environment here has made us very
cautious about aggressively expanding elsewhere. We therefore focus on
providing the highest quality digital network available to Kiev and the
immediate surrounding area where the majority of cellular customers are
concentrated. Beware, though, that none of the GSM900 operators is able to
provide reliable service at this time because of rather limited capacity."
E-Plus Roaming GSM-1800
- Greek Cosmote in April, Sweden in May, austrian connect in July
E-Plus Roaming GSM-900
- GSM-900 Azerbaijan Azercell and Indonesia mid May 1998
Inmarsat in Sep. 98
still no E-Plus info on roaming in China, Cyprus (1800), Mozambique (1800),
Norway (1800), St. Petersburg (900), Taiwan (1800), Uzbekistan (900)
Licences & Trial Networks
- Applications closed (13 March 1998) - 4 GSM-1800 licences will be
auctioned, two each metropolitan (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and
Perth) and regional (including Canberra, Darwin and Hobart, and populated
rural areas of Australia)
- Nokia supplied equipment for a trial GSM-1800 net work in Beijing, China.
Ericcson supplied the operators of the GSM-1800 nets in Guangdong,
Heilongjiang and Shanghai (operational in September 1997) provinces.
Motorola deployed equipment to Fujian province.
- GSM1800 is planned to launch by Estonian Mobile Telephone this year
(Ericsson equipment). Roaming business seems interesting. NEWS
- FT itineris in TLS 20 km radius, trial only - In Frankreich gibt es jetzt
ein 2. GSM 1800 Netz, betrieben von France Telecom. [Benjamin Göbel]
Bouyguestelecom has GSM1800 until 1999 exclusively.
- In HK Ericsson Hutchinson PCC GSM in 1998
- Hungary: The call for bids for service provision is expected to be
launched about July 1998. The possible start of service provisiion or
network building is about January 1999 or later.
- 16 licences will be auctioned in Indonesia.
- GSM900/1800-Lizenz in Irland wird im Juni vergeben. Innerhalb von 2
Jahren ist 1/3 der Bevölkerung per 1800 zu versorgen.
- Die D. Telekom bewirbt sich mit der (noch) staatlichen STET um die 3.
Mobilfunklizenz in Italien (GSM 1800). Auktion spätestens 31.5.98.
- Swedish Millicom will start TANGO in May 98 as the second network (GSM
900/1800) in Luxembourg. As a compensation state-owned LUXPTT got also
GSM1800 frequencies.
- The Netherlands (feles/gsmag) - - 27.2.1998 - Joint venture Federa (DT &
FT & others) has won a national GSM 1800 license in the Netherlands. Danish
Ameritech-owned Tele-Danmark, acquired
a big share of the 16 regional licenses awarded for GSM 1800, at a
significantly lower price. Tele Danmark will
attempt to unite the regional coverages into a national network together
with Belgacom, another Ameritech-affiliate.
Another consortium, led by BT-owned Telfort, was the third bidder, having
been awarded a national license. & Telfort will start by end of 1998.
- Motorola will build Portugals first multi band network. Main Road
telecomunicacoes will start service in (latest 20 of) August 98. Metropoles
will be covered by GSM1800, the rest of the country by GSM900.
- The Luxembourg based MILLICOM and the UNEXIM-MFK group have formed a
joint venture, Telekom XXI, hoping to build a DCS-1800 cellular telephone
system in ST. PETERSBURG and LENINGRAD OBLAST. Unexim was the recent winner
of the Svyazinvest auction buying 25% of the company and gaining access to
government licences. The venture won the approval of the regional
governments by giving them each 7.5% of the shares in the new company.
VYMPELKOM spent $135 million building a similar system in MOSCOW, but the
new venture is likely to be more expensive because it will include the
oblast as well. The license is expected to be granted soon.
(Kommersant-Daily, 19 December) IEWS RRR - Jan. 08, 98
- A group including British Telecom and Japan's Nippon Telegraph &
Telephone have won the right to operate a telephone company and a mobile
phone service when Singapore's monopoly market opens to competition in
2000. GTE, along with two Singapore partners, won the other mobile license
offered. Singapore Telecom, which is 89% government-owned, now has a
monopoly on basic phone services, and shares the mobile phone market with a
private company, Mobile One.
- Spanish AirTel received a GSM-1800 licence. May be they run it at the end
of 1999.
- On 20.04.98 two swiss licences has been be auctioned. Diax has won the
GSM900 licence, Orange Comm. (VIAG) the GSM1800 licence. Orange will start
early 1999.
- The two Turkish GSM-1800 licences will be tendered in 1998 after the
GSM-900 licences have been transfered (27.04.98) to the operators Turkcell
and Telsim. Still no date available and some trouble. Many companies are
interested.
"COSCOM" Joint Venture was the the first in the Central Asian region to act
as a GSM-900 operator in August, 1997. At present we are conducting
negotiations on roaming with European and Asian countries. We cover
Tashkent, Samarkand and Chirchik in [Uzbekistan]. Coscom now has roaming
agreement with Beeline, MTS and Orange.
UMC will start GSM900 in Simferopol and Yalta June 05, 98. At present
Crimea and other parts of Ukraine are covered by UMCs NMT450i. There are
around 3.500 subscribers in Crimeas 2.100.000 population.
Best regards
Yanki
********
GSM-1800 networks at stock exchanges:
Bouygues (France) - Paris
Orange (UK) - London
Vimpel (Moscow) - Berlin, Dusseldorf, Moscow, New York, Stuttgart
RWE, VIAG, VEBA (Germany) - Frankfurt
Alcatel: Russia, Uzbekistan (900-Coscom)
Ericsson: China, Estonia, Russia (900), Taiwan, Uzbekistan (900-Daewoo)
Motorola: China, Ukraine
Nokia: Austria, China, Greece, Uzbekistan (900-Uzmacom)
The coverage of new generation MiniLinks is 50 - 60 km on average.
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+++ End of GSMail Letter to the Editor May 5, 1998 +++