India publishes official 3G auction schedule

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that its long-awaited auction of 3G and WiMAX-capable Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum will begin on 14 January next year.

Ukraine president blocks 3G license auction

The president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, has moved to block a planned auction of a new 3G license in the country next month, claiming that releasing the new spectrum would jeopardise Ukraine's national security.

AT&T hints at end to exclusive iPhone deal

AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has hinted that the operator's exclusive deal to offer the iPhone in the US could soon be coming to an end - but was upbeat that the firm's smartphone portfolio would continue to prosper.

Who scores more LTE trials than others?

An Unstrung report provides insight into which vendors are enjoying early operator success with LTE trials, before lucrative commercial deals are awarded. Unstrung reveals that Chinese vendor Huawei says it will have more than 25 LTE trials as of the end of this year, whilst Alcatel-Lucent will have a total of 22 LTE trials underway by next year. The world's largest network infrastructure vendor, Ericsson, declined to give specific numbers, but said it has the largest number of trials. Nokia Siemens Networks told Unstrung it has four LTE deal references and a number of trials ongoing. Unstrung adds that ZTE has publicly announced trials with Hong Kong CSL and Telefonica, but ZTE did not provide further details prior to the report's publication. Motorola and NEC have scored an early commercial contract win at Japan's KDDI, although trial success was not reported.

Thailand confirms 3G prices; targets US$1.2B

Thailand's telecoms regulator has confirmed the reserve prices for its long-awaited 3G license auctions and predicted that the process will generate around US$1.2 billion. In line with earlier reports, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will start the auction at THB4.6 billion (US$138 million) for each of the three licences of 10MHz bandwidth and THB5.2 billion (US$156 million) for one license of 15MHz. The four licenses will be in the 2.1GHz 3G frequency and valid for 15 years. According to a Reuters report, prices will be announced on the NTC's website next week before a second round of public hearings on 12 November. The auction is scheduled to start in mid-December. "We should get about THB40 billion (US$1.2 billion) altogether from the bidding of the four licences," Prasert Apipunya, NTC's deputy-secretary general, told reporters yesterday.

Despite the developments, Reuters notes that some analysts and investors are worried that the process could still be derailed. Prasert admitted that the NTC still needs to consult with the government's legal agency over whether it has authority to hold the auction, a move that analysts say could bring it to a halt. The country's three largest mobile operators - AIS, DTAC and True Move - are all expected to bid for licenses, though the regulator stated that it also hoped the fourth license would be snapped up by a new market entrant. However, foreign investors looking to enter the market are required to form a joint-venture with a Thai company as current law limits foreign holdings in companies in the telecoms sector to 49 percent, the regulator said.

AT&T's Third-Quarter Highlights

S operator AT&T reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit today thanks to a strong showing in its mobile division, which was boosted by sales of Apple's iPhone.