From this summer the cooperation will see Vodafone Germany and Huawei not only demonstrate LTE’ s ability to provide broadband coverage to rural and urban areas, effectively bridging the digital divide between those areas of Germany, but also to prove its compatibility with adjacent technologies such as Digital TV and Digital Radio. The test will be based on Huawei’ s end-to-end solutions and both parties will form a joint working group for conducting the test.

Hartmut Kremling, CTO of Vodafone Germany said: ‘Vodafone is an active player in bringing leading broadband services to Germany. By cooperating with local telecoms authorities, utilising the rich LTE experiences from Vodafone Germany and Huawei, we are confident that the test will be carried out successfully.’

Vincent Pang, Vice President and Head of Huawei Vodafone Business Unit said: “We are very pleased that Vodafone Germany chose Huawei as the partner for this test, which is another milestone for the collaboration between our two companies. Huawei will leverage its cutting edge LTE technologies to ensure Vodafone Germany remains ahead of the market as well as help it to achieve sustainable growth in the future.”

Net sales $666 million; 18.5% sequential increase

ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), reported financial results for the second quarter 2009.
 
President and CEO, Alain Dutheil, commented: “During the second quarter our sales performed above normal seasonal patterns. This was due to the destocking phase in the channels being over, to the pick-up of demand in China, and to our steady execution on our commitments towards our customers.
 
We have kept a strong focus on our restructuring and realignment plans. The $250 million cost synergies program, defined by ST-NXP Wireless in the third quarter 2008, is expected to be completed by year-end according to schedule. The new restructuring plan of $230 million cost synergies, announced at the end of April, has been initiated and is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2010.
 
Today we have also announced our new organization, aligned to our product strategy, to further strengthen our technological leadership and complete the integration.”

Financial results based on US GAAP
 
Net sales in the second quarter were higher than normal seasonal patterns and showed a progress of 18.5% compared to first quarter 2009 pro-forma sales. This was mainly due to the higher demand in China – driven by TD-SCDMA- and in the rest of Asia-Pacific and to the alignment of inventory to demand levels across the handset supply chain.
 
The $165 million operating loss, excluding amortization of acquisition-related intangibles and restructuring charges, compares to a $149 million operating loss in the first quarter 2009 pro-forma and it includes approximately $20 million of non-recurring items linked to the start-up of the company.
 
Inventory declined sequentially by $109 million reaching $325 million at the end of the second quarter 2009, reflecting a tight control of the supply chain.
 
Net cash was $326 million at the end of second quarter 2009.

Update on restructuring plans

The $250 million cost synergies program defined by ST-NXP Wireless in the third quarter 2008 is in line with plans. The program envisaged a workforce reduction of 500 worldwide.
 
The $230 million restructuring plan announced on April 29 has been initiated. The associated restructuring charges were $35 million for the second quarter 2009. The plan envisages a reduction in workforce of 1,200 worldwide, upon completion of negotiations and consultations with Work Councils and employee representatives that have already started in all affected sites and organizations.
 
Market evolution

“While more normal seasonal market trends are likely to be confirmed in the next quarter, primarily driven by Asia, including China, the business environment remains uncertain in the medium term,” said Alain Dutheil. “We will continue to drive the execution of our realignment and restructuring plans with a strong focus on providing our customers with solutions spanning across all existing and next-generation access technologies.”
 
Q2 2009 highlights – products, technology and wins

In May, ST-Ericsson announced a strategic partnership with China Mobile to drive development of both high-end and low-cost handsets, based on 3G standard TD-SCDMA. Within this agreement, ST-Ericsson will also support four of its customers to commercialize their mobile phones during 2009-2010.
 
In June, the company strengthened its partnership with Samsung by providing an innovative platform for its first high-end TD-SCDMA/EDGE device for China’s mobile broadband market.  
 
The company also announced mass production of its highly integrated RF transceiver solution to reduce cost and system footprint in 3G handsets. ST-Ericsson’s Aero4228 solution eliminates the need for expensive external filter components typically required to complete today’s mobile handset designs.

“The trends from the first quarter of 2009 continued into this quarter, with a challenging business environment also affecting the telecom sector. In spite of pressure on the top line development our operations are improving their performance, resulting in a record high operating cash flow. At the end of the quarter, we reached a total of 168 million mobile subscriptions,“ said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor.

Strong growth and high margins

“Grameenphone in Bangladesh and Mobile Norway are delivering a particularly strong quarter, both in terms of revenue growth and margins. We are also happy to see that Telenor Pakistan this quarter reached its highest margins so far. During this quarter the margins and market positions in CEE remained strong and Kyivstar distributed dividends for 2006 and 2007. The Telenor portion amounted to NOK 2.1 billion,” Baksaas said.

The Telenor brand launched in Denmark

“In June the Telenor brand was successfully launched in the Danish market. The rebranding will strengthen Telenor Denmark’s ability to provide unified products and services, as well as creating a stronger company identity. In Sweden we continue to focus on improving efficiency. In addition to initiatives in sales and distribution channels, downsizing of staff has been announced and will be completed during the second half of 2009,” Baksaas said.

Preparing for launch in India

“In India we are building our operation and preparing for launch. Key agreements are now in place, including GSM equipment and IT outsourcing, in addition to infrastructure sharing. We plan to launch services in five circles in the fourth quarter. The current roll-out plan is embedded in our updated outlook for 2009,” Baksaas said.

New hearing in Siberia

“Our shares in VimpelCom are under arrest since 11 March 2009 related to the unfounded Farimex case. Telenor’s appeal of previous rulings is scheduled to be heard in the Federal Court of Tyumen 30 September 2009,” Baksaas said.

Revenues remain under pressure

“For the rest of the year we expect revenues to remain under pressure. We will continue to scale our business activities accordingly, while delivering a strong operating cash flow and sustaining our market positions,” Baksaas said.

O2 joins forces with NatWest to breathe new life into money management

O2 has partnered with NatWest to make its debut in the personal finance market with the launch of O2 Money, a new business within O2 that will seek to advance the increasing synergies between mobile and money. The first products from O2 Money, supported by NatWest, are two cash cards, designed to give people greater control of their money.

The O2 Money cash cards are two completely Fee Free pre-paid Visa cards, which will help people better manage their spending money by never going overdrawn and with real-time balance updates sent to their mobile phone. They combine a clear, simple and transparent approach to banking with all the benefits of mobile – always with you and immediate. The cards are ideally suited to help O2 customers in the current economic climate and will be available by the end of August.

“The strength of our brand and relationship with our customers gives us the ideal opportunity to take O2 into a completely new market,” said Ronan Dunne, O2’s UK Chief Executive. “By bringing a fresh, transparent and customer-focused approach to pre-paid cards, we plan to drive this market and take a significant share. In partnership with NatWest, O2 Money is delivering new ways of helping our customers better connect with their money.”

Helen Page, Managing Director of Marketing and Innovation at NatWest, said: “In the current climate, NatWest is more committed than ever to developing innovative solutions to help customers connect with their finances. Aside from general mobile banking services such as text alerts, NatWest was the first bank to offer customers the opportunity to activate their debit card from their mobile phone, as well as providing a text alert service to keep them updated during every stage of their mortgage application. We believe these groundbreaking O2 Money cards will really raise the bar, in terms of the added value customers will get from the interaction with their mobile phone.”

The two pre-pay cards are powered through a partnership with NatWest and are called Cash Manager and Load & Go. They will allow people to ring-fence their disposable income and never spend more than has been loaded onto the card. They can be used almost anywhere that accepts Visa within the UK and abroad, as well as online, and will only be available to O2 customers.

Ronan Dunne continued, “O2 has a strong and successful track record of innovation and O2 Money will represent a launchpad into a wide range of mobile banking services. We believe that we are at the start of a journey towards the coming together of phone and wallet and we intend, through O2 Money, to be at the forefront of this trend. This launch represents an important step towards O2 becoming a leading service provider with mobile at its core.”

Helen Page continued. “More people than ever are using their mobile phones as a means of managing their money and NatWest is always looking at new ways of incorporating the mobile phone into our services, to ensure our customers can interact with us as easily as possible. These cash cards, delivered in partnership with O2, are the first step on the road towards a more advanced mobile banking service, and the closer alignment between mobile phones and payment technology.”

SFR and Nokia Siemens Networks pioneer all-IP backhaul technology for next-generation mobile network experience

Subscribers of SFR, France’s leading communications service provider, will soon enjoy real time multimedia applications, such as virtual office. Earlier this month SFR in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks became the first to showcase such applications in France on a live 3G network with a 14 Mbps mobile broadband connection.

SFR has selected a radio solution from Nokia Siemens Networks which will enable the migration of SFR’s mobile backhaul network to all IP (Internet Protocol), enabling the operator to increase capacity while keeping costs under control.

“SFR strives to bring leading edge innovation and most attractive services to its broadband customers. This demonstration with Nokia-Siemens Networks confirms that our mobile network is ready to offer a new suite of advanced services thanks to an all IP mobile access network which combines high performance and high quality, thus transforming the customer experience”, said Pierre-Alain Allemand, General Manager Networks of SFR. “Nokia Siemens Networks IP mobile access solutions allow us to bring more value to our customers while optimizing our operation costs.”

Nokia Siemens Networks’ integrated IP radio access solution is a part of the Flexi Base Station platform, which supports High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and can help operators easily migrate their mobile backhaul to IP using software. This solution is also compatible with SFR’s fixed broadband access technologies. Since it supports high bandwidth and low latency, it enables operators to offer a real-time multimedia experience at reduced costs.

“As mobile operators prepare their networks for a wave of new innovative broadband data services, they realize that the efficient integration of the mobile network with the internet protocol is essential for success,” said Hervé Suquet, Head of Customer Team SFR, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Native IP support across the mobile network is the ideal way of guaranteeing this integration with extreme network efficiency and superior customer experience. By offering IP capabilities integrated into our Flexi Base Stations we offer SFR an extremely straight forward and cost effective way to allow this IP migration”

Nokia Siemens Networks is the global leader in the deployment of high-speed mobile broadband networks supplying WCDMA/HSPA networks to more than 150 customers worldwide. Over half of the world’s 300 million WCDMA/HSPA subscribers are connected by Nokia Siemens Networks.

The EUR 250 million facility will provide financial support for R&D in Europe which will build on the success of Nokia Siemens Networks’ multiradio technology platform. Nokia Siemens Networks’ award-winning Flexi Multiradio Base Station allows communications service providers (CSPs) to use a single base station platform to support several technologies, including GSM, WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ and Long Term Evolution (LTE} – all running concurrently in a single unit.
 
“Nokia Siemens Networks has some of Europe’s most talented and innovative developers working on radio access network products that are setting standards across the industry and we are delighted that the value of that work has been recognized by the EIB with this facility,” said Luca Maestri, Chief Financial Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks.
 
EIB Vice-President Eva Srejber said: “The EIB attaches particular importance to the development of a knowledge-based economy in the Union, which assures a long-term growth of European economies. We are happy to assist such promising initiatives.”
 
The development of a multimode platform allows CSPs a highly cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable roll-out of mobile broadband telecommunication services, as today’s technology deployments can support future requirements through simple upgrades. Multimode Radio Access Equipment is also a key requirement for developments in the field of mobile telecommunications, the so-called frequency re-farming. Frequency re-farming relates to the use of new technologies in GSM frequencies, as UMTS today and LTE in the future. Regulatory steps are being undertaken to allow this in the near future. Nokia Siemens Networks’ European Radio R&D is carried out in Finland, Germany, Poland and Italy.

Nordea is the largest bank in the Nordic region. It is also Norway’s second largest bank with approximately 3,500 employees in Norway. The agreement Nordea has entered into with Telenor is worth approximately NOK 30 million per year and runs for three years. Nordea chose Telenor because of its positive experience with Telenor’s previous telephony services and a fully integrated solution for fixed-line and mobile telephony which will help reduce the bank’s overall telephony costs and increase availability. Telenor will supply new exchanges with a switchboard support system and fixed-line and mobile telephony. The new solution will be supplied, tested and rolled out in autumn 2009.

An important step for Nordea is the replacement of its DECT wireless telephones with the flexible ProffNett solution for mobile telephony. The new solution also allows Unified Communication solutions so that Nordea can gradually start to use the “future’s branch offices”. The agreement allows for cooperation on this point and other innovative solutions to support Nordea’s business processes.

“Telenor appreciates the trust Nordea has demonstrated by handing over the supply and operation of such a business-critical system to Telenor,” says Ragnar Kårhus, head of Telenor in Norway.

“Nordea is extremely pleased with this cooperation on the development of a technically and commercially better telephony solution for the Norwegian part of the bank’s operations,” says Gunn Wærsted, Managing Director of Nordea in Norway.