MOBILE MONDAY NEWS ROUND uP

…MiPhone. Local Telecom grapevine. We heard that the reason we haven’t heard Carlos Slim’s new Jamaican acquisition MiPhone roar into the market as yet, it’s because they are still having coverage issues. You must remember that MiPhone’s coverage on it’s own was at best Grade C. They didn’t have much money. Hence they are still currently 3^rd in the market with the smallest subscriber base. So we hear they’re taking care of that coverage issue first before launching into the market. Plus with Mr Slim’s company, America Movil being given the rights to bring the IPhone to all his Latin American and Caribbean territories, I’ll be interesting to see how that plays out locally.

…Digicel. Additionally, Digicel WiMax, nope they’re not there yet, they are yet to sort out some other technical issues, even as they have already selected their laptop partner. We heard not until last quarter before we see them roll out residential WiMax.

…MOBILE PHONE USERS TOP 3.3 BILLION. The number of mobile phone users worldwide soared to over 3.3 billion by the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49 per cent, the International Telecommunications Union said in a report this week. Africa showed the strongest gains over the past two years and more than two thirds of all mobile subscribers were from developing countries by the end of 2007, the ITU said. India and China added 154 million and 143 million new subscribers respectively.

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