Page 94 - SAMENA Trends - Jan-Mar 2024

WHOLESALE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

WHOLESALE NEWS

Lifecell 5G in Roaming Available Now in 47 Countries

Lifecell subscribers have been able to use 5G mobile Internet iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max,
in roaming for almost a year. The operator provided this option iPhone 14. The smartphone is gaining popularity among Android
for lifecell roaming in 47 countries, if the smartphone supports users Galaxy A53 5G, which is used to connect to the 5G network.
this standard. Now in Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, In 2019, lifecell and Ericsson Ukraine deployed a demo segment
Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Greece, Denmark, Dominican of the fifth generation network and conducted a successful speed
Republic, Estonia, Israel, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, test, during which a peak data download throughput of 25.6 Gbps
Canada, Qatar, China, Cyprus, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein. , was achieved in the ultra-high frequency band of 28 GHz. In 2020,
Netherlands, Germany, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Oman, the operator rolled out a 5G test segment at its central office to
Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, explore the technology’s capabilities.
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, France. Sweden,
lifecell subscribers with 5G gadgets can take advantage of this
generation of communication. The list of countries where the new
communication standard will be available to lifecell subscribers is
constantly increasing, a detailed list can be found on the lifecell
website. Since May 2023, when 5G roaming became available
to lifecell subscribers, almost 200,000 people have used this
opportunity. The top 5 countries where the most lifecell subscribers
use 5G are Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain and
Turkey /strong>. The largest amount of GB per 5G subscriber in
Germany is about 14 GB, in Turkey this indicator is about 10 GB, in
the Netherlands – 9 GB. The rather high rates of mobile Internet
consumption in roaming are influenced by the possibility of using
tariff Internet from the lifecell promotion “Gigabytes without
borders”. The most popular devices on which lifecell subscribers
use 5G are Apple smartphones. Among them: iPhone 14 Pro Max,
iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12,

ACCC Inquiry Leads to Wholesale Telecoms Revisions

New telco rules are on its way following the Australian Competition services are accessed as well as how competition is protecting its
and Consumer Commission (ACCC) report reviewing its telecoms citizens. The ACCC has decided it will allow the currently declared
regulations. Launched in May 2023, the ACCC began a combined unconditioned local loop and line sharing services to expire on
public inquiry into whether nine wholesale telecoms services that 30th June 2024. “While these two legacy network access services
support the provision of broadband, voice and data transmission once enabled greater competition on Telstra’s fixed line network,
services should continue to be regulated. At present, telecoms the number of consumers and businesses using them is fast
services in Australia are typically unregulated unless the services approaching zero due to migration to networks such as the NBN,”
are declared. The decision to declare a service is based on the said Anna Brakey, commissioner at the ACCC. In addition, the
ACCC being satisfied that said declaration would be in the best regulator also found that other parts of Telstra’s fixed line network
interests of its citizens. The nine declared services included continue to show bottleneck and natural monopoly characteristics
in the inquiry were, domestic transmission capacity service, for voice and broadband services. This is particularly prevalent
wholesale line rental, local carriage service, wholesale ADSL in in regional and remote areas, as well as outside the NBN fixed
service, unconditioned local loop service, line sharing service, fixed line network. As a result, the ACCC will extend the declarations of
originating access service, fixed terminating access service and wholesale line rental, the local carriage service and the wholesale
domestic mobile terminating access service. As part of the inquiry, ADSL service for a further five years. “In the absence of alternative
the ACCC investigated how recent developments, including the services that can compete as close substitutes to these fixed line
completion of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and declining services, we decided that extending their declarations was in the
use of Telstra’s copper network, have changed how telecoms long-term interests of consumers. These services will promote

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