Logicbank Media

There are pros and cons for consumers in the change of Germanos’ ownership.But the biggest losers could be TIM Hellas’ customers and its current UK-US owners DESPITE recent bad publicity from some quarters of the Greek press, Cosmote’s acquisition of Germanos makes great business sense for the mobile giant and its parent OTE. The deal [...]

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COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS S.A. signed today an agreement with Mr. Panos Germanos, founder and major shareholder of Germanos S.A., and other shareholders to acquire 42% of the outstanding shares of Germanos S.A., at 19 Euro per share, subject to receiving the necessary approvals by the relevant regulatory authorities. Following this acquisition, COSMOTE intends to launch [...]

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Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications SA, Greece’s biggest wireless operator, will pay as much as 1.58 billion euros ($2 billion) to buy Germanos SA, the country’s biggest phone services retailer, to spur its expansion into eastern Europe. Cosmote will pay 19 euros a share to buy a 42 percent stake from Germanos’s main shareholder Panos Germanos and [...]

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South Korea is set to starting issuing notices of legal indictments via SMS in the new year.  Prosecutors feel that issuing notices of indictment via SMS would be more effective than via mail given the 75% of country’s population uses a mobile phone.  Reuters reports that Lee Young-pyo, an administrative official said: “Most people in [...]

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HELSINKI (Source: Reuters) – Siemens believes North American telecoms operators could shift to the GSM mobile standard from the rival CDMA system, a senior company executive said in an interview published on Thursday.  Christoph Catselitz, the head of Siemens AG’s mobile networks business told Finnish business daily Taloussanomat. “Latin America is already moving from CDMA [...]

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Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., which has 25 percent of the US market for wireless subscribers, has entered into an exclusive three year deal with HBO.  Cingular’s share of the market was a factor in HBO’s decision to grant the company a three year exclusive.  The subscription service is expected to launch within the next several weeks with HBO’s top rated shows such as the “Sopranos” along with content developed by HBO specifically for mobile phones.  Cingular will offer short clips,  of up to four minutes in duration, from HBO shows for adults and children.  Cingular executives indicated that two companies can expand the agreement to allow for full length shows on a pay per view basis.  Initially, the content will play on phones by LG Electronics and Samsung.  Reuters reports that the deal’s exclusivity is will not prevent HBO from providing content to Apple’s iTunes Video service.  HBO’s Chief Executive, Chris Albrecht, indicated that a HBO hoped to enter into an agreement with Apple in the future.

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Google’s Gmail is now mobile enabled. Users can now access the service through (almost) any web-enabled mobile phone through a variety of mobile browsers. Most of the service’s key features are available and have been optimized for the smaller format of mobile phone screens. From Gmail Mobile’s news release: Now you can access your Gmail [...]

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Reports suggest that Sprint Nextel is set to offer full length movie downloads to its mobile phone subscribers through a subscription service.  Analysts suggested that the idea will likely face consumer resistant due to limited demand for small-screen content and problems which plaque the present generation of mobile video devices according to TechNewsWorld.  Sprint, which already allows users to watch live TV on the mobile phones through Sprint Power Vision, will market older Hollywood films through the a service provided in conjunction with MSpot which is launching its mobile movie service shortly.  Sprint is expected to price its service at $7 USD per month.  Its questionable whether full length feature films will find widespread acceptance amongst smaller screen devices.  The market has seen numerous high profile devices optimized for video launch this year, including Apple’s iPod Video and Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP).  Apple’s iTunes has signed recent deals with NBC-Universal and Disney/ABC which allow for downloads of music videos as well as current and older TV programming.  The recent success of the iPod video and its poor battery life has highlighted one of the issues which adversely affect mobile video devices to date.  Battery life is of even greater importance in the mobile phone sector and may make watching a full length movie a non-starter.  While Sprint’s forthcoming mobile devices will allow for  downloads of full-length feature films the problems with battery life remain.  The market is still seeking for an elusive mix of compelling content, film length, purchase price, and device usability in order for mobile video to gain mainstream acceptable.  We would argue that inexpensive, compelling, short films, produced for the mobile medium with the commuter in mind, would stand the greatest chance of success.

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