China Mobile (CHL), the world’s largest wireless carrier by subscriber, has revealed its plan to commence the trial run of its 4G network during World Expo 2010 to be held in Shanghai from May 1 to Oct 31, 2010. The company’s 4G service is based on the TD-LTE (Time Division Duplex Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband technology. Roughly 200 participants and 70 million visitors are expected to assemble at the Expo.   China Mobile has recently selected Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) for the responsibilities of design, construction, installation and integration of communication infrastructure to facilitate the 4G network trial. The TD-LTE network will provide advanced wireless services (including high-definition TV and ultra-fast broadband Internet access) to the visitors at the exposition.   The three major Chinese telecom operators China Mobile, China Unicom (CHU) and China Telecom (CHA) are investing heavily in Shanghai to improve the city’s network

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 12, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Telefonica (TEF), Deutsche Telekom (DT), France Telecom (FTE) and Verizon (VZ).

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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Vodafone Profit Leaps, Lifts Savings

Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year

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Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year ago, driven by favorable exchange rate movements and reduced tax. Adjusted earnings exclude one-time items such as impairment losses. Group Revenue & EBITDA The telecom giant reported consolidated revenues of £21.8 billion (US$34.8 billion) for the period, representing a 9.3% year over year growth. Favorable exchange rate (euro-sterling) swings and net impact of merger and acquisition initiatives contributed to this growth. Excluding these impacts (organic basis), revenue declined 3% year over year. Group service revenue declined 2.6% year over year on an organic basis to £20.5 billion (US$32.7 billion), primarily due to weaker contributions from European markets as recessionary conditions curbed demand ...

AT&T Inc. (T) announced third-quarter 2009 results, with reported earnings per share of 54 cents beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents while declining from 55 cents reported a year ago. Net income fell 1.2% year over year to $3.2 billion on account of lower revenue. The results were highlighted by growth across wireless and U-verse video businesses. The second largest wireless carrier reported consolidated revenue of $30.9 billion for the quarter, down 1.6% year over year, largely due to lower wireline voice, legacy data and print advertising revenue, which offset growth in wireless and wireline data services. AT&T registered a net gain of 2 million wireless subscribers in the third quarter to reach 81.6 million total subscribers in service, up 9% year over year, driven by strong iPhone activations. This represents the largest third quarter addition in the company’s history. Retail postpaid additions for ...

Qwest Communications (Q) has released its capital expenditure (CapEx) guidance for 2010. The local and long-distance telephone service provider expects its CapEX to remain at par with the estimated 2009 level of $1.7 billion.      Qwest continues to invest in building necessary infrastructure to boost network capacity and availability. Historically, the company has allocated a major portion of the overall CapEx in deploying additional fiber-to-the-node (“FTTN") capacity to increase the performance of its broadband network. Moving forward, Qwest plans to increase spending on deployment of fiber optic cable to support wireless services.   The company recently introduced a new fiber-based Ethernet backhaul wholesale service for wireless operators. The service (called Qwest Mobile Ethernet Backhaul) leverages Qwest’s FTTN network to extend fiber connections to cellular sites. This will enable wireless operators to upgrade their existing copper-based wireless backhaul networks to faster fiber optic connections, which will expand capacity ...

Sprint Nextel (S), the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, announced the acquisition of its wireless affiliate iPCS Inc. (IPCS), which is expected to end the long legal battle between the two entities. Based in Schaumburg, Illinois, iPCS exclusively markets wireless services under the Sprint brand across 81 markets in several Midwestern states   The deal represents the latest in a series of acquisitions of its affiliates by Sprint. Acquisition of iPCS leaves just two remaining affiliates (out of the original ten), Swiftel and Shentel. Both of them are small privately-held operators with limited subscriber base.   Under the agreement terms, Sprint will commence a cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of iPCS Inc for $24 per share, representing a 34% premium to iPCS’s closing price on Oct 16. Sprint will make a cash payment of approximately $426 million for the acquisition, and will assume $405 million ...

China Telecom (CHA), the largest Chinese fixed-line operator, has successfully tested Alcatel-Lucent’s (ALU) multi-carrier EV-DO (a 3G technology) wireless network based on the Revision B (Rev B) standard. The Chinese operator’s subsidiary Shanghai Telecom has reportedly installed the multi-carrier EV-DO solution, which significantly enhances network throughput and reduces data latency (using multiple carriers) to meet increasing customer demand for high-bandwidth applications.   The multi-carrier EV-DO Rev B network, which represents an upgrade from EV-DO Rev A, has demonstrated highly encouraging throughput levels in the lab test with peak download speeds reaching up to 9.3 megabits per second (Mbps). This will effectively enhance customer experience who subscribe to high-bandwidth wireless services including Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), high definition video streaming and other multimedia applications.    Leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s network infrastructure support, Shanghai Telecom became the first Chinese carrier to commercially launch a CDMA EV-DO network in China in March ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 13, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: AT&T (T), Sprint Nextel (S), Deutsche Telecom (DT), MetroPCS (PCS) and Leap Wireless (LEAP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

AT&T Unveils Pre-Paid Plan

AT&T (T) has introduced a new unlimited monthly calling plan for the prepaid wireless market. Starting today, customers subscribing to the company prepaid wireless services receive unlimited voice calls, instant messaging as well as text, picture and video messaging for just $60 a month. However,

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AT&T (T) has introduced a new unlimited monthly calling plan for the prepaid wireless market. Starting today, customers subscribing to the company prepaid wireless services receive unlimited voice calls, instant messaging as well as text, picture and video messaging for just $60 a month. However, the plan does not cover iPhone users. Apart from the U.S., the new unlimited plan covers Mexico, Canada and over 100 countries worldwide. Roaming within the U.S. is free of cost. This prepaid rate plan is about 50% lower than the company’s regular postpaid unlimited (voice and text) service plan. AT&T offers its prepaid services under the "GoPhone" brand, which does not require the customer to sign long-term contracts and keep a minimum deposit. While the company remains a dominant player in the postpaid market (representing 86% of the company’s total net customer additions), it is struggling to retain customers in ...

American Tower Corp. (AMT) has geared up to expand its footprint in the emerging market of India. The tower sector in this country is undergoing a wave of consolidation. Smaller players are looking at mergers or complete sell-out to large global tower operators since they lack the wherewithal to take on their large rivals. American Tower has renewed its offer and started fresh negotiations to buy a majority stake in Essar Telecom Infrastructure Ltd, the second largest independent wireless tower operator in India. Industry sources indicate that American Tower has offered a price of $450 million for 4,000 towers of Essar Telecom.  Last May, American Tower acquired more than 1,700 towers of XCEL Telecom Pvt Ltd in India. Prior to this acquisition, American Tower had entered a build-to-suit agreement with a Tier1 wireless carrier in India to construct 200 tower sites. The acquisition increases the total number ...