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New Billing Options
After successfully providing the billion option to postpaid customers,
Muscat, Oman-based Nawras, a Qtel Group company, is offering its popular “stop the clock” promotion to all prepaid mobile customers. Under the program, customers get three minutes at the regular tariff rate, and the rest of the hour free. Customers dial *141# to select 'tariff options' followed by 'bundle services' and then choosing “stop the clock,” which provides registration to the service for a full month at only 1 Rial. The experimental offer runs through Aug. 25.
While Nawras is offering the “stop the clock” program on an experimental basis, Windstream Communications, Little Rock, Ark., unveiled its lifetime price guarantee for a package that includes high-definition digital TV from DISH Network, high-speed Internet and unlimited nationwide calling, in direct
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The lingering question is how Windstream can promise “lifetime” pricing when the cost of content continues to rise. |
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More than ninety percent of respondents believe that new models will be required in the connected world, with fifty percent stating that partnerships are critical.
In emerging markets smartphone adoption and advanced services will remain a growth driver for the next five years as networks and infrastructure evolve. So some form of outsourcing will be required and improved network management is essential: Two-thirds of respondents believe they need to modernize their current operational environments and networks in order to support the demands of the connected
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contrast to the end of the “all-you-can-eat plan” and tiered pricing for new subscribers that AT&T had announced two weeks earlier. The lingering question is how Windstream can promise “lifetime” pricing when the cost of content continues to rise. The answer could be moving some DISH programming from the basic subscription to premium/additional fee content as prices rise.
Emerging Market Growth Forecast
A Frost & Sullivan survey conducted on behalf of Amdocs found that service providers in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe anticipate that over the next five years the introduction of new services will drive subscriber growth, and that partnerships with Internet players and device manufacturers will emerge, alongside the evolution of new revenue models. Service providers' roles will evolve: Two thirds of survey participants said they would assume the role of "service enabler" in the connected world, while the remaining third stated that they will become an "end-to-end experience provider", expanding their role beyond basic connectivity, providing services such as healthcare, government support, education and mobile payments. Additionally, consumer desire for connectivity and improvements in devices and network capabilities will drive new business models and partnerships.
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world, with 60 percent citing outsourcing as an appropriate strategy for network services and application management.
A Birth and a Death
Apple and Microsoft, long-time combatants in the computer world, had very different fortunes in the smart device arena during the last month. While Apple’s iPad continued to see strong sales, the iPhone 4, featuring tethering, front and rear facing cameras and other new capabilities, debuted much to the delight of consumers. However, the Microsoft Kin, targeted at teens and offered on the Verizon network, was euthanized by the company only two months after its launch due to extremely poor sales. After such a horrendous misstep, it could be a while before Microsoft re-enters the smartphone wars.
The next month should provide some early returns on how AT&T’s new iPhone pricing plan is working and continued jockeying among carriers, content providers and billing plans as companies try to cash in on what they hope will be increased consumer demand – much of which will depend on a continuing global economic rebound – for the last half of the year.
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