AT&T has announced that it would buy Centennial Communications for $944 million on Friday (US Eastern Time), giving the company an additional 1.1 million customers to its 74.9 million customers, and will improve the coverage of AT&T in the Midwest, Southeast, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The deal, announced after the markets were closed, would see Centennial stockholders getting $8.50 a share, a premium of 121 percent over the closing price of $3.84 – with shares jumping to $7.90 in after hours trading. The deal is expected to close in second-quarter of next year.

The deal is seen as a response to the acquisition of Alltel by Verizon Wireless, which was recently approved by the government.

Source: NY Times

This action is claimed to hold down costs and avoid any duplication as each of the carriers roll out their own 3G service, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The introduction to 3G to China is expected to give several foreign companies trillions of dollars as carriers go upon their way to upgrade their own networks. China is the world’s biggest mobile phone market by subscribers, having more than 590 million subscribers in total.

The government had already delayed issuing 3G licenses while they restructure the state-owned telcos to be more competitive and innovative.

The restructure of state-owned telecommunication carriers will now allow them to sell mobile telecommunications, home telecommunication and internet access. It will also rearrange them into three groups: China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

The service was heavily promoted, but was dropped after less than a month of announcing it. The removal is most likely due to the network being crippled thanks to the iPhone on Optus and Virgin Mobile, which is owned by Optus; along with other network management problems.

Pricing started at $79 for 2GB, but counted both uploads and downloads in the figure. It will still offer the landline Fusion plans, which were launched in 2007.

The chief technology officer Andy Reeves has said that they have sold the assests because they were “commercially prudent” for the carrier to outsource them to a different company to manage.

However, Vodafone will still use the towers under a leasing agreement with Crown Castle, and will use the proceeds from the sale to upgrade its mobile broadband network.

This is not the first time that Vodafone has sold towers to the group: in 2001, it sold approximately 669 towers to the group for a profit of US$130 million. Crown Castle owns approximately 1,600 towers in Australia - with additional towers coming from Optus.

A brand new addition is that there is now a 10GB plan, costing 129.95/month; and most plans have dropped between $10-$20, but even with the changes, the prices are still beaten by other carriers like Vodafone.

Bad news is that they have changed the excess usage charge to 25c/MB - or $250 for 1 GB, from the previous 15c/MB - or $150GB for 1GB. This is because it no longer pricing its "mobile" plans at a higher rate - when they were the same service as the "modem" plans.

Press release after the jump.

BigPond introduces new wireless broadband plans

The freedom of BigPond® Wireless Broadband is now even more attractive with the launch of a new range of plans for lovers of the speed, coverage and service only BigPond can provide.

BigPond has introduced a new 10GB wireless plan and reduced the number of wireless broadband plans making it simpler for customers.

Announcing the new range of plans, BigPond Group Managing Director, Mr Justin Milne, said customers value the wireless broadband service, which uses the Telstra Next G™ network, from Australia’s leading internet service provider which is growing four times faster than its nearest competitor.

"The new BigPond Wireless Broadband plans reflect the exceptional value we offer customers who are looking for a reliable wireless broadband service," Mr Milne said.

"New customers with multiple Telstra services can receive a discount of 12 months half price off their wireless broadband access. When you consider our superior speed and coverage with our wireless broadband plus all the benefits BigPond provides such as access to unmetered entertainment like news, music, movies, sport and games, the choice is simple and it’s why customers are connecting with BigPond.

"We have also removed the different speed plans which may have confused some customers, so all of our wireless broadband plans are now available with the fastest network speeds available," Mr Milne added.

BigPond has removed the separate pricing plans for mobile cards and modem customers. The additional usage charge has been simplified to $0.25 per MB across all plans. The new plans are available from Sunday, 24 August.

BigPond has a choice of wireless broadband devices which include either a 7.2Mbps express card or USB mobile card or the new BigPond 7.2 Home Network Gateway modem with built-in WiFi.

Existing BigPond Wireless Broadband customers can change to the new pricing at bigpond.com by visiting the My BigPond section.

Tapper joined the South Australian-based internet service provider in 1998, after working with Greater Union, Village Roadshow and EMI.

Another reorganisation includes the creation of CFO, which will be taken by former financial controller Sean Habgood - who has been with the company with four years, two in his previous title. The financial controller role will be given to Bruce Davy.

The company has also announced that they will be looking for a chief information officer (CIO) for the ISP soon.

In a preliminarily report, it showed that Optus had the slowest network by a significant margin between it and its rivals, especially Telstra and 3.

Times to ping to a Sydney-base server on an Optus network was 898ms; while Telstra took 214ms, Vodafone took 258ms and 3 (which does not sell the iPhone, but offering its network for the phone) took 151ms.

While Optus has refused to report on the report; Novosel said the results was based on 470 tests in various locations, though Optus is disputing it.

While Apple has stubbornly refused to comment on the problem, it has been under pressure to break its ‘code’ of silence as users worldwide are complaining on sites and its own discussion board of poor reception, slow speeds and dropped calls. Poor reception problems are happening in areas where there is good coverage; however, it does not affect other phones.

Vodafone has said that it was working with Apple to find a fix. Internationally, T-Mobile has blamed the iPhone reception problems on Apple.

The rest of Unicom will go to China Telecom, that will also see China Telecom merging China Satcom and China Mobile absorbing China TieTong - a fixed line operator. This will effectively reduce its telecommunication operators to 3; China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile - all now will be able to offer fixed and mobile telecommunications as well as broadband.

The 3G network that will be deployed is different to what is used in the western world, as it will be using its own variation - the TD-SCDMA network.

The company will join a long list of companies that have turn into mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, that will resell mobile phones running on somebody else’s network. In IKEA’s case, they will run with T-Mobile. It will launch in the UK this Friday to IKEA’s loyalty card members.

Called Family Mobile, it will operate as a pay-as-you-go service; and there are no plans for the company to bring the phone to other countries.

Virgin Mobile, which recently said that it has been allowed to sell the iPhone (it is owned by Optus), is now offering 5GB on a $100 cap plan - and allowing you no handset repayments on the 8GB and 16GB versions. Those who are looking for something cheaper, they are also offering a $70 cap plan with 1GB - and offering the iPhone for free on the 8GB, and a $4 fee per month on the 16GB version.

However, since its cheap broadband plans were introduced with its home phone deals, there have been heavy congestion on the network with speeds so slow that it has been unusable by some customers. As well, while 750Kb/s speed throttling has been applied, it will not be applied to those on the iPhone.

Calls are charged at 40c per 30 seconds, within Optus’ and Vodafone’s range - though they offer calls at 35c per 30 seconds.

In its Q2 update, it also lost 12,000 AOL customers because of the migration; and losing 80,000 more could pile more pressure on its broadband operation - after it had lower its revenue guidance and predicting "broadly flat" sales for its fixed-line service.

This would set you back $809 for the 8GB, since it costs $729, and $949 for the 16GB version, since it costs $849 for it. The good news is that the 3 will pay you back $300 just for bringing the phone to them. After that, the plans get better over at 3.

While the $49 cap will allow you 1GB and $350 worth of Calls, SMS and "more", all the other plans will allow you to have 2GB of data. There is a 10c/MB charge if you go over that limit. All are under a 24 month contract.

There are some catches, however, like:

• Your cap includes up to $100 of international calls, video calls, SMS, voicemail, 1300 and 1800 numbers and directory assistance.
• You will need to pay $1.65 per MB if you roam on Telstra’s coverage area - since there are a lot of black spots in its coverage.
• If you disconnect within the 24 months, you will need to pay $49 or $50 per remaining month, depending on your plan that you have on the remaining months.

Remember, these are not sanctioned by Apple; so its Three’s fault if your iPhone screws up - which is unlikely, but I just like warning people of false fears.

While it beats the previous "king" from Vodafone, which had 5GB for $39, it does not have better coverage than its competitors, but less. And if you are ‘unlucky’ to go out of the area and roam into Telstra’s territory, also known as their GSM network, you will pay fees of $1.65/MB.

Customers of Internode can access IPv6 by either Native Ethernet access or Tunnel Broker access; with more information on their dedicated website. However, not all sites are supported on IPv6; and Internode will run both on their services; also known as ‘dual stack’ mode.

Its Managing Director, Simon Hackett, said it was was part of future-proofing its entire network, saying, "The Internet is approaching an address crunch point in the next few years."

"The current IPv4 address space is simply running out of IP numbers, possibly as soon as 2011. Internode has chosen to invest in deploying IPv6 technology throughout its network now to give its customers the maximum amount of time to transition their own networks to the new address scheme."

It is the first and only one to introduce the new address system, joining several ISPs in France and the Netherlands. You can find more information on Wikipedia or on Internode’s website.

Dubbed the ‘yes’ Timeless plans, they will also be available for iPhone purchasers too - but without the MMS, Push to Talk or video calling since the iPhone has not supported it (which I think its crap for not supporting it - I’m still thinking of getting one though).

Blackberry users are also entitled to take up the plans, they just need to pay for an additional fee for the service on top of it, with Unlimited email costing $39.95 per month for a 24 month contract, or $49.95 for month-to-month users. There is a cheaper "Executive" plan which will cost $25.95 per month, or $29.95 for those not on a contract.

The following plans are below:

‘yes’ Timeless $99 plan with $14.95 Mobile Internet Pack

• Spend a monthly cost of $113.95.
• Unlimited National, local and GSM mobile calls on any network.
• Unlimited MMS and SMS.
• 200MB of data, with 35c extra per MB.
• Voicemail Deposit free, while retrieval is 30c per 30 sec

‘yes’ Timeless $119 plan

• Spend a minimum cost of $119.
• Unlimited National, local and GSM mobile calls on any network
• Unlimited MMS and SMS
• Choose either a Starter (10MB for $4.95) or Classic (30MB for $9.95) Internet Pack
• 35c/MB excess charge for 12/24 month contracts; or 50c for month-to-month.
• Voicemail Deposit free, while retrieval is 30c per 30 sec

‘yes’ Timeless $129 cap

• Available on 28 July, 2008
• Minimum cost of $129, with a cap value of $550.
• Unlimited National, local, GSM mobile calls on any network
• Unlimited MMS and SMS
• 2GB of data, 35c extra per MB.
• Unlimited deposits and retrieval of Voicemail, both free.

More information can be found at Optus’ site.

As well, four giant digital "prayer walls" have been erected at four sites, the Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse. Those who have signed up to the messages will be able to send a message to the "prayer walls".

His message, for today, was: "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Father’s supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI."

Telstra mobile customers can subscribe for free by texting the word "Pope" to 0400 495 111.

Director Umut Omer said in the Whirlpool forums that its primary investor recently withdrew his support and that he is working to "propose a Deed of Company Arrangement that would see creditors paid and the company come out of receivership".

He also admitted that some staff have been terminated during the week, but also said that he didn’t expect any changes in the service provided. He also attempted to reassure users, saying that the service will not interrupted.

Those who were with Koala Telecom, before Blitz bought them out of receivership, was having troubles last year.

Out of the exchanges, 100 will be based in Western Australia and Queensland - which Macquarie Telecom has said that they have been neglected by other telcos.

Macquarie operates exclusively in business and government markets, and the new service will have a theoretical download speed of 24Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps.

CEO for SingTel Chua Sock Koong said yesterday that the board would consider launching a separate bid under the right conditions.

The federal budget saw the contract being moved to the Building Australia Fund, where it is controlled by the Finance Minster Lindsay Tanner. The fund will have $20 billion.

Companies have until July 25 to submit their contracts.