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TOP 5 CELL PHONE PROVIDERS (EU) |
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Vodafone: Vodafone Group plc is a global telecommunications company based in Newbury, United Kingdom. The name stems from “voice – data – fone.” Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company in terms of revenues and the world’s second-largest by number of subscribers (behind China Mobile), with around 332 million subscribers by 30 September 2010.Vodafone operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 other countries. It owns 45 % of Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile telecommunications company in the USA by number of subscribers.
Vodafone is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a component of the FTSE 100 Index. In November 2010 it had a market capitalization of approximately UK£92 billion, making it the third largest company on the London Stock Exchange. It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.
In 1980 Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, chairman of Racal Electronics plc, the United Kingdom’s largest maker of military radio technology, entered into an agreement with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc (GEC) to allow Racal to access some of GEC’s tactical battlefield radio technology.
In 1982 Racal’s newly formed subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Ltd won one of two UK cellular telephone network licenses, the other going to British Telecom. Vodafone was launched on January 1, 1985.
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Orange: Orange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and internet service provider subsidiaries. It is the seventh largest telecom operator in the world, with over 189 million customers in 2009. The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom’s UK mobile phone network, which was acquired by France Télécom in August 2000. In 2006, the company’s ISP operations, formerly Wanadoo, were also re-branded Orange. Orange is now the sole commercial name for almost all France Telecom services. Orange France was incorporated in 2005 and has its headquarters in Arcueil, France.
Microtel Communications Ltd was formed in April 1990 as a consortium comprising Pactel Corp, British Aerospace (BAe), Millicom and the French company Matra. In 1991 Microtel was awarded a license to develop a mobile network in the United Kingdom, and in July 1991 Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd acquired Microtel from BAe. Microtel was re-branded Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd in 1994. The Orange brand was created by an internal team; brand consultancy Wolff Olins was charged with designing the brand values and logo, and advertising agency WCRS created the Orange slogan “The Future’s Bright, the Future’s Orange” along with the now famous campaign.
The Orange network was inaugurated on 28 April 1994.
Orange plc was formed in 1995 as a holding company for the Orange Group. France Telecom established the present company in 2001 after acquiring Orange plc and merging its existing mobile operations into the company. The company was initially 100 % owned by France Telecom. |
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T-Mobile: T-Mobile is a German telecommunication services provider owned by Deutsche Telekom. It operates several GSM networks in Europe and the USA. T-Mobile also has a stake in mobile operators in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has about 150 million subscribers worldwide. T-Mobile UK recently entered into a joint venture with France Telecom’s mobile network provider, Orange U.K. Together they constitute the largest mobile operator in the United Kingdom, called Everything Everywhere.
Based in Germany, T-Mobile operates in other European countries as well as in the USA.
T-Mobile is the largest mobile phone operator in Germany, its home market, closely followed by its chief rival Vodafone. The highly profitable GSM network in Germany is scheduled to be supplemented and ultimately replaced by UMTS; for this purpose, T-Mobile bought one of the six licenses earmarked for Germany for €8.2 billion in August 2000.
On July 1, 1989, West Germany’s state-owned postal monopoly Deutsche Bundespost (DBP) was reorganized, with telecommunications consolidated within a new Deutsche Bundespost Telekom unit; this was renamed Deutsche Telekom in 1995 and privatization began in 1996.
The analog first-generation C-Netz (“C Network,” marketed as C-Tel) was Germany’s first true mobile phone network (the A and B networks, also owned by the post office, represented older radiotelephone systems), and was introduced in 1985. After German reunification in 1990 the C-Netz was expanded to cover former East Germany.
On July 1, 1992,Deutsche Bundespost Telekom began operating Germany’s first GSM network, along with the C-Netz, as its DeTeMobil subsidiary. The GSM 900 MHz frequency band was referred to as the D-Netz, and Telekom named its service D1; the private consortium that had been granted the second license (formerly Mannesmann) chose the – equally inspired – name D2. In 1996, as Deutsche Telekom began to brand its subsidiaries with the T- prefix, the network was renamed T-D1 and DeTeMobil became T-Mobil; the C-Netz, in the process of being wound down, was not re-branded and was shut down in 2000. In 2002, as Deutsche Telekom was consolidating its international operations, it anglicized the T-Mobil name into T-Mobile, although it sometimes still used the name T-D1 within Germany. Germans still commonly refer to T-Mobile and Vodafone as D1 and D2.
D1 launched short message service (SMS) services in 1994 and started a prepaid service, Xtra, in 1997.
After the T-Home and T-Mobile German operations merged on April 1, 2010, to form Telekom Deutschland GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, the T-Mobile brand was discontinued in Germany and replaced with the Telekom brand. |
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TOP 4 |
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Telecom Italia: Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company and is also active in the media and manufacturing industries. The company was created in 1994 through the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most significant of which was Società Italiana per l’Esercizio Telefonico pA (known under SIP for its predecessor, the Società Idroelettrica Piemontese, “Piemontese Hydroelectric Society”), the monopoly telephone operator in Italy.
The company operates landline telephone services in Italy while offering GSM mobile phone services in Italy and Brazil through its TIM subsidiary, and DSL internet and telephony services under the Alice brand in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and San Marino. Telecom Italia also owns a stake in Telecom Argentina; controls one of the major Italian television companies, Telecom Italia Media; and owns Olivetti, an Italian manufacturer of computer peripherals and other hardware. |
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TOP 5 |
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Telenor: Telenor Group is Norway’s main telecommunications company, based at Fornebu, near Oslo. Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier operating in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Asia, largely under the Telenor brand. It is ranked as the sixth largest mobile phone operator in the world, with over 195 million subscribers. Telenor also maintains extensive broadband and TV distribution operations in four Nordic countries and a 10-year-old research and business line for M2M technology.
Telenor started off in 1855 as Telegrafverket, a state-operated monopoly, to provide telegraph services. Plans for a telegraph were first raised within the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1848, but by 1852 the intention became public and the Parliament of Norway adopted a plan for constructing telegraph lines throughout the country. Telegrafverket began by building from Christiania – now Oslo – to Sweden (Norway at that time existing in political union with Sweden) as well as between Christiania and Drammen, Norway. Cable connections were opened to Denmark in 1867 and to Great Britain in 1869. The telegraph was most beneficial to the merchant marine: now the new medium could be used to communicate instantly between different locations and gain a wholly new advantage in logistics.
The first domestic telephone service in Norway was offered in 1878 between Arendal and Tvedestrand, while the first international telephone service became available between Christiania and Stockholm, Sweden, in 1893. Automation of the telephone system was started in 1920 and completed in 1985. In 1946 the first telex service was offered, and in 1976 satellite phone connections to oil platforms in the North Sea were created. In 1980 the first steps were taken to digitalize the telephone network.
Telegrafverket initiated its first manual mobile telephone system in 1966; this was replaced by the automated NMT system in 1981 and the enhanced NMT-900 in 1986. Norway was the first country in Europe to acquire an automated mobile telephone system. The digital GSM system was introduced in 1993; the GSM standard was developed in Norway at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), but no domestic mobile phone manufacturers emerged. The third generation of mobile technology using the UMTS system began full operation in 2004.
The company changed its name to Televerket in 1969 and to Telenor in 1995.
In 1994 Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy created the Opera web browser during their tenure at Telenor. Opera Software ASA was established in 1995 after the two went on to continue development of their browser. |
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