Deutsche Telekom

Apple's iPhone 3G is continuing its march around the globe with reports of 120,000 sold by T-Mobile in Europe, plus a deal for distribution in Russia.

In an interview Monday, the head of Deutsche Telekom told the German magazine Focus that its wireless arm, T-Mobile, has sold that number since it was made available on July 11. The sales figure was reached, said Hamid Akhavan, in spite of distribution problems.

22 Countries Simultaneously

Reports from IT directors and major IT suppliers indicate that the security hole in Internet Domain Name System servers is being patched -- but not everyone, nor every company, is responding quickly.

News of the flaw in some DNS servers was leaked to the public on July 8, catching many server administrators by surprise. The hope was that most servers could be patched and ready before the public became aware of the problem. But as a result of the leak, many servers worldwide remain vulnerable to attack.

When Finnish handset maker Nokia came in with better than expected quarterly results on July 17, the telecom sector was encouraged. Sales and shipments of Nokia's handsets were up. Just as important, a big part of the Finnish company's growth in the quarter came from Nokia Siemens Networks, its joint venture in telecom equipment with Siemens. Sales for the network business surged 18 percent in the quarter, to more than $6.34 billion.

T-Mobile USA is breaking new ground. On July 2, the U.S. wireless calling division of Germany's Deutsche Telekom is introducing home-phone calling for as low as $10 a month, a fraction of the price charged by traditional phone companies including AT&T and Internet-calling providers such as Vonage. Analysts have said T-Mobile's @Home is really targeted at users of rival wireless calling services.

As part of its ongoing effort to place its services with network operators, telecommunications giant Nokia said today that it had formed a strategic international partnership for content and services with France Telecom's Orange.

The agreement extends a deal first signed by the companies in February of this year, expanding it into a three-year partnership. It will include the addition of ten new Nokia handsets to the Orange Signature range, as well as the addition of music, games, advertising, maps, and location-based services.

Part of Orange Signature

Deutsche Telekom chief executive Rene Obermann said Thursday the company is satisfied with sales and usage of Apple's iPhone, adding that the company has so far sold more than 100,000 of the devices since its November debut.

At Telekom's annual general meeting in Cologne, Obermann said the devices made by Apple Inc. were the most popular multimedia device sold by its T-Mobile cell phone division.

He said that iPhone customers used the Internet 30 times more on average than other mobile telephone customers, and that a third of iPhone customers had bought the most expensive user plans.

Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier, has been struggling since 2004 when Sprint and Nextel merged. The $35 billion deal is widely seen as a disaster, due to higher-than-expected costs and problems integrating the two companies' different networks and technologies. Sprint Nextel now suffers the highest churn rate of any U.S. operator, and its stock has slumped 40 percent this year.

T-Mobile and Nokia are joining to offer new Internet services and social communities on mobile devices in Europe. The mobile-technology giants said their efforts will offer all their European customers access to T-Mobile's web'n'walk as well as Nokia's Ovi Internet services.

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