The Australian government has opened the Darwin fibre-optic link which stretches more than 3,800km from Darwin to Toowoomba, passing through more than 30 towns. The link will benefit more than 160,000 people across Queensland and the Northern Territory. The opening of the Darwin fibre link also marks the completion of the entire network construction phase of the government's AUD 250 million Regional Backbone Blackspots Program (RBBP). The programme has now delivered over 6,000 km of fibre backbone across regional Australia, benefiting around 400,000 people and more than 100 regional locations. This also forms part of th­e National Broadband Network. Nextgen Networks was responsible for the roll-out of approximately 6,000km of backbone infrastructure, as well as operating and maintaining the backbone transmission links for an initial five-year period.

Source: Telecom Paper.

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, welcomed figures just released which show a solid increase in the availability of both mobile internet and basic quality fixed broadband lines. At the same time the Commissioner warned that Europe risked missing out on badly needed economic growth if it does not step up a gear and increase the capacity of its broadband networks. Studies show that a 10 percentage point increase in broadband take-up boosts annual GDP growth by 1 to 1.5%.

Broadband is getting faster in Europe, but very high speed connections are not yet widely available. Although 42.2 % of fixed broadband lines were at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) in July 2011 (up from 29.2% a year ago), only 6.5 % were at least as fast as 30 Mbps and less than 1% at least 100 Mbps. The EU is not yet delivering on the 2020 high-speed targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200).

Fixed broadband growing, but slowing: there were 27.2 fixed broadband lines per 100 citizens in July 2011, but take-up slowed, and grew by only 5.8 % in the last twelve months. Highest take-up was in the Netherlands (39.3 %), Denmark (38.5 %), France (33.9 %) and Germany (32.7 %), with Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Latvia still below 20%. At the end of 2011 one third of households in the EU did not have a broadband subscription (according to Eurostat's latest figures). .

Mobile broadband, fastest growing: up by 25.4 %, mobile broadband subscriptions (dedicated devices, USB keys and modems), are the fastest growing element of the broadband market. Including smart phone users, mobile broadband take-up reached 34.6 % in July 2011, up from 22.3 % twelve months earlier.

EU lagging behind competitors on ultra-fast internet: in the EU only 6.5 % of fixed broadband connections offer at least 30 Mbps, and 0.9 % at least 100 Mbps. These shares are doubled in the US, and in Korea and Japan all connections are already faster than 30 Mbps.

Best prices? Consumers in France and Sweden are among those who could benefit from the best deals for very high speed broadband, in terms of advertised maximum speeds in bundled packages. Broadband prices were on average cheapest in Latvia, Lithuania and Romania for most broadband connection speeds.

­The number of mobile subscriptions in the Middle East (see note) will cross the 250-million mark during 2012, reaching 271.27 million at end-2012 and rising to 352 million at end-2016, according to forecasts by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Additionally, the average mobile penetration rate for the Middle East will cross the 100% mark in 2012: It will rise from 97.72% at end-2011 to 107.09% at end-2012, exceeding the mobile penetration rate in North America (US/Canada) for the first time. (The mobile penetration rate in North America at end-2012 will be 102.77%.)

Iran will continue to be the biggest mobile market in the Middle East by subscriptions with 82.91 million subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 122.13 million at end-2016. Saudi Arabia has the next biggest mobile market in the region by subscriptions, with a 50.8 million active mobile subscriptions forecast for end-2011, rising to 71.32 million at end-2016.

Source: Cellular News

­Broadband penetration in Peru is expected to double from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 9.3 percent in 2016, driven by the government's national broadband plan to bring Internet connectivity via fiber-optic cables to isolated regions, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

"In 2011, broadband penetration will reach 4.7 percent, still among the lowest in the region just ahead of Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua," says Pyramid Research Analyst, Juliana Gomez.

Broadband penetration will be driven by the government's national broadband plan, which aims to bring Internet connectivity via fiber-optic cables to isolated regions such as the Sierra and Selva. As economic development touches cities outside Lima in the Sierra region of the country, competition for new subscribers will expand the reach of fixed networks. Telefonica and Telmex are both offering double- and triple-play bundles, including fixed telephony, broadband Internet and pay-TV services.

"Given the low penetration of Internet services and the government support for developing broadband networks, broadband has great potential to fuel bundles," she indicates.

Source: Cellular News

The UN's Broadband Commission for Digital Development has agreed on a set of four "ambitious but achievable" new targets for countries to target in broadband policy, affordability and uptake. The first aims to make broadband policy universal and targets a national broadband plan or strategy in all countries by 2015. This can also mean the inclusion of broadband in their universal access/service definitions. To make broadband affordable, the commission called for developing countries to take steps to ensure regulation and market forces provide for entry-level broadband services, for example, at a cost of less than 5 percent of average monthly income. This should support the third goal of 40 percent of households in developing countries with internet access by 2015. The final goal is 60 percent worldwide internet user penetration by 2015, including 50 percent in developing countries and 15 percent in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). 

The targets were unveiled at the ITU Telecom World event in Geneva. The commission set up last year is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Carlos Slim Helu, chairman and CEO of Telmex and America Movil. The ITU will undertake responsibility for measuring each country’s progress towards the targets, producing an annual broadband report with rankings of nations worldwide in terms of broadband policy, affordability and uptake. 

The 'Broadband Challenge' endorsed by the commission recognizes communication as "a human need and a right", and calls on governments and private industry to work together to develop the innovative policy frameworks, business models and financing arrangements needed to facilitate growth in access to broadband worldwide. It urges governments to avoid limiting market entry and taxing ICT services unnecessarily to enable broadband markets to realize their full growth potential, and encourages governments to promote coordinated international standards for interoperability and to address the availability of adequate radio frequency spectrum. The Challenge stresses the need to stimulate content production in local languages and enhance local capacity to benefit from, and contribute to, the digital revolution.

Source: TelecomPaper

The European Commission has proposed to spend almost €9.2 billion from 2014 to 2020 on pan-European projects to give EU citizens and businesses access to high-speed broadband networks and the services that run on them. The funding, part of the proposed Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), would take the form of both equity and debt instruments and grants. It would complement private investment and public money at local, regional and national level and EU structural or cohesion funds. At least €7 billion would be available for investment in high-speed broadband infrastructure.

The Commission considers that this money could leverage a total of between €50 and 100 billion of public and private investment – i.e. a substantial proportion of the estimated €270 billion of broadband investment needed to meet Digital Agenda targets on broadband. The remaining CEF funding for digital infrastructure would support public interest digital service infrastructure such as electronic health records, electronic identification and electronic procurement. The proposed financial support is complemented by proposed new guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks and services. These guidelines would establish new objectives, priorities, projects of common interest and criteria for identifying further projects of common interest.

Money for broadband infrastructure

In the case of broadband infrastructure, EU funding from the CEF would leverage other private and public money by giving projects credibility and lowering their risk profiles. The money would be largely in the form of equity, debt or guarantees. This would then attract capital market financing from investors; the Commission and international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank would absorb part of the risk and improve projects' credit rating.

Projects are likely to be proposed by established telecoms operators as well as new players such as water, sewage, electricity utilities, cooperative investment projects or construction firms. Many projects are likely to involve several of these investors clubbing together. The Commission also expects public authorities to join projects as part of public-private partnerships.

Source: European Commission

At the end of June, there were approximately 173 thousand Internet access customers in Portugal using optical fibre (FTTH/B), 14.2% more than in the previous quarter, with 95% of these customers reported as residential. Internet access supported over optical fibre (FTTH/B) represented 8.1% of total customers and during the quarter, and it was taken up by three out of every four new fixed broadband customers.

In total, the number of fixed broadband customers rose to 2.13 million, bringing the total number of users with fixed Internet access up to 2.15 million, 1% more than reported in the previous quarter and 7.1% than in 2nd quarter 2010.

In the same period, there were 2.6 million mobile broadband users registering actual use of the service, a decline of 0.6% compared to the previous quarter but an increase of 12% compared to 2nd quarter 2010. Of this number, 1.2 million users accessed the Internet via cards/modem.

The main technology used for fixed broadband Internet access continues to be ADSL, which represents 49.8% of the total. For the first time since the end of 2004, the number of ADSL accesses fell below 50% of total broadband accesses. For the third consecutive quarter, ADSL is showing signs of softness, declining 0.7% in the 2nd quarter.

Acording to Anatel's data, Brazil ended Aug/11 with 30.5 million 3G mobile accesses, 24.6 million of them were WCDMA and 5.9 million were 3G data terminals (13.6% of the cellulars in Brazil are 3G).

From the net adds gotten in August (2,075 thousand), 1,863 thousand were via WCDMA devices and 212 thousand via 3G data terminals.

Anatel considers as mobile broadband all the WCDMA accesses and all the data terminals, 3G or not. By Anatel's criteria, there were 31.6 million mobile broadband accesses in Aug/11, being 24.6 million WCDMA handsets and 7.0 million data terminals, which presented net adds of 150 thousand accesses in aug/11.

Claro is market share leader in accesses via handsets WCDMA and Vivo via Data Terminals.

Source: Teleco.com

South African operator Cell C has announced new and bundled broadband products at competitive prices. On 01 August, it will launch new 10 GB and 20 GB packages on the South African market, with the aim of bringing its HSPA network to higher-demand internet users. Cell C says the launch is in response to demand from South African consumers and small business owners for larger bandwidth products at competitive prices to help them meet their day-to-day internet access demands.

The 10 GB per month package, standard with either a 7.2 Mbps MyZone router or 21.6 Mbps speed stick, will cost ZAR 499 per month on a contract for 12 months or ZAR 4,999 prepaid. The 20 GB per month package, also standard with a MyZone router or Speed Stick, will be available at ZAR 899 per month on a contract or ZAR 8,999 prepaid. Both prepaid packages will also be available as SIM-only variants at a ZAR 1,000 discount. Customers who already own a speed stick or router will be able to purchase a 120 GB SIM (10 GB per month) for ZAR 3,999 or the 240 GB SIM (20 GB per month) for ZAR 7,999. Cell C's out-of-bundle rate of ZAR 0.39 applies to these packages.

Source: Telecom Paper

The number of fixed broadband subscribers continues to grow in 2011. According to ABI Research practice director Jason Blackwell, "­There were more than 539 million fixed broadband subscribers globally at the end of second quarter. That is an 8% increase from the same quarter in 2010. Customer net addition is stronger in emerging markets."

The number of customers using high bandwidth services such as Internet video and online gaming is growing around the world. Exploding IP traffic generated by these services is putting service providers under pressure to handle the bandwidth demand. Broadband operators are expanding fiber broadband coverage which can best serve these bandwidth-hungry services. As an example, China Telecom is deploying fiber optic broadband aiming to serve 100 million households and 30 million fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers by the end of 2015.

At present, North America is the region with the highest fiber optic broadband penetration followed by Asia-Pacific. Extending fiber broadband coverage not only increases speed but also allows the roll out of services including video on demand (VOD) and IPTV. ABI Research estimates that worldwide fiber broadband subscriber numbers will more than double in 2016 to 142 million subscribers, from 69.6 million in 2011.

The Asia Pacific region is seeing strong subscriber growth, due in particular to the increasing number of subscribers in China. About 17 million Chinese subscribers have been added since the second quarter of 2010."The Asia-Pacific broadband market is sure to continue growing in the medium-term since low broadband penetration in countries such as China and India leaves plenty of room for broadband growth," comments research analyst Khin Sandi Lynn.

Source: Cellular News

Source: TelecomPaper

British fixed line incumbent BT has said that it expects to extend the reach of its 20Mbps copper-based broadband network to approximately 80% of the United Kingdom by the end of 2011. With the operator’s ADSL2+ service, which is offered under the Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) banner, now available from 1,017 exchanges the telco claims some 15.5 million premises have access to high speed connections. Commenting on the development of the network, Cameron Rejali, BT Wholesale’s managing director for products, noted: ‘This announcement is further evidence of BT’s commitment to deliver next generation services across the UK. Running over BT’s 21st Century Network, WBC offers communications providers the ability to provide their broadband customers with greater control, choice and flexibility as well as higher speeds. It supports the growing demand for high-speed broadband access to a range of online services – including TV, gaming online and multiple voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services.’

BT Wholesale meanwhile has also announced that it has reached 1,000 live fibre Ethernet nodes in the UK, and alongside its claims that it operates the ‘largest customer-ready copper and fibre delivered network of Ethernet in the UK market’, it said that it plans to enhance the infrastructure further, with it aiming to reach 1,090 fibre nodes by the end of 2011.

Source: TeleGeography

India’s Telecom Commission, the apex decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to approve the proposed national broadband policy within the ‘next few weeks’, following which it will be forwarded to the Union Council of Ministers of India for approval. According to India’s Economic Times, the policy will enable the creation of broadband networks costing up to INR600 billion (USD13.2 billion) which will facilitate high speed data services and e-governance across the country. Communications minister Kapil Sibal meanwhile reportedly met with a number of operators this week to discuss the proposals.

As part of the proposals, the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended the creation of a national broadband network with a view to achieving 160 million broadband connections in India by 2014. The TRAI claimed that its proposed 'National Broadband Plan' should be financed through the universal service obligation fund (USOF) and loans given by the government. The regulator’s recommendations followed the government’s failure to achieve its self-imposed target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, with there being just over half that number, around 10.3 million, at that date. Further, under the plans the proposed fibre-optic network will be classified as a national resource, and as such is expected to be available with equal terms offered to all operators wishing to provide broadband services. In establishing the infrastructure the National Optical Fibre Agency (NOFA) will be created to oversee the network, with the new body to be 100% owned by the Central Government. NOFA, it is understood, will also establish networks in all 63 cities covered under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM, a massive city modernisation scheme launched by the Indian government in 2005), while state agencies will roll out networks and backhaul in all other urban regions, in addition to rural areas. A State Optical Fibre Agency (SOFA) meanwhile is expected to be formed in every state, with NOFA acting as the holding company with 51% equity, and the remaining 49% held by the respective state government.

Source: TeleGeography

The government statistics bureau of Argentina, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Censos (INDEC), has reported that the country ended 2010 with a total of 5.22 million broadband subscribers, up from 4.26 million a year earlier. In terms of technology, xDSL made up the lion’s share of total connections (2.9 million, or 56%), followed by wireless, satellite and other connections (1.35 million, or 26%) and cable technology (962,354, or 18%).

Residential connections numbered 4.51 million at 31 December 2010 total, compared to 3.65 million twelve months previously, while corporate connections accounted for the remaining 715,955 (end-2009: 607,523). Meanwhile, INDEC reported a total of 132,965 dial-up connections, of which 115,740 were residential subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography

According to TechCentral i3 Africa, a new company backed by the National Empowerment Fund, has announced plans to build a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network connecting up to 2.5 million homes within the next four to five years. The network, which is set to be built in six cities — Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Pretoria — promises to provide customers with minimum connection speeds of 100Mbps. The network will operate on an 'open-access' principle, allowing third-party internet service providers (ISPs) to sell services to consumers; i3 Africa will not sell services directly to customers.

CEO Cornelius Groesbeek told TechCentral that the company will spend between ZAR5 billion (USD725.4 million) and ZAR6 billion on the network — approximately one-third of the cost usually associated with a FTTH rollout. i3 Africa plans to make savings by utilising metropolitan sewerage and water networks, negating the need for expensive civil works. i3 Africa has selected Durban to house a pilot network, and work on a 100km stretch is already underway. Upon completion, the Durban leg will consist of 2,500km worth of access fibre and a further 7,500km of FTTH/FTTB. Groesbeek commented: 'We’ve decided to focus first on Durban, which has a history of being an early adopter of innovative technologies, but we are engaging with everyone. We will have all that done during 2012, and sometime next year we will start on the core network in a second city'. A commercial rollout is planned from mid-2011.

Source: Telecom Paper

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is to introduce a new code of practice later this year under which it hopes ISPs will be more realistic in their advertising of broadband speeds. The watchdog has released figures showing that the average advertised speed in the UK is currently 13.8Mbps, whereas the actual average speed being delivered to UK households is only 6.2Mbps. The new code will be introduced in July and ISPs will be expected to accompany any ‘top end’ speed boasts with a typical speeds range (TSR) of at least equal prominence.

‘Very few ADSL broadband customers achieved average actual download speeds close to advertised ‘up to’ speeds. Just 3% of customers on up to 20Mbps or 24Mbps DSL services received average download speeds of over 16Mbps, while 69% received average download speeds of 8Mbps or less,’ revealed Ofcom in a statement.

BT’s new fibre-based Infinity service, which is available to 15% of the population, was found to come closer to matching advertised speed claims, giving average speeds of 31Mbps or 22% less than advertised. Unsurprisingly, cable-based services were found to be the closest to their advertised speeds. Virgin Media’s 50Mbps package typically delivered average speeds of 46Mbps.

Source: TeleGeography

A report published by Brazil’s telecoms association Telebrasil says that by the end of last year 4,897 municipalities covering 185 million people, or 96% of the total population, were able to access broadband services. At the end of January 2011, private telecom operators in the country collectively boasted 36.1 million broadband connections – when combining fixed line and mobile broadband internet access platforms, it said.

Source: TeleGeography

 report published by Brazil’s telecoms association Telebrasil says that by the end of last year 4,897 municipalities covering 185 million people, or 96% of the total population, were able to access broadband services. At the end of January 2011, private telecom operators in the country collectively boasted 36.1 million broadband connections – when combining fixed line and mobile broadband internet access platforms, it said.

Source: TeleGeography

­A new research report has unearthed that over the past years that the West African broadband market has witnessed a dramatic increase in broadband connections mainly due to the deployments of advanced technologies and affordable customer premise equipment as well as tariffs.  It was also found that the market earned revenues of $929.9 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1.932 billion in 2016. Internet service providers (ISPs) still remain the dominant players in the region, except for Nigeria where mobile broadband connections have outpaced fixed broadband connections. In comparison to other countries, high investments are made in infrastructure development and broadband services present the highest areas for growth opportunities due to the decline in voice revenues.

The West African region is characterized by poor telecoms infrastructure. Mobile broadband connections have outpaced fixed broadband connections in many countries in the region. This trend is likely to be observed in key markets like Cameroon and Ivory Coast in the next 5 years. The low fixed penetration shows that the majority of population can only access broadband services via their handsets. The low levels of broadband penetration in the region indicate that there is room for growth opportunities across the region.

­The European Commission has approved, under the EU guidelines for state aid to broadband, the use of over EUR1.8 billion public funds for broadband development, particularly in rural or remote areas.

Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia commented: "Smart investments into high and very high speed broadband infrastructures are crucial to create jobs, increase economic performance and to unlock the competitive potential of the EU in the long term. The Commission is committed to help EU countries to accelerate private and public investments in this sector."

In 2010, the Commission adopted a record number of 20 decisions covering aid for broadband development in, among others, Catalonia, Finland and Bavaria authorising the use of over EUR1.8 billion of public funds for broadband development. This will potentially generate up to EUR3.5 billion of investments in the sector. The approved aid in 2010 is more than four times the amount allowed in 2009.

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has published its 27th China Internet Development Statistics Report which shows that at the end of 2010 China had 457 million internet users (or netizens as CNNIC describes them), more than the combined population of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Total broadband internet users reached 450 million, with penetration among fixed line internet users reaching 98.3%. China's mobile internet users numbered 303 million, up 69.3 million year-on-year. Mobile internet users accounted for 66.2% of total internet users, up from 60.8% at the end of 2009. The number of rural internet users reached 125 million, or 27.3% of total users, an increase of 16.9%.

Source: TeleGeography

Deployment of Rwanda’s 2,300km national fibre-optic backbone has been completed on schedule, local daily The New Times reports, citing deputy director of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Patrick Nyirishema. Physical rollout of the network, which includes cross-border fibre installation at the Uganda and Tanzania borders, was finalised by the RDB’s target of 31 December 2010. Nyirishema revealed that installation of equipment in institutions that are directly connected to the fibre-optic network is ongoing, with the entire network scehduled to be fully operational by April this year.

The infrastructure will boost access to various broadband services, including government initiatives such as e-governance, e-banking, e-learning and e-health, and will also facilitate IT-based foreign direct investment (FDI) in areas such as business outsourcing. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the Rwandan government signed a USD40 million deal with South Korean incumbent telco KT Corp in October 2008 to supply and install the national fibre-optic backbone. The network will connect 317 institutions (97 in Kigali and 220 outside the capital) in all 30 districts, and connect all nine of Rwanda’s borders.

Source: TeleGeography

Now for the first time Swedes are calling more from their mobiles than from fixed telephones according to a report by the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). According to PTS's calculations, the crossing point between mobile and fixed telephony usage occurred in early May 2010.

In total, Swedes made calls for 11 billion minutes from mobile networks and 10.3 billion minutes from fixed networks during the first half-year of 2010. This means that 52 per cent of the outgoing traffic came from mobile networks."Ten years ago the mobile networks represented less than 10 per cent of all outgoing call traffic. This growth has been rapid, and we have not yet seen the end," says Mattias Viklund, Head of Accessibility and Market Analysis at PTS.

Continuing decrease in subscriptions for fixed telephony

Ten years ago there were about as many subscriptions for fixed and mobile telephony - approximately 6 million of each. Since then the number of subscriptions for fixed telephony has reduced to 5 million, while the number of mobile subscriptions has increased to 10.5 million.

One-third of broadband is mobile

There were 4.5 million broadband subscriptions on 30 June 2010. Of these, 3 million were subscriptions for fixed broadband and 1.5 million were subscriptions for mobile broadband. On 30 June 2010, 45 per cent of this broadband had a capacity of at least 10 Mbit per second downstream.

Methodology

The report is based on market statistics from telecom and Internet companies operating in Sweden. PTS sent the questionnaire for the report for the first half-year 2010 to in total 52 stakeholders.

Source: Cellular News

The Australian Senate on Friday approved legislation that enables the government to roll out a 36 billion Australian dollar ($35 billion) high-speed national broadband network.

The Senate's final two-week session of the year was extended an additional day to vote on the enabling legislation that was opposed by the major opposition party. The legislation was passed 30 votes to 28.It is expected to become law on Monday when it is voted on in the House of Representatives where key Greens party and independent lawmakers have pledged their support.The fiber optic broadband network was a major campaign issue at August elections that returned Prime Minister Julia Gillard's center-left Labor Party with a minority government.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott's conservative Liberal Party had promised a smaller, slower AU$6 billion network with a range of technologies including optical fiber, wireless and DSL.

Independent lawmakers said their support for Labor's broadband plan was a major reason why they supported Labor to form government. With the support of three independents and a Greens party lawmaker, Labor commands a single seat majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives where parties form government.

Source: Cellular News

According to Moldova’s telecoms watchdog, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), the number of broadband subscribers totalled 244,000 at 30 September 2010. The figure represents an increase of 9.2% compared to 223,400 three months earlier, and a year-on-year rise of 48%. The regulator believes that the growth was driven by increased availability of high speed internet services, as well as lower tariffs and dial-up-to-broadband substitution.

Of the total broadband customer base at 30 September 2010, 159,400 were xDSL subscribers, while fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) and LAN customers accounted for 75,400 and cable broadband subscribers a further 7,500. In terms of subscribers, Moldtelecom leads the fixed broadband sector with a market share of 61.8% in 3Q10, followed by StarNet with 18.7%, Sun Communications (3.6%) and Orange Moldova (0.9%). Other operators accounted for the remaining 14.9% of the market’s broadband subscribers in the quarter ended 30 September 2010.

ANRCETI said that revenue in the fixed internet sector totalled MDL383.1 million (USD31.6 million), an increase of 22.6% from a year earlier, mainly due to higher volume of sales generated by StarNet, which saw turnover rise 94% year-on-year to over MDL55 million, and Moldtelecom, which witnessed a 19.5% increase to MDL258.9 million.

Source: TeleGeography

Zimbabwe’s largest cellco by subscribers Econet Wireless has officially launched mobile broadband services covering major cities, based on W-CDMA/HSPA and WiMAX technologies, linked by a high speed fibre-optic backbone, following an investment of USD100 million. Econet commercially launched 3G mobile services in the capital Harare on 1 September 2009, but under-capacity on the UMTS network resulted in the operator suspending new user registrations after only a month of launching. Meanwhile Econet’s subsidiary Ecoweb launched a commercial mobile WiMAX network of 100 base stations covering Harare, Bulawayo and eleven other towns in late April 2010. Following the relaunch of wireless broadband services, Econet is offering three packages: ‘On The Go’ which offers 3G mobile data services for mobile handset and laptop users (with data coverage augmented by a 2.5G GPRS network); ‘@WORK’ for businesses using fixed internet services; and ‘@HOME’ for residential fixed broadband users with light data volume requirements. Econet also announced it had stocked its retail outlets with a wide range of smartphones with the capability to send and receive e-mails and make 3G video calls, whilst it has also installed extra satellite transmission facilities as backup capacity.

Source: TeleGeography

Brazilian fixed line and broadband services provider Global Village Telecom (GVT) has revealed its broadband subscriber base now numbers one million users, around 60% of whom are hooked up to 10Mbps or higher internet connection. GVT, which launched fixed line and broadband services in Sao Paulo in August 2010, has set aside between BRL1.1 billion and BRL1.5 billion (USD662 million and USD903 million) in capital expenditure in 2010, up 128% from BRL658 million in FY2009. Last month the operator revealed its latest service expansion plans when it said it was looking to invest approximately BRL300 million to enter the Rio de Janeiro market. The report said that the investment will be made from early January 2011 onwards until 2012. Prices for the telco’s current high speed packages start from BRL49.90 per month for a 3Mbps line.

Source: TeleGeography

France Telecom (FT) is launching a three-year programme aimed at increasing ADSL coverage from 98.6% of households to more than 99% by 2013.

The project, costing EUR60 million (USD81.7 million), will be up and running by the end of 2010, and forms part of FT’s ‘conquests 2015’ project which seeks to ‘conquer networks and conquer customers by improving quality of service’. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, FT claimed more than 51% of the French retail broadband subscriber market at the end of June 2010, comfortably ahead of second placed SFR with 20.4%.

Source: TeleGeography

Broadband has taken a significant step forward as the number of subscriber lines passed the 500 million mark in July. The milestone was unveiled by the Broadband Forum during its global Broadband and IPTV Industry Update at its quarterly meeting in Hong Kong. Reached in the third week in July by Point Topic, the milestone will be marked with a celebration by The Broadband Forum later this week. The new figures show that global broadband subscribers reached 498 million lines (497,768,162) by the end of June, representing a 2.63 percent growth in the quarter and 11.99 percent in the last 12 months to end of Q2.

In a typically slow quarter within many markets, particularly in the Americas, reflecting the end of a number of central subsidies and stimulus packages, there were still significant signs of some countries continuing their return to economic health. China, the powerhouse of global broadband in the 21st century so far, was responsible for 43 percent of all net broadband lines added in Q2 and performed far better than the same quarter in 2009 (China includes Mainland China, Hong Kong & Macau). In Western Europe, many markets did better than the equivalent 2009 quarter. Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Turkey, amongst others, all reported strong numbers. Central and South American markets have cooled to an extent, but many are still reporting good quarterly growth (of 5-7 percent). However, the US and in particular Canada, broadband growth has significantly slowed, affected by the end of housing stimulus packages. In Canada's case, the market slowed to levels not seen for a decade.
 

Except for North America, all regions performed better in Q2 than the same period in 2009. Continuing the trend from previous quarterly figures, Asia increased its share of the overall broadband market by a further 1.2 percent in the year and by 0.41 percent in the last quarter alone. The region now accounts for almost 41 percent of the total, with Europe in second place with 30 percent and the Americas showing 26 percent. China is the biggest individual contributor to the Asian growth, adding 5.47 million lines to bring its total to 120.59 million or over 24 percent of the 500 million lines.
 

Consumers living in emerging markets are paying up to three times more for broadband than their mature market counterparts, according to Ovum.Research by the independent telecoms analyst into broadband in 15 emerging markets revealed that emerging consumers are paying far more on average than the rest of the world, despite earning the lowest wages.Angel Dobardziev, an Ovum practice leader and author of the report on broadband pricing in emerging markets, said: "The cost of broadband in some emerging countries is three times as high as in mature markets, which when coupled with low wages, makes it an unaffordable luxury for all except a small group at the top of the socio-economic pyramid.

"The striking difference in broadband prices in mature and emerging markets means there is a huge divide in terms of uptake of services."­Nigeria's broadband tariffs were among the most expensive of those sampled by Ovum, with the annual cost of some services reaching more than $2,000 per year, despite the country having a low GDP per capita at $1,170.South Africa had the highest broadband prices of all the countries sampled. The annual cost of some services was found to be more than $5,000, against a GDP of $5,820 per year.

Angel adds: "The key to making broadband more affordable for emerging markets will be an increase in supply and competition, which is currently modest in most markets and non existent outside the key urban areas."However, many markets will require concerted regulatory and policy efforts to increase competition and supply and bring affordability within reach of the mass consumer market. As yet it is unclear how quickly this will happen."

Source: Cellular News

Telefonica will increase the broadband speeds provided to its ADSL subscribers from the current 6 Mbps to 10 Mbps. The upgraded speeds will involve no extra charges for customers. The speed upgrade process is scheduled for completion by end-2011. Additionally, starting September, Telefonica will double the mobile broadband speeds for customers located in Madrid and Barcelona, from the current 21 Mbps to 42 Mbps.

According to Guillermo Ansaldo, Telefonica's head of Spanish operations, mobile broadband services will be the main market driver in coming years. In the 2008-2012 period, the number of mobile broadband accesses is expected to increase 6-fold, while mobile broadband traffic will multiply by 17.

Source: TelecomPaper

BT has confirmed that 15 million homes and small businesses now have broadband access over its high-speed network. Of these connections, more than 5 million are through BT Retail and the rest via other companies who benefit from equivalent access to the BT network. BT had around 200,000 broadband connections in August 2002, adding 14.8 million connections in eight years, equal to more than 5,000 broadband connections a day. When Virgin Media customers are taken into account , the UK now has more than 19 million broadband premises using broadband.

Source: TelecomPaper

Montenegro’s Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services has revealed that the country’s dial-up subscriber base fell by 3.2% to 3,294 between June and July, mainly due to migration to broadband. According to the regulator’s latest report, the number of ADSL connections rose 1.9% to 50,290 during July, while WiMAX connections reached nearly 7,295. The overall broadband subscriber base stood at 60,318, giving a household penetration rate of approximately 30%.

Source: TeleGeography

Pakistan’s fixed line incumbent Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has reportedly seen its broadband subscriber base surpass the 500,000 milestone, according to Trading Markets. In addition, the telco has also increased the maximum download speeds available to its subscribers, introducing a new top speed of 8Mbps, double the previous limit of 4Mbps. PTCL has automatically upgraded all of its existing customers to higher speeds, with those previously on 2Mbps and 4Mbps packages seeing their top level speeds upped to 4Mbps and 6Mbps respectively, while retaining the same monthly package cost.

Source: TeleGeography

Spain’s largest broadband provider by subscribers, Movistar, is set to revamp its double- and triple-play fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service, which it offers under the Movistar Futura banner. In mid-August the telco plans to introduce a new range of packages offering download and upload speeds of 50Mbps and 5Mbps respectively, while also revising the pricing structure of its offerings with a view to increasing uptake. Further, in the third quarter of 2010 Movistar will boost speeds for its bundled services to up to 100Mbps downlink and 10Mbps uplink, while continuing to expand coverage. Alongside improving connection speeds, the operator will also make available a new DVR set-top box and a range of new high definition content to further tempt prospective customers to sign up, with channels including Eurosport HD, Unitel Classic HD and MGM HD among those to launch on the service this summer. The price for the Movistar Futura 50/5Mb package will be EUR54.87 (USD69.29) per month, although the telco will waive the subscription fee and offer a lower EUR43.87 monthly charge for the first six months for those signing up in during a promotional period at launch.

Source: TeleGeography

Syria’s state-owned fixed line monopoly Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) is looking to expand its ADSL network through the installation of around 40,000 new broadband ports. STE director Tarek Badour says the firm has signed a contract with China’s Huawei Technologies, ahead of its implementation during the fourth quarter of 2010. The contract includes the expansion of ports at 82 existing sites, as well as the supply of 33,000 ADSL ports at 106 sites, he said. Around 150,000 broadband ports are expected to be installed by the end of this year, of which 70,000 have already been commissioned. STE says it is looking to migrate some of the four million or so Syrians currently using a dial-up connection onto ADSL broadband by the end of this year.

Source: TeleGeography

True Corp has launched Thailand’s fastest residential broadband internet service, over VDSL2 lines in 220 condominiums in Bangkok. The Bangkok Post reports that True’s internet division True Online aims to expand coverage of the 50Mbps/3Mbps (down/uplink) package to ‘1,000 areas’ in and around the capital in a second phase, and to other major provinces ‘in the near future.’ True charges THB5,600 (USD173.50) per month for the premium VDSL service which includes unlimited usage of the telco’s public Wi-Fi access points. The company says it is targeting mobile smartphone users with the Wi-Fi service. A 30Mbps VDSL package costs THB3,600 a month. True also plans to launch a 100Mbps fixed broadband service, and a spokesperson said, ‘We are looking into bringing 200Mbps service to Thailand as well.’ Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, True's managing director and chief operating officer, said the company plans to spend THB500 million to expand its broadband network to nine additional provinces by the year-end, extending its footprint to 20 provinces. True had around 720,000 fixed high speed customers as of end-March, 90% using 4Mbps (downstream) services (mostly DSL-based) with the remainder using higher speed services up to a maximum downlink of 16Mbps. It is aiming to finish the year with 900,000 subscribers in total.

Source: TeleGeography

Sweden's retail market for electronic communications increased during 2009 by 2 percent to SEK 50.5 billion, according to a report by local telecommunications authority PTS. The average household generated SEK 563 per month in revenues for market stakeholders during 2009, which was SEK 1 less than during 2008. In 2009, revenues from mobile services increased by 9 percent to SEK 22.2 billion in Sweden. At the same time, the number of mobile subscriptions, including voice and data, increased by 7 percent to 11.6 million at the end of 2009. Subscriptions for mobile broadband represented the largest share of this increase. The number of these subscriptions increased by 50 percent year-on-year to 1.31 million. During 2009, more SMS were sent than the total number of calls made from fixed and mobile phones. In the same period, 16.3 billion SMS were sent from mobile telephones, corresponding to an annual increase of about 65 percent. The average customer sent 133 SMS per month. Traffic for mobile data services amounted to 27,800 TB, corresponding to an increase of 103 percent compared with 2008. Revenues from fixed call services declined by 6 percent to SEK 15.4 million.

At the end of 2009, there were 5.151 million fixed telephone subscriptions in Sweden, which is 4 percent less than in 2008. While the number of traditional fixed telephony (PSTN and ISDN) subscribers fell, fixed IP-based telephony subscriptions rose in 2009. The number of internet subscriptions amounted to 4.596 million at the end of 2009. Of these, 4.255 million were broadband subscriptions, which corresponds to an increase of 13 percent year-on-year. The number of fixed broadband subscriptions was 2.945 million at the end of 2009, which is in line with the figure recorded at the end of 2008.

Source: TelecomPaper

Le satellite, une technologie incontournable pour l'accès final ?

Après avoir rencontré un succès mitigé au début des années 2000, l'accès bidirectionnel par satellite fait son grand retour depuis deux ans, notamment en Amérique du Nord, en Asie, et désormais en Europe. Les actions pour la réduction de fracture numérique et la migration vers le très haut débit permettent à la technologie satellitaire de jouer un rôle de plus en plus important.

"Sur la période 2010-2014, l'IDATE estime que le nombre d'abonnés haut débit par satellite sur la zone Europe et Afrique du Nord devrait croître au rythme annualisé de 45 % pour atteindre 610 000 abonnés en 2014 contre près de 138 000 fin 2010.", commente Maxime Baudry, chef de projet.

Les principaux tendances pour le satellite très haut débit
• Les plans de réduction de la fracture numérique se généralisant en Europe, le satellite doit mettre en avant ses atouts pour figurer parmi les solutions technologiques possibles.
• Plus que la réduction de la fracture numérique, c’est la course au très haut débit qui est désormais lancée en Europe.
• Dans la bataille qui va l'opposer aux technologies terrestres, principalement sans-fil (3G et LTE), la technologie satellitaire devra mettre en avant ses atouts, le principal étant certainement une disponibilité immédiate pour un coût modéré.
• L’IDATE estime que le très haut débit par satellite devrait croître fortement au cours des prochaines années, notamment via les plans de réduction de fracture numérique, mais aussi via la course au très haut débit qui l’avantage sur les zones rurales par rapport aux technologies LTE et FTTx qui ne sont pas compétitives économiquement.
• Alors que la bande Ka se développe en Europe et ailleurs dans le monde, le futur du très haut débit par satellite pourrait se faire dans des bandes de fréquences encore plus élevées pour permettre des débits de plus de 100 Mbps à l’horizon 2020.

Face à la concurrence des technologies terrestres, qu'elles soient filaires ou sans-fil, quelles sont les perspectives de marché réelles pour la technologie satellitaire ? Par ailleurs, quels scénarios de positionnement s'avéreront les plus pertinents pour un opérateur satellite compte tenu des caractéristiques du marché du haut débit dans les différentes zones géographiques ciblées ? Quelles nouvelles technologies satellitaires sont prévues à long terme ?

L'étude "Très haut débit par Satellite", publié par l'IDATE, donne, entre autres, les réponses à ces questions clés et présente des chiffres actuels du marché de satellite et des marchés concurrents.

Source: IDATE

Brazil's largest mobile operator by subscribers, Vivo Participacoes, yesterday announced ambitious plans to extend its broadband coverage to 85% of the population by the end of 2011. The cellco intends to reach 2,832 municipalities by that date, up from the current 600, by using monies set aside in this year’s BRL2.49 billion (USD1.37 billion) CAPEX fund. In a press release Vivo CEO Roberto Lima said: ‘The plan is ambitious but will be completed. Our objective is to rapidly expand our third-generation coverage.’

Source: TeleGeography

­The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has  issued a consultation paper on a National Broadband Plan for the country. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has also made a reference to TRAI seeking its recommendations on the need to review the definition of Broadband connectivity in view of future growth in internet/broadband driven by wireless technologies.

It is a matter of concern that broadband penetration in India is low in spite of the fact that 104 telecom service providers are providing broadband services. The broadband penetration is just 0.74% when compared with teledensity of 52.74%. A need is being felt to identify impediments and create an environment to encourage broadband growth. The net broadband addition per month is just 0.1 to 0.2 million in contrast to approximately 18 million mobile connections per month.

Source: Cellular News

The UAE’s incumbent telecoms operator Etisalat is set to launch Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology by the end of 2010, LteWorld reports. Abdulla Al Ahmad, vice president of Enterprise Sales at Etisalat said that the company will be able to provide theoretical download speeds of up to 140Mbps and maximum uplink rates of 50Mbps. He added that Etisalat has been conducting successful LTE trials, designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile networks.

In a separate story, Etisalat has announced the launch of a triple-play service over its fibre-optic infrastructure. ‘eLife Triple Play’ bundles landline telephony, broadband and television services. ‘By introducing TV on our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, we launch today the second phase of ‘eLife' that opens doors for unmatched applications and adds significant value to our customers' lifestyles, providing them numerous entertainment options that are both customisable as well as convenient,’ noted the operator’s senior vice-president of marketing, Khalifa Al Shamsi. The new bundle is available to all homes connected to Etisalat’s ‘eLife’ FTTH network. As well as the capital Abu Dhabi, the company is rolling out ‘eLife’ in Dubai and Sharjah and plans to connect all of the UAE’s households by 2011, including 1.4 million homes and offices. Prices for the new triple-play package range from AED299 (USD81.38) to AED539 per month.

Source: TeleGeography

­Increased competition in New Zealand's mobile market has improved pricing in the local market, but voice call usage still remains low by international standards, concludes the annual report from New Zealand's Commerce Commission. As well as looking at developments in 2009, the report also assesses the progress seen since the 2006 amendments to the Telecommunications Act came into effect.

The total number of ADSL and cable broadband subscriptions in Hungary climbed by 17,000 in February 2010 for a month-end total of 1.802 million, the National Telecommunications Authority (NHH) reports. However, the total for fixed line telephones dipped from 3.055 million in January 2010 to 3.040 million a month later, it added. Of the total for broadband connections, ADSL accounted for 811,000, while cable lines climbed 15,000 in the month to 991,000, the NHH said.

Source: TeleGeography.

Ireland’s telecoms regulator the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has published its latest market report for the three months ended 31 December 2009. The report shows that broadband internet penetration in the Republic, including mobile broadband subscriptions, stood at 32.4% by the year end, up from 30.5% at 3Q09. Excluding the impact of mobile broadband however, which is proving to be a popular option, the penetration rate falls to 21.9% - based on data from the Central Statistics Office which gives the population as 4,459,300. The regulator is also mindful that its 32.4% rate could be skewed by double counting of people owning both a fixed and mobile broadband subscription. Nonetheless, household broadband penetration continues to grow, reaching 61% by the start of this year, from 59.4% in the third quarter.

The popularity of Wi-Fi hotspots is waning though. ComReg’s report says the number of Wi-Fi hotspots dipped to 1,357 at the end of 2009, down 5% year-on-year, even though the total for Wi-Fi access points climbed 8% over the same period to 3,561. Usage of Wi-Fi hotspots is also falling. In the final trimester of last year average usage per hotspot was down 3.4% y-o-y, reflecting the impact of decreased network traffic in the economic downturn.

The recession is also evident in terms of overall telecommunications revenues in the Republic in Q409, which dipped 2.3% year-on-year to EUR974 million. Despite this fall, the total amount of voice call minutes in Q409 increased 1.4% to more than 4.8 billion minutes, driven by an 84 million increase in mobile voice call minutes, ComReg said.

Source: TeleGeography

Polish regulator UKE announced the launch of the project to support broadband networks construction. On 4 March UKE received information that the Ministry of Interior and Administration approving the project to support construction of broadband internet access networks, as part of the Operational Programme Innovative Economy - POIG). UKE will advise on the investments within the Regional Operational Programme, the Operational Programme Development of Eastern Poland and the objectives 8.3 and 8.4 of POIG concerning digital inclusion and last-mile internet access. In the years 2007-2013 Poland can use about EUR 1 billion for local and regional broadband networks. After 30 months only 2 percent of the amount (EUR 18 million) has been spent. The regulator urged that the financing is used efficiently even though there are no tools to pressure investors to focus on particular regions. Although the regulator does not have decision-making powers (relevant ministries do), it wants to provide advice and assist in implementation of investment projects. The UKE chairman also provided information on the status of operational programmes. Within the Regional Operational Programme six contracts were signed and EUR 16.6 million was spent, which represents 3 percent of available resources (EUR 579 million).

Within the measure 8.3 digital inclusion, 50 contracts were signed on co-financing for approximately EUR 21.5 million, which represents 5.9 percent of available resources (EUR 364 million). Within the measure 8.4 last mile, eleven contracts were signed amounting to EUR 1.4 million, which is 0.7 percent of available resources of EUR 200 million. Within the Operational Programme Development of Eastern Poland no contract has been signed yet and the project is at the stage of feasibility assessment. Total available funds are EUR 300 million. For the Rural Development Programme EUR 59 million shall be allocated. Municipalities and their associations shall be the beneficiaries. The measures are available since December 2009.

Source: TelecomPaper

The European Commission has proposed extending broadband access to the entire EU by 2013 and providing the whole region with access to speeds of at least 30Mbps by 2020. The targets form part of its 'Digital Agenda for Europe'. The EC would also like to see 50 percent or more of European households taking internet at over 100Mbps. In order to realise the goals, the EU will continue to work on encouraging investments in broadband infrastructure and developing an efficient spectrum policy, as well as devoting structural funds to broadband expansion. The EC also wants to create a single market for online content and services, including multi-territorial licences for copyrighted material, a European stake in global internet governance and further digitisation of Europe's cultural heritage. Additional measures may include a reform of research and innovation funds in order to increase support for the ICT sector in key strategic fields, support high-growth SMEs and stimulate ICT innovation across all business sectors.

The EC also wants more work on promoting internet use and digital literacy among Europeans. The proposals are part of the much broader EU 2020 plan presented by the commission, which proposes a range of strategies to get the EU out of the economic crisis and back on a growth path. The EC asked the member states to ensdorse the plans at the spring European Council meeting.

Source: TelecomPaper

Peru's minister of transport and communications Enrique Cornejo has announced that, for the rest of his term of office, the ministry will focus on laying the foundations for sustained development of data transmission via broadband networks across the country. For this purpose, the minister set up a temporary committee that will develop the National Plan for Broadband Development in Peru. The commission has 120 days to develop the strategy.

The committee will initially assess the level of broadband access in Peru, as well as the technology used and the infrastructure deployed at national level, and will identify the barriers that limit broadband deployments. The group will then propose the guidelines, strategies and actions to be taken to support the development of the national broadband network. At 30 September 2009, Peru had 852,900 broadband connections.

Source: TelecomPaper

The US Federal Communications Commission has unveiled plans to extend the country's universal service fund to broadband services.

The proposals will form part of the National Broadband Plan, to be presented to Congress on 17 March. The proposal would create a Connect America fund inside the Universal Service programme to subsidize broadband, and a Mobility Fund to expand the reach of 3G mobile networks, Blair Levin, the FCC official overseeing the broadband plan, told a press briefing. The Universal Service Fund currently subsidizes phone service for the poor and in remote areas, funds internet access in schools and libraries and pays for high-speed connections for rural health clinics. Funding for the USD 8-billion-a-year programme comes from a surcharge that businesses and consumers pay on their long-distance bills. The agency's plan will lay out several options to pay for the proposals, including one that would require no additional money from Congress and one that would accelerate the construction of broadband networks if Congress approves a one-time injection of USD 9 billion, AP reported from the briefing. Either way, Levin said, the proposal would not increase the annual size of the Universal Service Fund, but rather would take money from subsidies now used for voice services. The FCC would also seek to save money by subsidizing no more than one broadband provider in an area. Levin said Connect America would not favor one technology over another, be it cable, DSL or wireless.

The FCC proposal also envisions revamping the multibillion-dollar "intercarrier compensation" system for interconnection. Changes to the USF would affect revenues for rural carriers dependent on the funding, so changes would also be needed in the interconnection regime. The operators' industry group USTelecom said it welcomed the progress towards reform and plans to work with the commission on details of the plan.

Source: TelecomPaper

Telkom Kenya has announced that it will shift its strategic focus in 2010 as it attempts to recover following a net loss of KES10 billion (USD124.6 million) in 2009, reports Business Daily. Telkom Kenya generated revenues of KES11 billion but turned the net loss as higher levels of competition saw industry profit levels plummet as operators dropped their prices to gain market share. Telkom Kenya CEO, Mickael Ghossein, said the company had encountered severe conditions in the last trading year that had affected its ability to generate profits. He added: ‘We are now focusing on providing quality services, innovating and providing value for money. Our grand plan is to move the market towards true broadband connectivity, offering speeds of up to 8Mbps.’

Source: TeleGeography

Growth in fibre services delivered directly to homes and buildings accelerated n Europe in 2009. According to a report by market researcher Idate for the FTTH Council Europe, the number of FTTH/B subscribers rose 19 percent over the six months to December 2009 to 3.5 million and the number of homes and buildings passed increased 29 percent to over 25 million. The survey covered 36 countries in Europe, including Russia, which accounted for around 1 million of the subscribers. Excluding Russia, the majority of subscribers (77 percent) are concentrated in seven countries, in the following order: Sweden, Italy, France, Lithuania, Norway, The Netherlands and Denmark. Amongst them five countries now have more than 200,000 subscribers connected.

Idate identified 249 FTTH/B projects in Europe, of which 136 are new initiatives since June 2005. Municipalities and utilities are still the main players in FTTH/B deployments, representing 55.7 percent of the total number of projects. Alternative operators represent 28.7 percent of the total number of projects, but over 74 percent of homes/buildings passed. They also account for most of the subscribers, led by FastWeb in Italy, B2 of Sweden, Illiad/Free, Numericable and SFR in France, Orange Slovensko and T2 in Slovenia, which together had 841,500 subscribers, or around 24 percent of Europe's FTTH/B subscriber base (including Russia). Regarding technology deployed, Ethernet is still the first choice and represents 84 percent of total FTTH/B rollouts at end 2009.

Source: TelecomPaper

Venezuela’s telecoms regulator Conatel has reported that the country’s number of fixed lines in service grew by 7% in the twelve months to the end of December 2009, taking the total to 6.9 million. The watchdog also said that total mobile subscriptions increased by 3% in the year to 28.1 million, continuing a slowdown in the growth rate from the 14% rise seen in 2008, and a 27% increase two years earlier. According to Conatel’s figures, cellular penetration reached 99.2% at end-2009. However, the standout development in the report was a 40% year-on-year increase in total fixed broadband internet customers to 1.9 million.

Source: TeleGeography

Vache Kirakosyan, the head of high tech and IT at Armeria’s Ministry of Economy has said the build out of a high speed broadband internet network in the country will start later this year. PanARMENIAN.Net quotes Kirakosyan as saying the state has allocated USD900,000 to prepare the groundwork for the project. According to the official, European IT and telecoms consultancy DeTeCon International has been approached to provide assistance on the plan. It is understood the new high speed network will comprise a mix of fibre-optic, WiMAX and satellite technologies. The deployment project will last between three and five years and cost around USD24 million.

Source: TeleGeography

Nepal’s state-owned national fixed line and mobile operator Nepal Telecom (Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited, or NT) is mulling an ambitious network expansion programme designed to raise overall teledensity in the country to 60% by 2014. A report in the Republica online journal quotes NT deputy managing director Anoopranjan Bhattarai as saying the firm hopes to reach its goal by investing heavily in its GSM and next generation network (NGN) infrastructure.

Undaunted, Bhattarai revealed that NT hopes to hit its target through an ‘aggressive marketing and assurance of service quality’ campaign. ‘If our expansion plan materialises, over 30 million people will be using the services of NT by 2014,’ he added. In real terms NT needs to add around 18 million new lines, including more than five million GSM connections. NT is also looking to install an Internet Protocol Code Division Multiple Access (IP CDMA) system which will have capacity for three million subscribers, and is looking to implement an early launch of CDMA2000 1xEvDO technology boasting maximum transfer speeds of 3Mbps. Its existing wireless networks are limited to around 155kbps.

Other plans afoot include the option of offering IPTV and video on demand (VoD) systems, Bhattarai said, while the firm is installing 550 VSAT terminals to expand its services in remote places.

Source: TeleGeography

Spain added 300,649 mobile lines in December, bringing the total number to 52.88 million, up by 4.6 percent over the same month of 2008, according to the monthly report by Spanish regulator CMT. Over the last three months, Orange won 32.91 percent of the total new additions, Yoigo 21.87 percent, Movistar 19 percent, while Vodafone won 14.88 percent and the MVNOs won 11.33 percent in the period. Mobile penetration reached 114.6 lines per 100 inhabitants, versus 110.2 in December 2008.

The M2M sector went up by 25.7 percent over the same period last year, to over 1.84 million lines. The growth of the M2M sector brings the total number of mobile lines to over 54.73 million. Spain ported a record 429,974 mobile phone numbers in December, up by 13.7 percent versus the same period last year. Yoigo, the MVNOs and Orange saw a positive balance in portability, while Movistar and Vodafone registered a negative balance. Yoigo won 33,933 users, the MVNOs added 13,422 users, and Orange won 17,543 ported customers. Movistar shed 28,241 users and Vodafone lost nearly 36,657 customers in the month. Spanish operators added 63,722 broadband users in December, reaching a total base of 9.74 million lines, up by 7.6 percent year-on-year and a penetration of over 21 lines per 100 inhabitants. The number of DSL lines rose by 53,476 connections or by 8.2 percent over the same period of 2008, reaching a total of 7.88 million lines at the end of December. Some 10,246 cable modem lines were added in the month, reaching a total of 1.86 million lines. The overall number of fixed lines rose by 13,224, to 19.85 million lines at the end of December 2009.

Fixed penetration reached 43 lines per 100 inhabitants, versus 43.9 in the year-earlier month. Around 136,322 fixed numbers were ported in December, up by 20.9 percent versus 112,775 fixed numbers ported in December 2008.

Source: TelecomPaper

Belarusian national PTO Beltelecom says it is looking to more than double its broadband internet subscriber base to one million by the end of this year, up from the 400,000 it reported at the end of 2009. Local online news portal e-belarus.org says that in addition to its ADSL user base, Beltelecom also boasts a network of 480 ‘active’ Wi-Fi hotspots across 220 regions in the country.

Last year the national fixed line operator expanded the external internet gateway from 5.2Gbps to 22Gbps, of which the Russian gateway to Rostelecom and Transtelecom accounts for 20Gbps, and the remaining 2Gbps is accounted for through its western link with Tata Communications.

Source: TeleGeography

The British government has begun a twelve-week consultation on the proposed broadband tax that is expected to help fund the rollout of superfast broadband services across the country, Reuters reports. It has been widely claimed that the current government is keen to sign the new levy into law prior to the upcoming general election, which is expected in May 2010.

Under the proposals, which were unveiled as part of the Digital Britain report released in June 2009, the state plans to raise approximately GBP150 million to GBP175 million (USD225 million to USD263 million) per year by introducing a GBP0.50 per month levy on every fixed line voice and/or broadband connection. This extra charge is to be paid in to a Next Generation Fund (NGF), which will be managed by regulator Ofcom. The consultation launched has called on telecoms and internet industry players to put forward views on how the funds raised should be spent. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said that the investment was essential to preserve Britain's international competitiveness and prevent a new digital divide emerging between those with fast and those with slow connections, noting: ‘Already the market is delivering superfast Internet speeds of 50Mbps to half the country but we cannot be certain that it will reach the communities that are not currently served.’

The government has estimated that as the result of private investment already being undertaken by providers such as fixed line incumbent BT and cableco Virgin Media, superfast broadband will reach around 70% of the population by 2017, but the state is keen to boost this figure to 90%.

Source: TeleGeography

Taiwanese regulator the National Communications Commission (NCC) has announced plans to implement a 5.87% cut on mobile service rates from 1 April 2010. The regulator, citing ITU figures, revealed that the country’s mobile charges as a percentage of per capita income rank as the 26th highest in the world, and are currently three times higher than Hong Kong. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Taiwan’s mobile industry has flourished despite the apparent high charges, with a cellular penetration rate of 116% at the end of September 2009.

Meanwhile, ADSL charges will also be subject to a similar reduction, with rates being cut by 5.68%, benefiting the country’s 15.47 million ADSL users.

Source: TeleGeography

The Malaysian government is set to examine the existing rates paid by subscribers for broadband services with a view to increasing the uptake of such services, The Star Online reports. Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has said that the ministry plans to compare the local charges with rates in several countries including South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, noting: ‘The ministry will find a way so that the charges for internet and broadband services in Malaysia are affordable and do not pose a burden to users.’

Additionally, the minister has unveiled plans to construct around 1,000 more transmission towers across the country this year in a further bid to increase broadband penetration. The construction of the new infrastructure will be overseen by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, with regions such as Sabah, Sarawak, Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu targeted particularly due to their current low penetration levels.

Source: TeleGeography

According to Egypt’s Communications Minister, Tarek Kamel, the country is currently preparing a USD1 billion plan aimed at boosting internet penetration fourfold in the next four years, Reuters reports. Commenting on the proposals Mr Kamel said: ‘Most of the investments...will primarily go in local investment in increasing the local capacity.’ It is understood that such local investment will be ploughed in to a combination of wireless and wired services covering both rural and urban areas, and will follow up the country’s investment in international broadband cable systems that is expected to at least double the capacity coming into the country from the current 60Gbps. The minister also noted that the government is targeting a broadband penetration rate of 20% by end-2013, equivalent to enabling access to connections to around four million households.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, as at end-2008 Egypt’s broadband penetration stood at just 0.9%, with a total of 696,305 high speed internet subscribers in the country. TE Data, a subsidiary of fixed line monopoly provider Telecom Egypt, dominates the sector, controlling more than half of all broadband subscribers at September 2009, with 479,819.

Source: Telegeography

KPN Telecom of the Netherlands yesterday announced plans to connect up to 1.3 million Dutch households to high speed fibre-optic networks by the end of 2012, up from the 460,000 it has currently. The telco is looking to work with joint venture partner Reggefiber to facilitate a phased rollout of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology; KPN holds a 41% stake in the venture which was established last year. In a statement, KPN said: ‘By 2012, KPN targets some 600,000 to 800,000 active customers on fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-curb combined, roughly corresponding to 10% of Dutch households.’ The former monopoly operator went on to say that it is unlikely that Reggefiber will be consolidated on the KPN balance sheet before 2012.

Source: Telegeography

Bell Aliant and the Government of Prince Edward Island (PEI) have announced the completion of the rollout of broadband infrastructure to virtually all areas of the island following an expansion project costing CAD8.2 million (USD7.7 million) and bringing more than 21,000 additional homes and businesses under the coverage footprint in 2009. In addition, the telco and the provincial authorities announced the launch of the Rural Broadband Fund (RBF), a five-year strategic partnership to support innovation in information technology across PEI. Applications for RBF funding will be considered for one- or two-year projects.

Source: TeleGeography

The Philippines’ dominant telecoms group Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has revealed it will be ready to roll out broadband over powerlines (BPL) technology in six to twelve months, the Daily Inquirer reports. The telco’s move into BPL technology is a by-product of the group’s acquisition of a controlling stake in the country’s largest power distribution company Manila Electric Co (Meralco), and will allow PLDT to offer broadband services to virtually all Meralco’s 24 million-strong customer base in and around Metro Manila. According to PLDT chairman Manuel V Pangilinan, BPL trials in parts of Malabon, started in July and ‘seem to be doing fine’. The chairman went on the say though that more needs to be done and that a widespread rollout timetable would tend to suggest a six- to twelve-month timeframe.

Source: TeleGeography

The UAE’s incumbent telco Etisalat has launched a new 30Mbps broadband package over its new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. ‘Etisalat is committed to provide the best of technology to its customers by introducing advanced technologies like FTTH in the UAE,’ said Mohammed Khalfan Al Qamzi, CEO of Etisalat, adding, ‘Our FTTH network is on a fast track roll-out; Etisalat is getting ready to announce Abu Dhabi as the first connected capital in the world in the coming months and aims to connect all the UAE households and premises through its FTTH network by 2011, which will become yet another milestone in its own right.’

The telco has reportedly already connected over 550,000 households to its FTTH network. The 30Mbps package is priced at AED699 (USD190.35) per month, and includes free installation, one month's rental waiver, five free email addresses with 5GB capacity, and eight hours of free access each month to over 350 Etisalat wireless hotspots.

Source: Telegeography

Morocco added 128,222 internet subscribers in the second quarter, for 15 percent quarterly growth to 834,463 at the end of June and 47.29 percent growth versus June 2008, according to telecommunications regulator ANRT.

Of the total internet customers, 50.75 percent are on ADSL and 48.7 percent are on 3G mobile networks. ADSL subscribers were static at 488,567 at the end of June, compared to 489,043 at the end of March.

The government of Ghana has signed a USD150 million contract with Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies for the supply of advanced telecoms infrastructure to ensure broadband internet access countrywide within the next two years. The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, told delegates at a conference on Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) that the infrastructure would link internet Points of Presence (PoP) in all district capitals under the government's ICT Backbone Development Programme. The minister added that the government was committed to ensuring it developed the human resources needed to promote the country as a prospect for BPO companies, and said Ghana was working hard to ensure the legislative regime was right encourage inward investment under the e-legislation programme. ‘During the year the Ministry of Communications will also facilitate the development of additional legislations in the area of data protection and intellectual property for investors in the area of data capturing and management to operate within the confines of international guidelines and rules,’ he said. His words were echoed by Vice President John Dramani Mahama who stressed Ghana’s commitment to developing the nation’s ICT backbone capabilities. ‘In addition to the SAT3 connectivity, Glo 1 and MaiOne will commence the construction of two additional landing stations by the end of this year to take care of the issues of bandwidth redundancy,’ he said.

Source: Telegeography

Rwandan daily The New Times is reporting that internet users in the country’s capital Kigali will be able to access WiBro high speed mobile wireless internet by the end of September. The government signed a USD40 million deal with South Korean incumbent telco KT in October 2008 to install the 10,000-user capacity wireless broadband network in the city. Nkubito Bakuramutsa, deputy CEO of IT at the Rwanda Development, commented: ‘Tourists will be able to move from the airport to their hotels while surfing the net and people will be moving in their vehicles while carrying out transactions on their laptops.’ He said that the wireless broadband project is worth RWF4.5 billion (USD8 million) and added that by December of this year, a RWF22.7 billion fibre-optic backbone project will be rolled out throughout the country. Under the deal signed with KT, the South Korean telco also agreed to install the 2,300km national backbone, which will link 36 main points in Rwanda's 30 districts and is expected to provide affordable high speed broadband internet access to around four million Rwandans within the next two to three years. The project will also increase broadband availability to more than 700 Rwandan institutions, including schools, healthcare centres and local government administrative centres.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the KT deal was funded in part by a USD24 million credit line extended to the country by the World Bank as part of its USD424 million Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme, designed to improve the infrastructure of southern and eastern Africa and increase the deployment of e-government in the area

Source: Telegeography

The Estonian government has approved plans to construct a nationwide superfast broadband network, according to local news source Postimees Online. Under the proposals the state expects 90% of the country to have access to the 100Mbps network by 2012, with the remainder of the population to be connected by 2015. Juhan Parts, Estonia’s minister of economic affairs and communications, also revealed that the government would create an autonomous foundation comprising all major telecommunication providers in the country to oversee the network’s development. ‘The state plans to provide significant support for developing the infrastructure; as of now, the state’s contribution that is required is approximately EEK1 billion (USD91.45 million)’, the minister noted. It is expected that the government will fund the deployment of infrastructure in those areas, mostly rural and sparsely populated, that are not considered financially feasible by commercial operators.

Source: Telegeography

The opening of a fiber-optic cable providing broadband to millions of people in Southern and Eastern Africa is part of an ambitious plan to expand Internet access and help spur the continent’s economy and its technology industry. The cable, built by Seacom, a consortium 75 percent controlled by African investors, is the first of about 10 new undersea connections expected to serve Africa before the middle of next year. The expansion will cost about $2.4 billion and will help connect Africa with Europe, Asia and parts of the Middle East at higher speeds and at lower cost.

Right now, Africa has only one submarine fiber-optic cable: the less efficient SAT-3 cable in Western Africa, owned primarily by Telkom, the South African telecom company, and last updated in 2002. Those with no access to that cable are forced to use expensive and slow satellite links.

Ukraine’s largest mobile operator by subscribers Kyivstar has begun building a high speed fixed access network based on fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) technology in Kiev and Odessa, reports Ukrinform. Vitaliy Vorozhbyt, Kyivstar’s director of product development, said: ‘At the first stage, the project will involve cities with population of over a million, and then it is planned to extend the network to other regional centres.’ The company, a majority-owned subsidiary of Norway’s Telenor, intends ultimately to launch a quad-play package of services combining fixed and mobile voice services, broadband internet access and digital TV. Telenor Executive Vice President Thor Halvorsen said of the Ukrainian FTTB rollout: ‘First we wish to enter the market of internet access services; then we will develop television and voice.’

Source: Telegeography

Americans value broadband more than ever with home broadband adoption rates up 15 percent in 2009 and consumers favoring Internet over cell phone and cable TV, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

"We found that broadband is now in the 'must keep' category for Americans, even when economic times are tough," said Horrigan, principal author of the report. "Many consumers view their home broadband connection as a conduit for connecting to community and economic opportunities."

Source: Cellular News.

Lord Stephen Carter, the UK’s communication minister, has released the final version of his Digital Britain report, which details proposals for improving and expanding the nation’s digital infrastructure. Echoing the previous indications in the interim report, which was published in January 2009, one of the main proposals is for the universal provision of broadband services at speeds of 2Mbps, which is expected to be delivered through a combination of fixed and mobile technologies. Approximately 15% of British homes are not currently able to receive 2Mbps services, and the government will release approximately GBP200 million (USD328 million) from unused funds previously set aside to assist elderly people with the switch from analogue to digital TV. To manage the process a Network Design and Procurement Group will be created, and will be responsible for structuring and running the procurement process, overseeing delivery, ensuring active stakeholder engagement, and accountability for the value for money use of the direct public contribution to the Universal Service Commitment.

Source: TeleGeography.

In the last few years, the subject of the global digital divide has received a lot of attention from the telecoms industry. Much of this interest has focused on the role that mobile networks are playing to narrow the divide, as mobile penetration rates in developing markets have been growing strongly, while those in mature markets have saturated. However, at the same time, there has been mass-market adoption of broadband in an increasing number of countries in the developed world, while take-up of broadband in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America has been negligible, causing the broadband access gap to widen considerably.

Source: Cellular News.

Vietnamese military-owned telco Viettel has completed the installation of a broadband network connecting over one thousand educational institutions in Ho Chi Minh City, writes VietNamNet Bridge. Deployment of the network began in November 2008 with the aim of supporting teaching, studying, scientific research and management in colleges, universities and schools across the city. The operator has provided schools with free modems and has also installed and connected the broadband network at no charge in all schools, while colleges and universities will receive a 70% discount on monthly internet charges. The network forms part of a broader project between Viettel and the Ministry of Education and Training to link around 40,000 educational institutions nationwide.

Source: TeleGeography.

The next phase of BT Ireland’s 21CN next generation network rollout will directly link Letterkenny, Derry, Belfast and Dublin, SiliconRepublic reports, and connect them with over 1,270 cities worldwide through BT’s global network. The new fibre-optic network is expected to be operational from August 2009 and will extend from Dublin to Letterkenny, connecting Belfast and Derry along the route through Points of Presence (PoPs). Initial speeds of up to 10Gbps are available, but can be scaled up where required by customers. According to BT, more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the Republic have access to super-fast broadband speeds of up to 24Mbps, following the company’s investment in unbundling 22 telephone exchanges nationwide.

Source: TeleGeography.

AllAfrica.com is reporting that the Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme - Rwanda (RCIPRWA) has received a USD24 million grant from the World Bank to improve the country’s broadband network infrastructure. The funds will be used to establish national capacity to provide broadband connectivity and access to low-cost international connectivity and will facilitate the country's connection to global networks through undersea fiber-optic cables. The minister of science, technology, scientific research and ICT, Professor Romain Murenzi, said: ‘Coupled with the government's initiative to install a national backbone fibre-optic network, this support will boost our ambitions to become a regional ICT hub. The project will bring high speed global connectivity to Rwanda, supporting the growth of business around ICT, and effective e-services to the people of Rwanda such as e-health, e-education, e-agriculture and many other e-applications.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Telecoms companies, ISPs and large enterprises in North America and Western Europe have access to abundant and affordable network capacity. But companies with large international bandwidth requirements still face significant challenges elsewhere.

Data from TeleGeography’s Wholesale Bandwidth Pricing Database reveal that stark price differences persist around the globe. For example, the median price of a 2Mbps E-1 circuit between London and Johannesburg in Q4 2008 was nearly USD15,000. For the same price, a bandwidth buyer could lease a 10Gbps wavelength—500 times the capacity of an E-1—between London and New York.

Source: TeleGeography.

A report from Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) says that the sector was worth BHD303 million (USD804 million) in service revenues in 2008, up by 6.3% from the previous year, with mobile services accounting for 50% of all turnover. Telecoms revenues generated 3.7% of the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the year, according to the watchdog’s figures. The number of fixed lines in service increased by 8% year-on-year to 220,386 by end-December, mainly due to the growth of fixed-wireless connections, while around 70% of domestic fixed line voice traffic was accounted for by fixed-to-mobile calls.

Source: TeleGeography.

In its latest broadband market report, the French telecoms regulator Arcep says the country’s high speed internet providers collectively added 660,000 net new users in the first three months of this year to boost the total to 18.35 million by end-March, up 2.1 million (13%) year-on-year. The watchdog also reported that of the total connections in service, more than five million are now for fully unbundled accesses. Arcep’s broadband figures include xDSL, cable, fibre, fixed-wireless, satellite and Wi-Fi consumer and business subscribers in metropolitan France and overseas departments (DOM). The most popular access technology by far continues to be ADSL which accounted for 17.30 million connections at the end of the first quarter, up from 16.80 million at end-December 2008 and 15.47 million at 31 March 2008.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Spanish telecom regulator, the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT), has released a report in which it predicts that between 43% and 46% of households will connect to the internet using a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connection by 2023. The feasibility study by the regulator also forecasts that by that date, up to three alternative operators could compete with incumbent Telefonica in high demand cities, including Barcelona and Madrid; the CMT highlighted the aforementioned cities as the most attractive for FTTH developments. Alternative access in smaller cities is likely to be more limited, however, with the regulator estimating that Telefonica may only face a single competitor for FTTH business in towns and cities with between 1,000 and one million residents. The CMT also highlighted the expected timelines for investment recovery on FTTH rollouts, claiming that in cities with a population larger than 50,000 alternative operators may recoup their investment in a period of between nine to twelve years. For towns and cities with a population between 5,000 and 50,000 this would increase to 13 to 14 years; the regulator does not expect a significant alternative operator presence in regions with less than 5,000 people.

The study was based on the assumption that all alternative operators will deploy FTTH networks by renting the pipeline infrastructure of Telefonica; according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, in January this year the CMT announced that it would maintain existing obligations for Telefonica to provide access to infrastructure at prices based on its own production costs for its in-deployment FTTH infrastructure.

Source: TeleGeography.

Moroccan telecoms regulator the ANRT has issued a report for the first quarter of 2009, showing that the country’s fixed lines in service reached 3.093 million at the end of March, up from 2.711 million at end-March 2008. The latest total included 1.791 million limited mobility fixed-wireless CDMA lines, up from 1.367 million, accounting for 57.9% of the overall fixed market at end-March 2009, up from 50.5% a year earlier. The vast majority of the limited mobility lines are operated by Wana, which accounted for 58.07% of the overall fixed line market by the end of 1Q 2009, ahead of Maroc Telecom with 41.69% of all lines, and Medi Telecom (Meditel) with 0.24%. In the residential segment, Wana's market share rises to 70.16%, but Maroc Telecom still dominates the lucrative business user market, with 96.57% of the country's 381,000 fixed lines registered to companies.

Source: TeleGeography.

The number of broadband enabled airplanes will increase from 25 in 2008 to 800 in 2009, reports In-Stat. As a result, broadband hungry airline passengers will generate over $47 million worldwide in 2009. The in-flight broadband market is still emerging and will grow well beyond $1 billion annually by 2012.

Source: Cellular News.

True Online, the internet arm of Thai full-service telco True Corp, has expanded its new 8Mbps DSL broadband service, into its first provincial market, the resort of Pattaya, reports the Bangkok Post. The company plans to expand the premium service to Chiang Mai and Phuket by the end of this year. True has signed up 10,000 8Mbps customers in Bangkok since upgrading its top speed in the capital last month, and forecasts the same number of users in Pattaya by end-2009. 8Mbps fixed broadband connections are currently only available to subscribers of True Online’s sister division, mobile operator True Move, and are bundled with a mobile internet subscription for THB1,199 (USD34) per month, including unlimited DSL data usage. Wireless connectivity is via True Move’s GPRS/EDGE cellular network and True’s Wi-Fi network, which is shared by all divisions of the group. True has more than 400 Wi-Fi hotspots in Pattaya, bringing its total to 16,000 locations nationwide, and providing internet access at speeds of up to 2Mbps. True expects its total number of fixed broadband subscribers to increase by 10% this year, from 650,000 at the beginning of January to 715,000 by the end of December, compared to growth of 18% in 2008.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Commerce Commission of New Zealand (ComCom) has released its annual telecoms monitoring report, announcing that over USD882 million was spent on capital investment in 2008. The expenditure was largely accounted for by Telecom New Zealand updating its existing infrastructure to accommodate its strategic transition to an all-IP network, and NZ Communications, New Zealand’s long awaited third mobile operator – having secured 3G spectrum in 2001, rolling out the first stages of its mobile network.

The report also states that broadband subscriptions reached 915,000 by the end of December 2008, with Telecom NZ holding a 57% share of the overall market, a 4% drop since 2007. The mobile sector reported a 16% rise in call minutes over the course of the year, with mobile penetration reaching 111.9% at the end of December 2008, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database.

Source: TeleGeography.

Broadband subscriptions in the UK exceeded expectations in the last 6 months of 2008 reaching 17.4 million by the end of the year and topping Point Topic’s forecasts by 0.2%.

“DSL operators had a stronger fourth quarter than projected, in particular the local loop unbundlers. While cable did well it didn’t exceed our forecasts,” says Tim Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic.

The success of O2 was the biggest new story of 2008 as far as the fixed broadband market was concerned. Starting the year with only 71,000 broadband lines, it added 270,000 more to increase its market share by 1.5%. Sky has a good 12 months too and built on its accomplishments in previous years to achieve even bigger gains, adding 727,000 lines to reach almost 2 million lines

These successes have contributed to DSL increasing its share, from 78.0% to 78.6% of the UK broadband market with almost all the balance being provided by cable and only an estimated 0.2% using other technologies such as fixed wireless and satellite.

However during the year there was only a 10.6% growth in broadband overall, a sharp decline from the 19.9% in 2007. Much of the slowdown came in the second half of the year when market saturation combined with the advancing recession to cut the number of adds from almost 1 million in the first half to only 675,000 in the second.

­comScore has published the results of a study of U.S. Internet usage via mobile PC data cards, which showed that the subscriber base - which previously had been growing strongly - began to decelerate noticeably in Q4 2008.

The study examined the usage and characteristics of mobile PC data card users through data collected from computers where Internet access via mobile broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) occurred.

The study also compared the Internet usage patterns of mobile broadband PC data card users with the general U.S. Internet population to determine how the availability of mobile broadband affects online time. It is important to understand whether online access via mobile broadband represents incremental Internet usage or merely a shift in usage time between different access points.

When looking at the population in aggregate, the results indicated that PC data card usage actually represents a time-shift in Internet consumption, as PC data card users spent nearly the same amount of time online (89 hours) as typical U.S. Internet users (90 hours) during Q4 2008. Of PC data card users with both a PC data card and a wireline ISP, approximately 25 percent of their total online time (22 hours) was spent using a PC data card.

Source: Cellular News.

The total number of ultra-high speed broadband subscribers in France passed 170,000 at the end of 2008, out of 20,500 buildings connected via fibre to at least one telco’s infrastructure, according to a report from the regulator Arcep. Of the total, some 130,000 were connected to a hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) network, while a further 40,000 were using fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology. By the start of this year former monopoly France Telecom had deployed fibre in approximately 40 municipalities, Numericable had upgraded to fibre in around 30 major urban centres and SFR (including neuf Cegetel) and Iliad (Free) are concentrating efforts in areas where FT is less active. Arcep estimates that between three million and 4.5 million homes were passed by fibre at the end of last year.

Source: TeleGeography.

The number of active broadband connections in Ireland (fixed and mobile) passed the 1.2 million mark at the end of 2008, up 35% year-on-year, according to data published by the national telecoms regulator ComReg. Excluding mobile broadband subscriptions however, the figure for xDSL, cable-based and other (WiMAX etc) lines was 891,000. The regulator said that broadband per capita penetration reached 27.1% at the end of the year, with DSL subscriptions accounting for 45.9% of all internet subscriptions. During the fourth quarter, the number of dial-up internet subscribers fell to just 237,475, down 27% y-o-y; total internet subscriptions stood at 1.4 million, 18.5% higher than a year earlier.

ComReg’s quarterly report notes that cellular penetration in the Republic stood at 121% by 31 December 2008, as the total number of mobile subscriptions passed 5.3 million. Vodafone remains the leading player, with a 41.1% market share, followed by O2 with 37.9%, Meteor Mobile with 18.2% and 3 Ireland with just 2.8%. ComReg reported that the total number of text messages sent in the three months to 31 December reached over 2.8 billion, up from 2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. In addition it noted that approximately 1.487 million people have switched mobile provider since the launch of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in June 2003.

Source: TeleGeography.

Source: TeleGeography.

Following last week’s decision by Paraguayan regulator Conatel to end Copaco’s monopoly on wholesale internet access, the incumbent telco has announced that it will reduce retail and wholesale internet access tariffs for the second time this year in May, reports abc.com.py. From the beginning of March, Copaco cut certain tariffs by an average of around 23%, with a 64kbps connection falling from USD19 to USD17 per month, and a 128kbps subscription falling from USD25 to USD22 a month. However, Paraguay's prices remain the highest in the Mercosur region, with a 1Mbps ADSL connection costing Copaco customers USD92 per month, 318% more than in Argentina, where the same service is charged at USD22. The monopolistic market and high prices have inhibited growth in the sector; Copaco reportedly finished 2008 with fewer than 15,000 broadband customers, up from an estimated 10,000 at end-2007. Details of the new price list planned for May were not released.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to Reuters, the European Commission (EC) has given Danish telecoms regulator, the National IT and Telecom Agency, backing to force operator Fixnet Nordic (formerly TDC) to open up its cable broadband network. European Union (EU) Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, said: ‘I entirely share the Danish telecoms regulator's concern that in the absence of cable regulation in Denmark, alternative operators might be hindered in their ability to offer high capacity internet services to their customers.’ Under the plans, Fixnet Nordic will have to grant its competitors wholesale access to the network, allowing rivals to compete in the broadband market, which is currently dominated by the incumbent. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Fixnet Nordic had a total of 1.17 million broadband subscribers at the end of 2008, representing a market share of 71.06%, while rivals Cybercity and Telia Denmark had 17.78% and 11.17% respectively.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Regulatory Unit of Communications Services (URSEC) has released its 2008 report of Uruguay’s telecoms market. The study indicates that the number of fixed lines in service declined from 965,216 in 2007 to 959,000 a year later, representing a fall in teledensity from just over 29% to 28.77%. The country’s total broadband subscribers increased from 165,000 in 2007 to 245,000 over the course of the year, with AntelData posting 227,652 customers, up 155,000 year-on-year. URSEC’s study shows that AntelData’s sole rival, Dedicado, recorded 16,388 broadband subscribers, representing a market share of 7%.

Meanwhile, the number of mobile subscribers increased to 3.508 million in 2008, up from 3.004 million a year earlier. The country’s wireless penetration exceeded 100% during the year, rising from 90.5% to 105%. The report shows that Movistar lead the wireless market at the end of 2008 with 1.42 million subscribers and 40% market share, followed closely by Ancel with 1.38 million customers and 38% of the market. Claro ranked third at year-end 2008 with 769,992 subscribers, representing 22% market share. URSEC recorded that pre-paid subscribers made up 77% of the total in 2008, down from 83% a year earlier.

Source: TeleGeography.

Moldova’s National Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications (ANRTI) has reported that the number of broadband subscribers more than doubled in 2008, surpassing the number of dial-up customers for the first time. The number of broadband connections increased by 140% from 47,200 in 2007 to 115,120 a year later, while dial-up subscribers decreased by 35% from 63,000 to 40,600. The report indicates that broadband services are mainly concentrated in Chisinau; two thirds of the country’s total subscribers are located in the capital, representing a localised broadband penetration rate of 30.8%, compared to between 2.25% and 4.7% in the country’s remaining districts.

Meanwhile, the number of fixed lines in service increased by 3.2% to 1.114 million during the year, representing the lowest increase in the last ten years. Moldtelecom, the country’s main provider of fixed line services, connected 31,390 subscribers to its networks, increasing its total to 1.088 million customers at the end of 2008, while alternative operators grew their customers to 26,300 by year-end.

Source: TeleGeography.

United Arab Emirates-based telco Etisalat has announced it has reached 500,000 residential broadband subscribers, bringing the country’s broadband penetration rate to 11.4%. The company’s chief corporate affairs officer, Nasser bin Obood, commented: ‘This is above many international benchmarks and means that to grow penetration even further, we need to take a different approach - we need to be service driven.’ He added that to achieve further growth in the market, the company will invest in areas such as IPTV, technical support and mobile broadband.

Source: TeleGeography.

ADSL subscriptions in France rose by around 560,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to reach 16.83 million at the end of the year, according to provisional figures from regulator Arcep. There were 14.81 million ADSL subscriptions at the end of 2007. The data takes into account residential and business subscriptions in metropolitan France and overseas departements. The overall number of broadband internet subscriptions rose to 17.73 million at the end of 2008, up from 17.16 million at the end of September 2008 and 14.81 million at the end of December 2007. France Telecom had sold 8.53 million access to alternative operators on the wholesale market as of end-2008. These included 6.33 million unbundled accesses (up by 324,000 in the quarter), 2.1 million bitstream accesses (down by 18,000) and 94,000 national IP accesses (down by 4,000).

Source: TelecomPaper.

Key findings from Broadband Scorecard Sep 2008  

• EU broadband penetration rose to 110.5m Sep 2008 or 22.4% of the population. This represented an increase of 9% 6 months and 20% over the previous year.  
• The highest penetration rates were recorded in Denmark (37.5%) and Netherlands (36.3%) followed by Sweden, Finland and the UK. All of these countries recorded competition from both cable networks and regulated access.  
• The lowest penetration rates at just above 10% were recorded in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.  
• The highest growth rates over the full year were seen in Greece, Cyprus and Malta. Additional competitive impetus from local loop unbundling was particularly pronounced in Greece and Cyprus.
• Growth rates began to slow in several of the leading countries including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and the UK suggesting market maturity. Some countries with lower absolute take-up levels also experienced slow growth including Spain, Italy and Austria.
• Fibre penetration was 0.3% on average across Europe. However some countries had significantly higher fibre penetration including Sweden (5.6% population) and Estonia (4.9%) and Lithuania (4.2%).  
• Incumbents retained 50% of the total retail broadband market (including resale) or 45% if resale is excluded.  
• The source of most competition in the EU is unbundling of the local loop (44% of all lines supplied by competitors) followed by cable and other parallel infrastructures (36%) with resale and ‘bitstream’ access accounting for the remainder.

Source: ECTA.

Indonesian CDMA operators Mobile-8 Telecom and Smart Telecom have launched commercial CDMA2000 1xEV-DO services to counter 3G/W-CDMA offerings of rival cellcos such as Telkomsel, Indosat and Excelcomindo (XL). According to a report from CNETAsia, Mobile-8 Telecom has introduced its ‘Mobi’ high speed mobile broadband package and Smart Telecom is matching it with ‘Jump’; both services offer theoretical data transmission speeds of 3.1Mbps (download) and 1.8Mbps (upload) the report said. Mobile-8 utilises 1x and EV-DO technology in the 800MHz frequency band, and is offering a Pantech PX-500 PCMCIA modem with 1GB quota for the Mobi service which is priced at IDR499 (USD41) per month. Deddy Irawan, head of Data Business for Mobile-8 Telecom told reporters that in the near future the company ‘will launch a USB-based modem with the same price.’

Meanwhile, Smart Telecom leverages 1x and EV-DO-Rev A technology using spectrum in the 1900MHz band and is bundling an Axesstel modem and 6GB access quota with a ‘pre-paid’ package for IDR789. Initial tests have proved favourable for both services, although critics note that both Mobi and Jump currently have issues in terms of coverage.

Source: TeleGeography.

German incumbent Deutsche Telekom (DT) has announced it will open up its VDSL network to competitors and start selling a wholesale service for VDSL double-play packages with speeds of up to 50Mbps. During a press conference at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Timotheus Hottges, the company’s board member for Sales & Service, stressed that DT’s decision is voluntary and without pressure from the regulator, the Federal Network Agency (FNA). The company said it is looking for its competitors to invest more in building out broadband infrastructure in Germany. DT plans to charge EUR30 (USD38) per line, but says that as market penetration grows, the wholesale price will fall.

Source: TeleGeography.

UK watchdog Ofcom has announced that providers of wholesale ‘super-fast’ broadband services, principally BT, will be free to set prices without any regulatory intervention. The regulator says that the move will promote investment of next generation fibre-optic broadband networks. BT has welcomed the decision. ‘Today's announcement gives us the green light to push ahead with our GBP1.5 billion [USD2.1 billion] super-fast broadband investment plans to reach at least 40% of UK households by 2012,’ said CEO Ian Livingston in a statement.

Source: TeleGeography.

Greece’s National Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT) has announced that the number of local loop unbundling (LLU) DSL broadband/voice lines in service grew by 136% in 2008 to 646,000 at the end of December, whilst the overall number of broadband connections was up by 48% to over 1.5 million. The regulator calculates that broadband penetration in Greece stands at 13.4%.

Source: TeleGeography.

The German federal government has published plans to ensure all German households have broadband access by the end of 2010. Phase one of the government’s broadband strategy involves the encouragement of operators to deploy wireless and mobile broadband services in rural areas currently without broadband coverage via DSL or cable. According to the report, around 730,000 households in 600 regions currently connect to the internet via satellite. The second phase is to ensure that 75% of German households have access to a broadband connection of at least 50Mbps by 2014. In order to achieve this, the government will aim to speed up digital dividend auctions, push operators to seek synergy via joint infrastructure deployments, ensure growth and innovation-oriented regulation, and provide operators with the necessary financial support. Within the next few months the government plans to open up all existing networks from federal, state, and local governments for third parties to use and will auction digital dividend frequencies in the 790-862MHz region. Wilhelm Scheer, president of German ICT industry organisation Bitkom, said the strategy will stimulate investments of up to EUR50 billion (USD62.91 billion), and should create around 250,000 jobs.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to Morocco's telecoms regulator ANRT, the country’s mobile phone subscriber base rose by 13.9% year-on-year to 22.816 million by the end of 2008, compared to 20.029 million at end-2007, boosting cellular penetration by eight percentage points to 74%. In terms of market share, Maroc Telecom was attributed 63.4% of mobile subscribers at end-December, compared to 34.7% for Medi Telecom and 1.9% for Wana. Subscribers to 3G internet services grew from 42,729 to 268,131 in the year, an increase of 528%, with all three mobile operators competing in the mobile broadband sector.

The fixed telephony market achieved an annual increase of 25.0% in subscribers, with a total of 2.991 million lines in service at 31 December 2008 (including services with restricted mobility, the majority of which are provided by Wana).

The number of broadband internet subscribers saw a near stagnation in 2008, with annual growth of just 1.3% to 482,791 (compared to growth of 21.9% in 2007 and 57.6% in 2006).

Source: TeleGeography.

France Telecom (Orange) has announced the launch of a satellite-based internet access service in France, through its subsidiary NordNet. The launch will give the French operator 100% broadband coverage in mainland France, it said in its 12 January press release. Orange says the new service helps it meet its commitment to the government’s ‘France Digital 2012’ project, announced in October 2008, which hopes to provide broadband internet access to every French citizen, regardless of where they live in the country, for EUR35 (USD43) per month (including any equipment costs) by 2010.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to a study by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) over 68% of households in the country now have access to broadband services, up from 59% a year earlier. The survey conducted by the regulator also noted that over 80% of users believe that they need a connection speed of at least 1Mbps. Uptake of mobile broadband has reportedly seen a significant increase over the twelve-month period, with 11% of broadband users taking a mobile broadband subscription compared to just 1% last year; the survey indicated that most mobile broadband users also have a fixed line broadband service.
Despite the increase in broadband uptake less than a third of households in the country had a fixed line voice connection. In contrast the survey reported that 98% of 15-79-year olds had access to a mobile phone. VoIP calls also registered an increase over the period, with 24% of internet users indicating that they had used the technology in 2008, up from 21% in 2007.

Source: TeleGeography.

The total number of broadband users in the Republic of Belarus reached 250,000 at the end of last year, online news journal e-Belarus.org reports. Of the total, around 190,000 were ADSL users, including 150,000 retail connections for national PTO Beltelecom, and 60,000 were hooked up via a cable modem with the likes of Minsk-based Cosmos TV. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Beltelecom began to develop its broadband internet access service in 2002 and since September 2006 has offered ADSL services under the brand name Byfly, offering a non-guaranteed bandwidth service costing USD17 per month for a 1Mbps/512kbps (downlink/uplink) package. In November 2007 the company reduced the cost of selected high speed access services by 30% and at the end of the year claimed some 50,000 broadband ports had been installed for xDSL services. By the start of this year Beltelecom controlled 78% of ADSL access in the country, and 44% in Minsk.

Source: TeleGeography.

Slovenia's broadband penetration reached 19.5% at the end of the third quarter of 2008, up from 15.9% a year ago, with household penetration rising from 47% to 58% in the same period, according to the quarterly telecoms market report by the Agency for Post and Telecommunications (APEK). Incumbent telco Telekom Slovenije accounted for a 48.5% share of the high speed subscriber market, down from 51.5% at end-3Q 2007, and the country's largest alternative operator T-2 reached a share of 17.9%, up by 5.5 percentage points year-on-year. Direct fibre connections (FTTx) made up 9.4% of all broadband lines, compared to 2.1% a year earlier. APEK said that VoIP telephony subscribers reached 191,000 at the end of September 2008, up from 96,500 twelve months previously, and VoIP now accounts for 22% of the country's total fixed line subscriber base. Telekom Slovenije was reported to be the country's largest VoIP provider, with 45.5% of the market ahead of T-2 with 33%. Telekom's cellular subsidiary Mobitel remained the largest provider of mobile services by retail subscribers (figures including MVNOs), with 60.6% of the market, ahead of Austrian-owned Si.Mobil (27.3%), debitel (5.0%), Izimobil (2.5%), Tusmobil (4.4%) and T-2 (0.1%). IPTV subscribers in Slovenia rose by 150% year-on-year to 133,500 at end-September 2008, as cable TV viewers fell from 315,000 to 294,000 in the same period. Telekom Slovenije leads the IPTV segment, followed by T-2.

Source: TeleGeography.

Venezuela’s telecoms watchdog Conatel has published data for the third quarter of 2008 in which it says the country’s total fixed lines in service reached 5.896 million, up from 4.696 million a year before, and representing a fixed teledensity of 21.2%. According to the regulator there were 1.172 million broadband internet subscribers at the end of September 2008, up from 776,000 a year earlier, whilst dial-up customers decreased by 9,000 in the same period to 140,000. Conatel’s figures also showed that at the end of the third quarter there were 26.673 million mobile phone subscriptions, up from 21.992 million at the end of September 2007. Mobile penetration was reported to have reached 96.0% at the end of 3Q08, up from 80.5% year-on-year.

Source: TeleGeography.

President-elect Barack Obama pledged to expand Americans' access to broadband Internet as part of a massive new public works program designed to generate jobs and improve the economy, he said in his weekly video/radio address.

"As we renew our schools and highways, we'll also renew our information superhighway," Obama said. "It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President — because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

Source: Cellular News.

One possible scenario for the telecoms industry during the current economic slowdown is that fixed-to-mobile substitution (FMS) will be accelerated as consumers reduce their communications bill by cutting their fixed line in favour of mobile services. With mobile broadband deals now more readily available and affordable, there is a potential ‘double whammy’ to this in that fixed line operators could not only lose further fixed voice revenues but valuable broadband revenues as well. Ovum therefore commissioned a survey of over 8,000 consumers to find out their plans.

The majority of consumers will scale down rather than cancel their broadband service

At the top level broadband seems to remain a ‘sticky’ service. Ovum’s survey data shows that only 7% of respondents would ditch their fixed line for both voice and broadband in favour of mobile services, and only 1% said they would be prepared to keep their fixed voice but cut their broadband access. Cutting the mobile subscription stood at 6%, making fixed broadband access actually even ‘stickier’ than mobile to those that are planning on keeping the fixed telephony line.

The majority of respondents, 65%, said they would simply look to reduce spend in certain areas, rather than cancelling one of their services altogether. At the top level, how they reduce that spend was fairly evenly split across reducing fixed voice calls, mobile voice calls and pay-TV subscriptions.

Unfortunately for pay-TV operators, more consumers look to be planning to cut back on extras such as pay-per-view movies, rather than increase spend in this area with the idea of saving on other social activities. Ovum suspects that this will be more related to movie rental subscriptions, rather than true pay-per-view, which we still suspect will see an increase as consumers go out less.

Age and culture play a big part in broadband decisions

Unsurprisingly, the decisions around whether to reduce spend on fixed and mobile communications differ with age group. People aged between 16 and 25 are more likely to either drop their fixed line altogether (10% of 16- to 25-year-olds) or keep a fixed connection but rely more on their mobile phone for calls (28% of 16- to 25-year-olds) than any other age group. As the users get older they are less likely to rely on their mobile and more likely revert back to their fixed line, with only 5% of over 55s saying they would cut their fixed line. Keeping both mobile and fixed voice services but cutting broadband access is not a popular option across all age groups. Countries with a younger population will therefore see different trends to those with an older population.

As well as age, culture also plays its part. Ovum’s data clearly shows that there are significant differences in countries where mobile services and applications are already firmly engrained into the culture, such as Korea. In Korea 15% of respondents would cut their fixed line altogether, compared to roughly 5% in most Western European countries – other than Italy, where 11% said they would. Conversely, in Germany and France 11% of respondents said they would rather keep their fixed line and cut their mobile service. In part this will be related to age demographics, but cultural differences also play a large part.

Broadband is now a part of everyday life

There will always be differences between the various social segments and cultures. However, what is common across the world is that broadband Internet access is becoming an essential part of everyday life. It has become part of how people communicate, book their holidays, search for work, find out news, purchase goods and educate their children. When money becomes tight consumers obviously look for ways to save money, but for the vast majority of people cutting out their access to the Internet and associated services and applications is just not an option.

The more mobile segments of the community will favour pure mobile solutions, and as the technology improves this segment will gradually grow. However, the economic slowdown will not see a mass defection away from fixed broadband. Having said this, operators can expect to see an overall reduction in ARPU as consumers look to trim their overall communication bills where possible, and this goes for mobile as well as fixed operators.

Source: Cellular News.

As the total number of broadband lines in the world passes 400  million Point Topic forecasts that the total in the 40 biggest broadband countries in the world will grow from 393 million by the end of 2008 to 635 million by 2013. Broadband in the rest of the world will grow from 16 million to 48 million lines in the same period, so the world will add 273 million lines to reach 683 million in total.

The latest analysis from Point Topic on average tariffs and packages on offer for broadband worldwide gives a general story of increasing speed and decreasing prices

Over the quarter there is some variation, but if you look at 2008 as a whole consumers are getting more bandwidth for their money.

Of the three primary broadband technologies, DSL has seen the largest fall in average price for a subscription down from $66.75 in Q108 to $53.32 in Q3 taking a worldwide average. This is a 20% drop in the first 3 quarters of the year. In comparison average subscription prices for cable are down just over 12% and FTTx down by 6.5%.

Figure 1: Average monthly subscription (US$)

 NB: Fiber prices based on averages of available country implementations, DSL and cable taken from a wider base of regional averages

Source: Point Topic.

Virgin Mobile UK launches an all-you-can-eat internet access tariff at 30p per day, which is claimed to be a tariff three times cheaper in comparison to other offers by rival networks. The new rates will be levied from December 8 applying to both contract and pre-pay subscribers, Virgin reveals.

“By providing unlimited access at a highly competitive rate, we are giving all our customers the opportunity to use the internet on their phone without having to worry about racking up huge bills or working out complicated price structures,” said Virgin Mobile MD Graeme Oxby. However, the twist in the story lies that the 30p/day rate is counted as offering unlimited access, to which a daily fair use policy of 25MB applies. The subscribers exceeding this limit will have to pay £2 for each extra MB.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The new Arab Advisors’ survey of Jordan's Internet users also revealed that WiMAX operators had an 8.3% share of residential broadband Internet accounts in the country. Retail e-commerce in Jordan reached an estimated US$ 181 million the 12 months between November 2007 and November 2008.

Arab Advisors’ online survey revealed that of the respondents who have an ADSL subscription at home, 13.3% share it with neighbors. 28% of those sharing share the ADSL connection with two more households, 22.7% with three additional households and 29.3% with one additional household.

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

­The International Telecomunications Union (ITU) has published a report detailing a set of regulatory strategies designed to lower the costs of telecoms network rollout. The report notes that 2008 has been marked by unparalleled numbers of voice and Internet consumers in both the developing and developed world, the result of network growth and expansion.

This year has also seen an unparalleled global financial crisis which may make it more difficult for investors to obtain financing for continuing network development. Sharing strategies, examined in the new ITU report, are seen as conducive for infrastructure development in the telecommunications/ICT sector, particularly in light of the deepening global financial crisis.

Mobile penetration showed high growth rates through 2008. By year end, mobile networks and subscribers will rise to an all time high, reaching an estimated 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. The world also counts over 1.5 billion Internet users, a growing number of which use fixed and mobile broadband services. Dial-up is being replaced by broadband across developed and developing countries alike. In developing countries such as Chile, Senegal and Turkey, broadband subscribers represent over 90 per cent of all Internet subscribers.

Source: Cellular News.

Namibia’s largest cellco MTC said it has invested nearly NAD300 million (USD40 million) in its network infrastructure in the year to date, in projects including raising SMS capacity, the deployment of a transmission backbone across several areas of the country and the replacement of central switching equipment with next generation architecture. The company’s fibre-optic transmission network was extended in areas including the capital Windhoek, coastal regions and in the north, ending MTC's long-standing reliance on renting backbone capacity from Telecom Namibia. The fibre project was implemented by Nera and Ericsson at a cost of NAD76 million this year. MTC also upgraded its radio access network and wireless broadband service capabilities, in partnership with Nokia Siemens Network and Motorola, at a cost of NAD88 million. MTC's investments over the last 13 years total NAD1.6 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Maroc Telecom has reported a 10% year-on-year rise in first half consolidated group revenues to MAD14.308 billion (USD1.985 billion), thanks to the continuing growth of its domestic and foreign mobile operations. Domestic revenues in the first half of 2008 amounted to MAD12.511 billion, up 9.8%, with mobile revenues in Morocco increasing by 12.9% to MAD8.923 billion following the full commercial launch of 3.5G voice and internet services in January. Moroccan mobile customers rose 21.3% year-on-year to reach 14.2 million at the end of June 2008, up from 13.7 million in the previous year and 13.3 million at the start of the year. Mobile ARPU in the six month period fell 8.2% year-on-year to MAD98.6, whilst average outgoing usage was maintained at approximately the same level as H1 2007. Fixed line (including internet) operations in Morocco achieved six-month gross revenues of MAD4.75 billion, up by 0.5%, as the fixed line customer base reached 1.329 million, up by 0.3% compared to June 2007. A 3.9% decrease in average monthly wireline user bills was offset by revenues of data and internet services respectively increasing by 17.3% and 9.1%. The ADSL customer base reached 482,000 lines at the end of June 2008, up 10.0% y-o-y, whilst the company claimed 14,000 Mobile 3G+ wireless broadband subscribers by that date.

Mauritel, Maroc Telecom’s Mauritanian unit, earned revenues of MAD519 million in H1 2008, down 3.7%, affected by exchange rates, despite its mobile customer base growing 32.3% to exceed one million at the end of June. Mauritel’s fixed line subscriber lines increased by 27.8% to 46,000. Burkina Faso subsidiary Onatel achieved first half sales of MAD715 million, up 9.0%, as its mobile subscribers increased by 95% year-on-year to 756,000 at end-June, mainly thanks to extended network coverage. Onatel increased its fixed line customer base by 21.5% in the period to 130,000 lines. At Gabonese unit Gabon Telecom, revenues of all business activities amounted to MAD529 million in the first six months of 2008, down 18.5% on a comparable basis mainly due to substantial price cuts carried out over the last year. Users of Gabon Telecom’s Libertis mobile phone service reached 424,000 at mid-year, up 61.2% y-o-y, whilst its fixed lines in service increased by 40.9% to 31,000.

Mobisud, Maroc Telecom’s MVNO in France and Belgium, reported total six-month revenues of MAD91 million, with a total of 155,000 customers at end-June 2008, down slightly on March, due to an ‘active customer base cleaning process’ by Mobisud France during the second quarter.

In the second quarter ended June 2008, Maroc Telecom’s consolidated group turnover rose 6.5% year-on-year to MAD7.343 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

At the end of June 2008 China Telecom reported 214.89 million local access lines in service, 5.44 million lower than at the start of the year. Broadband subscribers surged by 4.3 million during the same timeframe, to 39.95 million, helped by the acquisition of Beijing Telecom in June 2008. China Netcom meanwhile added 160,000 fixed line and 710,000 broadband customers to its base, to take its totals to 108.5 million and 23.35 million respectively.

In the wireless arena, China Mobile reported 414.6 million wireless customers at the end of June, an increase of 45.25 million in six months. Rival China Unicom meanwhile reported 127.6 million GSM and 43.16 million CDMA customers at the same date, up 7.03 million and 1.2 million on the start of the year respectively.

Source: TeleGeography.

A new major survey, “Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008” was concluded and released by the Arab Advisors Group on April 24, 2008. This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for US$ 4,500. Subscribers to Arab Advisors Group Strategic Research Services can order the report for US$ 3,500.

The 159-page report, which has 262 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of the telecommunications and media usage patterns and habits of the population across the Egyptian governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Sohaj and Minya. The survey fieldwork was conducted during March and April 2008.

63.4% of Egyptian households with an ADSL connection reported sharing the ADSL connection with neighbors. Of those, a massive 81.9% share one ADSL line with more than three neighboring households.

“According to official figures from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt had 427,085 ADSL lines by the end of 2007. The Arab Advisors Group estimates that 75% of those are residential ADSL lines.” Jawad J. Abbassi, Founder and General Manager of Arab Advisors Group noted. “Based on the survey results, the average number of households sharing one ADSL connection is 2.98. Multiplying the reported number of lines by this figure yields an estimate for households with ADSL connections in Egypt of 956,000 households by end of 2007.” Mr. Abbassi added.

Source: Arab Advisory Group.

Vancouver-based Corinex Communication, a provider of powerline and coaxial network solutions and products, has announced that it is to lead a project to provide internet access to rural villages in India. Using Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology ten villages have been targeted in a deal believed to be worth more than USD17 million. It is anticipated that deployment will be completed within 18 months, providing web access and VoIP services to approximately 3,000 users. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database broadband penetration in India stood at only 0.3% by the end of 2007.

Source: TeleGeography.

The number of fixed line broadband connections in Hungary stood at 1.437 million at the end of May, up from 1.124 million a year earlier, according to data published by the industry regulator the National Communications Authority of Hungary (NCAH). Of the total, 778,000 were ADSL subscriptions, while a further 468,000 took cable internet services from one of the four main providers UPC, T-Kabel, FiberNet and Digi. At the same date, the number of main lines in service fell by 12,000 in May to 3.198 million from 3.210 million in April, lowering the fixed line phone penetration rate to 31.8%. The NCAH does not keep a record of mobile broadband subscriptions.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to a report from The Syria Report Newsletter, Syria’s state owned national monopoly fixed line and internet operator Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) has awarded China’s Huawei Technologies a EUR877,000 (USD1.36 million) contract to install 33,000 new ADSL lines in the country. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database writes that STE offers dial-up and ADSL broadband access through two wholly owned ISPs, 190 and Syrian Computer Society (SCS). There were an estimated 16,500 broadband subscribers by end-2007 (latest available figure) and around 300,000 dial-up subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography.

Government statistics bureau Indec has published data showing that residential broadband connections in Argentina numbered 2.23 million at the end of March, up 43.9% year-on-year. Meanwhile, corporate high speed internet connections rose 22.1% to 208,652, giving a total broadband subscriber base of 2.31 million. According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms database, Telecom Argentina is the largest company by subscribers, claiming just over 30% of the market, ahead of second place Telefonica with 25%.

Source: TeleGeography.

Swedes are increasingly placing calls, surfing and sending text messages, which led to sharply increased traffic and increased revenues for mobile network operators in 2007. For the first time, total revenues from services in mobile networks exceed revenues from fixed telephony according to a report from the telecoms regulator, the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS).

In December 2007, nearly half a million customers used mobile Internet services, a sharp increase from just over 90,000 subscriptions one year earlier. Data traffic in mobile networks has increased tenfold since 2006. Mobile users placed more, and longer, calls in 2007 and sent an average of 40 text messages per month. Revenues from mobile services totalled SEK 19.7 billion in 2007, which is an increase of some 12 per cent since 2006. Mobile Internet services, by means of USB sticks or USB modems, account for more than SEK 1 billion of such revenues.

“We take mobile telephony for granted. We are used to placing calls whenever and almost wherever we want. 2007 was the year when even broadband users could seriously consider mobile Internet services when choosing a provider,” says Marianne Treschow, Director-General of PTS.

There were nearly 2.8 million subscriptions for fixed or mobile broadband at the end of 2007, which corresponds to 62 subscriptions per 100 households. Broadband services grew by more than 30 per cent in 2007.

The content service growing the fastest in fixed broadband networks is IPTV, for which there were 355 000 subscriptions at the end of 2007, compared with 50 000 subscriptions the year before. Subscriptions for IP-based telephony in broadband networks rose by more than 50 per cent to 623 000 subscriptions.

Source: Cellular News.

Citing figures from the Broadcasting Communications Commission (BCC), the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOIS) reports that the country's broadband subscriber base broke through the 15 million barrier during April. KT Corp leads the way with a 44.2% share of the market, followed by Hanarotelecom (24%) and LG Powercom (12.2%). The remainder is split between smaller companies such as LG Dacom. Hanarotelecom's customer numbers are expected to have fallen in May, however, after 3,000 former and current subscribers filed a class-action lawsuit against the company for allegedly selling their confidential information to telemarketers. LG Powercom stands as the company most likely to gain, according to industry watchers.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Dutch broadband market grew by 2% in Q1 2008 to reach 5.55 million users, eclipsing the growth rates of 1.7% and 1.6% seen in the last two quarters of 2007, reports online news portal Telecompaper. By the end of March this year the leading ISP was Ziggo, the newly created branding of the former cable assets of @Home, Casema and Multikabel. The group had 1.242 million broadband users at the end of March, up 30,000 quarter-on-quarter. Ziggo led second-placed Het Net, owned by KPN, which had 659,000 xDSL users at the same date (+16,000 users) and UPC Nederland was in third with 650,300 broadband customers (+10,800). KPN’s second largest xDSL ISP Planet shed customers in the period under review, however, ending the quarter with 558,000 subscribers, down 14,000 on the start of the year. Meanwhile, Internet van KPN signed up 19,000 net new additions, Telecompaper said, to reach a total of 554,000 xDSL customers at 31 March 2008, making it the fourth largest broadband ISP overall in the Netherlands.

Source: TeleGeography.

France added around 675,000 new broadband users in the first three months of this year to boost the country’s high speed internet user base from 15.551 million to 16.225 million, reports the country’s regulator Arcep in its latest review of the domestic market. On an annualised basis, the French residential and business broadband market climbed 18.6% from 13.676 million at the end of March 2007, the report said. ADSL continues to be the overwhelmingly popular access technology, accounting for 15.475 million access lines, with the remainder made up by cable, FTTx or satellite services. Arcep also reported a strong rise in wholesale access lines in the period under review, up 338,000 lines to 7.825 million. France had also unbundled 5.521 million local loops by the start of April 2008, with some 4.012 million subscribers taking fully unbundled services.

Source: TeleGeography.

The International Telecommunication Union yesterday published its latest broadband subscriber data. According to ITU, the world added over 50 million broadband subscribers between December 2006 and December 2007. Most of the world's 330 million fixed broadband subscribers are concentrated in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

ITU data show that by the end of 2007, five European countries lead the world in terms of fixed broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland lead the "top 30" list, followed by the Republic of Korea.

Asia's economies continue to rank well and the top-30 list includes the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, China, Singapore, and New Zealand. In terms of total fixed broadband subscribers the top-30 list represents close to 65 percent of the world's total braodband subscribers. This confirms a significant digital divide in terms of broadband uptake and penetration in the world. In Africa, especially, broadband penetration remains very low. The Seychelles, the country with (by far) the highest broadband penetration in Africa, has 3.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Source: ITU.

Data published by ITU's Market, Information and Statistics Division highlights continued high growth rates in the mobile market, and particulaly in developing regions. By the end of 2007, over 70% of the world's mobile subscribers were from developing countries. A positive trend, since in 2006 developing countries represented 67% of all mobile subscriber. Five years earlier, in 2002, they represented less than 50%. Africa remains the region with the highest growth rate (32% in 2006/2007) and mobile penetration in Africa has risen from just one in 50 people at the beginning of this century to almost one third of the population today. Africa’s mobile penetration of 28% compares to 37% in Asia, 72% in the Americas, and 110% in Europe. [The latter number, which surpasses the 100 percent mark, confirms that mobile subscriber data do not strictly correspond to mobile phone users. Double counting takes place, especially when one person owns multiple SIM cards and when operators do not identify active subscribers.]

A new Arab Advisors Group survey of Egypt’s urban households reveals rampant broadband account sharing between neighbors. A massive 81.9% of households that use shared ADSL lines share them with more than three neighboring households. The Arab Advisors Group projects that around a million Egyptian households have access to broadband, due to the widespread practice of ADSL accounts sharing.

A new major survey, "Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008" was concluded and released by the Arab Advisors Group on April 24, 2008. This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for US$ 4,500. Subscribers to Arab Advisors Group Strategic Research Services can order the report for US$ 3,500.

The 159-page report, which has 262 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of the telecommunications and media usage patterns and habits of the population across the Egyptian governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Sohaj and Minya. The survey fieldwork was conducted during March and April 2008.

63.4% of Egyptian households with an ADSL connection reported sharing the ADSL connection with neighbors. Of those, a massive 81.9% share one ADSL line with more than three neighboring households.

Arab-Advisors-28April2008.doc (94.5 KB)

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

A new report from Telecommunications Management Group, Inc. (TMG), "IPTV: The Killer Broadband Application," forecasts that there will be nearly 60 million Internet Protocol television (IPTV) subscribers worldwide by the end of 2010. IPTV -- providing video services over managed IP networks to consumers' televisions -- has been doubling each year since its commercial introduction in 2002. There were 9.9 million IPTV subscribers around the world at the end of 2007, more than double the previous year, and TMG projects more than a 500 percent increase over the next three years. According to Michael Minges, TMG Senior Market Analyst and lead author of the report, "IPTV is revolutionizing the television market by introducing greater competition and providing consumers with a plethora of customizable content, viewable any time."

Source: WASHINGTON, PRNewswire (Based on TMG).

"The European broadband market is developing rapidly and already outstrips that of the United States," the EC wrote. It estimated some 99.2 million broadband lines in the EC, compared with 81.6 million in the United States and Canada combined, and 43.1 million in Japan and South Korea together. In 2007, the number of regular active Internet users in Europe rose by 40 million, to a total of 250 million.

"It is a welcome change of political direction that today, ICT, the main driver of European growth, is being promoted by all 27 EU Member States in their national policies. This helps Europe compete internationally and modernizes the daily lives of Europeans," comments EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding. "It is especially good news that 77 percent of EU businesses, 67 percent of schools and 48 percent of doctors are now benefiting from fast broadband connections."

Ticking off Europe's broadband achievements, in its report the EC says more than 96 percent of European schools now are connected to the Internet -- two-thirds of them to broadband, up from almost zero in 2001. In the health sector, 57 percent of doctors now send or receive patient data, up from 17 percent in 2002, with 46 percent of them receiving results from laboratories electronically, up from only 11 percent in 2002. Some 77 percent of EU businesses had a broadband connection in 2007, up from 62 percent in 2005, and 77 percent use the Internet for dealing with banks, up from 70 percent in 2005.

Source: Telecom Web.

MoneyWeb South Africa reports broadband subscriber numbers in the country have tipped the one million mark. Telkom is still the leading broadband provider with 420,000 subscribers for its ADSL service, but Vodacom is gaining ground with 370,000 registered HSDPA users. MTN is also showing significant growth in the mobile broadband arena with 120,000 subscribers, according to the article. ADSL and HSDPA users account for over 90% of all broadband subscribers in South Africa. The other 10% is accounted for by fixed wireless access provider iBurst with 60,000 subscribers, and various wireless ISPs (45,000). However, there is still plenty of room for growth in the market as the broadband penetration rate is currently only 2%, compared to the OECD average of 18.8%.

Source: TeleGeography.

A new analysis of the global opportunity for WiMAX 802.16e to deliver ´local loop´ broadband connectivity forecasts that WiMAX will begin to take off over the 2009 to 2011 period, exceeding 47 million subscribers globally by 2013.

Highlights from the report include:

• Global WiMAX service revenues, as a DSL replacement technology, will grow to over $20bn per annum by 2013.
• The top WiMAX regions for DSL substitution will be: The Far East; North America; Western Europe and Africa/Middle East.
• Juniper forecasts that around 12% of the forecast DSL subscriber base for 2013 will be replaced by WiMAX.

Source: Cellular News.

Under a new strategic partnership between Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Indian fixed line telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), more than 25,000 Indian villages will be supplied with broadband access via an ADSL2+ network. Under the terms of the agreement, BSNL will deploy NSN’s multi-play solution, which will allow it to deliver cost-effective, high speed Internet access and Virtual Private Network services to its customers. The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to community service centres and other e-governance locations.

As part of the contract, NSN will deploy its Gigabit Ethernet-capable IP DSLAMs SURPASS hiX5625 and chassis-based access switch (SURPASS hiD6615). It will also supply customer premises equipment that will enable BSNL to provide speeds of up to 8Mbps. The network will be ready for commercial operation by July 2008. NSN is in parallel deploying equipment for BSNL for urban broadband access across 20 circles.

Source: TeleGeography.

South Africa has surpassed the 1 Million broadband subscriber mark. South Africa now has more than 1 Million broadband connections, made up mainly of ADSL and HSDPA subscribers.

Telkom currently has in the region of 415 000 ADSL subscribers, and previously indicated that it is on track to hit their 420 000 target by the end of March. Vodacom has 360 000 3G/HSDPA data card users while MTN recently announced that they now have 120 000 3G/HSDPA data card users on their South African network. This brings the total number of ADSL and HSDPA subscribers to 895 000.

Source: Balancing Act.

Ka-ching, ka-ching. European wireless carriers are being told to expect 50 percent of the population to use their mobile handsets to access the broadband Internet by 2012. But most carriers won't be able to handle it alone.

To accomplish this, mobile operators will be partnering with fixed-infrastructure providers, with Arthur D. Little and Exane BNP Paribas forecasting that 20 percent of mobile broadband traffic could be carried through fixed networks.

Source: TelecomWeb.

Point Topicp's World Broadband Statistics (Q4 2007) examines global and regional broadband developments and technological innovation at the end of 2007. According to this report, there were some 350 million broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of 2007, representing 6.1% of the population. This represents a 24% increase from 2006 to 2007, when over 69 million people subscribed to broadband services. By 2007, Western Europe and North America lead in broadband penetration rates at 23.6 and 24.7 percent, respectively.

In absolute numbers, the USA continues to lead, with 73 million subscribers by the end of 2007, followed by China with 67 million subscribers. In terms of broadband penetration, Monaco takes the first place at 38%. Indeed, in Monaco, 94% of households have broadband services.

Figure 1: Share of world broadband subscribers by region in Q4 2007

DSL, FTTx and Cable moderm are the dominant broadband technoloies in the world. DSL is the most common technology with a 65% share of the global broadband market. Cable modem comes in second place, with 77 million subscribers a at the end of 2007.

Figure 2: Total Broadband by technology in Q4 2007

Source: Point Topic.

VietNamNet Bridge has reported that ADSL penetration is not what it could be in Vietnam. ADSL first appeared in the country in 2004 and subscriptions grew 150% in both 2006 and 2007, but the percentage of ADSL users is still low. By September 2007 there were 4.9 million internet subscribers and around 17.5 million internet users, accounting for nearly 21% of the population, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). ADSL subscribers accounted for 21% of the total or around 1.04 million. Some 65% of them were in Hanoi and HCM City. ADSL charges in Vietnam are reported to be at similar level to other countries in Southeast Asia, but service quality is still lacking, with lower than promised speeds and unstable connections beyond Hanoi and HCM City.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to DigiTimes.com, Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) has approved a reduction by an average of 8.4% in monthly circuit-leased fees for using Chunghwa Telecom (CHT's) ADSL services. The cheaper tariffs, which will take effect from 1 April 2008, were proposed by the company following a request from the NCC that it lower its prices. Of CHT's ADSL customers, 3.526 million or 95.4% will be subject to the price cut. Since CHT is to cease installation of further 2Mbps/512Kbps ADSL services, the company has not offered price cuts for corresponding subscribers, the NCC added.

Source: TeleGeography.

Belarus’ Deputy Minister of Informatisation and Communications Nikolai Strukov, is predicting that the country will be home to 500,000 broadband internet users by 2010, writes online news portal e-belarus.org. According to the minister, approximately 260,000 of these will be receiving high speed internet services from the national PTO Beltelecom, while a further 100,000 will be using alternative operators, he said. Home networks will also help to increase the number of xDSL users, Mr. Strukov added. The minister went on to say that the 500,000 forecast was a conservative one and that he expects the figure could be even higher, driven by the strong uptake of mobile broadband subscribers using 3G technology.

Beltelecom currently has 66,000 broadband internet subscribers and accounts for roughly 60% of the national market, with alternative service providers and resellers claiming the remainder.

Source: TeleGeography.

China Netcom has posted an unexpected increase in full-year profit after signing up more broadband subscribers than expected. Net income for the twelve months ended 31 December 2007 rose to RMB10.58 billion (USD1.5 billion), from RMB10.55 billion a year earlier. Sales rose to RMB84 billion from a restated RMB84.1 billion in 2006. During the year Netcom’s broadband subscriber base rose 37% to 19.77 million, while its local access customers fell by 2.8% to 110.82 million, of which 84.6 million were fixed line (down 2.3% year-on-year) and 26.2 million PHS (down 4.1%). Broadband ARPU climbed 3.9% to RMB67.4 while the corresponding figure for local access slipped by 9.6% to RMB36.6.

Source: TeleGeography.

MyBroadband.co.za reports that the South African broadband market now has more than one million broadband subscribers, made up mainly from ADSL and HSDPA customers. Dominant telco Telkom South Africa has 415,000 ADSL users and is on track to hit its target of 420,000 by the end of March. The two largest cellcos by customers and revenues, Vodacom and MTN, currently claim 360,000 and 120,000 3G/HSDPA datacard users respectively. Of the remainder, iBurst accounts for 60,000 subscribers via its BFWA/WiMAX networks, and a further 45,000 broadband customers are served by other wireless ISPs around the country.

Source: TeleGeography.

The European Commission hopes to lift average broadband penetration in the European Union to 30% by 2010, up from around 20% today, in a bid to stimulate economic growth. The EC’s Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said yesterday that only eight of the bloc's 27 member states were currently beating the US in terms of broadband usage, while the average penetration rate lagged behind the 22.1% figure reported in the United States. Although a number of nations, such as Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have rates closer to 30%, Reding wants to see a significant improvement across the board within the next two years. The Commissioner believes that her new telecoms reforms, currently before the European Parliament and EU states for approval, will help the trading bloc reach this 30% target. Reding hopes the reform bill will be adopted by April 2009 ahead of planned European elections in June.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to Colombia’s telecoms regulator the CRT, the country ended last year with 1.2 million broadband internet subscribers, up 27.9% year-on-year. ADSL technology represented 57.4% of total connections, followed by cable modem technology (35.5%) and WiMAX (4.4%). Dial-up connections totalled 174,383, down 12% compared to December 2006. According to the report, local operator ETB took 22.1% of the broadband market, followed by EPM Telecomunicaciones (Une) with 20% and Colombia Telecom with 16.7%.

Source: TeleGeography.

The European Commission hopes to lift average broadband penetration in the European Union to 30% by 2010, up from around 20% today, in a bid to stimulate economic growth. The EC’s Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said yesterday that only eight of the bloc's 27 member states were currently beating the US in terms of broadband usage, while the average penetration rate lagged behind the 22.1% figure reported in the United States. Although a number of nations, such as Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have rates closer to 30%, Reding wants to see a significant improvement across the board within the next two years. The Commissioner believes that her new telecoms reforms, currently before the European Parliament and EU states for approval, will help the trading bloc reach this 30% target. Reding hopes the reform bill will be adopted by April 2009 ahead of planned European elections in June.

Source: TeleGeograpy.

The number of residential broadband connections in Argentina reached 2.1 million at the end of 2007, up 53.6% from 1.4 million a year earlier, reports BNamericas quoting government statistics bureau Indec. The total number of residential internet connections, including dial-up, totalled 2.9 million at 31 December 2007, up 16.5% from 2.5 million at the end of 2006. Meanwhile, corporate internet accesses rose 18.8% in 2007 to reach 275,717 connections at the year end. Of these, 211,789 were broadband (up 34.3%) and 40,310 were dial-up (down 25.6%).

Source: TeleGeography.

A study commissioned by US equipment vendor Cisco and carried out by IDC concluded that Brazil was home to 8.1 million broadband connections at the end of 2007, up from 5.7 million at end-2006 and more than double the 3.752 million figure reported in December 2005. The main broadband players in the country at the end of last year were Brasil Telecom with 1.567 million customers, Telemar's Oi unit (1.518 million), Telefonica Brazil (2.069 million) and Net Servicos (estimated at 1.38 million).

Source: TeleGeography.

Hanover, Germany (dpa) - Internet providers called Wednesday for Germany to free up radio frequencies so that rural villages can hook up to broadband services.

Last year Germany hooked up 5 million high-speed internet connections to homes and offices, bringing its total lines to 20 million. But it is too expensive to lay cables to isolated country places.

Source: Cellular News, based on dpa.

The most striking broadband number for the fourth quarter of 2007 is the growth of Sky's subscriber numbers.  For the fifth quarter in a row, Sky was by far the strongest major ISP in terms of adding subscribers and increasing market share.  In this case it added 260,000 new broadband lines, 42% of the total net adds in the quarter, overtook Orange to become the fifth largest ISP, and added 1.4% to its share of the market.

Source: Point Topic.

Irish cableco UPC Ireland (which includes the former operations of ntl and Chorus Ireland) reported that its full-year revenues climbed 17% from USD262.6 million in 2006 to USD307.2 million in 2007. The group’s operating profits were up 31% year-on-year from USD79.9 million to USD104.7 million on the back of a 25,000 rise in customers to 592,300 over the year. UPC Ireland’s broadband base expanded 45% y-o-y to reach more than 80,000, while the number of people signed up to its new voice telephony service climbed to more than 10,000.

Source: TeleGeography.

British cableco Virgin Media has announced it added a record number of new subscribers in the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2007. The company added 272,100 new revenue generating units (RGUs – subscriptions to one or more of Virgin's broadband, cable TV, mobile and landline telephony services) in the quarter, up from 186,700 in the previous three months. At the end of December 2007 Virgin claimed 3,701,200 broadband and 4,135,300 telephony customers.

Source: TeleGeography.

• The AccessKenya Group has made significant progress with respect to its main IPO pledges, in particular 
•  To aggressively increase market share in the core corporate internet sector, where the Group closed the year with 1,950 leased lines – ahead of the IPO projections of 1,720 – and with an estimated market share of about 40% 
•  To enter the IT services market with the acquisition of Openview Business Systems in 2007 and the forthcoming launch of Outsource IT 
• To launch a residential broadband service in 2008 for which technology and marketing plans are complete. This will be a tremendous opportunity for the Group to extend their high levels of broadband service and speed from corporate to residential customers.

Source: Balancing Act.

Spurred on by the explosive penetration of mobile telephony and broadband services, the Colombian telecommunication services market has witnessed high and stable growth rates in recent times. Market development, in the short and medium term, will depend a great deal on the promotion of new technologies and applications.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned revenues of over $5.48 billion in 2006 and estimates this to reach $7.12 billion in 2012.

"The primary drivers for the Colombian telecommunications markets include the strong growth of broadband services, the development of the VoIP market, and the emergence of new applications in the mobile telephony segment," notes Gina Sánchez, Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "With fixed telephony services having reached maturity and mobile telephony penetration levels at over 73 percent, value-added services and new technologies will be critical to the market's future growth."

With regard to broadband and Internet access services, growth is likely to be accelerated by the country's economic progress, more affordable personal computers (PCs) and telecommunication equipment, and the Government's social programs for digital inclusion. Moreover, broadband prices continue to fall as a result of increasing competition and this continuing trend is likely to further spur subscriber growth.

Going forward, the voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) segment is likely to emerge as the fastest growing market segment, followed by the broadband and Internet access segment. During the forecast period, the VoIP segment is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77.0 percent and the number of lines is expected to grow from 22,560 to 504,509.

"However, the entrance of multinational companies and the mergers and acquisitions adopted by market participants to strengthen their position have added much competition to the market," notes Sánchez. "In this scenario operators have started a price reduction race that may restrain market growth."

Overall, the Colombian telecommunications sector has emerged as a market with high and stable growth rates. Given the increasing competition and the overwhelming need to maintain healthy average revenue per user (ARPU), it will be vital for market participants to offer bundled solutions and triple play, as well as integrated packages of telecommunications and IT solutions.

Source: Cellular News.

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) plans to expand broadband services to more than 95% of the nation's villages in 2008, up from 92% in December 2007. All of the towns and villages in some of the central and eastern provinces will be covered by the end of this year. According to the MII, the number of internet users in China rose by 73 million in 2007, to 210 million; of the new users some 40% reside in rural areas. The total number of rural internet users rose by 127% in 2007 to 52.62 million compared to a 38.2% increase in urban users. China had 122 million broadband users at the end of 2007.

Source: Telegeography.

Belgacom, the incumbent and leading internet access provider in Belgium has decided to say good bye to dial-up. The operator will stop marketing the service from 31 January 2008.

With ADSL now available to 99.7% of the Belgian population and subscription prices continuing to fall there seem few reasons to stick with narrowband.  25% of the population will have a broadband subscription by the end of 2007.

Source: Point Topic.

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- SFR, France's second-largest mobile-phone operator, Tuesday said it has signed up 250,000 subscribers in two months to contracts allowing them unlimited Internet use on their mobile phones.

About 52% of the subscriptions are new customers while the remaining 48% are SFR customers who have changed contract, the company said in a statement.

The number of clients significantly exceeds SFR's initial target of 100,000, the company said. SFR is 56%-owned by Vivendi while Vodafone Group  holds the remaining 44%.

Rival operator France Telecom's  chief executive said Jan. 11 that the company's Orange brand had sold about 70,000 of Apple's iPhone handsets at the end of 2007, having forecast sales of nearly 100,000.

The iPhone is different from other handsets, though, as operators don't subsidize its price.

Source: Cellular News.

China Telecom ended 2007 with 220.33 million local access lines in service (includes wireless local access lines), down from 223.04 million access lines in December 2006. In December alone the company lost 1.48 million customers and during the year China Telecom shed 2.71 million customers. However, the company added 600,000 broadband subscribers in December to end the month with a total of 35.65 million broadband users. Over the full year the company signed-up 7.33 million broadband subscribers.

Morocco's Maroc Telecom has commercially launched a 3G/HSDPA service in the country's main cities the company has announced. The company was originally awarded a 3G license in May 2006, along with competitors, Medi Telecom and Maroc Connect.

The 3G coverage is currently available in the cities of Rabat, Casablanca, Mohammedia, Agadir, Fès, Marrakech, Kenitra, Tetouan, Tanger and Essaouira.

Figures from the Mobile World database reports that Maroc Telecom ended last September with around 12.8 million customers - and a market share of 66%.

Maroc Telecom, a 51% subsidiary of France's Vivendi, with the remainder listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges. The company also holds 51% of the historic operators in Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel) and Gabon (Gabon Telecom).

Source: Cellular News.

The declining prices of mobile handsets and low connectivity costs have helped in doubling internet access through cellphones this year.
 
The latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) figures showed that the number of Indians using their mobiles (both GSM and CDMA) to access the internet has more than doubled from 16 million in 2006 to 38 million in 2007.
 
There were 2.69 million broadband subscribers as on October 30 this year. Besides, of the 22 million PCs in the country, around 30-40 per cent have internet access.
 

The Portuguese market added around 50,000 new broadband subscribers in the third quarter, for a total 1.57 million at the end of September. That’s up 16 percent form a year ago, according to figures from market regulator Anacom. ADSL represents 62 percent of total accesses, while cable was responsible for 37 percent. Around 49 percent of new broadband clients opted for services from alternative providers. Portugal Telecom however remained market leader with 43.9 percent of subscribers, followed by TV Cabo with 22.9 percent, Novis with 14.7 percent, Cabovisao with 10 percent and Oni with 0.6 percent. Broadband penetration at the end of Q3 stood at 14.8 percent.