Source: TeleGeography.

The government of Equatorial Guinea has launched a telecoms operator called Gecomsa (Guinea Ecuatorial Comunicaciones Sociedad Anonima). Equatorial Guinea is currently served by two telecoms operators – Getesa and Hits. Gecomsa will provide mobile voice and internet services across Equatorial Guinea. Gecomsa is a joint venture between the government of Equatorial Guinea, which owns a 51 pe­rcent stake in the company, and the government of China with the remaining 49 percent.

Source: Telecom Paper.

China is on track to surpass 1 billion mobile connections before the end of the current quarter, fuelled by growth in 3G which will soon account for a quarter of the country's connections. According to Wireless Intelligence, China ended 2011 with 973.7 million connections, up about 16 percent year-on-year. The number of 3G connections surpassed 200 million in Q4 and accounted for 22 percent of the total. Market penetration is estimated at 72 percent, up almost 10 percent from a year ago. ­3G is now accounting for almost 80 percent of new connections in the country and 3G net additions in Q4 are estimated at 26.8 million out of a total 34.2 million. China Mobile remains the country's market leader, with an estimated 648.7 million connections in Q4, giving it a 67 percent market share. However, 3G connections account for just 8 percent of China Mobile's total base. 3G accounted for 20 percent of the total at second-placed Unicom, while third-placed China Telecom had 26 percent of its base migrated to 3G.

Source: Telecom Paper.

Source: TeleGeography.

MTN Swaziland has launched a new campaign titled ‘airtime for education’ for its prepaid subscribers enabling them to win one of the seven school fee packages. According to reports, users will need to recharge with a minimum of US$ 1.23 daily to be able to win the price worth US$ 185.

As per sources, Ambrose Dlamini, CEO, MTN has said that through this promotion they aim to offer consumers relevant rewards and better engage with them. He added that MTN is a happy brand and they are determined to fully explore this trait. They want their customers to interact more with the brand and derive a satisfactory level of fun and excitement for being MTN customers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Free has gone for low prices, which it says are 2.5 times cheaper than the lowest priced offer at its rivals. Unlimited calls, SMS and MMS, including calls to 40 other countries, costs EUR 20 per month and also includes 3GB of data use. Existing broadband subscribers pay only EUR 16 per month for the same plan. No subscription contract is required, unless the customer opts for a handset such as the iPhone. A basic offer of 60 minutes and 60 SMS per month is also available for EUR 2, or free for existing Free customers. Free has said the prices are valid for only the first 3 million mobile customers (it already has almost 5 million broadband subscribers). This may mean the price will go up slightly later to drive ARPU growth.

Free is known for its simple business model, aimed at quickly building market share: a triple play costs EUR 30 per month, the hardware (Freebox) and software are largely developed in house and it is continually adding new services. This saves on most marketing costs. The model is similar to that of HKBN in Hong Kong (see our commentary 'City Telecom sets the good example for FTTH operators'): low prices, innovative services and a shift away from marketing to sales spending. HKBN does this through its call centre, which has as many employees as the rest of the company combined (1,500 each). The call centre actively upsells services, pro-actively targeting customers in order to sell more services per subscriber and increase ARPU.

The question is whether Iliad can reproduce this model on the mobile market. A low price is an important part of the strategy, and the company has clearly succeeded in that - there could very possibly be a flood of customers now that it has started taking on subscribers. It is also a fitting strategy for a newcomer, which has no 'burden' of legacy revenues such as voice/SMS to worry about losing, nor an existing mobile organisation or (GSM, UMTS) network to maintain. At Free, innovation is driven by its own development team and CPE. In addition there is an active external community developing apps for the Free platform. While Free is unlikely to take on developing its own handsets, the move into mobile may stimulate both its internal and external developers to step up the creation of new services and apps.

What remains is a newcomer that can credit itself with starting a price war. In this sense it's an interesting case study for the Netherlands, where there is a good chance a new fourth operator will also soon emerge. Dutch consumers can hope that Tele2 Netherlands and Ziggo4 (Ziggo/UPC) take Free Mobile's example close to heart. Even for the existing operators, Free Mobile is an operator to keep a close eye on in the coming quarters. 

Source: Telecom Paper.

Free Mobile has announced the prices of its new service, staying true to its promise of simple tariffs and to halve consumer bills. The company started signing up new customers on the morning of 10 January, effectively launching France's fourth mobile network. For customers new to Free, the unlimited package costs EUR 19.99 a month with no contract tie-in period, for unlimited calls in France, overseas French territories and 40 international destinations in Europe and the US. The subscription also includes unlimited SMS/MMS and internet with VoIP, Wi-Fi and 3G/3G+ up to 3 GB a month. The operator states that at this price point it is 2.5 times chea­per than the best price of any competitor. Free Mobile has also introduced a EUR 2 a month, no tie-in period contract for 60 minutes of calls and 60 SMS a month. Extra SMS cost EUR 0.05, compared to EUR 0.10 at Orange France and SFR, and EUR 0.09 at Bouygues Telecom. Free Mobile also revealed advantageous pricing for sister company Free's internet customers. The unlimited mobile plan costs EUR 15.99 rather than EUR 19.99 and the 60 min/60 SMS plan is free instead of EUR 2. These prices are reserved to the first 3 million customers. Free Mobile said it offers a range of the best mobile phones on the market and choice will continue to grow with BlackBerry handsets and services still to come. The iPhone 4S will start shipping on 27 January. The 16 GB version will cost EUR 1 for the first month, then EUR 19.99 a month over 36 months. The 8 GB model will cost EUR 1 plus EUR 15 a month over three years. Free Mobile will start taking iPhone 4S orders on 20 January.

Source: Telecom Paper.

Source: TeleGeography.

Brazil finished 2011 with more than 242.2 million mobile phone lines, after adding 39.3 million new subscribers last year. The country's mobile penetration reached 123.87 percent at the end of 2011, according to figures from market regulator Anatel. New additions were the highest in the past twelve years and totaled 6.1 million in December alone. Of the total base, 191.2 million were prepaid (81.81%) and 44 million postpaid (18.19%). Vivo finished in first place with 29.54 percent or 71.55 million subscribers. TIM Brasil surpassed rival Claro to take second place with 26.46 percent or 64.08 million customers. Claro Brasil ended the year with 24.93 percent or 60.38 million subscribers­. Oi was in fourth position with 18.78 percent or 45.48 million subscribers, and regional operator CTBC closed the year with 653,905 subscribers, accounting for 0.07 percent. 3G handsets (phones and mobile devices) totalled more than 41.1 million in Brazil last year, which means an increase of 99.31 percent compared to 2010.

Source: Telecom Paper.

Some 71% of India’s total mobile subscription base is active.

TRAI, the regulator, reports that India had 884.37 million mobile subscriptions in November 2011, up by 2.97 million in the month. Rural areas accounted for 71.7% of these net additions to reach rural penetration of 36.05%, while urban penetration reached 159.92%. Of the 884.37 million mobile subscriptions, around 71.8% or 635.39 million were active (not accounting for the CDMA subscriber base of BSNL) on the basis of the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) in November 2011.

A number of operators have said that they will start disconnecting customers who have not used their mobile phones for more than 60 days (see India: 20 November 2011: Vodafone to Disconnect Inactive Subscribers). This is the timeline the Indian authorities use to calculate operators’ numbering requirements. As a result, operators’ mobile customer bases will appear to shrink, although both ARPU and MoU levels will be boosted as a result of these calculations. The table below provides an estimate of how monthly ARPU could be lifted by a revision of Vodafone India’s customer base.

Source: IHS.

Mobile subscribers in Belarus totaled 10.7 million in Belarus on 1 January, accordi­ng to Belarusian Statistics. Mobile penetration is at 113 percent, from 108.6 percent the year before. The country has 14,600 base stations across the country and 4,100 UMTS base stations.

Source: Telecom Paper.

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) will begin enforcing the registration of new and existing mobile phone users on 1 March this year, according to local daily New Vision. Customers of wireless services will be given one year to register their SIM with their mobile provider, backed-up with a national identity document such as a passport or driver’s licence. Owners of multiple SIMs will need to have all of their lines registered, and those without the required documents will be able to have a family member register on their behalf. SIMs unregistered by the 1 March 2013 cut-off point will be deactivated.

 The registration drive aims to reduce phone-based crime, and follows similar projects throughout East Africa in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. As noted by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at the end of September 2011 Uganda was home to some 16.1 million wireless customers, representing 47.4% of the population.

Source: TeleGeography.

Africa’s leading telecommunication provider, MTN, has launched a promotion for new prepaid subscribers by offering them free airtime. According to reports, the operator will offer customers purchasing the MTN Pay As You Go starter kit, free airtime worth US$ 14.2 for an entire year, on every recharge of US$ 7.13 or more.  Apart from this, the operator also offers the users various benefits such as ten free daily call-backs, five free text messages for every fifteen messages sent along with thirty free SMS every month.

As per sources, the operator says that the US$ 14.2 free airtime is spread across the year, enabling users to receive US$ 1.2 each month. However, in order to receive the monthly airtime, the users need to have a minimum recharge of US$ 7.13 every month. Further, the offer is considered to be valid for a year from purchase of the starter kit, and any customer migrating out of this price plan within the 12 months will lose this benefit.

The promotion is said to be valid from 1 December 2011 to 20 May 2012.

Source: Wireless Federation

With the increase in saturation of mobile services in urban markets across the world, mobile operators have shifted their focus to towards the relatively untapped rural markets for better business opportunities and a chance at increasing revenues.

According to reports, industry analysts predict Nigeria the largest mobile market in the continent, to be home to over 90 million subscribers by this year end. Further, improvements in broadband connectivity along with the emergence of new generation smartphones are expected to drive mobile data growth in the economy.

In most rural economies, the lack of adequate infrastructure has been a grave cause of concern for mobile operators as it reduces their profits and drives up costs for customers. Currently, industry reports suggest that a fully functioning network grid could help operators cut their mobile tariffs by 50 percent, which is higher than those being offered in developed countries.

Changes have been observed in the investment environment as well. With operators offering discounted services to low income users in order to expand their reach, the ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) has witnessed a decline. Bharti Airtel, which had acquired Africa’s Zain, slashed its prices by significant amounts in a bid to increase its market share, which increased the pressure across the industry. Further, sources reveal that Etisalat (Saudi Arabia) and Globacom have also been increasingly gaining customers, giving strong competition to market leader MTN.

The next big thing in the economy is being considered to be mobile banking services. With a large portion of the population being unbanked but gaining access to mobile devices, more and more consumers are using their phone to transfer money and pay for goods, in a more convenient and secure manner.

Source: Wireless Federation

Iran has reportedly received a third mobile phone operator by the name of Ritel to offer users in the country with mobile services. Prior to this, Iran played host to two mobile phone operators, Mobile Communication Company of Iran (MCI) and South African-owned MTN Irancell.

According to reports, the government had awarded a third licence to Tamin Telecom in October 2009, however the operator is not yet operational, but has however revealed plans to cover 60 percent of the population with its 2G network and 40 percent with its 3G network by 2014.

Sources claim that there have been speculations regarding whether the licence awarded to Ritel is a new licence or the one issued to Tamin Telecom. Details regarding Ritel’s coverage area or the ownership structure are yet to be disclosed.

Source: Wireless Federation

Source: TelecomPaper

Source: TelecomPaper

Industry sources claim that owing to rapid technology upgradation and the increase in the number of smartphone users, British consumers are likely to spend as much as $30.5 billion by 2021 on purchases through their mobile handsets. As per reports, the mobile purchases currently account for $1.8 billion, with almost $417 million comprising of mobile sales from the food and groceries category.

Sources claim that mobile commerce is expected to grow by 55 percent over the next five years. Innovations such as Near Field Communications (NFC) and faster mobile data transmission play an important role in the success of mobile commerce, by offering users a more secure and convenient way to pay for goods and services.  In order to better provide mobile payment services to their customers, network operators O2, Everything Everywhere and Vodafone joined forces to offer users a single system of paying for goods and services via mobile phones.

Source: Wireless Federation

US mobile operators have agreed new guidelines to send customers free alerts before and after they exceed their monthly limits on voice, data and texts. Customers will also get alerts on roaming charges when they travel abroad. The alerts will apply automatically unless subscribers opt out. The measures were agreed by the industry group CTIA and the FCC, as part of the CTIA 'Consumer Code for Wireless Service'. Operators will need to provide two out of the four alerts by 17 October 2012 and all four by 17 April 2013. As a result of the agreement, the FCC has agreed to suspend its regulatory proposal for making the alerts mandatory.

Source: TelecomPaper

­For the first time, the semi-annual survey conducted by the USA wireless industry trade association, the CTIA shows the number of wireless subscriber connections (327.6 million) has surpassed the population (315.5 million) in the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands), putting wireless penetration rate in the USA at 103.9 percent.

The survey -- which tracks US wireless trends including subscribership, usage, revenue and investment from January 2011 to June 2011 -- also showed a 111% increase in wireless data traffic.

From June 2010-June 2011, the annual capital investment increased by 28 percent to $27.5 billion. Since 2001, wireless companies have reported a cumulative total investment of $223 billion. These figures do not include the billions CTIA members paid to the U.S. government for spectrum.

Wireless annual service revenue was $164.6 billion in the 12 months ending June 2011, up 6 percent from the same period in 2010.

"Clearly, we're using wireless more every day, and the consensus of experts is that demand will continue to skyrocket by more than 50 times within the next five years. These are the reasons why our members need more spectrum," said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA. "By making underutilized or unused spectrum available for auction, carriers will continue to invest billions of dollars in their infrastructure, generate hundreds of billions of dollars in benefit to our economy and create up to a half a million new jobs while ensuring the U.S. maintains its position as the world's wireless leader."

The January 2011-June 2011 wireless survey results are:

• Wireless subscriber connections: 327.6 million; mid-year 2010: 300.5 million (9% increase).
• Wireless network data traffic: 341.2 billion megabytes; mid-year 2010: 161.5 billion megabytes (111% increase).
• Average local monthly wireless bill (includes voice and data service): $47.23; mid-year 2010: $47.47 (less than 1 percent decrease).
• Number of active smartphones and wireless-enabled PDAs: 95.8 million; mid-year 2010: 61.2 million (57% increase).
• Number of active data-capable devices: 278.3 million; mid-year 2010: 264.5 million (5% increase).
• Wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems: 15.2 million; mid-year 2010: 12.9 million (17% increase).
• Minutes of Use (MOU): 1.148 trillion; mid-year 2010: 1.138 trillion (1 % increase).
• SMS sent and received: 1.138 trillion; mid-year 2010: 982.9 billion (16 % increase).
• MMS sent and received: 28.2 billion; mid-year 2010: 32.1 billion.

Source: Cellular News

­South Korea could gain a fourth mobile network operator, if an application by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses (Kbiz) is accepted by the regulator.

The consortium operating the WiBro based mobile network will be formed by Kbiz and 900 of its SME members. An investment by a technology partner, probably Samsung is also expected.

"We decided to enter the mobile phone industry because we figured this could be a new growth engine for small and midsized IT companies," a Kbiz official told the JoongAng Daily. "The initial funding for investment will be less than 100 billion won ($94.3 million)." Kbiz said it will succeed in the mobile phone industry by offering subscription plans 20 to 30 percent cheaper than existing plans.

Although previous attempts to set up a fourth network were rejected, the government is putting pressure on the incumbent networks to lower their prices to help control inflation in the country. The offer of a new entrant on a promise of lowering prices may sway the regulator's opinion about granting the license.

Source: Cellular News

­A meeting of Government Ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has agreed to work on cutting mobile roaming rates between their countries.

The GCC Ministers decided to adhere to the Ministerial resolution made at a meeting three years ago, which stated that the GCC countries will move the implementation of proposals from a working group for a 30% cut in roaming rates.

In a statement, the GCC Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities said that they will inform the operators immediately after the meeting to implement the resolution. The GCC is a political and economic union of the Arab states constituting the Arabian Peninsula, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

Source: Cellular News

­In a new report, Fitch Ratings says that although overall mobile service revenue growth in Europe remains under pressure (-1.4% in the 12 months to March 2011), there are significant regional differences.

In northern Europe, mobile service revenue growth turned positive in 2010 and the 12 months to March 2011, led by a strong performance in the UK and Germany. In these two countries, revenue growth from non-voice services has more than offset voice revenue declines.

In southern Europe, the trend in service revenue declines is getting worse at -5.4% in the 12 months to March 2011. The economic weakness in southern Europe is dampening demand for mobile data services and exacerbating the decline in voice revenue from regulatory and competitive pressures.

Fitch expects voice revenue in southern Europe will remain under pressure, as effective voice pricing, especially in Spain, is higher than in northern Europe. Downward pressure is expected to continue as mobile termination rates, which are higher in southern Europe, are forced down towards northern European levels by regulation. Over the medium term, mobile data might not provide as large a boost to mobile revenue growth as some operators expect. There is a risk that mobile data might be partly used as a substitute for voice and SMS services. Fitch believes that the risk will increase over time as voice over IP becomes more of a threat with technology improvements and instant messaging and social networks could start to replace SMS more widely, not just in the youth segment.

Source: Cellular News

Mexican regulator Comision Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Cofetel) has reduced the interconnection rate charged by Telmex to rival operators to MXN 3.951 from MXN 11.55. Cofetel has also changed the legal nature of long distance service that Telmex provides to other competitors in rural areas with no investment from other fixed telephony competitors.

Cofetel has also cut the interconnection rate for this service by 94 percent to 4.53 peso cents per minute, from 75 peso cents. America Movil believes that such decisions are "arbitrary", "clearly unexplainable and deprive [its subsidiary Telmex] of its corresponding rights and assets. Telmex plans to carry out all the relevant legal defense actions. Additionally, related to the fixed-mobile interconnection rates that have been reduced, Telmex will apply the interconnection rates as established by Cofetel, until the legal proceedings of mobile service companies are not definitely resolved.

Source: TelecomPaper

­Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority (PTA) says that it has ordered the blocking of 3.5 million SIM cards that had not been  re-registered by their users with the mobile networks.

To cope with the order, the operators are being allowed to block accounts in batches of up to 875,000 SIM cards per week until they have blocked all the accounts that had not complied with an order to re-verify their ownership details with the networks.

Although identity is needed to buy a SIM card, the regulator ordered a re-verification process for all accounts after it said too many had wrong details or information that was out of date.The blocked SIM cards will however be able to make a call to a single number, 789 to verify the users details with the mobile networks and get their service restored.The 789 system is an automated real time verification system where a customer has to verify his details through NADRA's database by answering mandatory secret questions i.e. mother's name and place of birth so as to re-activate the SIM.

Users have one week from being blocked to re-verify their details, after which the SIM card will be completely disabled.

Source: Cellular News

The National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana says that around 85% of SIM cards in the country have now been registered with their respective network service provider. However, it went on the say that 2.5 million SIM cards were barred from making calls from the weekend and that those involved have until July to register them before their lines are completely disconnected.

Source: TeleGeography

The auction for a third mobile network operating licence in Syria will begin in April with a starting bid of EUR90 million (USD122.2 million), according to the Deputy Minister of Telecommunications, Mohammad Al-Jallali, as quoted by Syria Report. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, at the end of last year the Syrian authorities set 12 April 2011 as date to auction the country’s third mobile licence. At the time Imad Sabouni, the Syrian communications and technology minister, added that to facilitate the process an independent regulator would be set up ahead of the auction.

However, a separate report suggested that the five firms pre-qualified to bid for the licence – Turkcell, France Telecom, Saudi Telecom Company, Etisalat and Qtel – have all reacted strongly to the Syrian government’s call that they provide revenue projections for their prospective businesses there.

In a meeting in Damascus in 4Q10, Syrian telecom officials came under scrutiny concerning ‘sections in the tender where investors see risk, and vagueness about certain clauses.’ In particular, bidders are concerned that the government regulate roaming agreements with the country’s incumbent cellcos MTN Syria and SyriaTel, so the new operator would not face a disadvantage. Objections were also raised concerning the state’s call that bidders submit a business plan with revenue projection – even though the award is being decided through an auction. The licence tender requires the winning bidder to give 25% of its annual mobile revenue to the government, and stipulates that Syria's state telecoms company STE will hold a 20% stake in the new mobile operator.

Source: TeleGeography

State-owned broadband provider Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT) has confirmed that it has launched Libya’s third mobile phone network, under the brand name LibyaPhone Mobile. Although no precise rollout details have been confirmed by the operator, it claims that its network has capacity for around 100,000 customers during the first phase of its operations. Further, LibyaPhone Mobile has pledged to extend coverage to areas under-served by fellow state-owned cellcos Libyana and Al Madar Telecomm Company. LTT claims that LibyaPhone Mobile will offer both 2G and 3G connectivity.

Although speculation regarding the launch of a third mobile phone operator in Libya has been rife for some time, in July 2010 it was confirmed that UAE’s Etisalat and Turkcell of Turkey had both been overlooked for a new LYD1 billion (USD825 million) concession. The General Telecommunication Authority (GTA) had previously launched an international tender for a combined fixed and mobile licence in February 2009, although its final decision was severely delayed, and no clear reasons were given for the lack of progress, merely that the international telcos were ‘unsuitable’.

According to TeleGeography, state-owned Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT) is the country's dominant ISP and also acts as a moderator for the internet sector. The operator launched a commercial WiMAX network – operating in the 2.5GHz band – under the ‘LibyaMax’ banner in February 2009. Services have subsequently been expanded to over 25 locations, predominantly along the coast, covering around 65% of the population.

Source: TeleGeography

According to figures published by Ghana’s telecoms regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), fixed and mobile penetration in the country reached 75.4% at the end of last year, up from around 71% at the start of 2010. The watchdog’s figures show that the primary driver of growth is mobile usage: the cellular penetration rate stood at 74.2% at the same date, with more than 17.436 million registered SIM cards. Mobile growth in the second half of last year came despite a compulsory SIM registration scheme, which entered into effect on 1 July, and which was expected to dampen growth for the year, compared with 2009. The scheme is also expected to have pruned out a number of inactive and/or unregistered mobile users.

At the end of last year the NCA’s figures show that MTN Ghana led the mobile segment with 8.721 million SIMs, ahead of Tigo with 3.999 million (although TeleGeography estimates that around 400,000 of these are inactive), and third-placed Vodafone (Ghana) with 2.722 million. Of the three other licensed cellcos, Airtel, which has recently been rebranded from Zain, had 1.754 million subscribers, Expresso (formerly Kasapa) had 239,815 and Glo Mobile is yet to launch operations. Meanwhile, the two companies offering landline or fixed network services noted a significant drop in customers last year. Vodafone (formerly Ghana Telecom) reported 267,033 main lines in service at the end of 2010, down from around 284,000 at the start of the year, while Airtel had 10,864 lines, up around 8,000 year-on-year.

Source: TeleGeography

­Movitel, which was recently granted the third mobile operator license in Mozambique has announced that it plans to invest up to US$465 million in its network over the next five years. Of the total investment, some US$120 million will be spent in the first year to get the network launched.

Movitel is a consortium made up of Vietnamese company Viettel Telecom (70%) and Mozambique's SPI (30%), a company that is linked to the government.

Although Movitel was not the highest bidder for the license, when it offered US$28 million, the regulator said that it came highest in the technical assessment. The license was granted last November.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country ended June 2010 with around 6.77 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 32.7%. mCel is the dominant operator, with a market share of 65% - compared to 35% for rival, Vodacom.

Plans by the government to sell a small stake in Moçambique Celular (mCel) have been discussed in the past, but no progress has been made so far.

Source: Cellular News

According to Armenia’s Minister of Transport and Communication, Manuk Vardanyan, the country was home to more than 2.77 million mobile users at the end of 2010, a cellular penetration rate of 86%. Cellular services are provided by the country’s three incumbent operators – ArmenTel, K-Telecom (VivaCell-MTS) and Orange Armenia – and have been bolstered in recent years by the introduction of 3G, he said. The minister added that 4G is currently being introduced throughout the country, and TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that only last month, VivaCell-MTS launched its LTE network on a ‘test-commercial basis’. It plans a full commercial launch in February this year starting in Yerevan before expanding coverage to Armenia’s other regions. VivaCell-MTS paid AMD990 million (USD2.7 million) for a 4G concession in November 2010. Meanwhile, fellow operator Armentel is said to be in discussions with the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia as it seeks to secure a 4G concession.

In a related story, Orange Armenia has revealed that its mobile subscriber base reached 500,000 at the end of last year. ‘The year of 2010 was important for the company, which launched full-fledged operations throughout Armenia,’ said Orange Armenia CEO Bruno Duthoit. ‘This year marked a lot of innovations, new offers, extension of the coverage, construction of the customer base and investments,’ he added. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database the cellco, which is owned by France Telecom, had 45,000 mobile broadband customers at the end of September 2010, and its 3G network provided access to 93% of the population. In December 2010 it upgraded its national network with High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and high definition (HD) voice services, employing the services of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to carry out the modernisation of the core and access network which will enable Orange to provide high quality voice calls and data speeds of up to 14.4Mbps in main cities.

Source: TeleGeography

­Due to low penetration rates, an expanding economy, deploying 3G networks, and declining smartphone prices, mobile data revenue is expected to triple over the next five years in Peru, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

The mobile market will be the main source of revenue growth and Peru's principal revenue generator throughout the forecast period. Pyramid expects mobile revenue to expand at a CAGR of 6.6 percent over the next five years, going from generating $2.2 billion in 2010 to $3.1 billion by 2015, indicates Juliana Gomez, Analyst at Pyramid Research. "Mobile data, driven by 3G deployments and higher adoption of enhanced data services, will experience a revenue increase from $355 million in 2010 to $1.07 billion in 2015," she adds.

Over the forecast period Telefonica will remain the market leader; however, the merger of America Movil-Claro and Telmex Peru this year will intensify competition. "Telmex will complement its multiplay packages with mobile services, and both companies will invest to grow their data business, particularly mobile Internet," says Gomez. In addition, America Movil's Claro continues to expand its 3G network and has gained market share by leveraging data services.

The Peruvian market has shifted to GSM as a result of Telefonica's decision to migrate from CDMA to GSM and Claro's adoption of this standard in 2006. "After launching a 3G network (UMTS/HSPA) in 2008 Claro continues the expansion of its 3G network throughout the country to further support mobile Internet services. Movistar and Nextel have followed suit launching 3G networks," she says. Pyramid expects 3G technologies and 4G technologies to represent 54 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of total mobile subscribers in 2015.

Source: Cellular News

The Egyptian ministry of telecoms has said the number of mobile subscribers in the country rose 23.6% to 65.5 million in October 2010, compared to the same period last year, Zawya Dow Jones has reported. Subscribers for Vodafone Egypt reached 29.4 million for the period, while subscribers for MobiNil reached 28.6 million and Etisalat Misr reached 7.5 million subscribers, the ministry said.

Source: Ameinfo.com

Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell Communications, a consortium comprising Asiacell Iraq (30%), Qatar Telecom (Qtel, 30%) and investment group Merchant Bridge (40%), has signed network expansion agreements with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Ericsson, as it looks to expand its service footprint in the country. According to the cellco’s chief technical and IT officer, Patson Anius, the supply contracts will allow the operator to introduce ‘advanced services’ tailored to the domestic market. ‘Next year, we will be further expanding our network coverage to include small villages and residential communities in remote areas. We look forward to breaking our own GSM deployment record in Iraq next year,’ he said.

TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database writes that Asiacell is one of three cellcos licensed to provide national mobile services, having been awarded its concession in August 2007 at a cost of USD1.25 billion. In 2009 it deployed 1,490 base transceiver stations (BTSs) on its network, thanks to the build-out of 950 new communication towers, and improved the service capabilities of 450 other cell sites. At the end of September 2010 Asiacell had 7.917 million mobile subscribers, placing it second in the market with a share of 34.8%. It competes with Zain Iraq, Korek Telecom and SanaTel.

Source: TeleGeography

The Solomon Islands has confirmed previously rumoured plans to offer the country's third mobile license, just a few months after the country's second network, B-Mobile launched its services.Communications Commissioner, Nick Williams, made the announcement in Honiara this morning, noting that the licence will include an option to offer 3G services.

Mr Williams says he hopes to be able to award the licence by March next year and to see the operator begin its service within 6 months.The incumbent operator had blocked the launch of the country's second mobile network, B-Mobile for nearly ten months after its license was originally granted.

When the second license was tendered in 2009, Digicel applied for a license, but was rebuffed. Digicel had actually been granted a license in 2006, but Solomon Telekom successfully sued to block the network launch pending a review of its monopoly status.

Source: Cellular News

Osiptel, the Peruvian telecoms regulator, has warned that as many as a million mobile users face being cut off, having failed to register their details with their mobile network operators. In September this year Osiptel said registration of pre-paid mobile subscriptions would be made mandatory and the process would have to be completed by the beginning of March 2011.

Source: TeleGeography

The French telecoms regulator Arcep has recommended that mobile phone contracts be shortened from the 24-month tie-ins commonly offered, to allow end users to shop around for better deals. In a public consultation document setting down 30 key recommendations to improve transparency and make the market more competitive, Arcep is calling on cellcos to be required to offer contracts of either twelve or six months. Two-year contracts, the legal maximum length allowed in the country since 2008, currently offer the most competitive tariff plans, it noted. However, Arcep is concerned that under existing rules customers are locked into long-term deals often to the detriment of competition and often in a way that makes it difficult for users to switch provider. In another of its recommendations, Arcep is calling on domestic operators to make it clear how much of their monthly rental fee is set aside to repay the cost of their handset and what proportion is actually set aside for calls and other services. The watchdog is also concerned that offers such as free handset upgrades and other loyalty bonuses, effectively penalise people who wish to keep their existing phone.

Earlier this year, the three main network operators – Orange France, SFR and Bouygues Telecom – signed up to a charter designed to simplify end-user tariffs and allow customers to ‘unlock’ their phones free of charge to use a rival’s SIM card. The proposals currently being put forward by Arcep make no mention of pre-paid tariff plans – some of which include a valid period of as little as four days.

Source: TeleGeography

While mobile and broadband prices continue to fall, the increase in revenues compensated for the price drop, providing 2.5 per cent growth in one year. The large increase in mobile data traffic provided most of the growth, according to the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority's (NPT) ecom statistics for the first half of 2010."This shows change and continued growth in a mature ecom market. Customers' usage patterns are clearly changing from only voice and messages to increased data use, particularly via mobile services," says NPT Director General Willy Jensen.

Decline in SMS messages

For the first time the statistics show a decrease in the number of text messages (SMS) sent. In all, mobile customers sent more than 4.2 billion messages in the first half of 2010, which represents a decrease from 112 to 105 messages per person per month."Even though more than four billion messages is a lot, this means 82 million fewer SMS messages than in the first half of 2009. The decrease represents about NOK 50 million," says Jensen.It is difficult to find any specific reasons for the decline in the number of SMS messages."It is most likely connected with new forms of communication and social media such as Twitter and Facebook," says Jensen.

Fixed telephony drops

The number of fixed-line subscriptions fell by nearly eight per cent the last year. The decline applies to both traditional fixed-line subscriptions (PSTN and ISDN) and VoIP subscriptions. Both calls and revenues are falling."The numbers clearly show that fixed telephony calls are falling more than the number of subscriptions. This means that the fixed-line telephone is used less than before," says Jensen.On average, a residential fixed telephony customer talked 1,500 minutes the first half of 2010, against 1,600 minutes the first half of 2009.

Fibre is increasing

Data traffic over fibre and cable TV continues to increase, and there are now over 230,000 subscribers who have an Internet connection via fibre."The increase in fibre connections largely compensates for the decline in "DSL". Here, the number is now under 1 million. In all, the number of broadband subscribers grew by 5.1 per cent from the first half of 2009," Jensen says.

Source: Cellular News

­South Africa based MTN says that it ended September with 134.47 million subscribers across its international markets. This is a 4% increase for the quarter from 129.21 million subscribers recorded at 30 June 2010.

The South and East African region, which contributes 22% to the group's subscriber base, increased its subscribers by 4.9% to 30.1 million for the quarter mainly driven by growth in South Africa. South Africa which contributes 59% to the region's subscribers increased its base by, 3.9% to 17.77 million subscribers for the quarter ended 30 September 2010. This was driven by continued growth in the prepaid segment which added 616,000 subscribers.

Uganda increased its base by 5% to 6.22 million for the quarter as competition continued to intensify. The West and Central African region contributes 46% to the group's subscribers and increased its subscribers by 3.4% to 61.38 million. Nigeria, which contributes 60% to the region's subscribers, recorded a 5.1% increase in its subscriber base to 36.84 million.

Nepalese teleco Ncell/Spice Nepal, majority owned by Nordic telecoms firm TeliaSonera, has launched the country’s first 3G services at the base camp of Mount Everest, reports Reuters. Currently, the service is primarily targeted at the tens of thousands of climbers and trekkers who visit the mountainous region in the Solukhumbu district every year, and who have previously been dependant on expensive satellite phones for their communication needs. However, Ncell said TeliaSonera would spend over USD100 million next year to expand mobile coverage to around 90% of the population. Spice Nepal previously offered services under the Mero Mobile banner, but changed its brand name to Ncell in March this year.

Source: TeleGeography

The Solomon Island's National Telecommunications Commissioner Nick Williams has announced that the Oceanic sovereign state plans to offer a third mobile licence before the end of 2010. In a speech given at the Australian Solomon Islands Business Forum in Brisbane, Mr Williams said that the regulator intends to open the market up to a new operator to join Solomon Telekom - which enjoyed a monopoly on the Islands until the passing of the Telecommunications Act 2009 – and bemobile. In December 2009 bemobile was awarded a second licence, and went on to launch its commercial services last month.

During the forum in Brisbane, Williams said from 1 April 2011 there would be a full liberalisation of the telecoms market. He also highlighted the need for fully-fledged internet service provision in the country. Williams noted that there is a clear demand for internet connectivity, but thus far the supply has been poor, in terms of both availability and speed. He suggested: ‘This is a clear opportunity for investors, and we would welcome them’. Williams also claimed that a project is underway to bring a fibre-optic submarine cable connection to the Solomon Islands.

Source: TeleGeography

Hungary’s national regulator the National Media and Telecommunications Authority (NMHH) says the country was home to a total of 11.833 million registered mobile SIMs at the end of September. The three incumbent cellcos – T-Mobile, Vodafone and Telenor (formerly Pannon) – collectively added a net 25,000 new users to boost cellular penetration to 118.3%, compared to 118.0% a month earlier and 117.7% at the end of 2009. In terms of ‘active’ users, the NMHH reported a 22,000 monthly net gain to 10.855 million, compared to the 10.840 million reported at 30 June 2010. Of these, T-Mobile boasted a market share of 44.77% up from 44.68% three months earlier, Telenor’s share slipped to 32.68% from 32.89% and Vodafone had 22.55% (22.43%).

In a separate announcement, the NMHH says the country ended August 2010 with 1.299 million digital TV subscribers, or 19,000 more than a month earlier. At that date the number of people connected via either digital cable or IPTV rose to 491,000 from 481,000, while those watching satellite services went up to 808,000 from 798,000. In terms of market share for digital services, UPC retained its top spot with 30.2% (down from 30.4% a month earlier), Magyar Telekom boosted its share from 24.8% to 25.0% and DIGI increased its share from 24.4% to 24.7%.

Source: TeleGeography

The Minister of Communications in Fiji has extended for a second time the deadline for registration of all telephones in the country. Fiji Times Online says the new deadline date for registration is set at 8 November 2010. It is understood that any service provider failing to cancel a telephone line (fixed or mobile) which has not been registered under the government’s Compulsory Registration of Customers for Telephone Services Decree (June 2010), could be found guilty and fined FJD200,000 (USD109,507).

Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL), which to date has achieved a figure of 93% for customer registration, has welcomed the extension and notes a number of practical constraints, such as financing, resources and equipment that have stopped it recording and registering all phone users. Meanwhile Digicel Fiji says it faces logistical challenges to reach some rural and outer areas, and Vodafone Fiji says it needs to register all its subscribers - or around 760,000 users.

Source: TeleGeography

The total number of mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh reached 65.14 million at the end of September 2010, according to figures from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), up from 50 million a year earlier. Telenor-backed GSM operator GrameenPhone led the field with 28.65 million subscribers at end-September, up from 26.46 million at the end of the previous quarter, followed by Orascom unit Banglalink with 18.11 million, up from 16.10 million at end-June, while the regulator reported that Axiata Bangladesh (Robi) was in third place with 11.71 million subscribers, although the Malaysian-owned company is likely to disagree with the figure, as it reported 14.55 million subscribers at end-June 2010 (up from 9.37 million in a year). Indian group Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary Warid Telecom Bangladesh (soon to be rebranded as Airtel Bangla) reached 3.58 million active mobile SIMs by the end of September 2010, the BTRC said, up from 3.17 million three months earlier, whilst CDMA operator Citycell's subscriber base slipped to 1.91 million from 1.99 million over the same timeframe, and state-backed Teletalk's total subscriptions grew to 1.18 million from 1.16 million.

Source: TeleGeography

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is reportedly sitting on more than 100 applications for 2G spectrum, the Hindu Business Line reports. With the regulator having held up the allocation of new frequencies over the last two years, it is understood that the highest number of applications in any one circle is for Delhi, where there are 17 outstanding requests, while Bihar places second with a total of nine requests. India’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, Bharti Airtel, is effectively at the front of the queue for new spectrum, with the report claiming that it had been the first to request new frequencies in seven of the country’s telecoms circles, with Vodafone heading the line in five circles.

India’s armed forces are expected to release around 10MHz of spectrum in most circles within the next few months, which could allow for up to four or five operators per circle receiving their requested frequencies, with most cellcos having asked for between 1MHz and 2.2MHz; Delhi, however, is likely to only see two operators gain more spectrum, as both of the operators at the front of the queue in those circles are seeking 4.4MHz apiece.

Such allocation, though, will depend on whether the government alters the policy governing allocation of spectrum; at present the DoT offers additional spectrum on a first-come first-served basis. The Ministry of Finance though has said it wants this to change, with it favouring auctions for new frequencies, and until the ongoing debate over the matter is concluded it appears unlikely that any player will gain access to new 2G spectrum.

Source: TeleGeography

Kazakhstani national operator Kazakhtelecom (KT) has announced that it has covered 70% of the rural Aktobe region with its wireless in the local loop (WiLL) CDMA-450 network. In recent years, KT has sought to overcome Kazakhstan’s vast landmass and diverse geography by using a variety of technologies, including VSAT and CDMA-450 wireless in the local loop (WiLL). The Aktobe region has a population density of just 2.5 people per square kilometre. Almost 50 CDMA 450MHz base stations have reportedly been launched in the region under the project to date. According to TeleGeography ’s GlobalComms Database, KT plans to deploy a total of 900 base transceiver stations (BTSs) by end-2013.

Source: TeleGeography

­While the number of mobile network operators has grown over the past six years, mobile services continue to be dominated by the largest operators, posing significant long-term challenges to new competitors in their efforts to build market share and sustainable revenue streams, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

The number of mobile network operators (MNOs) per country has continued to increase from an average 4.0 operators per country in 2004 to 4.9 this year, leading to increased competition at the local level and smaller market share for the top players. When analyzing emerging and developed markets separately, one can discern two separate and distinct trends: In developed regions, the number of operators stayed relatively flat, whereas in emerging markets the number of operators per country increased from an average of 4.0 in 2004 to 5.4 today, notes Emily Smith, Research Associate at Pyramid.

"As mobile markets mature, Pyramid Research has found that the market share for the top operators converges toward an equilibrium point that is roughly the same across all global regions," Smith says. "While the average market share has hardly changed in developed regions, in emerging regions the market share for top operators has decreased by 10 percentage points in the past seven years." "Due to consumers' changing appetite for mobile services over the course of the recent global financial crisis, the speed at which the top operators lost share increased, although now that the global economy is moving into a recovery stage, top operators can expect to experience less share shrinkage than in recent years," Smith adds.

Source: Cellular News

­Shipments of mobile handsets in India grew by 6.3% quarter-on-quarter (2Q 2010 over 1Q 2010) to touch an all time high of 38.63 million units in a single quarter, reports IDC. In a significant new development, the study found that Dual and Triple-SIM card slot phones have grown to touch as much as 38.5% of the total India mobile phone shipments, from less than 1% in 2Q 2009 (April-June 2009 quarter).

According to Mr. Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President-Research, IDC India, "In the recent quarters several new players successfully launched their own devices at significantly lower Average Selling Values (ASVs) in the price sensitive India market. Such handsets found ready acceptance amongst first time buyers, especially from small towns and villages."

The United Kingdom’s telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has revealed that it has called on broadband test company Epitiro to examine the download speeds of the country’s five mobile network operators’ mobile broadband services, ZDNet reports. Ofcom said that it had decided to instigate the research following increasing dissatisfaction of British subscribers related to the actual speeds they receive, as opposed to those that operators advertise.

‘Actual speeds delivered via mobile networks are typically well below the 'up to' speeds which are advertised ... Satisfaction levels with mobile broadband performance also seem significantly below satisfaction with other [broadband] services,’ Ofcom noted in a statement confirming the investigation. Epitiro will field-test mobile data services offered by O2 UK, Orange UK, T-Mobile UK, Vodafone UK and Hutchison 3G UK, measuring details including the availability and retention of networks and download times, with the test beginning this month and running through to January 2011.

Source: TeleGeography

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will disconnect at least 400,000 unregistered pre-paid mobile phone lines today after a deadline for registering SIM card owners’ details passed, the Bahrain Tribune reports. The TRA, along with the country's mobile operators, Batelco, Zain and Viva, had warned users that they must register personal details by midnight on 31 August or have their service cut off. ‘As per the warning of the TRA and with the due consent from Batelco, Zain and Viva, there will be no extension for the registration of the pre-paid mobile lines,’ an official at the Kingdom's watchdog confirmed to the Tribune. The registration programme was undertaken for security reasons, to prevent anonymously-owned phones being used in illegal activities.

Source: TeleGeography

Wireless subscribers in China must provide identification from today to purchase a new number, press agency AFP reports, citing local media. The new regulations also apply to foreigners and those wishing to purchase a pre-paid SIM card, the China Daily and Global Times reported, citing sources at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Those with existing mobile subscriptions will be asked to register with their carriers before 2013, or their subscriptions could be cancelled. Street newspaper stands will be banned from selling SIM cards until the owners are trained on how to register customers, the report added.

The new rules are part of the Chinese government's efforts to prevent spam, pornographic messages and rampant fraud over the country's vast mobile networks, MIIT spokesman Wang Lijian told the China Daily. China had 814 million mobile phone users at the end of July, MIIT officials told the press, with up to 320 million users not yet registered.

Source: TeleGeography

­Costa Rica's telecommunications market offers opportunities with its new liberalization, opening the door for competition across all segments and boosting mobile penetration to 136 percent by 2015 with prepaid subscriptions, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Costa Rica is the last country in Latin America to liberalize its telecommunications industry. Now, the regulator in Costa Rica has been quite busy with the liberalization of fixed and mobile services taking place. "Costa Rica is auctioning three mobile licenses over the next few months, and the process is expected to be completed before year end," says Jose Magana, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research. "New regulation includes number portability and infrastructure sharing."

Source: Cellular News

­With seven operators, the Vietnamese mobile market is one of the top five most competitive markets in this region. Vietnam's mobile connections grew 58% in 2009 and penetration reached 127%. However, recent operator comments suggests that 50% of these connections are inactive and as much 70% of the connections added in 2009 were multi-SIM users.

On the broadband front, the Vietnamese market has seen growth of over 60% in the past 4 years. A subscriber base of 2.1 million in 2008 gave the nation a household broadband penetration rate of 11.9&. The subscriber base is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.22% from 2004 to 2014 and is forecasted to reach 4.9 million by the end of 2014. While, the household broadband penetration is projected to reach 24.9% by the same period. Consumer broadband revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.11% from 193 million in 2008 to 449 million in 2014.

Source: Cellular News

The Syrian cabinet has approved plans for the licensing of a third mobile operator to compete with incumbent operators SyriaTel and MTN Syria which were awarded 15-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts for the rollout and operation of Syria's first mobile networks back in early 2001. As well as allowing for the entry of a new licensee into the wireless market, the two existing operators will buy out their current BOT agreements and convert to conventional licence agreements. The new licence will be granted after a three-stage process including initial rehabilitation, investment and technical rehabilitation and then finally a financial auction.

CommsUpdate reported UAE telecoms operator Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) first expressed an interest in acquiring Syria’s third wireless licence in April last year, while Kuwait's Zain has also indicated its interest in investing in the country’s mobile market, either through an acquisition of an operator licence, or a stake in an existing operator. In 2009 Zain held talks to buy SyriaTel, but the discussions were suspended for reasons not entirely clear.

Following the news that a licence auction had been approved, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai quoted sources as saying that 'Zain is waiting for Syria's government, which announced the opening of a bid for a third operating telecom ... to issue the terms and conditions required for applying and attaining the license.'

Source: TeleGeography

­Mobile phone users under the age of 16 are extremely sophisticated, with deep brand experiences and preferences. This raises significant questions for network operators, handset manufacturers and service providers regarding how best to engage an increasingly important market segment.

You could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu. After all, rising mobile phone use amongst children is not a new phenomenon. As long ago as 2004 the Guardian was reporting growth in ownership amongst under-10s, and media coverage concerning potential health concerns can be traced back even further. However, our ever-increasing reliance on, and immersion in, mobile phones and the digital services we use them to access, justify revisiting the topic.

Recent data from GfK reinforces just how prevalent mobile ownership amongst under-16s has become (2.5 million 12-15 year olds, almost 9 in 10, now have one). Furthermore, this is the age group cementing the shift in behaviour from passive entertainment, such as television, to more active digital and online activities. As such, it should come as no surprise that the value placed on their mobiles increases accordingly.

Pakistan’s second largest mobile network operator by subscribers, Telenor Pakistan, said it has completed the deployment of the country’s largest solar-powered network in Universal Service Fund (USF) assisted regions. The operator has revealed that of 50 solar cell sites constructed, 47 are within the USF assisted areas of Mirpur Khas and Bahawalpur, providing telecoms services to approximately 1.63 million people who previously had no access to service at all. The remaining three sites have been deployed in Islamabad and Kyber-Pukhtoonkhwa. The introduction of the eco-friendly technology forms part of Telenor Pakistan’s Green Energy Project, which aims to prevent the emission of on average 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Commenting on the completion of this element of the project, Kalid Shezhad, chief technology officer at Telenor Pakistan, noted: ‘We are delighted to have created the largest solar-powered cell network in the USF-assisted areas of Mirpur Khas and Bahawalpur. With the deployment of solar-powered cell sites our aim is to provide environment-friendly telecommunication services even in the remotest areas of Pakistan. By doing so we are reducing power demands on the national grid and also helping to reduce carbon emissions.’

Source: TeleGeography

The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) has announced that mobile phone subscribers will be required to register their details with operators by the end of July or risk having their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards deactivated. Subscribers will now be obliged to give their full names, physical and postal addresses, dates of birth, and alternative means of contact when they purchase a new SIM card. Adults will have to show their identification cards, whilst minors will have to be accompanied by a guardian. The mandatory SIM card registration scheme is expected to record the personal details of some 20 million subscribers by 30 July. CCK Director General Charles Njoroge commented: ‘The process started last year and we have been working together as an industry. So far, between 50% and 60% of the subscribers have been registered’.

Safaricom and Zain have already registered a significant proportion of their customer base, courtesy of their money transfer services, M-Pesa and Zap, which require customers to register before they can access the services. Telkom Kenya said it had details of its data clients, whilst Essar Telecom said that it has the mechanisms in place to gather the needed information. However, the cellcos have all asked for additional time to complete the process. Zain Kenya Chief Executive Rene Meza stressed: ‘The process is complex and will require consumer education before all the subscribers buy the idea, so we might need a little more time’.

Source: TeleGeography

­The already extended deadline to register SIM cards in Tanzania has been against extended for a further two weeks following representations from the mobile networks that they are still seeing customers coming into their stores to register their accounts.

Science, Technology and Communication minister Prof Peter Msolla announced the government's decision in Parliament last week just as the 30th June deadline was set to expire.

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) had originally set a deadline of the end of last year, then extended it again to the end of June. After the new deadline, of the 15th July, any unregistered SIM card will be locked for up to 90 days unless it is registered. A locked SIM card can not be used to make or receive calls or use sms, but if it is registered within 90 days, it will be unlocked, and can then be used. Any locked SIM card not registered by 30th September 2010 will be permanently deleted.

Source: Cellullar News

Ghana yesterday implemented its controversial mobile SIM registration scheme. Under the National Communications Authority (NCA’s) new policy, no one can buy a SIM card without first providing personal details backed by an official national identity document. According to the industry watchdog, the SIM card registration will help curb crime and also help to control an unwanted rise in unsolicited text messages.

Source: TeleGeography

­Jordan is the Arab World's most competitive cellular market, according to the Arab Advisors Group. Saudi Arabia came in second, followed by Palestine.

The Cellular Competition Intensity Index results for June 2010 revealed that Jordan tops the score -as the most competitive Arab market- with an 80.7% mark followed by Saudi Arabia (75.3%), Palestine (69.3%), Oman (67.1%), Egypt (65.7%), Morocco (64.9%), Iraq (63.4%), Tunisia (62.7%), Yemen (61.1%), Bahrain (59.9%), Algeria (59.5%), Sudan (59.4%), Mauritania (56.8%), Kuwait (49.8%), Qatar (46.4%), UAE (45.4%), Syria (38.0%), Libya (34.3%), and finally Lebanon (31.2%).

The 2010 index results revealed that eight countries ranked higher than their June 2009 index ranks, these are: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Oman, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain and Qatar. Meanwhile, a total of eight countries ranked lower compared to June 2009 index, namely: Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, Mauritania, Kuwait, UAE, Libya and Lebanon. The remaining three countries of Egypt, Morocco and Syria maintained their June 2009 ranks.

Nigeria-based Globalcom (Glo Mobile) has reportedly been issued with a mobile operator’s licence in Senegal. If confirmed, the concession, the fourth to be awarded in the West African country, will also allow Globacom to land its Glo 1 trans-Atlantic submarine cable in Senegal, with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to Mali. Local newspaper This Day quotes the Nigerian firm’s chairman Mike Adenuga Jr as saying that the licence would enable his company to offer ‘world class telecommunications services’ to the government and people of Senegal.

‘In line with our vision, Glo will continue to play a major role in stimulating a new era of prosperity in the sub-continent and build facilities that will offer Africa advanced telecoms services such as teleconferencing, distance learning, disaster recovery, telemedicine, on-line diagnosis and video conferencing during surgery and research,’ Globacom added in a statement. The Nigerian company also holds operating licences in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic and Cote d'Ivoire, but as reported recently by CommsUpdate, has threatened to exit the Ghanaian market citing sabotage as the reason.

Source: TeleGeography

The Bolivian telecoms regulator, La Autoridad de Telecomunicaciones y Transportes (ATT), has said that it expects approximately 90% of the country’s mobile voice subscribers to have registered their mobile phone by 30 May, according to BNamericas. The watchdog, citing ATT technical chief Andres Zambrana, noted that as of 17 May 2010 87% of subscribers had registered their mobile numbers. Initially, having opened the registry database in November 2009, the cut-off date had been set as February 2010, but this was subsequently pushed back in order to allow mobile network operators to implement initiatives designed to focus on ensuring rural users had registered their details. Under the government’s plans, all those subscribers that have not provided their personal details by 1 June will have their service cut off, with the ATT claiming that the move will help curb the use of mobile phones in criminal activity.

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.

Long anticipated tender for a third mobile network operator license has finally been issued by government of Mozambique. US$25 million has been set as the reserved price for the license, with the last date for submissions due by July 6th 2010. After winning the license, the operator can begin operating within 30 days of the license being granted.

Earlier it was announced by Portugal Telecom that it would bid for a 3rd license, which at the time was expected to be offered around the middle of last year.

Last year, the country had 6.55 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 36%. With a market share of 65%, mCel is the dominant operator followed by Vodacom having 35% of the market share. No progress has been made in the government plans to sell a small stake in Moçambique Celular (mCel) which have been discussed in the past.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Telefonica's research and development unit is currently developing a mobile phone that enables users to send SMS, as well as make and receive voice calls in areas without mobile network coverage. Mobile communication is made possible via an application installed on the mobile device. All mobile phone owners using this application form a network in which their phones would serve as signal repeaters, El Mundo reports. The connectivity application would establish direct wireless data connections between two mobile devices that are relatively close to each other. The devices would form a network in which two phones that are 100 meters away from each other could share data and voice calls without requiring coverage.

Source: TelecomPaper

Paraguay's mobile network operators achieved a 12% year-on-year rise in overall service revenues in 2009 to USD604 million, reports BNamericas quoting figures from the economy ministry. In 2008 mobile firms Claro, Tigo, Personal and Hola billed USD517 million, up 16.6% compared to 2007, according to previous reports.

Source: TeleGeography

Brazilian mobile operator TIM Brasil plans to extend its 3G mobile network coverage to around 60% of the population by 2012, BNamericas quotes the company’s chief executive Luca Luciani as saying. In an interview, the CEO went on to say he expects the country’s overall telecoms market to expand by more than 5% per annum, in revenue terms, over the three-year period.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, TIM Brasil is controlled by European telecoms operator Telecom Italia and ended 2009 with 41.1 million subscribers, up 12.9% from the end of 2008, and representing a market share of 23.6%. Total net additions in the fourth quarter came to 4.7 million lines, or 20.2% of total market net additions. Average revenue per user (ARPU) was BRL27.0 in 4Q09, a growth of 1.7% when compared to the previous quarter. The cellco’s GSM network covered 94% of the country’s urban population, serving around 2,958 cities, as at 31 December 2009. As for data coverage, TIM provides GPRS technology to 100% of its footprint, while 77% is covered through EDGE technology, it said. In addition, TIM’s 3G coverage included more than 57 cities at the end of 2009 – reaching 30% of the urban population in Brazil.

Source: TeleGeography

Moroccan operator Wana has launched its GSM mobile services under the name Inwi. The third mobile operator said its network covers three-quarters of the population. Wana, which already offers CDMA fixed wireless and mobile voice and internet services under the name Bayn, was awarded the GSM licence in early 2009. The new mobile services include a prepaid offering with per-second billing as well as four postpaid plans with free on-net calls and a range of corporate offers.

Inwi also offers daily and weekly unlimited SMS plans, BlackBerry services, prepaid and postpaid 3G mobile internet using a USB modem, a Windows Live Messenger service, roaming and a wide range of handsets from Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. The company will compete against incumbent Maroc Telecom and Meditel on the GSM market.

Source: TelecomPaper

Bahrain's third mobile network launched commercial services yesterday as Saudi Telecom Company (STC) subsidiary Viva Bahrain opened its doors to customers. Trade Arabia News Service reports that Viva’s services are available across Bahrain, and include mobile broadband access at speeds of up to 21Mbps, packaged with unlimited downloads, whilst up to five people can enjoy wireless broadband at peak speeds of 7.2Mbps via a single router. For the next three months, Viva is offering free calls and SMS within its Bahraini network and free calls to STC numbers in Saudi Arabia. It is also offering up to 90% discounts on calls made to 18 popular international destinations. Viva’s post-paid handset bundles come with up to 200MB of inclusive data usage per month, whilst its 3G-enabled pre-paid SIM cards are available for BHD2 (USD5.3), with an additional offer of 24% more credit each time the SIM is recharged, the company announced.

STC has invested USD200 million in Bahrain to date and expects to spend ‘several hundred million’ dollars in the next few years. Viva Bahrain CEO Abdulrahman Al Omar commented on the launch: ‘We plan to compete in the Bahraini market by providing innovative services that meet the needs of the market and enrich the level of services, whether voice or data transmission or even high speed broadband.’

Source: TeleGeography

The oldest mobile operator in Azerbaijan, Bakcell, has announced that for the first time since its formation in 1994 it has achieved network coverage in all regions of the country, ABC.az reports. Bakcell, which according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database operates across a nationwide GSM platform with GPRS and EDGE evolution, said that it had worked hard to improve its networks in the twelve months ended 31 December 2009, adding that: ‘As a result, coverage in every region of Azerbaijan has more than doubled.’ As reported by CommsUpdate on 15 October 2009 Bakcell has pledged to continue to develop its network in 2010.

Source: TeleGeography

­Just over three-quarters (77%) of seniors in the UK have access to a mobile phone, but 49% still feel intimidated and hesitant of new technology, reports a survey carried out by Synovate on behalf of Doro. The survey of 2000 reveals that the use of mobile phones is continuing to grow amongst seniors. Seniors in the UK stated that they use their mobile phone mostly to make calls (73%) and secondly for text messages (37%).

"Many seniors experience difficulties when handling technical products due to problems relating to sight, hearing, poor mobility and indeed limited dexterity. At Doro we believe that seniors will call and use services to a much greater extent as soon as they possess a mobile phone developed with their needs in mind," says Kjell Reidar Mydske Marketing and Sales Director at Doro.

Just as the rest of us, seniors differ from each other - the survey shows great differences between the countries, age groups and social background. There are interesting differences between the 65-74 and 75+ age groups. Nearly 90% of those in the age group 65-74 have a mobile phone, while only two-thirds of those in the age group 75+ have one.

There are also big differences between the countries. The USA are in the front line (65%) when it comes to having a positive attitude to new technology, closely followed by Sweden (62%), Germany (62%) and UK (44%). The French, on the other hand, have a more considered approach to new technology (39%).

Source: Cellular News

­The charitable foundation set up by the wife of the UK's former Prime Minister, Tony Blair has published a report that attempts to understand the nature of women mobile subscribers in low and middle-income countries such as Kenya and India, and highlights the barriers facing women's adoption of mobile technologies. It also shows that, by extending the benefits of mobile phone ownership to more women, a host of social and economic goals can be advanced.

The report reveals for the first time the extent of the gender gap in mobile usage in many low and middle-income countries. It shows that a woman in a low or middle-income country is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. Closing this gender gap would bring the benefits of mobile phones to an additional 300 million women, empowering and enabling them to stay better connected with family and friends, improving their safety, and helping them obtain paid work, in line with the third UN Millennium Development Goal on gender equality. The mobile phone as documented in the report is an effective productivity and development tool which creates education, health, employment, banking and business opportunities.

The research calls for the mobile industry, development community and policy makers to undertake a number of steps together including, specifically addressing women in segmentation strategies and marketing tactics; creating innovative programmes to increase the uptake of mobile phones amongst women; promoting the mobile phone as a life enhancing, effective development tool which creates education, health, employment, banking and business opportunities; and designating high-profile champions of mobile phones for women.

Source: Cellular News

The Cyprus Mail reports that a parliamentary plan to enforce identity registration of all pre-paid mobile network users has run into legal and practical problems. Late last year, lawmakers began preparing legislation aimed at curbing illicit usage of anonymously owned phone SIM cards in criminal activity, but the draft bill was met with several objections. The commissioner for the protection of personal data, as well as the state legal service disagreed with the bill as it conflicts with the law on personal data, whilst state-owned fixed and mobile operator Cyta, claimed that it would take ‘15 years’ to register its roughly 500,000 pre-paid mobile subscribers. The proposed law provides for a one-year transitional period to give subscribers a chance to register their details. Meanwhile, the House Communications Committee has asked the personal data commissioner and the legal service to find a way to overcome the perceived problems in introducing the scheme.

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

Mobile operator Moov Togo has resumed the provision of wireless services in the country after the suspension of its operations for four months, African news agency Pana Press reports. In August 2009 Atlantique Telecom, which manages Moov’s operations in Togo and five other countries in Africa, failed to renew its operating licence in the West African country.

The concession expired in June 2008, after which the company was given until 10 August 2009 to pay a CFA20 billion (USD44 million) renewal fee. Negotiations between the cellco and regulator broke down close to the deadline and Moov’s network was shut down, leaving around 600,000 subscribers without a mobile service and sparking protests involving over 2,000 people. Under the terms of the new agreement, Moov will pay CFA25.75 billion over a period of twelve years, instead of the CFA20 billion previously required over a ten-year period. The company has reportedly already made a down payment of CFA11.75 billion, and will pay the remainder over the required time-span.

Source: TeleGeography

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has introduced a new set of interconnection rates for voice and SMS termination with the hope that retail tariffs will be cut by as much as NGN4 (USD4.98) per minute, local newspaper This Day reports.

From 31 December 2009 interconnection rates for mobile voice termination provided by new entrants (defined by the commission as companies which have been operating for less than four years) irrespective of originating network, will be set at NGN10.12. The rates will fall to NGN9.48 on 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 on 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 on 31 December 2012 (from which date all termination rates will be symmetric). The NCC hopes the revised interconnection rates will encourage new entrants in the sector to offer services at more affordable rates to subscribers. Operators not defined as new entrants must set a mobile voice termination rate of NGN8.20 from 31 December 2009. Fixed voice termination rates have been set at NGN10.12 from 31 December 2009, NGN9.48 from 31 December 2010, NGN8.84 from 31 December 2011 and NGN8.20 from 31 December 2012. The SMS termination rate of new entrants will start at NGN1.94 from 31 December 2009 and fall gradually to NGN1.02 from 31 December 2012. Other mobile operators will charge NGN1.02 from the start of 2010.

Source: TeleGeography

­The Tunisian telecoms market is to gain additional competition with the entry of France Telecom in early 2010. However, Onda Analytics believes the dynamics of the Tunisian telecoms market could change further, with many parties interested in the 35% stake in Tunisie Télécom held by EIT, a holding company for telecoms investments made by Dubai Holdings. The increasingly competitive environment in Tunisia may prompt EIT to consider listening to offers from operators interested in joining the market. Meanwhile, the other 65% shareholding is owned by the Tunisian government, which this week announced a privatisation drive for 2010.

The incumbent, Tunisie Télécom, is likely to suffer most from the entry of France Telecom, given that the new entrant will be present in fixed line, broadband and mobile markets. Tunisie Télécom's mobile market share is forecast to decline from 50% in 2009 to 34% by 2018. Its fixed line business is also set to be put under pressure from France Telecom, with Tunisie Télécom's fixed share to fall from a current monopoly position to 77% of fixed lines by 2018.

Tunisian mobile operators generated total mobile revenues of US$1.6 billion in 2009. As a result of relatively high mobile penetration and with tariffs set to fall with the entry of the third mobile operator, total mobile revenue is forecast to grow modestly over the coming years. Fixed line growth is expected to buck the trend of many markets with a forecast increase in lines of 30% to 2018, from 1.4 million in 2009, driven by the adoption of broadband services.

Source: Cellular News

­Vietnam has extended the deadline for PrePay subscribers to register their account details before unregistered SIM cards are disconnected by the networks. The extension has been agreed to as there are still a significant number of unregistered SIM cards active on the mobile networks.

MobiFone has extended its deadline to 5 January and VinaPhone continues the registration until January 6.According to MobiFone, it had opened 15,000 counters across the country, registering 20 million subscribers. That leaves around one million unregistered yet.

The ministry has decided that individuals will only be allowed to subscribe to three phone numbers from each mobile service provider without registering. Deputy Director of the ministry's information department, Nguyen Xuan Tru, said there are around 100 million mobile subscribers in the country, 90 per cent of them using pre-paid cards.The ministry has ordered the companies to submit the registration data on January 10, 2009.

Source: Cellular News

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will begin the registration process of all GSM-enabled SIM cards in March 2010, the African Press Agency reports. According to Lolia Emakpore, the director of the regulator’s Consumer Affairs Bureau, the process will start simultaneously in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and subscribers will have six months to register their details free of charge or face having their service disconnected. She added that the move will help curb crime perpetrated via mobile phones, such as fraud.

Source: Telegeography

The Evaluation Committee of Solomon Islands Telecommunication has decided to award a mobile network operating licence to bemobile, a company backed by international fund GEMS in partnership with US-based telecoms investor Trilogy International Partners. bemobile, which already provides services in Papua New Guinea, beat a rival application from Digicel Group to break the monopoly of Our Telekom. The new licence requires the launch of services within six months and the provision of coverage to 81% of the population within 21 months. The Evaluation Committee said it hoped there will be other opportunities for Digicel or other interested parties to enter the Solomon Islands market in the future. Trilogy International Partners also operates mobile networks in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and New Zealand.

Source: Telegeography

­The state-owned telecoms network in Burma/Myanmar is to expand its CDMA network capacity by some 150,000 lines in the two main cities of Yangon and Mandalay this month, reports the Chinese Xhinua news agency.

Significantly, the capacity of the restricted network in the new capital city, Naypyidaw is not being affected. Phone services in the capital are even more tightly regulated than usual for other areas in the military run country.

The number of CDMA phone lines stood 205,500, while that of GSM phones hit 375,800 and auto-phones reached 153,344 in the country in 2008, according to statistics.

The Mobile World analysts estimates that the country had nearly 540,000 subscribers, representing a population penetration level of just 1.2%.

The 3G phones were selling for 2.8 million Kyat (US$ 2150), while a GSM costs about 2.3 million Kyat (US$ 1800). A CDMA costs about 2.1 million Kyat (US$ 1615). The prices put the phones out of reach of ordinary citizens and limits them to the government or favoured business contacts.

Government and military contacts tend to find it easier to get the paperwork to own a mobile phone - but often then rent out those phones to business users.

Source: Cellular News

State-run telco Myanma Posts and Telecommunications plans to deploy 150,000 additional CDMA-based limited mobility wireless phone connections in two major cities, Yangon and Mandalay, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. The existing CDMA networks in Yaragon and Mandalay will be expanded by 100,000 and 50,000 lines respectively, using 800MHz equipment, at a cost of around USD500 per new connection. Active CDMA lines in Myanmar numbered 205,000 at the beginning of the year, compared to 375,000 GSM mobile users. Meanwhile, the authorities also say they are aiming to introduce video calling and other 3G applications over a planned W-CDMA mobile network.

Source: TeleGeography

­The mobile market in Mozambique is in its nascent stage with only two operators catering to the burgeoning demand for mobile services. Large investments are being made in infrastructure development, with the enterprises segment having the maximum growth potential due to the increased number of companies opening sites in the country, especially in remote areas.

The bid for a third operator is expected to be finalized by December 2009, further stimulating the competitive environment from 2010. Submarine cables are being deployed to provide global connectivity as well as improve local and international traffic. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that market earned revenues of $300 million in 2008 and estimates this to increase six-fold by 2015 to reach $1.8 billion.

"Mozambique is a promising country in various sectors," says Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst Silvia Hirano Venter. "The recent introduction of foreign companies and expatriates with high incomes is boosting the demand for more sophisticated communications services, driving the country to invest in the development of its infrastructure."

Substantial improvements in infrastructure and regulation are expected to take place by 2012 and Frost & Sullivan believes that the market is likely to reach its full potential by 2014.

"Currently, Mozambique has only two operators and five key vendors," Venter says. "There are several opportunities for companies interested in expanding to remote areas. Additionally, there is growth potential for companies that offer optimised solutions for infrastructure as a way to reduce the capital and operational expenses of operators."

However, several factors are hampering market growth, such as an inadequate transportation system, unreliable power supply, natural disasters such as floods and droughts, and the presence of landmines. Companies should effectively address these issues to succeed in this geographic area.

"The current global economic downturn has affected Mozambique indirectly, as the demand for agricultural products and commodities has reduced," explains Venter. "However, such challenges are projected to reduce in intensity over the next few years, even as demand is set to rise."

Only 16.0 percent of the population currently utilizes mobile services to communicate. The network quality is good and the much-anticipated roll out of the submarine fibre optic cables will represent an advance in data traffic and capacity.

"Companies should continue to invest in the extension of the network to rural areas to enable the reduction of prices," concludes Venter. "Despite the challenges, the future looks bright for Mozambique's mobile communications market."

Source: Cellular News

­Millicom says that it has officially started its mobile operations in Rwanda today. Millicom was awarded its license in December 2008 and will be the third operator in the Rwandan market. The service is launching with approximately 50% coverage of the population, with plans to extend coverage significantly over the next three years.

In addition, the operator has deployed 3G infrastructure in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and other key urban centres.

Mikael Grahne, President and CEO of Millicom, said "With a population of 10 million, mobile penetration of less than 20%, and a rapidly developing economy, Rwanda is a highly attractive market for Millicom. With our focus on affordability and our strengths in distribution and innovation, we believe we can make mobile voice and value-added services a reality for the mass market in Rwanda."

Source: Cellular News

­The Libyan government has announced plans to sell small stakes in the country's two mobile phone networks as part of a wider plan to sell off state owned corporations. The IPOs will offer shares in the government's two mobile telephone operators, al Madar and Libyana, as well as in Iron and Steel Company and National Commercial Bank.

The government also announced details of tax breaks to make trading on the local stock exchange more appealing to investors.

"The trading volume remains small because we are still at the start, but I expect that with new regulations ... the Libyan stock market will become one of the most active in North Africa and the Arab region," Seleem Naas, chairman of Libyan brokerage Sarab Foreign Exchange and Financial Services told the Reuters news agency.

Earlier this year, Etisalat said it had submitted a bid for Libya's third mobile phone license, although nothing further has been heard.

According to figures from the Mobile World, Libyana is the dominant operator with 83% of the market, followed by Al Madar. The country has a population penetration level of 134%.

Source: Cellular News

­The body managing the tender for the Solomon Island's first competitive mobile license tender has announced that it has received three applications. The applicants are Digicel, bemobile and Milestone Developments.The Evaluation Committee has begun reviewing the applications and will be making further announcements in due course as provided in the Request for Applications.

The country currently has just the one telecoms operator, Solomon Telekom (trading as Breeze GSM).Solomon Telekom is estimated by the Mobile World subscriber database to have ended Q1 '09 with just over 35,000 subscribers - representing a population penetration level of just 6%.

Digicel was granted a license in 2006, but Solomon Telekom successfully sued to block the network launch pending a review of its monopoly status.

Source: Cellular News

Millicom International Cellular (MIC), the telecoms group with operations in twelve countries across Africa and Latin America, has posted revenues of USD856.2 million for the third quarter of 2009, a 7% increase year-on-year.

The growth is partly attributable to strong performance at Amnet, the company’s cable and broadband unit, as well as its African subsidiaries. Net income, however, slipped 11.5% to USD142.7 million on the back of higher interest expense and taxes. The results exclude operations in Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka, which Millicom agreed to sell earlier this month. The full divestment of all three subsidiaries is expected to take place by the end of 2009, generating approximately USD565 million in cash for the company.

Chief Financial Officer Francois-Xavier Roger said the company was looking at acquisitions and bidding for new licences in Africa and Latin America. ‘We have nothing well advanced at this stage, but we have a few opportunities that we continue to discuss with third parties,’ he stated.

Source: Telegeography

Orascom Telecom has reported that its mobile subscribers in North Korea nearly doubled in Q2�Œ09 even though the ARPU dipped. Koryolink, in which Orascom owns a majority stake, ended June with 47,863 subscribers, twice more than what the operator had at April-end, when the total stood at 19,208, said Orascom.

Koryolink runs on a 3G WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology and is the only operator in the country open to individual subscribers.

During Q2 2009, the operator posted an ARPU of US$22.80, down from $24.70 in Q1�Œ09. While EBITDA stood at $2.5 million.

Source: Wireless News

Pakistan’s mobile market according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has reported a penetration level of 58.5% at the end of July. The mobile segment, in July added 1 million mobile suscribers taking the total mobile subscriber base to 95.55 million.

Of the total base, Mobilink led the market with 29.5 million (31%) subscribers while Telenor stood second with 21.3 million (22%) followed by Ufone with 21% market share.
The highest monthly additions were achieved by Mobilink with 414,000 new subscribers followed by Telenor and Warid with 406,000 and 255,000 new subscribers respectively.

Source: Wireless News

­Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications has urged the telecoms regulator, the PTA to ensure protection of consumer rights, reports the local Daily Times newspaper.

"Growth of the telecom sector is important, but consumer satisfaction is more important", was the unanimous view of the committee, which met at Parliament House with Senator Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi in chair.

The Committee also said that telecom companies were making windfall profits but paying little attention to improving service quality, especially in the rural and remote areas of the country.

The committee directed the PTA to play its regulatory role effectively to address outstanding issues, especially those related to service quality. It also instructed that the SIM registration and verification process be carried out vigilantly to avoid any misuse.

According to the Mobile World analysts, the country ended Q1 '09 with just over 91 million mobile phone users, which represents a population share of 52 percent.

Source: Cellular News

­Orascom Telecom has confirmed that its North Korean subsidiary, koryolink's subscriber base stood at 47,850 by the end of Q2. In order to capitalize on the subscriber growth momentum, in the second quarter of 2009 koryolink introduced further reduction in connection fees as well as free SMS for the first time. Additionally, the mix of free minutes was revised to satisfy customer requirements.

Over the second-quarter, while minutes of use rose to 199 per month, the ARPU fell to US$22.8, from US$24.7 in Q1. The financial figure is based on the official exchange rate between the North Korean Won (KPW) and US$.

koryolink retail network currently consists of 2 large sales shops strategically located in downtown Pyongyang with 3 additional scratch card sales outlets located within KPTC post office shops. koryolink plans to expand the indirect sales network through the inauguration of 6 more outlets within KPTC shops. A separate after sales service shop is planned for Q3.

Local news media also added that the company is expanding its network. Citing the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station, the Yonhap News Agency said that fiber-optic cables have been laid in all provinces to "upgrade communication capability and quality" and that mobile communication networks are "being established on a national scale,".

Source: Cellular News

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.

Atlantic Telecom is reported to be facing the suspension of its network in Togo after failing to renew its operating license. The operator's license expired in June 2008, and has been given until 10th August to pay a 20 billion CFA (US$44 million) renewal fee.

Estimates from the  Mobile World analysts shows that the operator ended Q1 '09 with around 530,000 subscribers. The dominant telco is the state owned Togo Cellular, with around 1.25 million customers. France Telecom's Orange seems to have an operating license but has not started services yet.

Source: Cellular News

Argentina has reportedly ended the first half of 2009 with 49.2 million mobile lines in service, up 14% year-on-year. In June, the mobile telephony traffic totaled 3.82 billion calls, representing a 30% increase compared to the same period a year ago. Public phones totaled 146,988, an increase of 10.7% in comparison to the same period a year ago.

Source: Wireless Federation

Argentina ended the first half of 2009 with 49.2 million mobile lines in service, up 14% year-on-year, writes BNamericas citing the country’s national statistics bureau Indec. Mobile telephony traffic in June totalled 3.82 billion calls, representing a 30% increase compared to the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, Indec also reports that Argentina’s fixed lines totalled 9.4 million at 30 June 2009, up 1% from a year earlier. Local fixed telephony traffic during the month fell 2.2% to 1.25 billion calls, while domestic long distance traffic rose 11.2% to reach 348 million calls. Public phones totaled 146,988, an increase of 10.7% compared to the same period a year earlier.

Source: Telegeography

Azeri mobile operator Azerfon has announced it has installed 20 base station transceivers (BTSs) in Azerbaijan to improve network coverage. The cellco, which provides services under the Nar Mobile banner, has constructed 16 BTSs in the city of Baku, two in the region of Absheron and one each in the cities of Sheki and Gabala. The company stated that at present its wireless network covers 90% of the country’s population and 80% of Azerbaijan’s territory, and provides 1.3 million subscribers with mobile services.

Source: Telegeography

The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority Status of the Telecom Market for March 2009 reportedly unveiled that the Tanzanian mobile operators have reportedly added 837,883 subscribers in Q1'09, taking the total mobile subscriber base to 13.885 million.
The report shows that Tigo has added 384,925 new subscribers and ended the quarter with 2.95 million subscribers. The operator stood at the third position among the six mobile operators across the nation.

"Vodacom lead the market with 5,670,122 subscribers as it added 261,683 new subscribers during Q1'09. Vodacom is still leading the market, accounting for 40 per cent of total subscriptions though its share dropped by one per cent compared with what it held in the last quarter of 2008" showed the report.
Zain stood second as it added 42,508 new subscribers during the same period, taking its subscriber base to 4,104,879.
Zantel Mobile lost 27,162 subscribers during the period, decreasing the number of users to 1,030,490.

Source: Wireless Federation

The Egyptian market surged through the 50% penetration barrier in Q1 09, finishing the quarter with a rate of 52.7%. In real terms, the total customer base grew to 43.57m. Quarterly net additions stood at 3.01m, making Q1 09 the third successive quarter in which the gain has exceeded 3m. On an annual basis, there was an increase of just under 12.50m - the highest figure ever recorded in the Egyptian market. Proportionate annual growth stood at 40.2%, down from 52.9% for the prior twelve-month period. In fact, this was the second lowest growth rate of the past eight quarters, the lowest being the 39.0% recorded in Q4 08. This may seem to present a somewhat ambiguous prospect for future growth; however, the graph on the right suggests that the decline in proportionate growth may have bottomed out for the time being, and that actual growth should remain above 10m per year for some time to come.

Source: Cellular News

According to data released by Hungarian telecoms regulator the NHH, total country wireless subscribers fell by 23,323 in the month of June to 11.88 million. Pannon’s share of the subscriber market fell slightly from 34.87% to 34.73%, Vodafone’s remained almost unchanged at 21.06% compared with 21.07%, while T-Mobile’s slice of the pie grew to 44.21% up from 44.07%. Active subscriptions, however, increased from 10.63 million in May to 10.64 million in June.

Source: Telegeography

­The Iranian mobile market continued to grow in the first quarter of 2009, finishing a whisker short of 50m on 49.97m. This left the penetration rate at 70.5%, up from 49.7% a year earlier. Given the increased penetration, it is unsurprising that the quarterly gain of 3.65m was well below the year-earlier figure of 6.15m. Of course, this was still an impressive uplift, and the Q1 08 gain was, moreover, an all-time market record, but this does indicate a gradual slowdown in growth in the Iranian market. Political instability subsequent to the end of the quarter may well have had a further impact on growth.

The remaining three operators in Iran have little market presence. The largest is Rafsanjan Industrial Complex (Taliya), which was up 39.6% annually to 1.70m, while the other two have fewer than 60k between them.

Source: Cellular News

Azeri online news source APA writes that the country’s largest cellco by subscribers, Azercell Telecom, has suspended interconnection with rival mobile operator Azerfon from today (22 July), due to reported unpaid termination fees. Azercell Telecom claims that Azerfon, which provides wireless services under the Nar Mobile banner, owes AZN11 million (USD13.7 million) as a result of systematic breaches of monthly payment terms from July 2008 of the Interconnection Agreement in place between the two parties. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Azercell was Azerbaijan’s largest cellco by subscribers at 31 March 2009, reporting 3.58 million customers, while Azerfon stood in third place behind Bakcell, with a mobile subscriber base of 1.09 million at the same date.

Source: Telegeography

­Vodafone is reported to have secured a license to operate a mobile network in French Polynesia in a joint venture with Pacific Mobile Telecom. Local radio reports, cited by Radio New Zealand said that the government approved the application, but no date has been set for the network launch.

The islands of French Polynesia have a total land area of 4,167 square kilometres (1,622 sq. mi) scattered over 2,500,000 square kilometres (965,255 sq. mi) of ocean. It is made up of several groups of islands, the largest and most populated of which is Tahiti. Total population at the August 2007 census was 259,596 inhabitants, with a GDP per capita of  US$21,565 in 2005.

Source: Cellular News

Turkey followed Italy and the UK in suffering a quarterly loss to its customer base. The 1.44m decline was the largest ever seen, as well as being the first for seven years. At the end of Q1 09, the total customer base stood at 64.48m, just 3.1% above the Q1 08 total. This was the lowest growth rate ever recorded in the Turkish market and 12.3pp below the year-earlier rate. Penetration fell back below 90% during the quarter, finishing on 89.0%. However, there is every chance that a resurgence in growth will take penetration over 100% once 3G is launched, with reports suggesting that the first W-CDMA networks will be operational very soon.

Source: Cellular News

­In Q1 09, the UK mobile market saw its first quarterly net loss of customers for three years. The total customer base contracted by 0.56m to finish the quarter on 75.59m, equivalent to a penetration rate of 123.8%. The proportionate annual growth rate fell to 3.9% from 4.9% a year earlier, and in fact this was the second lowest rate ever seen in the UK market, the lowest being the 3.1% recorded in 2006. This may not be indicative of a long-term decline in growth, however. The Q4 06 figure of 3.1% was followed by eight quarters in which annual growth hovered around 5%, and the Q1 09 rate may prove to be a similar blip.

­The Asia Pacific region now contains the world's two largest mobile markets, China and India and together, these two account for 1.04bn of the world's 4.15bn mobile customers. In fact, Asia is the only region to have more than one 100m market. The positions occupied by the top two markets remain unchanged compared to this time last year, with China still well ahead, with a total of 644.8m customers (not including the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau) which would, if added, push the PRC over the 650m mark. One year ago, China was more than twice the size of the second largest market, India, but the smaller country is rapidly closing the gap. It connected over 130m new customers in the year, to reach a total of 391.6m, compared to just 88.2m in China.

­The top mobile markets in East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands are amongst the most liberalised on the continent. The top three markets are Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and they all have about 10 million subscribers.

Each of these three markets has been a laboratory for competition. For example, Tanzania has issued seven mobile licences and Uganda has issued six. The number of operators has resulted in increased investment and marketing spend in the top three markets. And in all three countries, this competition has benefited African consumers as the cost of owning and using a mobile phone has fallen.

Source: Cellular News

The number of registered cellular phones in Brazil reached 159.6 million at the end of last month, up 1.3% on the figure reported in May 2009, thanks to an aggressive marketing push by all major operators, the telecoms regulator Anatel said Monday. Net mobile additions reached 2.1 million in June, down from 2.9 million in May, it said. Vivo Participacoes, the joint venture of Spain’s Telefonica and Portugal Telecom, maintained its number one position in the domestic mobile market with a 29.3% share of subscriptions, ahead of America Movil-backed Telecom Americas (Claro) with 25.4%. Third spot was claimed by TIM Brasil with 23.7%, and in fourth was Telemar Norte Leste (Oi), which increased its market share to 21.2% in June.

Source: Telegeography

­The South African cellular market reached a milestone of 50-million connections at the end of 2008 - but only 68% of these represented individual users, reports a study carried out by World Wide Worx, backed by First National Bank (FNB), and Research In Motion (RIM).

Source: Cellular News

­Rwandan mobile operator, Rwandatel says that it missed its subscriber target for the first half of this year by 30%, but said that its market share had risen by 15%. According to company officials, Rwandatel had set a first half subscription target of 600,000 clients but managed only slightly above 420,000 active subscribers on June 30.

According to figures from the Mobile World, at the end of Q1 '09, the operator had an estimated 260,000 customers, compared to 1.3 million at the only other operator, MTN. Last December, Millicom was granted the country's third mobile license after paying US$60 million for the 15 year license.

Source: Cellular News

Digicel has confirmed it has been awarded a GSM licence in the Pacific island state of Nauru, and will become the country’s first wireless network operator when it launches in August. ‘Digicel's expansion into Nauru further adds to our Pan-Pacific presence as well as achieving the milestone of bringing a GSM network for the first time to Nauru,’ said Digicel Pacific CEO Vanessa Slowey. ‘Nauru can look forward to benefiting from a state-of-the art network, with affordable and accessible telecommunications for everyone.’ Minister for Telecommunications, Sprent Dabwido, said, ‘With no existing mobile operator to serve the 10,000 strong population, Digicel's arrival is a giant step forward for communications in Nauru and will benefit each and every individual in Nauru.’ In addition to offering voice services, Digicel will be launching a GPRS/EDGE-enabled network which will make internet access available to all areas of Nauru for the first time.

Nauru is the sixth market for Digicel in the Pacific, with existing operations in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and its 32nd market worldwide.

Source: Telegeography

Etisalat Nigeria has announced reaching the milestone of one million subscribers for its mobile network around seven months after launching in the country. The UAE-owned operator launched commercial GSM services in Nigeria in November 2008 in seven cities, and by the end of the year had just under 400,000 subscribers, boosted by its offer of free network-to-network calls for a six month period.

Source: Telegeography

The Hungarian mobile market continued to shrink in May, though at a lesser rate than in April. At the end of the month, the three Hungarian mobile operators had a total of 11.912 million subscribers, which is nearly 79,000 lower than in April. The National Communications Authority (NHH) also noted that in May, the number of subscriptions per 100 people dropped to 118.9 from the 119.6 recorded one month before.

At the end of May 2008, the number of subscriptions per 100 people was 114.1, while the highest recorded value until today was 121.8 at the end of December 2008.

Source: Cellular News.

At the end of March 2009 global wireless subscribers reached 4.16 billion, an impressive 19% increase from a year earlier and not that far off the pace from what has been experienced over the last five years. However, TeleGeography's GlobalComms Insight forecasts that the average annual growth rate over the next five years will drop to 10%, and the fact that growth from 4Q 2008 to 1Q 2009 was just 4%, is one indicator of that slowdown.

Source: TeleGeography.

The Vietnamese mobile subscribers are still enjoying lower tariffs as the operators face intense competition among each other, the Ministry of Information and Communications reportedly reveal.The country is experiencing among world’s lowest tariffs, Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop said.

The Vietnamese mobile market, according to Hop, has seen some big changes in past two years. “Through the economic crisis and, earlier, high inflation, the industry’s revenues have continued to grow and the market has been expanding with the entry of many new players”, he added.

The statistics reveal, the country has added 10.4 million new subscribers in 2009, 30% more than it did in the same period in 2008.

Recently the four mobile operators in the country, Vinaphone, MobiFone, Viettel Telecom and EVN Telecom had reduced tariffs by an average of 20%.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Pakistan mobile subscriber base has reached 93.138 million in May, from 91.978 million in April, as per the figures from PTA. Mobilink leads the market with a subscriber base of 28.812 million from 28.381 million in April. Telenor Pakistan has extended its second place position to 20.481 million customers, from 20.107 million. Ufone secures third place with 19.853 million subscribers, up from 19.712 million in April. Followed to this Warid with 17.651 million customers and Zong had 6.263 million at the end of May. The subscribers of Istaphone dropped to 75,662 in May from 137,568 in April. Mobile density is reportedly 57.90 %, up from 57.10% in April.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The Mozambican government is reported to be planning a partial privatization of the state owned mobile network operator Moçambique Celular (mCel) the Mozambican Minister for Transport and Communications, Paulo Zucula told the local O País newspaper.

The initial sale will be for just a five percent stake, which will be offered to Mozambicans. Later sales may be opened up to overseas investors, said Zucula.

The government had planned a partial sale last year, although this was cancelled due to "organizational difficulties"

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country ended last year with a shade under 5 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of 24.3%. mCel is the dominant operator, with a market share of 71% - compared to 29% for rival, Vodacom.

A third mobile licenses is expected to be offered later this year, and Portugal Telecom has already expressed an interest in bidding.

Source: Cellular News.

Malawi's Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) and the local arm of Zain have clashed over plans to lower phone tariffs in the country. The regulator wants to open the market up to more networks, while Zain blames high taxes and says increased subscribers would lead to lower tariffs.

The country currently has two mobile networks, Zain and former incumbent, (Telekom Networks Malawi) TNM - while a two more networks have been licensed. Globally Advanced Integrated Networks (Gain) expects to launch its network within the next couple of months, while G-Mobile is still waiting to announce a launch date.

The Mobile World subscriber database estimates that Malawi ended Q1 '09 with just over 2 million subscribers - representing a population penetration level of just 15%. Zain is the market leader with 66.7% of the customer base, with Telecom Networks Malawi (TNM) taking the remainder.

Source: Cellular News.

Pan-Caribbean wireless group Digicel has reported its first net profit since its launch in 2001. Digicel, which comprises mobile phone operations in 31 markets across the Caribbean, Pacific and Latin America, recorded a net profit of USD41 million in the twelve months to 31 March 2009, compared to a loss of USD74 million in the previous year. ‘It is an important landmark for us,’ Digicel’s chief executive Colm Delves told The Irish Times. At a pre-tax level, Digicel posted a profit of USD113 million compared with a loss of USD48 million in the previous period. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached USD680 million, a 34% increase year-on-year. Revenues rose by 11% to USD1.73 billion, while its subscriber base was up 34% to 9.2 million. The company’s net debt at the end of March was USD2.7 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Zimbabwe’s mobile market leader Econet Wireless has announced that it has sourced the necessary funding to expand its network capacity to five million subscribers by the end of 2010. At the presentation of the cellco’s 2008/09 fiscal year results, CEO Douglas Mboweni said: ‘We have secured the resources, through our parent company, Econet Wireless Group (EWG), to expand capacity further, from the current 2.5 million [users] expansion programme, to go to five million.’ Under its current plan, geographical network coverage is set to be almost doubled by extending the footprint to many smaller towns and main roads whilst improving coverage in existing urban and resort areas, whilst an upgrade to 3G services is also in the pipeline. Mboweni said Econet’s financial team had travelled around the world raising funds with ‘spectacular success.’

Econet reported that its GSM subscriber base increased by 84% in a year from 636,000 to 1.2 million at end-February 2009. It says it is currently signing up around 5,000 new customers per day, but expects to be able to increase this rate dramatically over the next few months as it installs more new network equipment.

Source: TeleGeography

Telecom Argentina operates Argentina's third largest mobile network by customer numbers, with 13.17m connections at the end of Q1 09. On an annual basis it was the fastest growing of the country's four networks with a growth rate of 21.0%, up from 16.9% for the prior twelve months. This is an impressive rate given that penetration in Argentina stood at around 110% at the end of the quarter.

Growth was driven principally by the prepaid sector, which was up 23.2% annually, compared to 13.9% for the prior twelve months. At the end of Q1 09 it had 8.82m customers. Contract growth, by contrast, dropped from 23.1% to 16.8%. This left the percentage of contract customers down 1.2pp at 33.0%, with an actual figure of 4.35m. The disparity in growth was particularly marked in Q1 09: prepaid quarterly net additions stood at 522k, the highest figure for two years, while contract gained just 85k, the lowest figure since Q3 03.

Source: Cellular News.

Dutch mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Yes Telecom has announced it plans to enter the German wireless market in the summer of 2009. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, there are over 50 mobile resellers in Germany’s wireless market, but only one, freenet, provides serious competition to the facilities-based operators, following its takeover of main MVNO rival debitel in July 2008. At the end of March 2009 freenet boasted a wireless subscriber base of 18.53 million.

Source: TeleGeography.

Uruguayan state-owned telecoms operator Antel has announced its mobile unit Ancel has reached 1.5 million subscribers. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Ancel is closing the gap between itself and rival cellco America Movil-owned Claro Uruguay, which had 1.459 million wireless subscribers at 31 March 2009. Ancel launched a GSM-1800 network including GPRS in Montevideo April 2004, with an EDGE upgrade initiated in the following October. Ancel first trialled 3G services in September 2005, in partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei. 3.5G services were launched in July 2007 in Montevideo and a year later its 3G network was available nationwide. Ancel plans to invest USD81 million in 2009, mainly to expand its GSM and 3G coverage.

Source: TeleGeography.

Telkom Kenya has announced that its mobile arm Orange Mobile has connected a million customers in its first eight months of operation. The company has invested over KES10 billion (USD134 million) in its network infrastructure and attributes its customer growth to its ‘value driven tariffs’. Dominique Saint-Jean, Telkom Kenya’s CEO, said, ‘The success we are celebrating today is not accidental. It has been hard won, thanks to the unceasing commitment and incredible energy of our employees, the loyalty of our customers, the support from our suppliers, the confidence from our investors and the interest from the media. So I would like to say that today is not about Telkom Kenya – it is about all of you, the people who have played such a valuable role in our shared journey to our first million customers.’

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.

The total number of mobile phones registered in Brazil reached 154.6 million at the end of last month, up 0.6% on the previous month’s figure, according to preliminary data published by the national regulator Anatel. The rise was attributed to operators increasing their focus on selling pre-paid SIMs, although Anatel noted that the total net additions of 923,000 in April fell short of the 1.3 million new users reported in March this year.

As at 30 April 2009 Vivo Participacoes, an equal joint venture of Telefonica and Portugal Telecom, continued to hold the number one position in the domestic mobile market with a 29.5% share all subscriptions. It is followed by America Movil’s Telecom Americas (Claro) unit, which claimed 25.8% at the same date, ahead of TIM Participacoes (TIM Brasil) in third with 23.6%. The fourth spot was claimed by Telemar Norte Leste’s Oi with 20.7%.

Source: TeleGeography.

Zimbabwe's smallest mobile network operator, Telecel says that it is planning for a significant expansion of its network coverage. The company says that it has already boosted capacity thanks to upgrading existing base station towers. Telecel Zimbabwe is owned by Egypt's Orascom Telecom.

The country currently has three mobile network operators. According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, Telecel is estimated to have ended last year with around 232,000 subscribers - representing a market share of around 15%.

South Africa's MTN Group was recently rumoured to be interested in taking a 60% stake in Telecel.

Source: Cellular News.

India has passed the 400 million mark for mobile phone subscribers, although growth slowed from the record breaking figures earlier this month. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stated that a total 11.75 million telephone connections (Wireline and Wireless) were added during April 2009 as compared to 15.87 million connections added in March 2009. The total number of telephone connections reaches 441.47 million at the end of April 2009 as compared to 429.72 million in March 2009.

Source: Cellular News.

The UAE's two mobile networks, Du and Etisalat are reported to be in talks that could lead to network infrastructure sharing in an effort to cut operating costs.

“Talks are continuing between Du and Etisalat on sharing infrastructure,” Du's CEO, Osman Sultan in a Bloomberg interview. “The current economic situation is pushing” the companies to share infrastructure, he added.

Du has earmarked a CAPEX of US$545 million this year to expand its mobile network.

Earlier this year, Du signed a marketing partnership with Vodafone. The company is 39.5% owned by the UAE Federal Government, 19.75% by Mubadala Development, 19.5% by Emirates Communications & Technology and the remaining stake by public shareholders.

According to figures from the Mobile World subscriber tracker, du ended Q1 '09 with 2.75 million customers, of which just over a million are using its 3G network.

Source: Cellular News.

AIS is the market leader in Thailand, where penetration looks to have finished Q1 09 at around 95%. The rise in penetration has been accompanied by a decline in growth, with annual growth rates falling in each quarter since Q2 07. Although the full Q1 09 set of results for Thailand is not yet complete, it seems almost certain to be the slowest quarter since Q3 05, when there were net additions of just 0.41m. Both True Move and DTAC saw their lowest gains since that same quarter, with uplifts of 0.25m and 0.26m respectively. AIS only just managed to top these figures with a gain of 0.27m, its lowest result since Q1 06 and the second lowest this century.

Although this is a disappointing result for AIS, the fact that growth has slowed so dramatically for all the major operators in Thailand means that it is unlikely to lose its lead in the foreseeable future, barring any extraordinary developments: at the end of Q1 09, it was 8.6m customers ahead of DTAC with a total of 27.58m. Annual growth stood at 9.9%, down from 19.0% for the prior twelve month period. In real terms, annual net additions fell from just below 4m to 2.49m.

Source: Cellular News.

The Hungarian mobile operators Pannon, T-Mobile and Vodafone have in total lost nearly 120,930 subscribers in April, taking the total subscriber base to 11.99 million, NHH reported. Pannon’s market share rose from 34.70% in March to 34.86% in April, while Vodafone’s market share also grew from 21.15% to 21.17%. Whereas T-Mobile’s market share plunged to 43.97% from 44.15% in March. The active subscriber base dropped to 10.69 million, from 10.80 million in March. Mobile penetration fell from 120.8% in March to 119.6% at end-April.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Unitel, the Angolian mobile operator, intends to expand its mobile service to 150 districts in 2009, taking the total coverage to 90%. The company said it intends also to improve the quality and to increase the capacity of the existing network.

Deputy General Director, Amilcar Safeca reportedly said that the Unitel plans to expand also its internet services, already available in the provinces of Luanda, Huambo and Huila, in order to reach more provincial capitals.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Pakistan’s mobile subscriber base has reached 91.979 million at the end of April, up from 91.442 million in March, reports Pakisitan Telecommunications Authority. Mobilink emerged as the market leader with a subscriber base of 28.282 million rising from 28.240 million a month earlier. Telenor took the second position as its subscriber base passes 20 million mark, up from 19.985 million. Ufone’s subscriber base which stood at 19.612 million in March rose to 19.713 million. Whereas Warid posted 17.511 million subscribers versus 17.376 million in March. Zong, the China Mobile subsidiary, ended April with 6.129 million subscribers, up from 5.980 million in March. Mobile penetration in the country stood at 57.10% of the population in April, versus 55.90% at 2008 start.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Brazil has added nearly 923,504 new mobile phones in April, taking the total active mobile lines to 154.5 million, up by 0.6 percent versus the year-earlier period. Of the total active lines, 126.1 million (81.60%) were prepaid and 28.43 million were postpaid. According to Anatel, market regulator, the mobile penetration in the country reached 80.98% at April end, up from 80.56% in March’09 and 66.84% in April’08.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Ancel, the Uruguayan mobile arm of Antel, has posted a subscriber base of 1.5 million. Ancel is reportedly diminishing the gap between itself and rival Claro Uruguay, which had 1.459 million wireless subscribers at 31 March 2009.

Ancel had launched its GSM network offering in Montevideo in April’04 and upgraded EDGE network initiated in October’04. Ancel had first trialled its 3G services in September’05 and had a nationwide coverage by 2008. The operator had launched its 3.5G services first in 2007.

The Uruguayan operator intends to invest USD81 million in 2009 for its GSM and 3G coverage expansion.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Peru will reach over 22.9 million mobile subscribers mark in June, with a mobile penetration of 79.3 lines per 100 inhabitants. Peru beat the forecast, which said a mobile penetration of 80% in 2011. Presently, the mobile penetration stands at 75.8%, up from 24.6% in 2006. Over the last three years, the number of mobile users has jumped by 223.6% to 21.84 million at end-March. The statistics shows that Peru has 747,235 internet subscribers and it is anticipated that figure will increase to 772,000 by June 2009.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Bharti Airtel, the Indian mobile operator, has crossed the 100Mn subscribers mark in the country. Bharti has become the world’s third largest in-country operator. The operator had 96.64 million subscribers on 31 March of this year, which means that every fourth mobile user of India is Bharti Airtel subscriber. The operator holds a 25% mobile subscriber share and 30% market share in terms of revenue.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Vodafone Portugal has ended March with a subscriber base of 5.63 million up from 5.20 million in March'08 and 5.58 million in December'08. The Portuguese mobile operator has added nearly 55,000 new subscribers at the end of Q1'09. 78.7% of the total base was the prepaid segment, generating ARPU of EUR 18.2, down from EUR 21.2 in March 2008 and EUR 18.8 at 31 December 2008.

The postpaid ARPU dropped to EUR 43.3 from EUR 50.9 in the Q1'08. Mobile voice usage reached 2.143 billion minutes in Q1'09, from 2.075 billion minutes in Q3'08.  Vodafone Portugal reported full-year revenues of GBP 1.210 billion, up from GBP 1.040 billion in 2008, while its EBITDA increased to GBP 443 million from GBP 373 million.Adjusted operating profit grew to GBP 283 million from GBP 239 million.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akunyili remarks, Nigerians will soon enjoy reduced GSM tariff. Akunyili said this was necessary considering the fact all the operators have recouped their investments from the patronage of Nigerians.

Akunyili said the present economic recession is hitting Nigerians hard and assured that by the time discussions are finalized between the GSM operators and her office, Nigerians will heave a sigh of relief and will be able to use the
operation more effectively and confidently.

She declared that there is none among the GSM operators that can deny it has not made double what it invested in the industry in the last six years.

She said that what is remaining is how to go about the whole thing so that it will be beneficial to all just as she also said that issues of drop calls and other network problems will soon be a thing of the past as the operators have assured to improve their services.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Vimpelcom, the Russian and CIS mobile operator, has commercially launched its mobile services in Cambodia under the brand Beeline. The GSM network in Cambodia was launched by its local subsidiary Sotelco. Beeline services will initially be available across the country’s 11 largest provinces, covering around 37% of the total population. By 2009-end, the operator plans network expansion to 2/3rd of nation’s population.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Hong Kong has ended the month of February with 11.49 million mobile subscribers, rising from 10.72 million, reports OFTA. The prepaid subscriber base rose to 5.35 million, up from 4.99 million a year earlier.

Hong Kong had a 2.5G and 3G subscriber base of 3.58 million at February-end, up from 2.99 million in the year-earlier month, and the number of 3G users rose to 2.91 million, from 2.12 million.

The MVNO subscriber base dropped to 769,509 from 776,958 in 2008. Total SMS sent in a time of year reached 400.52 million in February from 308.35 million. The mobile data usage increased to 44.9 MB per 2.5G/3G mobile user in February.

Source: Wireless News.

Warid Telecom has gained 2.5 million active subscribers and now stands at 4th position in two years of its Bangladeshi operations. The company recently announced that the firm is ready and well equipped to help Bangladesh implement its digital network, as pledged by the new government, by 2021.

“Digital Bangladesh is an important part of Warid’s business vision. We are slowly inching to mark improvements in all spheres of our operation which would actually contribute towards implementation of the project,” Muneer Farooqui, Warid Telecom’s Chief Executive, reportedly said.

CEO announced a 50% discount on all Warid to Warid voice and non-voice services for two days in regards to anniversary celebration.

Source: Wireless Federation.

• Total African telecoms market to grow by >USD40 billion by 2013
• Low service penetration rates will allow for growth beyond five year period

As growth in the global telecoms service markets slows, Africa will be the one region which will see double-digit average annual growth rates over the next five years, according to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Insight. Spurred on primarily by a doubling of its wireless subscriber base, the total African market will grow by well over USD40 billion by 2013. At that point it will still have by far the lowest service penetration rates compared to other regions, indicating the opportunity for continued strong growth over subsequent years. Of course growth will remain in check by under-developed economies and widespread poverty among large sections of the population, a result of which is an ARPU level that will continue to lag way behind the rest of the world. Nonetheless Africa represents a strong business growth opportunity for many service providers.

TeleGeography's newest product - GlobalComms Insight - includes subscriber forecasts for wireless, broadband and fixed line markets in Africa on a country-by-country basis, as well as full analysis of the growth in market value, service penetration rates and ARPU. GlobalComms Insight provides comprehensive market forecasts and forward-looking analysis to help clients track market trends and to identify new opportunities.

Source: TeleGeography.

Singtel, the South East Asian mobile operator, has posted a subscriber base of 2.98Mn at March’09-end, up from 2.57Mn subscribers at March’08-end.

Aggregate Subscriber Base (in millions)

Optus:

March 2009 - 7.79Million
Dec 2008 - 7.63Million
March 2008 - 7.14Million

SingTel (domestic)

March 2009 - 2.98Million
Dec 2008 - 2.94Million
March 2008 -  2.57Million

Total

March 2009 - 249.4Million
Dec 2008 -  232.4Million
March 2008 - 185.3Million

Source: Wireless Federation.

Mobile penetration in UAE has risen to 193% at the February�f09-end, up from 182% in September�f09. TRA has disclosed the stats according to which Du enjoyed a greater market share of 28% from 26% six months earlier, while Etisalat�fs market share dropped to 72% in February from 74% in September 2008. Etisalat�fs mobile subscriber base reached 7.341Mn in Q1�Œ09 whereas Du posted a subscriber base of 2.75Mn at March�f09.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Vip Mobile, the Serbian mobile operator, has posted Q1�Œ09 revenues of EUR 15.4 million, up 27.3% from EUR 12.1 million in Q1�Œ08. The EBITDA loss nearly halved to EUR 6.8 million versus EUR 13.0 million a year earlier. The operating loss fell to EUR 21.4 million, from a loss of EUR 23.2 million in the Q1�Œ08.

The Serbian mobile operator�fs subscriber base rose by 66.5% from a year earlier to 1 million subscribers at end-March. Vip Mobile had a market share of 10.2% at Q1�Œ09 end.

Source: Wireless Federation.

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.

Reliance ended Q1 with 72.7m mobile customers. This compares with 61.3m three months earlier and 45.8m at the end of the fiscal year 07/08, gains of 10.3m and 26.9m respectively. The company claims to be “India's largest integrated communications service provider” but the claim has something of a hollow ring when its numbers are set alongside those of Bharti Airtel. Reliance may be integrated, for what that's worth, but it just isn't as big as Bharti, either by revenues or customers. Its customer base of 77m (including Broadband) is less than Bharti's 96.7m, while its revenues - INR61.2bn in this latest quarter – fall well short of Bharti's INR98.2m.

Source: Cellular News.

Morocco has gained 700,000 mobile subscribers in Q1, taking its total subscriber base to 23.52 million, as per the figures revealed by ANRT. The market has grown by 3.07% and mobile penetration stood at 75.43% in first quarter ended in March. Maroc Telecom (IAM) experiences a rise in its subscriber base by 1.21% to 14.63 million from 14.46 million three months ago, holds 62.21% market share in March-end. Medi Telecom, which held 35.57% market share, posted a subscriber base of 8.37 million, up 5.56%. Wana Corporate reports a rise of 19.68% to 521,000 from 435,000 subscribers, captures a 2.22% market share.

Considering the overall growth, the number of subscribers in prepaid segment has grown by 3.13% to 22.58million and postpaid segment stood at 938,000, up 1.7%. The prepaid sector accounts for 96.01% of all Moroccan mobile phone subscribers. 3G arena experiences a rise of 26.555 to 339,314 in Q1 and nearly trebled from 87,278 in the same period a year ago. Wana leads the market share in 3G market with 62.49%, followed to this is Maroc Telecom with 19.03 percent and Medi telecom share stands at 18.48%.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Cell C, the South African mobile operator, has posted a 14% growth in its revenues for the FY 2008, to ZAR8.6 billion (USD1.03 billion). EBITDA dropped to ZAR813 million for 2008, down from over ZAR1 billion in 2007.

The operator added 1.6 million new subscribers to its kitty in 2008, taking the total subscriber base to 6.4 million.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Lebanese cellco MTC Touch, managed by Kuwait-based Zain Group, has completed an infrastructure network upgrade project, expanding its network capacity to 1.2 million lines and rolled out 150 new base stations nationwide, reports AME Info. It also upgraded many existing sites across the country. As part of the project MTC Touch upgraded its Intelligent Network platform to host up to a million pre-paid 'magic' customers, and implemented a core network expansion. The company recently announced it had reached one million active customers, and claimed a 57% market share, ahead of sole rival Alfa, currently managed by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom.

Source: TeleGeography.

Movistar Argentina has introduced a new service dubbed as En Casa (’At Home’). The service allows the subscribers to acquire a mobile phone which is operational only at home, with a specific address defined by the user. The incoming calls are free of charge. The subscribers are charged a monthly fee, which includes airtime for voice calls, SMS or internet traffic.

After the available credit is over, the subscribers can top-up their Movistar en Casa account via Movistar Activa prepay cards or make electronic recharges. The offer is part of the Movistar Community services portfolio, which allows the operator’s mobile subscribers to call or send SMS to Movistar en Casa lines and vice-versa at 50% discounted prices.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Grameenphone, the Bangladeshi mobile operator, experienced a slow growth of 63,000 subscribers in Q1'09, taking the company's total subscriber base to 21.057 million, at March-end. Telenor, the parent company, has blamed the slower growth to rise in price of starter kits imposed last year. The number of subscribers is up by 2 million since Q1'08, showing a 6% growth in quarterly revenues in local currency. While usage and interconnect revenues grew, ARPU dropped by 13% driven by price erosion.

The EBITDA margin grew to 59.3% compared to 47.3% last year mainly due to higher revenue combined with lower subscription acquisition costs. Capex dropped in line with traffic, to NOK 281 million from NOK 433 million a year ago.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Mobile penetration in Uganda is expected to increase from 39.0 percent in 2009 to 70.7 percent by 2014, prompted by the successful liberalization of the sector and increased competition, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

Although Uganda is one of the smallest markets in the region, it is also one of the fastest growing markets in Africa and the Middle East, notes Sylwia Boguszewska, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. In the next five years, Pyramid anticipates Uganda will experience the second highest percentage increase in terms of mobile subscriptions among the African countries (after Cameroon). "Mobile penetration rose from just 1.9 percent at year-end 2002 to an estimated 39.0 percent in 2009," she says. "Pyramid expects it will increase further to reach 70.7 percent penetration by 2014, while the number of mobile subscriptions will exceed 27 million," she adds.

The Ugandan telecom sector has gone through a major transformation, notes Boguszewska. "As a result of a successful liberalization process, Uganda now boasts five mobile operators, three of which are well-established: MTN Uganda, Uganda Telecom, and Zain Uganda," she explains. "They were joined by Warid Telecom, which entered the market in February 2008, and Orange Uganda, which launched in March 2009," she adds. Anupam is due to enter soon, increasing the number of mobile operators to six.

Increased competition is driving down prices, with new entrant Warid being particularly aggressive to attract subscribers, and MTN's Zone pricing scheme has also shown high adoption. "Last year, the three mobile operators -- MTN Uganda, UTL, and Zain -- commanded 85 percent of mobile market subscribers, while Warid Telecom, despite its late entry in 2008, managed to gain a significant 15 percent market share," Boguszewska says.

Source: Cellular News.

Digicel Haiti has announced that it has reached a total of 2.1 million mobile subscribers, three years after launching its GSM network. Digicel quickly became Haiti’s largest mobile provider with an initial investment of USD260 million – the largest ever single private foreign investment in the country. Its launch lowered the cost of mobile services, and drove cellular penetration up from under 7% to over 35% today, and it claims to have a current market share of over 60%. Digicel Group is headquartered in Jamaica and incorporated in Bermuda, and has operations in 31 markets worldwide. Its Caribbean and Central American markets comprise Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Panama, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos. The company also has coverage in St. Martin and St. Barths. Its Digicel Pacific arm comprises operations in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, whilst it has a deal pending to buy an operator in the Cook Islands.

Source: TeleGeography.

El Salvador mobile subscriber base has reached 6.9 million at 2008-end, reports Signals Telecom Consulting. According to Signals analyst Elias Vicente, the mobile subscriber base growth has resulted into lowered ARPU and the acquisition of a second and even third line per user.

El Salvador, in coming times intends to serve as a “laboratory market” for the launch of new service bundles and value-added multimedia services.

Fixed and wireless internet and pay-TV services will be the key reasons of growth in the domestic mobile market within the next five years.

Source: Wireless Federation.

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.

Hong Kong’s mobile data usage surged to 147 TB in January or an average 44 MB per 2.5G/3G mobile user, according the statistics available from Ofta. This shows four times and fourteen times the mobile data usage over the same period in 2008 and 2007 respectively. The subscribers of 2.5G/3G mobile phone have grown by 15% to 3.35 million in January on a year-on-year basis. The subscriber base totals to 11.43 million and penetration rate is over 163%. The growth of mobile data usage is attributable to the offer of competitive service packages by mobile network operators and the increasing popularity of smartphones available in the market, Ofta said.

Source: Wireless Federation.

According to a recent survey it is seen that nearly 52% of the French mobile subscribers own a handset that is capable of connecting to the internet. However, nearly 45% of the mobile phone subscribers had a mobile internet subscription and 20.5% were online with their handset at least once a week. 48% of the total surveyed said that they have upgraded their handsets in past 1 year, 36% of these have chosen 3G and 3G+ multimedia touch screen handsets. The sites which were most visited were operator portals, which accounted for 15.1 percent of visits, followed by search engines (14.2%), practical sites (13.9%), information sites (9.8%), entertainment sites (9.1%), and specialised news sites (8.7%). Nearly 21% of mobile internet subscribers said that they have visited a social networking site in the last six months, led by Facebook with 14.5% of connections. Only 8% of the total made a purchase from a mobile e-commerce site.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­The technology story in the Caribbean & Latin America (CALA) region is simple: most US based technologies are in full retreat, while the international GSM/W-CDMA standards are proliferating. During the quarter, the number of customers connected to AMPS, TDMA and CDMA systems declined by 4.4m overall, bringing the number of disconnections so far this year to 19.9m, or 5.2% of the starting base.

CDMA networks experienced the largest drop in absolute terms. It is only two years since Vivo began selling GSM handsets in Brazil, but over that time, the number of CDMA connections has dropped from 64.9m (of which 26.0m were in Brazil) to 41.7m. The disconnection rate appears to be accelerating slightly, the quarterly average increasing from 2.7m per quarter during 2007 to 3.1m per quarter in 08. Brazil, obviously, is not the only market where the technology is in retreat, with similar – or steeper - declines being seen in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Only Venezuela has seen an increase in users over the year but following CANTV’s decision to move to GSM, that is unlikely to be repeated in 09.

GSM has, predictably, been the main beneficiary. The range of low priced handsets available for this technology gives it a material advantage and over the year, it added a further 87m users, which took the regional total GSM base past 400m. GSM, of course, faces a growing “challenge” from its own 3G variant, W-CDMA. This first became available in Q2 07 although the overall base has reached just 5.3m (of which 4.9m were added in 2008).

Source: Cellular News.

"Kenya shows impressive growth rates with significant opportunity," notes Dearbhla McHenry, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "By the end of 2008, Kenya had more than 15.0 million mobile subscribers, with a mobile penetration rate of 39 percent. The subscriber base is expected to rise to 29.28 million, or 66.7 percent penetration, by year-end 2013."

Increased competition is helping to fuel demand for mobile services in Kenya, McHenry says. "Until 2008, the Kenyan mobile market was a duopoly consisting of Safaricom and Zain. That has now changed with the entry of two new players - Econet and Orange. Since their entry, there has been a fierce price war with operators slashing tariffs and introducing new air time promotions, making their services more affordable for the wider population."

Total revenue of Kenya's telecom market is forecast to grow by 42 percent from $1.39 billion in 2008 to $1.98 billion by 2013, with 78 percent of the total revenue to be generated by the mobile sector. "Mobile data will be the telecom sector's fastest-growing revenue stream, increasing in revenue from $62 million in 2008 to $224 million in 2013, partly due to the launch of 3G services but also to the explosive growth of low-tech, low-margin mobile data services, particularly mobile money transfers," says McHenry.

Source: Cellular News.

Iraqi wireless operator Asiacell announced it has expanded its network to cover the regions of Al-Anbar and Diyala. The company’s services are now available to an additional three million potential subscribers, and now cover all of the country’s 18 governorates. Asiacell CEO, Diar Ahmed, said: ‘Today, Asiacell is at the forefront of Iraq’s mobile telecoms sector, having achieved its goal of becoming the first company to effectively bring its services to every Iraqi citizen, wherever they may be.’ Asiacell is Iraq’s second largest cellco by subscribers and was awarded a 15-year national GSM-900/1800 licence in August 2007 at the cost of USD1.25 billion. At the end of 2008 it had a wireless subscriber base of six million, up from 4.2 million a year earlier.

In a separate story, Middle East Business Intelligence has reported that Iraq’s finance ministers plan to enforce a clause requiring operators to float around 25% of their capital on the Baghdad bourse as a condition of the licences they bought in August 2007. The authorities have given the country’s mobile operators until 2010 to fulfill the new agreement. According to the report, the country’s three largest mobile companies, Asiacell, Zain and Korek Telecom, will make a significant difference to the overall capitalisation of the market, which currently stands at just USD2 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Total contracts awarded within the wireless industry for 2008 reached 550 as activity surged in Q4 according to the latest report from EJL Wireless Research.

"Nokia Siemens Networks secured 56.2% of total contract awards during the December 31, 2008 ended year, beating Huawei (15.5%) and ZTE (14.5%). Chinese OEMs captured 30% of overall contracts while each major base station vendor secured at least one win during the year," says founder and President, Earl Lum.

"Demand remained heavily concentrated in Asia Pacific while surprisingly, Latin America was the second most active region during the year. Chinese OEMs continue to dominate the CDMA2000 segment as they captured 67% of global contracts in 2008. Nokia Siemens Networks led the way with 67% of total WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ awards, followed by Huawei with 17.1%. Nokia Siemens Networks also led the GSM/GPRS/EDGE category with 65% of overall contracts," says Lum.

Source: Cellular News.

Bahrain based mo­bile holding firm, Bintel has announced that it has been awarded a 15-year mobile operator license in Gabon - making it the fourth operator in the country. The company is expected to launch its network in the third quarter of 2009.

Source: Cellular News.

The telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Gabon, Artel, has awarded Bintel a 15 -year mobile licence. The incumbent is expected to commence its services in the third quarter of 2009. Bintel estimates its initial investment in 2009 in Gabon to be in excess of USD 50 million. As per the terms of the agreement, the company is licensed to provide the latest voice and data services to customers in Gabon, including high-speed data and video conferencing. The licence acquisition is followed by the appointment of Gilles Villenaut as general manager for its Gabon operations. Gabon has expected mobile penetration rate to reach around 90% and in 2011 it is estimated to reach 120%. At present, Zain holds 58% of the market share, followed by Gabon Telecom with 34% and Moov stands with 8%. Bintel is intending to capture 6-8% of the Gabon Market in the first year and targets 30% share within its first 10 years.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Japanese operator, DoCoMo is launching a service which offers a local South Korean phone number to its customers roaming into that country - which it says will lower phone call costs by around 60%. Customers will also retain the DoCoMo numbers that they use in Japan.

­Mexico has joined the growing number of countries which are requiring PrePay mobile phone users to register their details with the networks - ostensibly to help in cutting crime. The Senate passed the bill last September, and it became law this week - coming into effect from April.

Network operators have been given one year to register their existing customer base and will have to start collecting proof of identity, including fingerprints for all new sales.

In most countries which have introduced mandatory registration processes, the reported subscriber base has dropped sharply, in some cases by as much as ten percent - largely due to multiple SIM ownerships not being declared.

Source: Cellular News.

Wana, the Moroccan fixed line incumbent, grabs the third GSM licence in the country. Country telecom regulator ANRT reportedly said that Wana’s bid offered a perfect blend of finacial and technical techniques along with coverage, investment and pricing. Wana will operate as a GSM service provider competing against Maroc Telecom and Meditel.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Brazil finished 2008 counting 122.7 million prepaid cellulars, what represent 81.47% from the 150.6 million cellulars in the country.

Prepaid cellulars started to be sold in Brazil in 1998, by CTBC Celular, and the prepaid cellular stake in the cellular total in Brazil grew quickly until reach 80.8% in 2005. This percentage remained stable in 2006 and 2007, getting back to growth in 2008.

­The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is investing US$30 million in Wataniya Palestine, as part of a US$85 million loan, to help build a mobile-phone network in the Palestinian West Bank. Wataniya Palestine is a joint venture of the Palestine Investment Fund and Wataniya Telecom, which is majority-owned by Qatar’s Qtel.

"The network being built by Wataniya Palestine will use the internationally popular GSM standard. It will help address the Palestinian territories telecommunications needs, which are critical for supporting economic growth and integration. Wataniya Palestine’s entry into the sector will improve the current low tele-density, increase competition, and help accelerate market growth.

“IFC’s investment shows a vote of confidence in the economic prospects of the Palestinian territories telecommunications sector, which is an essential element of building the local economy, creating jobs, and offering customers new, high-quality products and services,” said Allan Richardson, Wataniya’s Chief Executive Officer.

Israel's Ministry of Communications has announced that it is to permit the use of MVNOs in the Israeli market. T­he Ministry said that several companies have already expressed their interest, with regard to all the different models existing in the world, including full MVNO.

­The European Commission says that it is earmarking €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) to achieve 100 % high-speed internet coverage for all European citizens by 2010 as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan. On average, 93 % of Europeans can enjoy a high speed online connection but in some countries broadband covers less than half of the rural population.

Azerbaijan has taken a step further in lowering the mobile tariffs calling for greater savings for the consumers. According to Eliyar Temirov, officer of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, the tariffs levied by operators, on an average, are higher that the tariffs in other nations. “To offset the balance in the market and to prevent unfair competition, asymmetrical regulation is exercised in the international practice by to supporting a new entrant against the established incumbent service providers. Moreover, the mobile call prices may be reduced by cutting the fees that operators levy for switching callers between each other’s networks,” he added.

The ministry has talked about this to Azercell and Bakcell, convincing them to cut down the tariffs. The Tariff Council has given a green signal to the lowering of so-called termination rates that mobile operators can charge each other to connect calls between their networks within the antimonopoly policy.

Source: Wireless News.

In a statement last night, the Lebanese government said that Kuwait’s Zain Group and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom had both been awarded one-year contracts to manage the operations of the country’s two GSM mobile networks, commencing 1 February. An extension to Zain’s contract to run Mobile Interim Company (MIC 2), under the name MTC Touch Lebanon, officially ran out last month, but the Kuwaiti group has been allowed to remain at the helm, whilst Orascom will take over the reins of MIC 1, branded as Alfa, from the Ministry of Telecoms (MoT), after the state cancelled the operating contract of Fal Dete Telecommunications, a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom subsidiary DeTeCon International and Saudi Arabia's Fal Holdings, at the beginning of December. Zain and Orascom beat off a rival bid from France Telecom. Information Minister Tareq Mitri said: ‘These two companies have...experience in the Lebanese market that allows them to manage well and positions them as the best companies to run this sector.’ According to local press, the new contracts are worth USD145 million. The privatisation of MIC 1 & 2 has been put on hold until after the next elections in May 2009.

Source: TeleGeography.

Vivo, the Brazilian incumbent, ended 2008 with a subscriber base of 44.9 million, having a market share of 29.8%, up from 27.7% in 2007. According to the telecoms regulator Anatel, Vivo’s rising market share was driven by dint of its takeover of Telemig Celular in mid-2008. Claro stood at the second spot with the market share of 25.7% a percent ahead of TIM Brasil at 24.2% market share. Oi finished 2008 with 29.9 million subscribers. As at 31 December 2008, Anatel reported 150.6 million mobile connections in Brazil, rising by 29.6 million or 24.5% when compared to end-2007. On the contrary, mobile phone sales fell 23% year-on-year in December 2008 to just 3.6 million units, showing the rising impact of the global recession.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The MVNO phenomena is growing rapidly in the Netherlands as the number of subscribers signing upto one of the country’s 50 or so virtual providers has reached 3.51 million on 30 September 2008, up by 10% year-on-year. The MVNO’s now account for 17.3% of all SIM cards on the market at the given date, up from 17.0% a year earlier.

The MVNO market in Netherlands has seen entry of new players to the market in six months uptil Sept-2008 namely, Easer Mobile, Tok Toe Mie, Youfone and Internet Overal. In addition, more entrants have since launched commercially in the country or announced plans to launch in early 2009, such as Blyk and Telesur, the Dutch group said.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Cellular had a record growthin 2008, surpassing 2007 in all the months between January and November.

The competion got stronger between the four main operators (Vivo, Claro, Tim and Oi) and was responsible for this growth:

• Vivo got back on growth track with GSM and consolidated its leadership in market share by the acquision of Telemig. The company is completing its national coverage by starting to operate in States in the Northeast.
• Claro overcame Tim and reached the second position in the Market Share ranking in Aug/08. Claro also reached national coverage by the beginning of its operation in the Northern region of the country.
• Tim remained in the competition during the year, even though it had lost stake in the second semester of 2008.
• Oi grew strongly in all the year by the minutes promotion with reduced prices from the "caller" campaign. This growth was accelerated in October by the beginning of its operations in São Paulo.

One of the consequencies of this competition was the growth in minutes promotions with reduced prices, or free, which led to a growth in the cellular use in Brazil. The average monthly minute use per client (MOU) jumped from 83 minutes in 3Q07 to 96 minutes in 3Q08.

3G finally was launched in Brazil and became already an alternative of broadband access. Claro was ahead and associated its brand to 3G. In the last months, Vivo accelerated the implementation of this service and now the company is competing with Claro for the leadership in quantity of covered cities (more details). In the 3G path, it's worth mentioning the lauching of iPhone 3G in brazil.

Source: Teleco.

­Between 1990 and 2007, the telecommunications sector grew almost five times faster than the economy in Mexico and has gone a long way in reducing the economic and social difficulties in this country. Buoyed by dynamic technological progress in recent years, the telecommunications sector has attracted increased investment and productivity, providing further momentum to the economy.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan finds that the market earned revenues of $28,994 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $36,399 million in 2013.

"The wireless telephony traffic's growth rate was 60.5 percent in Q1 2008, an increase of more than 20 percent over Q1 2007, meaning that this is the most dynamic sector of the telecommunications industry," says Frost & Sullivan Consulting Analyst Jose Manuel Mercado. "In 2007, it contributed 6 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP); in 1990 the contribution was around the 1.1 percent."

For instance, Telmex is starting to offer bundled services with the condition that the subscriber signs a contract that is binding for a minimum of 12 months. This contract clearly violates the number portability idea of free movement from one company to another with the same number. Once the violation by the operator is reported to the regulator, it will be stripped of its TV-Pay concession or any other concession title for triple play solutions.

Source: Cellular News.

Mobitel, Sri Lanka, has launched a new pre paid tariff named SMART Pre Paid which will enable its Sri Lankan subscribers the lowest call rates in the country.

SMART Pre Paid Tariff will offer value to existing and potential subscribers, with outgoing Voice/Video calls at Rs.1 per minute and SMS at 50 cents per message to one nominated Mobitel M Best Friend number, outgoing Voice/Video calls at Rs.2 per minute to Mobitel numbers, and Voice/Video call rates to other local Mobile or Fixed Line numbers at Rs.4 per minute 24 hours of the day. Further, this plan allows users to enjoy Incoming Free Voice/Video calls from Mobitel, Local fixed lines and overseas numbers anytime of the day.

­Growth abandoned the West European cellular market in Q3 2008, as the global recession hit mobile spending patterns, according to a report issued by Strategy Analytics. While mobile data revenues continued to perform well, the voice market took a turn for the worse around the globe.

Collectively, mobile operators performed well in Q3 2008, with subscriber growth remaining very strong and profit margins stable. However, the mobile voice market did see revenue growth slow more than expected. Many operators in mature markets are recording falling voice revenues, and some operators in emerging markets such as China, Indonesia and Thailand are now finding it tough.

Amidst relentless pressure on prices and a growing array of international communications services, international voice traffic continues to grow. According to new data from the annual TeleGeography study of the international voice market, international voice traffic reached 343 billion minutes in 2007, and is projected to reach 385 billion minutes in 2008.

Mobile phones have been a key driver of growth, due to subscriber growth in developing countries and the recent emergence of low-cost international mobile calling plans. In 2007, nearly one-third of international calls were placed from mobile phones, and 45% of international calls were terminated on mobiles. Current trends suggest that by 2009, more international calls will be made to mobile phones than to fixed lines.

Source: TeleGeography.

Digicel, the largest telecommunications operator in the Caribbean and recent entrant to the Central American market, today launched operations in Panama — its third Central American market and 31st market world-wide — with an investment of US$350 million. Digicel now offers seamless mobile telecommunication services across Central America, with operations to date in El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.

According to the Panama Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Panamanian economy is expected to grow 7.5 percent by 2009. With a population of 3.4 million, mobile penetration is currently at approximately 71 percent. Having built the most modern nationwide GSM network in the country, Digicel is well positioned to maximize growth by offering service for the first time to many communities in Panama not previously served by incumbent operators.

Source: Wireless Federation.

du, second largest operator of UAE has instigated a scheme called ‘double your talk time’. Under this scheme any du subscribers who buy “Pay as you Go” line or renew his existing one for Dh55 gets double the amount back as free credit of up to Dh110. The subscribers can make use of this offer after recharges done in the form of Dh10 on every third recharge up to a maximum of Dh110, from the time of first call for new customers or renewal for existing customers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Thanks to its One Region One Rate roaming scheme, all du mobile subscribers can enjoy calling local numbers and receiving calls at just AED 1.25 per minute, while roaming in the GCC region.

The unified rates come into effect immediately without any extra charges and will be available by default to all du customers while they roam in the GCC region. du mobile customers can choose any telecom operator during roaming in the GCC while still benefitting from this attractive scheme.

Source: Wireless Federation.

A new report from Arab Advisors Group analyzes and ranks 30 fixed services operators and 50 cellular operators in nineteen Arab countries. STC’s Al Jawwal, Egypt’s Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt are the largest Arab cellular operators in terms of subscribers.

With the advent of new operators and increased competition in 2008, cellular subscribers in 19 examined Arab countries reached 194.533 million. ALJAWAL and MobiNil sustained their top rankings by H1 2008, with 17.800 million and 16.328 million subscribers respectively. Vodafone Egypt ended the first six months of 2008 with 15.202 million subscribers, settling as the third largest mobile operator in the region. UAE recorded the highest cellular penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 198.6% followed by Saudi Arabia (123.3%). Both countries report subscribers based on active on the switch method. UAE also had the highest fixed line penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 29.4%.

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

Digicel is nearing to recieve the mobile licence of Kiribati to launch GSM services in the country. The government of Kiribati approves Digicel’s proposal of an investment of over $9.3 million in deploying a network across all Kiribati’s populated islands. According to Telecommunications Authority Chief Executive Pwanouia Aberaan the finalisation of the licence is under process and the issuing of licence is expected in next three weeks.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Pan-Caribbean operator, Digicel has launched services in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) -- its 25th market in the Caribbean and Central America and 30th market world-wide. The company says that it has invested US$17 million in its network for the country.

With a population of 23,000 and mobile penetration at an estimated 90 percent, Digicel's investment in BVI focused on building a brand new state-of-the-art network that provides coverage to 98 percent of the population.

Source: Cellular News.

According to a recent surevey, South Africa has been rated as the world’s fourth fastest and Africa’s fastest growing mobile market, with a coverage on 80% of the total population, nearly 39 million users, representing a market value of US$2.4 billion. The three operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, have been in a cutthroat competition against each other since the launch of MNP in the market last year.

“South Africa offers an extraordinary penetration rate in this burgeoning market, one of the highest in the developing world,” said the report.

Source: Wireless Federation.

According to data published by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) as reported by Japan Today, mobile calls accounted for 44.8% of total hours of telecommunications traffic in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2007, eclipsing fixed line phone traffic for the first time ever. The MIC reported fixed line phone calls, excluding calls made via IP, was 43.3%. In fiscal 2006 the share of mobile phone calls was 5.7 percentage points below that for fixed line calls, but leapfrogged it a year later after Softbank Mobile introduced free call services and other rivals cut call rates in a competitive market.

Source: TeleGeography.

­Mobile penetration rates are forecast to rise from 46% in 2008 to 95% by 2013 according to a new survey of 34 emerging market countries published by Tariff Consultancy. Already subscribers in the 34 countries total over 2.1 billion users (based on operator statistics as of mid-2008) which accounts for half of the world’s mobile users (based on ITU estimates). By 2013 the 34 countries will have grown to 4.3 billion mobile users and will account for around two thirds of global mobile users.

The report notes that although China and India will remain the two single largest markets throughout the period due to their large populations, the fastest growth in new mobile subscribers over the next 5 years is set to come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and Indonesia. By 2013 Iraq is forecast to have the highest mobile penetration rate of all of the 34 countries.

Another striking feature is the deployment of 3G and HSDPA mobile networks across all regions which is likely to continue. Although 3G handset costs are currently prohibitively expensive for the mass market there is evidence of adoption by high spending user groups who are using 3G for VoIP and peer-to-peer applications as an alternative to fixed line broadband.

The use of inclusive call minutes is also increasing. Inclusive call minutes are being used as a short term customer acquisition tool, with unlimited on-net SMS or calls offered for a 24 or 48 hour period. They are being used as a retention tool with low on-net calls to particular user communities, and finally as a flat rate price differentiator across all networks where competition is severe.

The availability of new mobile licences and spectrum is continuing to attract investors as Governments seek to raise new revenue with licence auctions and existing providers look for foreign investors. New mobile operator investment is taking place in India, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Vietnam among others.

The report also noted that as markets approach maturity, mobile operators are attempting to develop new forms of distribution channel to attract the low income subscriber with lower denomination top-up cards and door to door sales and sub-agents.

“The rapid growth of mobile penetration across the world indicates that these markets will approach maturity more quickly than previously thought,” commented Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of Tariff Consultancy. “By the end of 2013 we are likely to see one SIM card for every person as the norm in most countries,” she added. “However we should be careful to over-emphasise the significance of this trend, as the incidence of multiple SIM ownership - particularly in the cites - has long been common in emerging markets as there is such a large difference between on net and off net tariffs.”

Over time pricing policies pursued by the mobile operator will need to change in order to promote greater mobile operators. Operators who continue to promote multiple SIM ownership with large differences between on-net and off-net tariffs will ironically contribute to relatively low levels of operator loyalty.

Emerging market mobile operators are likely to find that growth will come from inclusive flat rate deals for both voice and data which will drive usage as has been the case in developed markets.

“The imminent launch of mobile broadband data services provides an exciting new revenue stream as users are able to break free of low speed fixed or dial up access which will continue to have relatively poor levels of penetration. Mobile is going to become the standard for accessing the internet in many of these countries from now on,” adds Margrit Sessions.

Source: Cellular News.

The mobile market in the Caribbean & Latin America further polarised towards GSM technology in Q2 2008, as the total number of customers using the technology and its 3G derivative W-CDMA increased by 6.9% to almost 360m. At the end of June 2008, the GSM/W-CDMA base made up 86.3% of the regional total, up from 84.6% three months earlier.

Most of the ground was given up by the CDMA base, which decreased in size by more than 5% in the quarter to under 48m.

The last 12 months have seen the advent of W-CDMA-based 3G networks across Latin America, with services now commercial in 12 markets in the region. Launches took place in three new markets in the quarter, including Brazil, where numbers were already almost 1m at the end of August after just three months. As far as Q2 is concerned, total customer numbers increased by 67.5% to almost 1.25m (the majority at this time coming from Mexico) which represents an annual improvement of over 1000%.

The introduction of W-CDMA has added to the effect of the continued rise of GSM and slowed the increase in numbers of 3G CDMA EV-DO connections considerably, the base levelling out at around 2.8m across the region.

Source: Cellular News.

Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel said the country was home to 138.3 million active mobile lines at the end of August, up 2.25% or three million on the previous month, and the best monthly net gain so far this year. According to data published yesterday and reported by BNamericas, Brazil’s mobile operators have collectively added 17.4 million net new mobile lines so far this year. Local press suggest the strong rise in August is likely to have been driven by strong sales ahead of the national Father’s Day celebration on 3 August.

Source: Telegeography.

The Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil) has launched its 3G network following several delays, which the company partially put at the door of the telecoms regulator. The company had expected to receive access to the radio spectrum on 17th January, but the radio frequencies were not released until March 27th. The company had hoped to launch its network in July, but again missed its deadline.

According to a statement from the company, Mobinil's 3G coverage Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Dahab, Taba, Safaga, Marsa Alam, Luxor and Aswan, in addition to the industrial zones as well as petroleum fields and business districts. It is also planned that the 3G coverage will expand to cover wider areas to achieve comprehensive coverage for almost all regions.

The network also falls back onto EDGE services when out of 3G coverage.

Mobinil is listed on the Cairo stock exchange (29%) - and has two main shareholders, Orascom Telecom (33.1%) and France Telecom (36.3%). The company is the largest operator in the market, and according to figures from the Mobile World database, ended Q1 '08 with just over 15 million subscribers and a market share of 51.5%.

Mobinil recently reported that its first-quarter net profit grew 14% to 451 million Egyptian pounds ($84 million) from EGP397 million a year earlier. The company's revenue also surged 27% to EGP2.3 billion from EGP1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2007.

Source: Cellular News.

Bolivian mobile operator, Telecel operating under the brand name Tigo, has launched 3G services in the country. The service has been launched in several cities in the regions of Santa Cruz, La Paz and Cochabamba.

Telecel is a subsidiary of Luxembourg based, Millicom International, and launched its network in December 2005. According to figures from the Mobile World subscriber database, the operator ended the first half of this year with just over 1.19 million customers - of which an estimated 120,000 were still connected to a legacy TDMA network at the end of March. The company has a market share of 29%.

Bolivia's Nuevatel PCS - which operates under the VIVA brand name recently announced the launch of a commercial WiMAX rev-e network in the country with coverage roughly similar to the 3G coverage being offered by Telecel.

Source: Cellular News.

APA-Tunis (Tunisia) The number of people using the mobile telephony networks reached 8.1million subscribers in June 2008 in Tunisia i.e. a telephone density of 80 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, revealed data published in Tunis.

This figure increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2007 (7.8 million subscribers) for a 12 million population.

The volume of SMS traffic increased by 30% during the first six months of the current year (80 million SMS) compared to the same period last year (61 million SMS).

These data from the ICT ministries also note an improvement of the quality of services of the mobile telephony, which enabled them to reduce the clutter and the saturation of traffic in peak periods.

This improvement is thanks to the programmes and steps implemented to remarkably ease the clutter which was reduced to 2% whereas it was over 16 % last year.

Reacting to these official figures, observers said that 8 million subscribers is "huge" compared to the Tunisian population and the teenage population.

Tunisians as well as foreign nationals in Tunisia (diplomats, co-operators, businessmen and tourists) often complained about the quality of the GSM and Internet connection, particularly in summer and during peak hours.

Tunisia has two mobile telephone operators, a public one (Tunisia Telecom) and a private one (Tunisiana).

Source: Cellular News.

Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) - the country's monopoly telecoms operator - says that it has completed the installation of the first phase of CDMA 2000 network infrastructure with 625,000-network capacity through vendor financing agreement with China's ZTE and has finalized preparation to make CDMA pre-paid service available to potential customers soon.

ZTE recently added 1.2 million GSM lines to the network capacity to cope with demand and also a surge in usage which occurred during the recent celebration of the Ethiopian millennium. A WCDMA overlay is also planed for some parts of the network. There were several serious network failures during the upgrade work, with the mobile operator blaming ZTE for not refarming radio spectrum correctly during the commission of new base stations.

The state owned monopoly ended Q1 '08 with an estimated 1.6 million subscribers, which according to figures from the Mobile World equates to a population penetration level of just 2%.

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.

Revenues from mobile data services are set to exceed US$200 billion this year for the first time, according to data sourced from Informa Telecoms & Media. Total mobile data revenues were approximately US$157 billion in 2007.

Research from the first quarter of 2008 reveals that mobile data service revenues exceeded US$49 billion, accounting for a 42.7% y-o-y increase. This figure means that mobile operators now generate approximately one fifth of their revenue from data services; this is significant given that a general slowdown in voice revenues is forcing the pace around the importance of data services for mobile operators.

Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that non-SMS data contributed US$17.48 billion of revenue in Q108, accounting for 35.6% of total data revenues.

"Growth drivers for the increase in data revenues include the acceleration in deployment of advanced technologies, an increasingly competitive market, and of course, growing consumer demand for mobile data services driven by popular data-optimised devices such as Apple's iPhone", says Informa Principal Analyst, Nick Jotischky.

The Asia Pacific region comprises 40% of the world's data revenues (over US$20 billion in Q108), representing an above average y-o-y growth rate of 48%. The biggest regional riser, however, is the Middle East, which despite contributing just 2% of the world's data revenues in the first quarter of 2008, has seen a 91.7% y-o-y increase in this figure to US$927 million. Aiding this acceleration is the 321% y-o-y rise in the number of HSPA subscribers in the region, which reached 2.9 million by the end of March 2008.

Further next-generation deployment should also ensure rapid growth in Africa and the Americas, which accounted for just 2% and 5% of global data revenues at the end of Q1 2008. With the increased deployment of fixed wireless telephony, the popularity of EV-DO datacards continues to spread across Africa, now available in 18 markets. Similarly, in Latin America, operators are hopeful for increases in data revenues from WCDMA and HSDPA launches.

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, the operator to generate the highest non-voice revenues in the quarter is Japan's NTT DoCoMo (US$3.6 billion), having overtaken China Mobile (US$3.5 billion), which had been the largest generator of data revenues for the previous three quarters.

In terms of data as a percentage of overall revenue, Filipino mobile operator Smart Communications is the world's market leader and the only carrier to depend on non-voice revenues for more than 50% of its income, such is the high level of SMS usage in the country.

Source: Cellular News.

APA-Banjul (The Gambia) The Gambia has almost a million telephone subscribers, with over 800,000 mobile telephone and about 50,000 fix telephone subscribers, according to a report by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) released here Friday.

The report says that the telephone subscriber list has grown by 86 per cent in 2007, from 73 per cent in 2006. “This surge in growth is as a result of an increased register in the subscriber base of the mobile telephone sector as against the fixed line subscribers, primarily as a result of a competitive environment created by the government,” the report said. The report indicates that despite the stiff competition amongst the mobile telephone providers, they continue to increase their subscriber base. In contrast, the release said the last two years saw stagnation in the number of fixed line subscribers in The Gambia with marginal growth rate of only 20 per cent in 2006 and 9 per cent in 2007.

The report adds that telecommunications in The Gambia “is one of the most highly competitive markets in the sub-region. This is illustrated by an increase in innovative services and pricing schemes such as peak, off peak and free night calls.” The report concludes that the communications sector saw a tremendous growth from 7 percent to 25 percent in 2007, with an estimated investment in the telephone sector of US$26.3 million in 2007.

Source: Cellular News.

SMS will continue to maintain its lead as the highest revenue generator across all messaging categories, providing global service revenues of $177 billion in 2013. But in a recent report from ABI Research, regional differences will determine the success of messaging expansion into the Web, advertising, and the incorporation of mobile messaging within social networking media.

“Innovative companies are exploring opportunities for expanding mobile messaging access to Web sites as well as targeting customers with content and ads,” says principal analyst Dan Shey. “To be successful with these enhanced services, companies that supply mobile messaging products and services must understand the regional distributions for customer type, payment preferences, message delivery method, and usage.”

For instance, developed regions of North America and Europe have the highest messaging ARPUs, and send the most messages from the computer to the mobile device using IM; Asia-Pacific subscribers sign up for the most SMS alert services; and Latin Americans are heavy SMS users, but prefer pay-as-you-go for all messaging services. Additionally, these regional differences will cause established messaging suppliers to reevaluate their business models.

“Device vendors and messaging platform suppliers serving the global market will have to manage across markets where growth is king – and other markets where product differentiation is king,” continues Shey. “This is a great time for smaller companies to develop new products and services individually and in partnerships to serve the niche needs of a region or country.”

Source: Cellular News.

The market share of handsets supporting WCDMA and HSDPA networks increased remarkably in South Korea in 2007. The latest research report released by ROA Group found out that 30.7% of the handsets launched in 2007 supported WCDMA and HSDPA networks, while the figure was a mere 4% in 2006. Also the proportion of handsets supporting mobile WiMAX (WiBro) increased compared to the previous year.

In terms of manufacturers, LG released more models compared to 2006, and was able to increase its market share in the domestic market by 6%, to 26%, while that of Samsung remained the same, occupying 50% of the South Korean market. As the cut-throat competition between the manufacturers and mobile operators intensifies, the market witnessed a drop in the average retail price compared to 2006, with the market share of high-end handsets decreasing to 40.4%.

There was also a notable increase in Bluetooth installment, sub-camera, Video on Demand (VOD), Video Telephony and Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) support. More and more handsets are equipped with Universal Subscription Identity Module (USIM) card, enabling mobile payment services, and this segment is expected to grow in South Korea as cooperation between mobile operators, card issuers and commercial banks strengthens in the market.

Among form factors, ROA Group believes that slim trend will continue and the adoption of touch screen will widespread further. The expansion of WCDMA and HSDPA networks will enable more innovative multimedia services, resulting in the acceleration of mobile Internet usage and interaction between content and end-user, says David Kim, chief consultant at ROA Group Korea.

Source: Cellular News.

The number of mobile users in China, the world's biggest cellphone market, now tops 600 million, the government said, as subscribers increasingly abandon fixed lines.

Mobile phone users in the country increased to 601 million at the end of June, up by 8.6 million from the end of May, the Ministry of Information Industry said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.

From January to June, the nation of 1.3 billion recorded 53.5 million new cellphone users, it said.By contrast, fixed-line subscribers fell by 9.3 million in the first six months to 356 million, it said.

Mobile service is becoming more popular in the country after operators lowered tolls in March for making phone calls outside a user's registered local service area and cancelled charges for answering calls in some cities.

China has been leapfrogging into the age of mobile telephony because of the huge costs associated with installing fixed lines across a nation the size of the United States.

Source: Cellular News.

Mobile penetration in Pakistan surpassed 50% during the second quarter of 2008, with an end-June figure of 51.0%. The total number of mobile connections at the end of the month was 88.02m. With monthly net additions averaging around 1.9m so far this year, the 90m mark looks set to be surpassed before the end of the third quarter.

However, growth has been slowing for some time now, and in June the monthly growth rate hit a new low of 1.5%. On a rolling annual basis, growth dipped below 40% for the first time since 2000, although 39.4% still represents a strong annual rate.

Orascom’s Pakistani subsidiary Mobilink remains the country’s market leader by some distance with 32.03m customers at the end of June.

Rolling Annual Customer Growth, June 06 – June 08

Source: Cellular News.

South Africa’s Vodacom Group has reported a 6.6% increase in subscriber numbers in the twelve months to the end of June, with the operator claiming 34.6 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. The company says revenues for the quarter ended 30 June were up 14.5% year-on-year. Full financial results for the period will be released next month. Vodacom is owned by Telkom South Africa and Vodafone, though the UK group is looking to increase its stake.

Source: TeleGeography.

Second quarter results from America Movil (AM) show a 25% rise in net income from the same period last year, up to MXN17.7 billion (USD1.74 billion) in the three months ended 30 June 2008. The Latin American group also added 6.1 million subscribers, with Brazil welcoming 1.9 million of those, closely followed by Mexico, 1.3 million. The additions bring AM’s total subscriber base to 165.3 million, with revenue in the second quarter reaching MXN84.6 billion (USD8.32 billion), an increase of 13.6% year-on-year. Highlights of the second quarter included the award of a 20-year wireless licence in Panama in May, bringing to 18 the total countries where AM now holds wireless concessions.

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.

Taiwan’s cellular operators are expected to have signed up more than eleven million 3G handset users by the end of this year, according to a report from China Economic News Service. Chunghwa Telecom currently has around three million 3G users, having already surpassed its end-2008 target of 2.8 million, while Far EasTone (FET) has 2.2 million 3G subscribers and Taiwan Mobile has 1.8 million. Smaller operators Vibo and Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless account for another million or so 3G users between them. 3G handset users now account for more than a third of all cellular subscribers in Taiwan, though many customers with 3G-capable phones are still connected via 2G tariffs, meaning the actual 3G user base will be lower than the total given by the operators.

Source: TeleGeography.

China's CCID Consulting, has reported that with the drive of export and domestic demands, China's mobile phone output continues to grow in 2007, reaching 554 million sets, with a growth rate of 25.4%. The export volume wass 322 million sets, which accounts for 58.2% of all phones made in the country. Currently, China's global mobile phone manufacturing base is quite steady. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have transferred their capacities to China; because of this factor, the export volume of China's mobile phone increases 26.2%. Meanwhile, China's domestic mobile phone enterprises' capacity increases are evident, especially ZTE, Huawei and K-Touch.

Brand Structure

The size of China's mobile phone chip market reached 84.41 billion Yuan in 2007, up 23.9% over 2006.

Source: Cellular News.

SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Brazil's two leading mobile phone companies, Vivo Participacoes and TIM Participacoes, saw their share of the local mobile phone market slip in June, while America Movil's Claro and Tele Norte Leste Participacoes, or Oi, expanded share, according to data released by telecommunications regulator Anatel Thursday.

Vivo, which is jointly owned by Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom, saw its market share fall to 30.36% in June from 30.45% in May, while No. 2 operator TIM Participacoes, a local unit of Telecom Italia, saw its share fall to 25.40% from 25.60%

Claro's market share rose to 24.87% in June from 24.75% in May. Oi had 15.25% in June, up from 15.09% in May.

Cellphones in circulation totaled 133.2 million at the end of June, with net additions of 2.6 million in the month. The market continues to expand rapidly as operators chase new clients with promotions.

Source: Cellular News.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), which is the dominant fixed line and cellular operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has reported a second quarter net profit of SAR3.84 billion (USD1.02 billion), up 24% year-on-year. Operating profit grew 21% to SAR3.91 billion. The firm says the growth can be attributed to domestic mobile and broadband services plus higher income from its international operations; earlier this year STC acquired a 35% stake in Oger Telecom, which has cellular operations in markets including Turkey, South Africa and Romania.

Source: TeleGeography.

Saudi Arabia’s number two cellular operator Mobily has reported a 47.4% jump in net profits for the second quarter to SAR448 million (USD119.5 million), from SAR304 million in the same period last year. Operating profit was up 24% at SAR530 million, while revenues grew 25% to SAR2.54 billion. Mobily claims 39% of the Saudi cellular market, with 11.1 million subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography.

Eesti Telekom, the Estonian operator, has reported its financial results for the second quarter ended 30 June 2008, revealing a net profit of EUR6.5 million (USD10.3 million), a 6.4% fall from June 2007. Revenues fell to EUR100.1 million (USD158 million), as a result of the reduction in interconnection fees by the state regulator in November 2007. Eesti also indicated that slowing sales of telecoms equipment had impacted revenues, with the operator also confirming it is to continue its strategy of reducing personnel to cut operating costs. Wireless subscriber figures show a rise from last year, up to 755,000, and according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Eesti operates both GSM and 3G services under its Eesti Mobiiltelefon subsidiary, claiming 47% market share.

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.

Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) said it had just under 87 million cellular subscribers across Russia and the CIS countries at the end of June, an increase of 520,000 in three months. MTS is the largest cellular operator in its home market, with 61.38 million customers at 30 June 2008, while its international operations include cellcos in Ukraine (19.13 million subscribers), Uzbekistan (4.37 million), Armenia (1.49 million) and Turkmenistan (570,000). The group also has 4.03 million customers in Belarus via a 49%-owned unconsolidated subsidiary.

Source: TeleGeography.

The number of Spanish mobile customers reached 49.44m at the end of Q1 08, with annual net additions of 2.47m. In proportionate terms, annual growth stood at 5.3%, down 2.5pp compared to the year-earlier figure. This is in line with a downward trend in growth, a trend which is hardly surprising given that mobile penetration reached 122.1% at the end of Q1 08.

W-CDMA Customers, Q2 06 – Q1 08

Spanish market leader Telefonica finished the quarter with just over 23.01m customers, having managed an annual growth rate of 5.5%. In terms of market share, it recorded a very slight improvement (0.1pp) to finish Q1 on 46.5%. Second-placed Vodafone also gained 0.1pp year on year, finishing the quarter on 29.9%. In real terms, its customer base stood at 14.79m, up 0.79m year on year. This is lower than both the previous year’s figure of 1.25m net additions and Telefonica’s 1.19m. Nonetheless, in proportionate terms Vodafone grew by 5.6%, the highest growth rate on the market excluding start-up Xfera.

France Telecom’s Amena was the slowest growing by some margin with an annual increase of just 0.2%. Having lost 0.37m customers in Q2 07, Amena bounced back with quarterly net additions of 0.23m and 0.17m in Q3 and Q4, but Q1 08 saw the loss of 7k, leaving the annual gain at a paltry 26k. At the end of Q1 08, it had 11.08m customers and market share of 22.4%, down 1.1pp year on year. Meanwhile, 3G operator Xfera gained 0.9pp but still remained a fairly insignificant presence with just 1.1% of the market, or 0.56m in real terms. Having launched services in Q4 06, it now seems too late for Xfera to make any sizeable inroads.

In fact, Xfera does not even have a 5% share of the 3G market, finishing Q1 08 on 4.6%. Vodafone is the 3G market leader with 5.26m W-CDMA connections, compared to 4.2m for Telefonica and 2.01m for Amena. Both Telefonica and Amena more than doubled their totals year on year, however, so we could see a close battle in the Spanish 3G market this year.

Source: Cellular News.

Heavy regulation can suffocate businesses. Just ask any American firm that operates under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

This is not to say that the market should be left to its own devices, but some governments go above and beyond the call of duty.

The Israeli Ministry of Communications continues to aggressively target its wireless industry with the intention of increasing competition between the major players, including the largest, Cellcom Israel CEL, to benefit the nation's consumers.

Cellcom was established in 1994 and went public last year. Today, it provides cellular service to roughly 3.09 million subscribers, up 23,000 from a year ago.

The firm's estimated 34% share of the market is only slightly higher than that of rivals Partner Communications PTNR and Pelephone.

Government over-regulation remains the biggest challenge facing all three competitors.

Source: Cellular News.

In Q1 08, the UK mobile customer base saw its first quarterly decline for two years, shedding 119k customers to finish the quarter on 70.67m. This is equivalent to a penetration rate of 116.0%. The losses were widespread, with O2, T-Mobile, Virgin and Tesco all suffering net declines. A similar range of companies also lost customers in Q1 07, but in that quarter a strong performance from Vodafone (723k net additions) ensured that the total customer base grew; in Q1 08, however, the highest figure for net additions was Orange’s 114k. Hutchison gained 75k and Vodafone 41k, but O2 lost 79k, T-Mobile 71k, Virgin 68k and Tesco 100k.

Quarterly Net Additions, Q1 07 vs Q1 08

Source: Cellular News.

SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- The number of mobile phones in circulation in Brazil totaled 133.2 million at the end of June, up 1.9% from May, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by telecommunications regulator Anatel.

Net additions in the month were 2.6 million.

Brazil's main operators are Vivo Participacoes, which is jointly owned by Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom; TIM Participacoes, the local unit of Telecom Italia; and Claro, the local unit of Mexico's America Movil.

Source: Cellular News.

The first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Cameroon has been launched under the brand name, Yemba. At a press conference organised by Providence Technologique, the company behind Yemba, General Manger, Michel Nguetsop said that the company had secured an MVNO agreement with CDMA operator, Camtel.

The MVNO has set itself an ambitious target of two million subscribers by 2010.

Camtel was expected to activate an EV-DO upgrade on its Huawei supplied fixed wireless infrastructure last September - although it is not initially clear if this has happened.

According to the Mobile World database, there are currently two active operators in the country - MTN and Orange. The two operators ended the first quarter of this year with a combined 4.9 million subscribers - representing a population penetration level of 27%.

Source: Cellular News.

Asia Pacific saw record 3G net additions in Q1 2008 as 13.3m new connections were made, taking the total to 136.3m - a 53.7% increase with respect to Q1 2007. Here we only include CDMA EV-DO, and not standard 1x connections, as 3G; including 1x connections the total rose 37.7% to 264.3m. However, the source of growth in the base was undoubtedly W- CDMA, the 3G technology of the GSM family which accounted for almost 86% of all the mobile connections in Asia Pacific at the end of March. The number of W-CDMA customers grew 74% in the year to reach 98.4m, with a record 12.3m new customers joining in Q1 2008.

Organic Growth by Technology

By contrast, the EV-DO base grew by just 17.7% in the 12 months to 31s March, as net additions dropped drastically to under 1m in each of the last two quarters.

Without doubt the most significant driver of this trend has been South Korea, where W-CDMA customer numbers exploded to reach 9.2m at the end of Q1 2008, little more than a year after commercial launch by SK Telecom and KT Freetel. These two operators both used exclusively CDMA technology previously, which means that the success of W-CDMA has had a direct impact on EV-DO connection growth, which initially levelled out, only to go into reverse in July last year. In Q1 2008, more than 0.8m EV-DO active connections were terminated on a net basis in South Korea. LG Telecom, which is sticking with the CDMA standard, finally launched an EV-DO service late last year, but this is unlikely to do much to mitigate the effects of the migration process at its two rivals.

The technology switch in South Korea also had a material impact on the market’s overall CDMA numbers, which fell by over 2.5m in the quarter and 5.8m in the year.

The result for Asia Pacific as a whole was the lowest organic growth rate in the CDMA base seen for more than six years at just 3.5%, as the total moved to 189m. This compares with an increase in the GSM/W-CDMA base of 7.2%, from 1.07bn to 1.15bn. Meanwhile, the PDC customer base - located exclusively in Japan - fell by another 15% to just 14.3m - representing less than 1% of the regional total for the first time since the introduction of the proprietary standard in 1994.

Source: Cellular News.

According to data published by Senegal’s telecoms regulator Agence de Regulation des Telecoms et Postes (ARTP), cellular penetration reached 39.09% by 31 March 2008, up from 31.93% the previous year, as the total number of active SIMs reached 4.135 million. Senegal’s two incumbent mobile operators - Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobiles/Alize) and Tigo Senegal (formerly SENTELgsm) - collectively added just 12,852 new users in the first quarter of 2008, of which Orange Sonatel, part of the Paris-based Orange group, had 2.803 million users at the end of March, up from 2.464 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, Tigo had 1.332 million clients, from 923,555 twelve months earlier. An overwhelming 99.15% of all users are on pre-paid services, the regulator said.

In the fixed line segment, ARTP said the number of lines in service dipped from 285,774 to 260,493 in the year to 31 March 2008, a teledensity of less than three lines per 100 of population. Residential lines accounted for 66.9% of national PTO Sonatel's total, while business connections made up 28.2% and public payphones 4.9%. The residential fixed line base dipped 3,085 in the first quarter of this year, although this was partially offset by a 13.96% rise (9,464 lines) in business connections to 77,281. The internet market recorded 41,099 subscriptions at the end of the first quarter of which 98% (40,250) were ADSL lines and 2% dial-up.

Source: TeleGeography.

APA-Lilongwe (Malawi) A leading mobile service provider in Malawi, Celtel, on Friday celebrated a milestone of having added one millionth customer to its ever expanding mobile network in the country.

Celtel Managing Director Fayaz King told journalists in Lilongwe that the development places the company ahead of other players as an undisputed leader of the telecoms industry in Malawi.

"We are very proud to be associated with the current development which, in turn, should go a long way to assist in the country’s economic growth," he said.

King said since the company has now surpassed the one million customer base, it is now looking forward to reaching two million customers in years to come.

Malawi is ranked Number 12 in Africa in terms of customer base, with Nigeria’s 10 million customers leading the way.

Celtel Malawi, which was established in 1999, is part of a leading Middle East and African telecoms group, Zain Group.

Source: Cellular News.

Operator-billed service revenues across the Africa & Middle East region are expected to rise to more than $107 billion in 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that growth would be driven by mobile data services, fuelled by the greater availability and wider variety of rich-media content coupled with lower browsing costs. However, it noted that regional operator-billed voice revenues were likely to peak in 2011 and would subsequently fall away due to increasingly competitive pricing in that sector.

According to Juniper Research report author Dr Windsor Holden, "While the downward trend in regional ARPU will continue as adoption increases amongst lower-usage customers, we expect the decline in voice ARPU to be partially offset by an increase in data revenues, both amongst 2.5G and 3G customers."

The report also observed that the region was likely to witness a surge in the growth of mobile financial services, with a raft of operator-led payment initiatives such as M-PESA and mobile banking providers such as WIZZIT having already gained substantial user bases.

Other findings from the Juniper Research report include:

• The Middle East/Africa mobile user base is to grow at an average annual rate of 10.5% between 2008 and 2013
• Mobile data services are expected to contribute 24% of operator-billed service revenues in 2013, against just 9% in 2008
• Saudi Arabia will provide the largest share of cumulative regional revenues over the forecast period, followed by Nigeria

Source: Cellular News.

MANILA -(Dow Jones)- Philippine Long Distance Telephone Tuesday said the number of subscribers to its mobile service, the group's main revenue earner, has exceeded 33 million at the end of June.

The country's largest telephone company by revenue said the figure reflects a net addition of over 1.6 million subscribers in the second quarter alone.

At the end of 2007, PLDT had a total 30 million mobile phone subscribers.

No other details were provided in PLDT's disclosure to the stock exchange.

Its chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the company is sticking to its guidance that this year's core profit will rise 5% to PHP37 billion despite threats from surging inflation, which threaten to damp spending and increase the company's costs.

Source: Cellular News.

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reports that worldwide service provider capex (capital expenditures) totaled $248.8 billion in 2007, a 7% increase from 2006. Infonetics' report projects a spike in worldwide carrier capex in 2008, followed by a plateau in 2010 and a decline in 2011, and emphasizes that the weak US dollar is inflating current growth rates in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India, and Japan.

"Our capex analysis indicates we are in the fourth year of an investment phase, and we may be reaching the plateau this year in both North America and Europe, where large service providers' capital intensity (the ratio of capex to revenue) will likely be as low as 12%. Meanwhile, China and India will drive a significant jump in carrier capex in 2008 as a result of network construction projects combined with currency appreciation against the US dollar. Both countries are still posting double-digit revenue growth in their native currencies, which, converted in US dollars creates a big spike in worldwide carrier revenue as well," said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

Other highlights from the report:

• Telecom service providers earned a combined $1.5 trillion in annual worldwide revenue in 2007, up 10% from 2006, with currency appreciation making up the bulk of the growth, while the rest came from wireless services
• Carriers are increasingly investing in application software (vs. hardware) for media rich applications such as content, storage, and security for broadband based wireline and wireless services
• Current investment drivers for carrier spending: convergence between IT, media, Internet, and telecom, which is adding new competitive pressures to carriers, and the shift from legacy TDM to next generation IP networks
• The world's 10 largest service providers (ranked by 2007 revenue) are AT&T, Verizon, NTT, Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom, Vodafone, Telefónica, China Mobile, BT, and Sprint
• The next largest service providers include Telecom Italia, Comcast, and KDDI, which, according to their most recent growth rates, are poised to join the top 10
• The incumbent share of North American carrier capex jumped from 56% to 63% in 2007; MSOs are expected to increase their share of North American carrier capex by 2011
• The Asia Pacific telecom industry is squeezed between 2 opposite market forces: a saturated market made of Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan characterized by flat to decreasing capex, and a fast growing market driven by China and India, characterized by double digit growth for both capex and revenue
• Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) service provider revenue jumped 29% between 2006 and 2007
• Mobile infrastructure makes up the bulk of total equipment capex in 2007, accounting for about 20%, followed by voice infrastructure, optical equipment, and broadband aggregation equipment
• WiMAX equipment spending by service providers as a portion of total carrier capex has roughly doubled each year since 2004, and will continue to increase its share in the near term, driven by major WiMAX projects in the US, India, and Latin America.

Source: Cellular News.

The global BWA/WiMAX subscriber base increased by 260,246 in the first quarter of 2008, reaching a total of 1,988,246 subscribers according to figures from Maravedis.

“Even with an increase of more than 19% in WiMAX subscribers in the first quarter of 2008, operators are still waiting for the tipping point that will lead to acceleration of WiMAX adoption and deployments,” said Adlane Fellah, CEO and founder of Maravedis. “The key factors mainly centre on certification of mobile WiMAX equipment, a reduction in CPE pricing and the emergence of a device ecosystem.”

“Many operators have held back their network expansion pending the mobile WiMAX 802.16e equipment certification, which was announced in June 2008. Mobile WiMAX is a key enabler of a wider range of value-added services and product flexibility.” added Cintia Garza, co-author of the WiMAXCounts Quarterly Report.

“Of the 264 operators tracked in WiMAXCounts, approximately 50% of them are providing HIS (High Speed Internet) services only. The remaining percentage corresponds to operators that are offering different applications, such as VoIP, Video, VPN , in addition to HIS. We expect however double/triple play to become the norm in the next two years” said Robert Syputa, Maravedis Partner and Senior Analyst.

This Quarter's Key Findings:

• 65% of Operators are already commercial, 14% are trialing, 9% are planning their launch, 10% have idle spectrum and 2% have returned/lost spectrum.
• Clearwire USA remains the top operator in number of subscribers, with an estimated 443,000 subscribers in the United States at the end of Q1 2008, an increase of 12.5% compared to the 394,000 subscribers reported in Q4 2007.
• The split by subscriber type among WiMAXCounts operators was 65% residential and 35% business.
• The 3.3–3.8 GHz band is the most widely deployed, with 63% of WiMAXCounts operators deploying their WiMAX networks in this band in Q1 2008, compared to 70% of the Operators deploying in this band during Q4 2007.
• Q1 2008 BWA/WiMAX service revenue among WiMAXCounts operators totaled US$ 366 million, as compared to $US 303.65 million during the previous quarter, an increase of 20%.
• Q1 2008 recorded ARPU was US$ 48 and US$ 146 for residential and business subscribers.
• Motorola remains the leader in equipment deployed for both BWA/WiMAX CPEs

Source: Cellular Nesws.

Israel was dumped from third to fifth position in the Middle-East & Africa (MEA) penetration rankings in Q1 2008 as both the Seychelles and Qatar overtook it to line up behind the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have held the top two places for the last year. If the second quarter even came close to matching the first in the UAE, then that market will have finished June with a penetration rate in excess of 200%, the rate having stood at 192.5% at the end of March.

MEA: Number of markets in each penetration band

The ownership in Bahrain was more than 20pp behind, at 172.2%, although in the last two quarters at least, the rate has been growing noticeably quicker than in the UAE. The rate in Qatar and the Seychelles has been progressing much more steadily, but both overtook Israel as penetration fell for the first time ever from 127.1% to 126.3% in Q1 08. Four other markets - Kuwait, Reunion, Saudi Arabia and Libya - boasted penetration rates in excess of 100% at the end of March 2008.

Libya became the first mainland African market to join this elite club in the quarter, as the quite remarkable rise of mobility in the country continues.

South Africa was the tenth most penetrated market at the end of Q1 08 with a rate of 96.6%, after also suffering a decline in penetration (although in this case not its first) from 97.9% in the quarter. The penetration rates of a further seven markets also lay within the fourth quartile at the end of March, these being Botswana (90%), Algeria (87%), Oman (83%), Gabon (80%), Jordan (79%), Tunisia (78%) and new entrant Mauritius (76%). Perhaps surprisingly, only three markets - Morocco, Gambia and Mauritania - finished Q1 with penetration rates between 50% and 75%. However, Iran joined them just a few days after the end of the quarter, the mobile ownership rate there having stood at 49.6% at the end of March.

Iran breaking the 50% barrier would have taken the total number of markets with penetration rates in excess of 50% to 21, after Mauritania and Gambia took the total from 18 to 20 in the first quarter. Including Iran, 50 of the 70 markets in the MEA region finished Q1 08 with penetration rates below 50%. However, progress is clear to see. At the end of Q1 07, 36 of markets had penetration rates of 25% or below, a number which fell to 25 a year layer.

Source: Cellular News.

WELLINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Vodafone New Zealand Friday said it will extend its third generation mobile network to cover 97% of the population, taking total spending on 3G infrastructure investment to NZ$500 million. The local unit of U.K.-based Vodafone PLC said its advanced mobile network would cover 97% of the places New Zealanders live and work in by 2010, up from the 63% coverage currently.

"The network extension means we'll be able to offer true broadband speeds to almost every New Zealander, and especially our rural customers, by April 2010," said Vodafone General Manager Corporate Affairs Tom Chignell. "This means broadband will be available on customers' mobiles and it can be used as a cost effective home solution, especially in areas where no land line-based broadband is available," he said. Vodafone said an enhancement of its downlink speed to 7.2 Megabits per second is currently being rolled out. In the future, peak downlink speeds will go up to 28.8 Mbps and uplink speeds 11.5 Mbps using High Speed Packet Access protocols.

Responding to the announcement, Communications Minister David Cunliffe said the country's regulatory regime has given telecommunications companies the flexibility to bring broadband to rural areas. "This announcement means that more New Zealanders will have access to high-speed internet via their home computers, laptops and on their mobile phones," Cunliffe said. "While many countries are still struggling with the removal of outdated restrictions on the use of lower frequency bands for HSPA, the flexible spectrum regulatory arrangements in New Zealand mean that the benefits of this technology can be delivered to New Zealanders now."

Vodafone is currently also ramping up competitive pressure on Telecom Corp. of New Zealand by aggressively rolling out new broadband and home phone products following regulation that split the former state-owned monopoly into three separate companies and gave rivals access to its network.

Source: Cellular News.

A survey carried out in Nigeria's capital, Abuja has indicated a growing demand in the GSM dominated market for CDMA based mobile phones. The survey, carried out by local newspaper The Tide cited the regular problems with network congestion on the GSM networks in the city for the increased interest in CDMA operators. Currently there are four CDMA operators in the city, Multi-links, Visafone, Starcomms and Reltel.

The respondents hinged their optimism on clarity of communication and affordability of CDMA phones, when compared with GSM phones.

"For instance, with as little as N1,500, you can get a phone and a line on the CDMA network, while for a GSM line, a subscriber may need to pay at least twice that amount," claimed respondents to the survey.

Mr Wakili Shehu, a telecommunications consultant said that "the technology also provides the capacity for quicker transmission of data and Internet, unlike the GSM which has limited capacity," but he warned that the use of the CDMA technology in the country was also fraught with challenges, such as limited coverage of cities and towns, unlike the GSM.

According to figures from the Mobile World database, Nigeria ended Q1 '08 with some 567,000 active CDMA subscribers - compared to some 43 million GSM users.

Source: Cellular News.

BNamericas is reporting that the Dominican Republic ended May 2008 with a fixed and mobile teledensity of 70.4%. Indotel, the country’s telecoms regulator, announced there were 6.35 million wireless subscribers at the end of May, up from 2.5 million in December 2004. Internet usage penetration is reported at 21%, with a total of 2.28 million users, more than four times the figure recorded at December 2004.

Source: TeleGeography.

At the end of Q1 08, there were 42.3m mobile customers in South Africa, meaning it was surpassed by Nigeria as Africa’s largest market. This was mostly due to a strong quarter in Nigeria, but the loss of 0.61m South African customers in Q1 certainly helped. This decline also meant that South Africa failed to break the 100% penetration barrier, having reached 97.9% at the end of 2007; the loss of customers saw it slide to 96.6%.

3G customers: Vodacom and MTN

This still makes it the highest-penetrated sub-Saharan market, although having reached 104.9% at the end of Q1 08, Libya has become the first African market to surpass the 100% mark.

Vodacom suffered the greatest loss in real terms, shedding 0.79m active customers to slide back to 22.27m, lower even than the Q3 07 figure of 22.50m. Year on year it gained 1.70m. It remains the country’s clear market leader with 52.6% of the total, although this is its lowest figure since Q4 04. Cell C also saw a decline in customers - perhaps inevitably, given its dramatic gain in Q4 07. It lost 0.19m to slide back below 5m to 4.91m, with net annual additions totalling 1.68m. In terms of market share, it lost 0.3pp quarter on quarter but still recorded a rise compared to Q1 07, ending Q1 08 on 11.6%. Third player MTN was the only operator to gain customers on a net basis in the first quarter, finishing up 0.37m on 15.17m. Combined with the other operators’ losses, this saw it reach its highest market share figure for three years, with 35.8% of the total.

MTN has also seen its share of the 3G market rise, a 10pp year on year gain taking its Q1 08 figure to 46.2% of the total. It went through the 1m barrier during Q1 to finish on 1.12m thanks to a record-breaking 211k quarterly net additions. Vodacom finished on 1.30m. In total, the number of W-CDMA handsets grew by 163.6% year on year, from 0.9m to 2.4m.

Because of the loss of customers in Q1 - the first such quarterly decline in more than six years - annual growth slumped to 14.4%, the lowest figure since Q2 02.

Source: Cellular News.

The chart shows the fastest growing businesses in the MEA region over a twelve month view. The list includes nine of the names that feature in the Q1 08 list, with Zain Iraq coming in at Algerie Telecom Mobile’s expense. The top two places are the same in the year as they are in the quarter, with TCI’s 9.12m just shading Irancell’s 7.95m. The other really strong performances in the region were spread across five main markets - with Mobily in Saudi Arabia taking third place ahead of two Egyptian companies, three from Nigeria and one each from Iraq and Kenya.

Leading MNOs by Net Additions, year to 31st March 08

Source: Cellular News.

A new analysis of the mobile payments opportunity forecasts that the gross transaction value of payments made via mobile phone for digital goods (such as music, tickets and games) and physical goods (typically gifts and books) will exceed $300bn globally by 2013.

A region by region analysis by Juniper Research found that there is a significant and immediate opportunity for mobile payment services, systems, software and supporting services to underpin the processing of this value of payment transactions by 2013. With applications and service case studies, the study explores how the mobile phone is developing into a payment tool that will be used by more and more people, more and more often in future.

Report author Howard Wilcox noted: "Merchants in North America and Western Europe are just starting to realise the potential of a mobile web presence as a fourth channel to market. Retailers should be evaluating the benefits of the mobile web, and be mindful of the success of regular ecommerce sites in generating sales. They need to move quickly to exploit the opportunity presented, and ensure that they maintain ease of use for their customers who are already familiar with web shopping from their PCs."

Highlights from the report include:

• Global annual gross transaction value will grow over 5 times by 2013
• The ticketing segment will be driven by consumer usage on rail, air and bus networks as well as sports and entertainment events. This will represent over 40% of the global transaction value by 2013
• The top 2 regions (Far East and W. Europe) will represent over 60% of the $300bn p.a. global mobile payment gross transaction value by 2013 for digital and physical goods

Western Europe is currently dominated by digital goods and services sold via SMS, whereas the Far East & China region (specifically Japan) is already well established in physical goods sales over the mobile web, and has been for a number of years.

Source: Cellular News.

An EU-wide survey of 27,000 households has revealed the emergence of new consumption patterns in telecoms services in Europe. Technological progress and competition have brought more choice to European consumers as almost a quarter (24%) of households have given up their fixed telephone in favour of mobile phones while 22% of them are using their computer from home to make phone calls over the Internet.

In an increasing number of Member States, European households are using wireless access to connect to the Internet, via mobile or satellite networks. Meanwhile, 29% of European households buy bundled telecoms and media packages, an increase of nearly 10% since last year.

Nevertheless, the top priority for consumers in this fast evolving environment remains the quality of services.

Source: Cellular News.

According to the latest ROA Group report, the number of mobile WiMAX users in South Korea will increase to more than 2.5 million by 2011. The market revenues are also expected to increase to KRW65 billion (US$627 million) by 2011. Mobile WiMAX, called WiBro in Korea, was commercially launched in the country two years ago, on June 30, 2006, but due to insufficient CAPEX investment, resulting in poor service coverage and device line-up, the subscriber growth was slow, until KT started strong marketing strategies to attract subscribers in early 2007. The subscribers increased 5,600 in April 2007 to 106,000 in December 2007. In 2008, the subscribers are increasing by about 10,000 per month. In addition, KT and SKT, the two mobile WiMAX operators in Korea, have decided to expand their investment from 2008, and the mobile WiMAX market is expected to grow faster.

Moreover, the availability of VoIP will have a significant influence on subscriber addition. Currently, the biggest disadvantage with WiBro service is that it fails to provide a killer application. To become a 4G mobile technology, voice support is a must for WiBro and a necessary element for competing with HSDPA and its next generation version, LTE in 3G/4G mobile market, says Ku Kang, analyst at ROA Group.

To improve the service expansion, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea is developing NeMA (New Mobile Access), an upgraded version of WiBro. NeMA is a technology for the users who move at a high speed; at 100Mbps while moving at the maximum of 120km/h. In 2007 ETRI developed NoLA, which is LAN-based technology for the users who move at low speeds. ETRI plans to combine these two technologies and if it succeeds, the Korean market could witness next year a service that allows the users to use Internet in a moving vehicle on the highway.

Source: Cellular News.

Worldwide mobile subscriptions will rise from 3.9 billion in 2008 to 5.6 billion in 2013, according to a new Strategy Analytics report. Discounting for people with more than one subscription, more than half of the world’s population will be using mobile phones by early 2010, up from 40% at the start of this year.

3G share of subscriptions and revenues

Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa (MEA) are responsible for the current surge in mobile subscriptions. Those areas will remain the engines for growth in the wireless market in the medium term, contributing to 80% of subscription growth through 2013.

“These two regions may be driving the subscription count, but they contribute much less to global revenues,” comments Phil Kendall, Director Global Wireless Practice. “Asia-Pacific and MEA account for nearly 60% of worldwide subscriptions, but less than 40% of revenues. Their increasing significance will reduce average revenues per subscription by 15% over the next five years”.

3G networks will account for half of all mobile subscriptions by 2013. Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Senior Analyst, Wireless Network Strategies, adds, “3G technologies will reach critical mass in more regions in 2008, driving worldwide subscriber numbers close to 500 million by year end. Next year, more than one third of all service revenues will be generated by 3G technologies, even though 3G accounts for only one in six subscribers.”

Source: Cellular News.

The number of mobile connections in Argentina is almost certain to have surpassed 40m at the time of writing, having reached 39.47m at the end of Q1 08. Furthermore, if Q2 net additions match last year's figure, then penetration will have broken the 100% barrier by the end of the current quarter, with Q1's figure standing at 97.3%.

Customers, America Movil vs. Telefonica, Q2 06 – Q1 08

Annual growth stood at 21.1%, an impressive figure given the maturity of the market, although exactly half the 42.2% rate recorded in the prior twelve months. Annual net additions totalled 6.87m, while on a quarterly basis there were just 0.89m new connections due to the combined effect of first-quarter slump and high penetration.

The biggest story of the quarter was the change in market leader, with America Movil's customer base overtaking that of Telefonica. At the end of Q1, AM had 13.99m customers to 13.75m for Telefonica, compared to Q1 07 figures of 10.93m and 11.68m respectively. As the graph on the left shows, the trajectories of the two companies over the past two years made the change in leadership all but inevitable, with AM outpacing Telefonica in terms of quarterly net additions for the past eight quarters. In fact, AM's Q1 08 figure of 511k was its lowest for three years, but Telefonica had an even worse quarter with just 125k net additions, its worst result since Q3 03.

Meanwhile, third player Telecom Personal - the mobile subsidiary of Telecom Argentina - added 216k to finish on 10.88m, while Nextel reached 0.85m thanks to record first-quarter net additions of 39k.

GSM dominates in Argentina, and as in the rest of the continent its domination has been steadily increasing. At the end of Q1 08, 92.9% of the total customer base was using GSM technology, up from 86.5% a year earlier. CDMA's proportion dropped from 7.5% to 3.8%, while AMPS and TDMA connections dwindled to just 0.8% from 3.9% a year earlier. W- CDMA, which was launched by Telecom Personal in Q2 07 and by Telefonica in Q4 07, had an estimated 0.15m customers at the end of Q1, giving it 0.4% of the country's total customer base. Finally, Nextel's iDEN technology improved its share slightly, from 2.1% to 2.2%.

Source: Cellular News.

China's mobile phone accounts rise to 592 million; number of fixed-line accounts falls

China's fast-growing number of mobile phone accounts has risen more than 8 percent since the start of the year to 592 million, while demand for traditional fixed-line service is falling, a state news agency reported Thursday. The figures reflect a growing trend for Chinese customers to opt solely for mobile service. The shift has hurt fixed-line carriers, prompting Beijing to launch a massive industry reorganization to revive competition.

The number of mobile accounts in China grew by 44.8 million through the end of May, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Information Industry. It said the number of fixed-line accounts fell by 6.5 million to 358 million. China has by far the world's largest population of mobile phone users. But several million have multiple phones for personal and business use, so the total number of subscribers is smaller than the number of accounts. The boom has turned China's dominant mobile carrier, China Mobile, into the world's biggest phone company by number of subscribers, with more than 400 million. Meanwhile, fixed-line carriers China Telecom and China Netcom have seen subscriber demand and profit growth slump.

That prompted Beijing to announce an industry restructuring in May aimed at creating more robust competitors to China Mobile. It would create three groups based around China Mobile, China Telecom and China Netcom, each with a mix of fixed-line and mobile assets. The government says the reorganization will clear the way for the long-awaited awarding of licenses for third-generation, or 3G, mobile service. That technology, which supports wireless video, Web surfing and other services, is expected to boost revenues for mobile carriers still further.

Source: Cellular News.

A new report from Juniper Research says that the number of subscribers using mobile Internet services will rise from 577 million currently, to top 1.7 billion by 2013, spurred by demand for collaborative applications known collectively as 'web 2.0,' and greater 2.5/3G penetration. Putting that figure into some context, a report from Gartner earlier this week had said that the worldwide PC base would reach 2 billion by 2014 - so internet access by mobile phones will represent at around 50% of the total internet usage.

According to a new report from Juniper Research, the emergence of applications such as: Social networking; User Generated Content (UGC); Instant Messaging (IM); Location Based Services (LBS); Search calls for delivery of the mobile Internet as it was originally conceived -- i.e. an open environment in which users are able to share, collaborate and exploit content/information without any one party controlling the value chain.

This marks a fundamental shift for the industry towards the D2C (direct-to consumer) model and places growing pressure on mobile network operators (MNOs) and handset manufacturers in particular, to relinquish some of their control over the value chain, by opening up their networks/devices to third-parties.

"Major web players have already crossed the Rubicon and established themselves in the mobile domain, placing the onus on MNOs and other members of the value chain to form innovative relationships and grab a share of the new revenue streams being created," comments Ian Chard, Juniper Research Analyst and author of the report 'Mobile Web 2.0: Leveraging Location, IM, Social Web & Search 2008-2013.'

"The mobile web 2.0 market is still nascent and business models remain in a state of flux, so there is still time for players to establish fruitful partnerships that build on their strengths and are reciprocally beneficial. The window of opportunity, however, is closing."

Source: Cellular News.

Approximately 135,000 subscribers use 3G services in Argentina, reveals BNamericas quoting local newspaper El Cronista. Telecom Personal's innovation and services manager told the paper that the cellco has approximately 75,000 3G users on its books, up from 20,000 at the end of 2007. Rival operator Claro has 50,000 active 3G customers, of which 30,000 access the network via modems or PC cards. Movistar is said to have 10,000 3G subscribers. All three companies launched next generation services in 2007, and the relatively poor take-up has been attributed to lack of coverage.

Source: TeleGeography.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that, as of Q1 2008, Indonesia had more than 16.3 million CDMA2000 subscribers -- making it the leader in Southeast Asia for 3G CDMA subscriber growth. The CDG attributes the increase in large part to the availability of ultra low-cost handsets and affordable tariffs, which are critical to technology and service expansion in emerging markets. "Indonesia has emerged as a prime showcase of CDMA2000's core value proposition," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "With a dynamic combination of ultra low-cost handsets and value-added broadband services, Indonesia's six CDMA operators have boosted their revenue streams and propelled the region into the spotlight for mobile telephony and Internet growth."

Indonesia's CDMA2000 operators are Telkom Flexi (PT Telkom), StarOne (Indosat), Smart Telecom, Fren (Mobile-8 Telecom), Esia (Bakrie Telecom) and Ceria (Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia or STI). By March 2008, the total number of CDMA2000 subscribers among all six carriers exceeded 16.3 million, up from 14.4 million at the end of 2007 and 7.8 million at the end of 2006, representing annual growth rates of 53 percent and 85 percent, respectively.

Indonesia has the highest number of CDMA subscribers in Southeast Asia. "With CDMA2000, we are confident in providing a telecommunication service that is within reach by all people from all levels of society," said A.R. Martirez, Chief Executive Officer of PT Smart Telecom. "We are taking rapid steps to expand our penetration and market development through various products and services. This proves that CDMA2000 can readily fulfill all telecommunication wants and needs of customers in this country. And we demonstrate this with our value-for-money offer to the market, in terms of an economical tariff and affordable handsets, on a network that provides a pervasive yet efficient coverage. Best of all, it delivers a superior quality of service in both Voice and Data that customers expect."

Source: Cellular News.

Pioneer Consulting has published a new report which shows that a significant portion of multimedia content on mobile phones is either user generated or is simply being stored on the handset. This content, termed User Originated Content (UOC) is being increasingly shared with friends, family and contacts on social networks. With handsets starting to have Bluetooth, WiFi and WiMAX capabilities, end users can use alternative networks to share content, effectively bypassing the operator’s mobile network and the content value chain. Pioneer Consulting estimates that as a result of users sharing content and bypassing the existing value chain, $16.4 billion worth of revenue opportunity will be at risk by 2012. This is estimated to be more than a quarter of the total revenue opportunity for that year.

However, the study says that all is not lost yet and operators can play a key role in preventing this disruption from happening. To begin, mobile operators need to re-evaluate the applicability of the traditional client-server content delivery architecture in an environment where a large portion of the content originates from the handset. In addition, operators need to realize that there will be a bandwidth bottleneck between the base station and the handset due to an oversubscribed air interface, especially in the case of bandwidth heavy multimedia content.

Robert Hsieh, author of the report says that, “Mobile operators need to embrace peer to peer (P2P) methodologies within their own networks and focus on the advantages of using both assisted P2P and augmented P2P to mitigate the disruption”. Aditya Kaul, Senior Analyst, Emerging Wireless at Pioneer adds that, “P2P is generally treated with contempt by operators and has now become the 'P' word that should never be uttered. It is more of an attitude problem rather than an engineering one, and unless operators wake up to the reality of the situation, we cannot even begin to solve the problem”.

Source: Cellular News.

Pan-Caribbean operator, Digicel has announced that it has ended its fiscal year (March 31,2008) with 6.54 million customers, representing a 39 percent increase compared to the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Operating across 23 markets, Digicel Group continues to experience organic growth in existing markets while increasing mobile penetration growth rates in new markets. In November 2007, Digicel successfully launched operations in Suriname. Digicel already has a presence in South America through its operations in Guyana and French Guiana. Its Caribbean and Latin American GSM networks also extend across the British West Indies, the Dutch Caribbean, the French West Indies, Bermuda and El Salvador.

Digicel says that it plans to further expand later this year with a pending launch in the British Virgin Islands, while Digicel Central America Holdings, a sister company to Digicel Group, prepares to launch in Honduras and Panama. These launches will expand Digicel's GSM network to 26 markets.

"We're very excited about our ability to sustain growth opportunities in existing markets while picking up momentum in new ones, and we've had one of our most successful financial years to date," said Colm Delves, Digicel Group CEO. "We will continue to put our customers first by offering them better value, world-class customer care, new technology innovations and attractive offerings based on the strength of our network."

Source: Cellular News.

According to IDC India, close to 85 million mobile phones were shipped in India between April 2007 and March 2008, compared to just under 66 million units shipped over the equivalent period a year ago. This was a record and amounts to a year-on-year growth of around 29 percent in terms of units.

Source: Cellular News.

The total number of active mobile lines in Brazil reached 130.5 million at the end of May, up 24.2% year-on-year, according to preliminary data published by the country’s telecoms watchdog Anatel. Of the total, some 80.95% are on pre-paid options and 19.05% are on post-paid monthly contracts. Last month Brazil’s mobile operators collectively signed up a total of 2.8 million net new lines, up 2.2% month-on-month and 27.1% higher than the number of users added in May 2007. As a result, the overall cellular penetration rate stood at 68.23% at the end of last month. However, there are some marked regional differences. Distrito Federal boasted a mobile teledensity of 126.01%, the state of Rio de Janeiro was 85.09% and Mato Grosso do Sul was 83.59%. By contrast cellular penetration in the north of the country was 51.17%, the northeast was 53.91%, the southeast (75.81%, the south (74.26%) and the centre-west (85.35%).

In terms of market share, Brazilian mobile operator Vivo led the way with 30.45% of the market, compared to 30.36% in April. TIM Brasil remained in second place with 25.60%, down from 25.85% a month earlier, and Claro, a unit of Mexico's America Movil was third with 24.75%. TNL PCS (Oi) took the fourth spot with 15.09% in May, while Brasil Telecom (BrT GSM) came in fifth with 3.76%, up from 3.66% in April. In the minor rankings, CTBC Telecom Celular remained at 0.30% and Sercomtel Celular decreased from 0.06% in April to 0.05% in May.

BNamericas reports that Anatel amended its data reporting in April to reflect the incorporation of Telemig Celularby Vivo, and of Amazonia Celular by Oi.

Source: TeleGeography.

Nigeria based Globacom has sold a staggering 600,000 new SIM cards since it launched its new Glo Mobile branded network in Benin just under two weeks ago. The company says that traffic has been significant at its new retail stores as well as 3rd party outlets.

The company won a GSM operating license in the country last year and has built out its network covering the main cities, with a new switching centre in Cotonou, capital of the country.

Estimates from the Mobile World record that the country ended last year with around 1.4 million subscribers, representing a population penetration level of just 17%. By that measure, the new network has captured some 30% of the enlarged market within just a few days.

The market leader at the end of last year was MTN with just over 54% of the market, followed by Bell Benin with 21.5%. Moov comes third with 24.6%.

Source: Cellular News.

Nigeria based Globacom (Glo Mobile) has won a licence to operate mobile cellular service in the Republic of Ghana - just a week after the company launched its services in Benin. The company won the license  in a tender auction.

Globacom's management expressed gratitude to the telecoms regulator, the NCA for the confidence reposed in the company and promised to “roll out aggressively” in the country “very shortly”.

The company is also currently bidding for a license in Togo.

Last month, the NCA also announced plans to offer number portability on both landline and mobile networks. Joshua Peprah, Director of Regulations and Licensing at NCA said “We’ve also had informal discussions with the telecom operators on this service and in principle, they have no problem with it. Their main concern has to do with the cost associated with the implementation of the service,"

However, he added that “as of now, we have not mandated the telecom operators to implement the service. The market should really be ripe for it and besides, the stakeholder consultation is still ongoing.”

If number portability is introduced, that generally assists new market entrants to take subscribers from the incumbent operators.

The country already has five operators, but according to figures from the Mobile World database, the country only had 7.6 million customers at the end of last year. That figure equates to a population penetration level of just 33%.

The five operators (and market share) are: MTN (53%), Tigo (26.7%), Ghana Telecom (16.8%), Kasapa Telecom (3.5%) & Westel (0%).

Source: Cellular News.

Japan’s leading mobile operator by subscribers NTT DoCoMo has revealed it is cutting its monthly mobile tariffs in a bid to match rivals KDDI and Softbank Mobile, as the domestic mobile price war begins to intensify. DoCoMo still controls roughly half the market but has seen its share whittled away by its rivals in the past year. This month, KDDI unveiled a JPY980 (USD9.12) per month plan to compete with number three player Softbank, which has won more subscribers than either of its larger rivals since April 2007 on the back of its low-price strategy and aggressive advertising campaigns. Reuters reports that DoCoMo is dropping its lowest tariff plan by nearly 7% to JPY980 from July to match the competition.

Source: TeleGeography.

News agency Trend Capital reports that Azerfon, known locally as Nar Mobile, deployed 55 new base stations last month, lifting overall network coverage to 80% of the Azerbaijan's territory. The cellco was granted a GSM-900/1800 licence in December 2005 and launched GSM/GPRS/EDGE services in late March 2007. It currently has an estimated 700,000 subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography.

Commerce over mobile devices such as cell phones is accelerating in the US, according to data released by The Nielsen Company. Already, 9 million US mobile subscribers say they have used their mobile phone to pay for goods or services, and half of all data users (49%) say they expect to participate in mobile commerce in the future. Nielsen Mobile presented an overview of the opportunities in mobile commerce at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition.

Among the findings presented:

• As of Q1 2008, 3.6 percent (9.2 million) of US mobile subscribers use their phone to pay for goods or services
• Men are more likely than women to use their phone for commerce: 4.5 percent (4.9 million) of men and 3.0 percent (4.3 million) of women say they have made a purchase using their phone
• Adults ages 25-34 are the most likely to have made a purchase using their phone: 5.4 percent (3 million) of adults ages 25-34 have made a purchase, compared to 3.6 percent of all mobile subscribers
• 49 percent of mobile data users, those subscribers who have used one or more data features on their phone such as text messaging or the mobile internet within the past 30 days, say that it is likely they will conduct mobile commerce in the future

Mobile websites are one popular way consumers make purchases over the mobile phone. Of the 40 million active US users of the mobile web in April 2008, 5 million accessed mobile shopping and auction websites -- up 73% from April 2007, when just 2.9 million mobile users did so. Auction site eBay is the most popular shopping or auction destination on the mobile web, with 3.4 million unique visitors in April.

Purchasing items via text messaging is another growing form of mobile commerce. Some services allow consumers to send text messages to a phone number or mobile shortcode in order to be charged for goods or services directly on their mobile phone bills. Already, 6.5 million US mobile consumers say they've used text messaging to purchase an item.

"For many of the millions of consumers who are already shopping online or over landline phones, mobile commerce is an obvious and useful extension of that opportunity," said Nic Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile who presented the data at the conference. "As more mobile commerce services become available and consumers develop a greater trust for phone-based transactions, we expect commerce to be an increasingly important part of the mobile experience next year and beyond."

The findings come from Nielsen Mobile's monthly Mobile Insights survey of more than 30,000 US wireless subscribers, with similar data available internationally.

Nielsen's study reveals that security is the number one concern among those mobile data users not yet participating in m-commerce:

• 41 percent of data users who do not participate in mobile commerce say security is their biggest concern
• 23 percent say they worry about being charged for the airtime
• 21 percent say they don't trust that the transaction will be completed

"As with other forms of electronic commerce, US consumers need proof that mobile transactions will be a safe, affordable and efficient complement to other modes of shopping," said Covey. "As long as retailers continue to meet those expectations, more consumers will come to view mobile shopping as a compelling and viable option."

Source: Cellular News.

The total number of mobile connections in North America rose to 277.90m at the end of Q1 08, from 257.60m a year earlier. The penetration rate saw a 5.3pp gain to 82.5%. Obviously this figure is close to the 84.9% penetration rate in the USA, the region's largest market by some distance with 92.7% of North America's mobile customers, although it is dragged down by the low Canadian rate of just 60.5%.The other two markets in the region are so small as to have little bearing on the total penetration rate. St. Pierre et Miquelon, a group of small islands off Newfoundland which are an overseas territory of France, had 2,935 mobile customers at the end of Q1 08, and a penetration rate of 41.7%. Meanwhile, Greenland was the region's most penetrated market by some distance with 96.9% of the population owning a mobile phone, which amounts to around 55k connections.

By far the fastest growing technology in North America is W-CDMA, which saw a 336.7% gain in customers in the 12 months ending 31st March 2008. The total number of W-CDMA connections surpassed the 10m mark during Q1 08 to finish the quarter on 11.12m. This is still below the number of iDEN customers, which stood at 16.56m at the end of Q1, but with iDEN losing 5.09m customers year on year and W-CDMA gaining 8.57m, it seems likely that iDEN will lose its status as North America's third most important technology before the end of 2008.

CDMA remains the dominant standard with 52.7% of the total North American customer base, or 146.49m connections, up from 130.6m (50.7% of the total) a year earlier.

The number of GSM connections broke through the 100m barrier to reach 103.7m at the end of Q1, but growth more than halved from 15.0% in the 12 months to the end of Q1 07, to 7.0% in the subsequent 12 months, as a consequence of the success of W-CDMA. Annual CDMA customer growth was also down compared to the prior twelve months with a 4.4pp fall in the rate, although it remained in double digits with a 12.2% yearly gain.

The total customer growth rate also fell compared to the prior 12 months, from 11.6% to 7.9%. This is the lowest rolling annual growth rate ever recorded in the North American region, and we fully expect it to be the lowest rate of any region in the world in Q1 08.

Source: Cellular News.

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.

EW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- Bharti Airtel, India's biggest cellphone operator by subscribers, added 2.46 million mobile users in May, data issued by an industry body showed Wednesday.

As a result, Bharti's total mobile phone user base has grown to nearly 66.83 million subscribers at the end of May, data from the Cellular Operators Association of India showed.

In May, Vodafone Essar added 1.69 million mobile phone users taking its total subscriber base to 47.47 million, said COAI, which represents the nine operators using global system for mobile communications technology.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. added 314,281 mobile phone users, taking its total subscriber base to 37 million at the end of May.

Idea Cellular added 1.1 million users and had 26.14 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of May.

Another state-run operator, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (500108.BY), added 66,686 mobile phone users in May, taking its total subscriber base to 3.35 million.

Source: Cellular News.

The Information & Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) of Mauritius has forced the country’s telecoms operators adopt new lower rates for mobile and international long-distance (ILD) calls, following the passing of a new directive on 30 April. The new rates, which came into effect last Wednesday, include an MUR87 (USD0.032) reduction in the standard interconnection usage charge (IUC) for fixed and mobile networks, paid by carriers for every minute of communication. The ICTA had asked operators to submit revised retail tariff plans based on the lower IUC rate so that end users could benefit from less expensive calls. In the wake of a poor response, however, it said that it would ‘intervene in the interest of the general public’. To that end, the regulator is understood to have imposed a MUR87 reduction in the cost of making a mobile call to a fixed line, bringing the per-minute charge down from MUR4.35 to MUR3.48 a minute, using a pre-paid card. In the international segment calls have been cut to as little as MUR4 per minute to some destinations. Commenting on the ICTA’s move, Michel Rigot, the managing director of Outremer Telecom, said ‘Liberalisation in the telecommunications sector brings major tariff reductions along. What happened this week is a concrete example. Now, the Authority should think about introducing a real liberalisation process in other segments like internet that is still controlled by one operator, Mauritius Telecom.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Celtel Nigeria has launched a fixed payphone service targeting Nigerians unable to afford mobile phones or who live or work in places where mobile phone use is restricted. The service consists of a fixed payphone terminal and a special SIM card which can be carried about and recharged like a normal pre-paid SIM card. The operator claims the offering will help the government's Universal Access Initiative which is aimed at increasing telecoms access across the country.

Source: TeleGeography.

During the period 2007-2012, the worldwide mobile subscriber base is expected to increase by 1.8 billion. Around 67 percent of these new subscribers, i.e., a little above 1.2 billion subscribers, are expected to come from just 10 fast-growing country markets worldwide. Of these top 10 growth markets, nine have been identified as high-volume, low-ARPU [Average-Revenue-Per-User] emerging mobile markets with significant potential in the next five years.

A new report from Portio Research identified only ONE truly wealthy nation among this top 10, the United States of America, home to one of the highest ARPU rates in the world, yet also the 4th biggest growth market of the 2007-2012 period.

The US is expected to add more than 65 million mobile subscribers to the worldwide subscriber base in the period 2007-2012.

The report notes that this might look relatively insignificant compared to the massive numbers expected to be added from high-growth markets such as China (542 million) and India (282 million), but what makes the US mobile market an interesting market to study is the observation that a new mobile subscriber in the US is expected to generate between three and 13 times as much revenue expected from a new mobile subscriber in China, India and the other emerging markets in the top 10 in 2012.

Compounding this aggressive growth is the high ARPU network operators in the US achieve from their subscribers. Unlike many other mature mobile markets, where ARPU is in slow decline, in the US ARPU is forecast to remain high, even increasing slightly from 2007 levels as we move forward over the next 4 or 5 years. While the US will contribute only around 5.5 percent to the total number of new subscribers that are expected from the top 10 markets in the period 2007-2012, in terms of revenue, the country will account for around 25.2 percent of the total mobile service revenues generated by these 10 markets in 2012.

Source: Cellular News.

A recent report published by Dell’Oro Group revealed that although GSM was not the largest contributor to the growth of the total mobility infrastructure market during the first quarter of 2008, it grew nearly 10 percent over the year ago quarter. Driving the growth of the GSM market was the second largest number ever of base station shipments, exceeded only by the previous quarter, and the stabilization of equipment prices.

“For the first time, Asia Pacific represented over half of all GSM revenue,” stated Scott Siegler, Analyst of Mobility Infrastructure research at Dell’Oro Group. “Business in this highly price-sensitive region has resulted in double-digit quarter-to-quarter price reductions for the previous three quarters. Over these past several quarters, ASP’s were pushed downward as vendors sold equipment at exceptionally steep discounts in order to establish and expand their footprint in the region. This quarter, in contrast, vendors became more selective in the deals they were accepting, balancing the economics of the sale with their gain in market share. For the first time in four quarters we have seen ASP’s begin to stabilize,” Siegler continued.

The report also shows that the strong growth in GSM revenue offset the declines in the CDMA market which took a notable plunge during the first quarter.

Source: Cellular News.

The total number of people signed up to one of Vietnam’s four network operators – VinaPhone, MobiFone, Viettel and S-Fone – has passed 48 million and is closing in on the 50 million barrier, VietNamNet Bridge reports citing data published by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). Of the total, around 90% are on a pre-paid option, the ministry said.

The leading operator by subscribers is Viettel with 19.42 million subscribers, followed by MobiFone with over 13.4 million, VinaPhone 12.1 million and 3.14 million for S-Fone. MIC’s Telecommunications Department calculates the totals based on the client management databases of the four network operators – a metric that it believes is more accurate than the operational figures published by the operators themselves.

Source: TeleGeography.

Local newspaper the Zimbabwean reports that mobile tariffs have gone up by more than 1,500%. Reflecting the rampant inflation being suffered by the beleagured country, NetOne subscribers will now have to part with ZWD58 million per minute for a call to other NetOne users during peak periods – a significant sum to locals but just a tenth of a dollar in US dollar terms – while calls to customers on the Econet and Telecel networks will be charged at ZWD60 million per minute and ZWD72 million per minute respectively. Telecel has also reviewed its tariffs, and calls to users on its own network are now ZWD50 million, while to customers on other networks the figure is ZWD63 million.

Source: TeleGeography.

OKYO -(Dow Jones)- Softbank's mobile phone unit claimed the top spot in terms of net subscriber growth in May, pulling in more than double the number of net contracts garnered by bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.

Third-ranked Softbank, which this week announced a deal to sell Apple's popular iPhone, may be starting to significantly reduce the gap between it and second-ranked KDDI in Japan's intensely competitive mobile carrier market.

Data released Friday on new subscription contracts signed by Japan's three major cell phone carriers showed that Softbank Mobile gained a net 173,700 subscribers to its mobile phone service during the just-ended month, by far outpacing the net 72,400 that KDDI gained and the 60,900 subscribers that NTT DoCoMo pulled in.

In April, Softbank Mobile also won the battle for subscribers by a significant margin, picking up a net 192,900 contacts compared with a net 96,000 gain for DoCoMo and a 118,700 net fall in subscribers for KDDI, due to the termination of its so-called Tu-Ka service.

At the end of May, Softbank had about 18.95 million subscribers, while KDDI had about 30.29 million contracts.

However, both companies still have a long way to go to catch up with market leader DoCoMo, which reported 53.54 million users at the end of May.

The race to attract new subscribers is likely to heat up over the coming months, with all three companies rolling out new products and strategies to compete in Japan's saturated mobile service market.

Earlier this week, Softbank said it would begin selling the iPhone brand in Japan by the end of the year, scoring a blow against DoCoMo, which until that point had been expected to be the first to report a deal with the U.S. firm.

Not to be outdone by Softbank's aggressive marketing campaign, which features household names Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz using the company's products, DoCoMo late last month launched 19 handsets for its 906i and 706i series in an attempt to widen the array of phones it offers.

Source: Cellular News.

Brazil and Mexico will represent the largest opportunities in the Latin American mobile market, with a combined CAGR of 7% over the next five years. Together they will account for half of all sales in the region, says Pyramid Research in a new report. “Brazil and Mexico represent a significant proportion of the region’s mobile subscribers, accounting for 49% of the total,” comments Omar Salvador, Senior Analyst at Pyramid and author of the report.

Pyramid Research expects Brazil’s share of the region’s subscriptions to gain two percentage points. Peru will also make impressive gains, surpassing Chile in terms of overall subscriber numbers to take the number six spot in the region. Venezuela has overtaken Argentina to assume the third spot in the region. At the same time, the report found that mature markets such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia that have penetration rates above 75% - more than 10% higher than the regional average - will become smaller slices of the growing Latin American pie.

Latin America’s handset market is undergoing a transformation, with users upgrading from voice-only phones to phones with music and camera capabilities. The music category quadrupled handset sales since 2005, representing 17% of total handset sold in the region in 2007. Sony Ericsson and Nokia are the most active and successful in this segment, while other manufacturers are adjusting their portfolios to compete more effectively.

Pyramid expects the music-enabled category to almost triple in size, from 40m handsets sold in 2008 to 115m in 2012, when it will account for 58% of total handsets sales.

Source: Cellulat News.

At the end of April, the number of mobile connections in India reached 264.19m, a 3.0% monthly increase. Excluding March 07, when Reliance suffered a net loss of over 4m due to the reclassification of its CDMA customers, this was the lowest proportionate monthly growth rate since April 2005. In absolute terms, there were 7.63m net additions in April 2008, the lowest figure for ten months. Nevertheless, this figure was 43.5% higher than the number of net additions recorded in April 2007, and in terms of annual net additions, a significant milestone was achieved: 101.82m net additions in the 12 months ending 30th April 2008, the first time the 100m mark has been passed in any market in the world.

GSM continues to dominate in India, with 73.77m net additions in the year compared to 28.05m for CDMA. At the end of April, there were 198.58m GSM customers and 65.61m CDMA. In proportionate terms, CDMA growth actually exceeded GSM growth in the 12 months ended 30 h April, with a 74.7% growth rate compared to GSM’s 59.1%; however, the CDMA figure was skewed by the reclassification of Tata’s WLL customer base as mobile in July 2007. Since then, GSM’s share of the total has been gradually increasing, reaching 75.2% at the end of April.

Bharti is the clear market leader in India with 64.37m customers, almost 17m higher than its nearest rival Reliance. Its market share has been steadily increasing, from 24.0% at the end of April 2007 to 24.4% a year later. Meanwhile, Reliance and Vodafone have been battling for second place for some time now, although Reliance has succeeded in fending off Vodafone’s challenge so far, despite the gap closing to 0.64m at the end of August 2007. At the end of April 2008, Reliance’s lead was 1.64m, with 47.42m customers compared to Vodafone’s 45.78m.

State-owned BSNL lost 0.14m customers in April but retained its fourth place with 36.26m. It lost 0.5pp market share in the month and 3.6pp annually. Meanwhile, IDEA finished on 25.04m, regaining the fifth place it ceded to Tata following the latter’s WLL reclassification.

Source: Cellular News.

Increasing adoption of messaging and content services is expected to push operator-billed data revenues in South America from $8.7 billion in 2008 to more than $23.3 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report found that as voice revenues are coming under ever-increasing pressure from competitive pricing and regulatory intervention, operators are seeking to enhance their portfolios of on-portal content. However, it also cautioned that excessive retail price points and data download costs were continuing to restrict the development of rich media services across the region.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Although we’ve witnessed a quite remarkable surge in subscriber growth across the region over the past three years, South America continues to lag behind the rest of the world in terms of its uptake of non-voice services. And while this can in part be attributed to the historical difficulties around interoperability which delayed mass adoption of SMS services, it is also fair to say that the high cost of games, browsing and mobile video has acted as a significant inhibitor to growth”.

Nevertheless, the report expressed optimism that costs would fall and adoption rates rise, with content usage likely to receive a further boost as operators’ recently launched 3G services steadily gain subscribers.

Other findings include:
South American mobile user base is expected to rise from 411 million in 2008 to 556 million in 2013
Total operator-billed voice revenues for the region are expected to peak in 2011 at $67.3 billion and will decline thereafter
Mexico will retain the highest blended ARPU across the region throughout the forecast period, marginally ahead of Chile.

Source: Cellular News.

Oman was home to a total of 2.7 million mobile phones at the end of March 2008, up 9.2% from 2.5 million at the start of the year, the Khaleej Times reports citing latest official government statistics. Of the total, post-paid subscriptions accounted for 292,894 users, down 0.2% from 293,622 at the start of the year, but this was more than offset by a 10.5% rise in pay-as-you-go users from 2.2 million to 2.4 million. At the same date the country counted 115,506 internet users (+64%), of which 52,351 were dial-up accounts and 23,969 were ADSL connections. Leased line connections stood at 319 at end-March and other internet connections 1,267. During the period under review, the number of main lines in service increased marginally by 2.3% to 267,169 from 261,207.

Source: TeleGeography.

Hungary’s incumbent mobile operators Pannon, Vodafone and T-Mobile collectively signed up a net 208,033 new subscribers last month to boost the country’s total cellular base to 11.43 million. Of the total, 10.26 million subscriptions were classed as ‘active’ by telecoms regulator NHH at the end of April, equating to a cellular penetration rate of 113.9% (up from 111.8% a month earlier). Data published by the watchdog shows that Pannon lost market share last month, from 35.29% in March to 35.03% a month later, while T-Mobile edged its own share upwards from 43.88% to 44.20%. Third-placed cellco Vodafone also saw its slice of the pie declining slightly from 20.83% to 20.77%, NHH said.

Source: TeleGeography.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that the CDMA industry continued its strong growth through the first quarter of 2008, increasing its customer base by almost 17% over the past year to 451 million CDMA subscribers worldwide, with CDMA2000 and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO reaching 438 million and 97 million, respectively. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions claimed the highest year-over-year percentage subscriber growth for CDMA2000, while the Americas and EMEA experienced the highest percentage of subscriber growth for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO.

In APAC, the total CDMA subscribership (cdmaOneTM and CDMA2000) rose to 231 million, which accounts for 51% of total worldwide CDMA subscribers and marks a 30% increase from March 2007 to March 2008. North America’s 140 million subscribers claim the second highest percentage of global CDMA subscribers at approximately 31%, with CALA’s 62.8 million representing approximately 14%. In EMEA, CDMA subscribership reached 17.7 million.

Over 97% of CDMA subscribers around the world are now taking advantage of 3G CDMA2000 services. CDMA2000 grew by 38% in APAC over the past year, bringing the total number of CDMA2000 subscribers in the region to 223 million, accounting for almost 51% of the world’s users. North America is the second largest region for CDMA2000 with nearly 138 million, or 31% of the global users. In EMEA, the CDMA2000 subscriber base reached 16.5 million.

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribership increased to 97 million users globally, with 52 million subscribers in North America and 39 million subscribers in APAC continuing to comprise the majority of the world’s EV-DO users at 54% and 40%, respectively. Uptake is surging in North America and EMEA where increased demand for mobile broadband raised subscribership by 74%and 123%, respectively. The CDG attributes this growth to outstanding broadband performance and, for emerging markets, 3G CDMA’s suitability across varied terrain to serve as an alternative to wireline Internet access.

To date, 38 EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) networks are in commercial operation around the world, with another 35 networks in deployment.

Source: Cellular News.

Upwards of a million SIM cards will have started to be disconnected in Bangladesh over the weekend as they have missed a deadline to have their user details registered with the operators. The disconnected SIM cards can only be reactivated if the user provides suitable reasons for missing the registration deadline. The million number, supplied by Manzurul Alam, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is a significant improvement on the estimated 3 million unregistered SIM cards in circulation just a month ago. It is estimated that the majority of the remaining SIM cards are connected to the Grameenphone network.

The regulator issued a decree to the operators to force all subscribers to register their mobile accounts and provide proof of ID to the operators. The deadline for subscribers to register their details has been extended several times - but not any more. To register their SIM card - customers must produce two copies of passport size photo, passport or any photo ID card and the forms and documents given during subscription. If a retailer sells a SIM card without proof of ID they will face a fine of US$10 per infraction.

Bangladesh ended the first quarter with just under 39 million subscribers - and according to figures from the Mobile World, Grameenphone is the dominant operator with (currently) some 17.5 million customers and a marker share of just under 46%.

Source: Cellular News.

Source: Cellular News

Source: Cellular News

Source: Cellular News

Source: TeleGeography

India's Bharti Airtel has announced its achievement of crossing the 4-million customer mark in Delhi, adding that it has become the first and the only mobile operator to achieve this milestone in a Metro circle. Airtel’s journey to the 4 million landmark has been path - breaking, having added the last million in just 14 months.

In the year ahead, Airtel says that it will continue to focus and build on its network and customer service. Airtel currently has an extensive network of cell sites across Delhi and NCR and plans to increase them by over 26 % in FY 08-09.

Mr. Shashi Arora, CEO- Airtel Delhi circle, (Mobility) Bharti Airtel, said, “The 4 million milestone speaks volumes of the trust that our customers have in the Airtel brand. This achievement is a testimony of our ability to offer innovative and affordable services like Super Lifetime, Re 1 Local tariff, reduced STD and Roaming tariffs etc. As we move forward, I take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to provide high-quality services and value for money products to our customers.”

Source: Cellular News.

MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- Mexico's wireless subscribers rose to 71 million at the end of March, up from about 59.4 million in the year-earlier period, according to data from the country's four mobile operators.

Market leader Telcel, a unit of Latin America's largest mobile phone company America Movil, said in its first-quarter earnings report that its subscriber base grew 14.7% on the year to 51.5 million.

Source: Cellular News.