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

Source: TelecomPaper.

Gulf Daily News reports that Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has cut internet tariffs by 70%. The move is believed to be prompted by the impending arrival of three fixed line operators to the Saudi market, namely Hong Kong's PCCW, Bahraini incumbent Batelco, and a consortium led by Verizon Communications of the US and including Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular (MIC). Currently STC is the sole fixed line voice operator, and faces competition in the broadband sector from just one company, Mobily.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the worldwide total mobile infrastructure market revenue grew 5 percent in 2008, driven by the nearly doubling and quadrupling of revenue of the WCDMA and WiMAX markets, respectively.

Source: Cellular News.

Key findings from Broadband Scorecard Sep 2008  

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

Source: ECTA.

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

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

Source: TeleGeography.

Orange UK and Barclaycard introduce a new mobile payment system which is claimed to be the biggest evolution in terms of payment after the introduction of plastic cards, 40 years ago.

This new system will enable the customers to make payments through their handsets at the retailers by waving their handset against a reader. The two firms intend to widen their service to ticketing, transport and rewards.

Source: Wireless Federation.

China, according to the new statistics unveiled by MIIT, had a mobile subscriber base of 649.7 million at the end of January 2009. China’s three leading mobile operators together added 8.49 million new subscribers in January, growing at a constant pace.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Japan’s mobile subscriber base totalled to 106.48 million, with the net addition of 387,500 new subscribers in Feb, according to the figures from Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA). Softbank Mobile signed up 131,000 new subscribers and ended the month with 20.25 million subscribers.

Subsequent to Softbank, NTT subscriber base reached 54.32 million, adding 103,100 new subscribers. The operator lost 5000 2in1 plan customers to reach 458,200 subscribers. Emobile added 96,500 new subscribers, total reached 1.28 million subscribers. KDDI gained 56,900 new customers and ended February with 30.62 million customers in total. PHS provider Willcom signed up 8300 new subscribers, base totalled to 4.56 million at the end-February.

Source: Wireless Federation.

At the end of January, the three Hungarian mobile operators had 508,000 mobile internet subscribers and there were 424,000 SIM cards active in data transmission over the past three months, the first mobile internet flash report published by the National Communications Authority of Hungary (NHH) has revealed.

According to the report, at the end of December, when Pannon, T-Mobile and Vodafone had 12.224 million subscribers in all, the number of those also with mobile internet subscription totalled 494,000. The number of ADSL, cable modem and mobile internet subscriptions in Hungary together exceeded 2 million at the end of 2008. Users transmitted some 761,000 Gbytes of data in January following the data traffic of 651,000 Gbytes in December, while average traffic per subscriber also increased.

Source: Cellular News.

The Czech Republic was home to a total of 13.57 million mobile phone users at the end of December last year, according to operator data as quoted by the Prague Daily Monitor. The country’s three incumbent cellcos – Telefonica O2 CR, T-Mobile and Vodafone and Vodafone – collectively added more than half a million net new additions, raising the cellular penetration rate to 131%. Of the three, Vodafone registered the largest single gain, adding a net 230,000 new users for a total of 2.89 million, while market leader T-Mobile posted a net gain of 150,000 to close the year with 5.42 million customers. Meanwhile, the country’s second largest operator Telefonica O2 CR accrued an additional 140,000 net new customers for a total of 5.26 million.

Market saturation and fierce sector competition has resulted in a drop in blended monthly average revenue per user (ARPU), prompting cellcos to focus their efforts on launching new services to squeeze additional revenues from existing users. Vodafone again topped the revenue table with ARPU of CZK583 (USD26.42) per month in 2008, ahead of Telefonica with CZK519 and T-Mobile’s CZK500.

Source: TeleGeography.

According to new figures from Hong Kong's telecoms regulator OFTA, the number of 3G mobile service users in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) reached more than 2.8 million at the end of 2008, up by 40% from around two million at the beginning of the year, and around 1.3 million at end-2006. OFTA's figures show a corresponding drop in users of 2.5G mobile services, which it said numbered less than 100,000 at end-2008, down from 1.2 million at the end of 2005. TeleGeography's GlobalComms database notes that there are four players in Hong Kong's UMTS-based 3G market, Hutchison Telephone Company (3), CSL New World Mobility, SmarTone-Vodafone and PCCW Mobile, with Hutchison leading the field by a clear margin with 1.34 million W-CDMA/HSPA subscribers at the end of December, up from 1.08 million at end-2007 (representing just under half of the company's total customer base).

OFTA also reported a more than 15% rise in the SAR's number of subscribers to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in 2008, which reached a total of 834,000 by end-December, up from 724,000 a year earlier.

Source: TeleGeography.

Presenting the government’s budget statement to parliament yesterday, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said the country had 10,522,240 fixed line and mobile users at the end of 2008, with growth attributed to the cellular sector. The total mobile base has increased from 383,000 in 2002 to 10,242,916 at the end of last year he said, whilst the fixed line total dropped from 389,483 to 279,324. Dr Duffuor attributed the fall to the removal of 'dormant' subscribers from Ghana Telecom’s fixed line network, and said that cellular growth was the result of ‘the creation of an enabling environment and the positive sustenance of competition in the sector’.

Dr Duffuor said that in order to promote a wider penetration of ICT services, the Ministry of Communications has facilitated the transformation of Voltacom's fibre-optic assets into a National Communications Backbone Infrastructure network to provide open access broadband connectivity nationwide. Furthermore, 39 Common Telecom Facilities were completed last year which enabled telecom operators to extend their services to about 273 communities under the Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunication development (GIFTEL).

Source: TeleGeography.

Mobile penetration rate in the Philippines has reportedly reached a mark of 75% at the end of 2008. The growth in mobile penetration rate was driven by the number of SIM cards sold by the mobile operators in the country which was recorded 67.9 million at the end of 2008.

According to Napoleon Nazareno, President PLDT, the growth in the subscriber base is likely to be slower in 2009 as the mobile penetration rate has already reached 75%.

PLDT recently posted a subscriber base of 35.2 million, including 20.9 million Smart subscribers and 14.3 million Talk ’N Text subscribers.

Whereas Globe Telecom, country’s second largest mobile operator, at 2008-end had a subscriber base of 24.7 million, including both Globe and Touch Mobile subscribers.

The third mobile operator Digital Telecommunications, reportedly said that it had more than 8 million subscribers under the brand name Sun Cellular.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Moldova's National Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications (ANRTI) has reported that the country’s wireless market revenues increased by 22.6% to MDL2.915 billion (USD275.7 million) in 2008 compared to the year earlier. Orange Moldova posted the largest revenue of USD186.8 million, while the income of rivals Moldcell, Unite and Eventis reached USD71.8 million, USD12.9 million, and USD1.1 million respectively. According to the agency, total investment in the sector amounted to USD114.5 million in 2008, a 5.7% rise compared to the previous year. ANRTI attributed the rise in revenues to considerable growth in the number of wireless subscribers, especially within the 3G services segment. The total number of cellular subscribers grew 28.7% to 2.42 million in 2008, including 188,400 3G users. Wireless penetration per 100 residents increased from 55% in 2007 to 67.9% in 2008. The regulator did not release subscriber results for individual operators.

Source: TeleGeography.

The subscriber base of Korea totalled to 45.99 million at the end of February, after the addition of 211,000 new subscribers during the month. SK Telecom led the market with the net addition of 100,000 subscribers and ended February with 23.22 million subscribers, including 9.04 million WCDMA users.

The strong contender KTF added 58,000 and the subscriber base totalled to 14.48 million, followed by LG Telecom which ended the month 8.29 million subscribers after gaining 53,568 new subscribers in February. LGT reported the addition between 20,000 and 30,000 new subscribers per month.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­Nigeria’s telecoms regulator the NCC has reported customer numbers for the fourth quarter of 2008. The total customer base reached 62.99m at the end of the year having increased by 55.9% annually. On a quarterly basis, net additions stood at 7.15m, only just short of the national and continental record of 7.38m, set in Q2 08.

Quarterly Net Additions, Total and CDMA

Source: Cellular News.

Australia's rapid take-up of wireless broadband has boosted economic productivity, according to an economist. ­Dr Paul Paterson of Concept Economics says a study looking at the economic impact of wireless broadband estimates that if take up continues at current levels there will be an ongoing annual productivity dividend to Australians of AU$7.4 billion (US$4.7 billion) - the equivalent of AU$250 (US$158) for every household.

"Since Telstra switched on its Next G network in 2005, Australians have really embraced wireless broadband. This rapid take-up has put our economy on a better footing to deal with the economic downturn," Dr Paterson said. "The study found there are further gains to come with 58% of small and medium businesses already using 3G services planning to expand their use of mobile broadband this year."

Source: Cellular News.

­The global economic downturn had a significant impact on the mobile phone industry as worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 314.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008, a 4.6 per cent decline from the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner. Manufacturers continued to struggle against low consumer confidence in both emerging and mature markets.

The top five mobile phone vendors all experienced a decline in sales in the fourth quarter of 2008. The industry did experience growth for the year, with worldwide mobile phone sales to end users surpassing 1.22 billion units in 2008, a 6 per cent increase over 2007 sales.

Vendor Overview

Nokia sold nearly 119 million mobile phones in the fourth quarter of 2008, giving it a market share of 37.7 per cent. This was a decline both sequentially and year-on-year. With sales in emerging markets slowing due to the economic environment, Nokia felt more pressure in the second half of 2008. Nokia’s delay in rolling out products with touchscreen functionality caused its smartphone sales to suffer.

Samsung finished a strong year with a good performance. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Samsung was able to grow share sequentially and also year on year, as products such as the Tocco, Innov8 and Omnia continued to drive sales in regions such as Western Europe and Asia/Pacific. Samsung's quick response to demand for touch interfaces was the main reason for its success.

After a blip in the third quarter of 2008, when LG lost its fourth place to Motorola, LG was able to get back on track and jump two places to No. 3 in the fourth quarter of 2008 worldwide market share. In the fourth quarter, LG moved into second place in North America, due to its dominant position at Verizon Wireless and very strong sales at TracFone. In India, LG got back into Reliance Communication after issues it had in the third quarter of 2008, and it was actually able to burn some inventory during the quarter.

As we predicted, Sony Ericsson was unable to hold on to the third position in the worldwide ranking, which it reached in the third quarter of 2008. In the fourth quarter, its sales dropped to 23.6 million units, putting it in fourth place. Not only did Sony Ericsson fail to reduce stock levels in the fourth quarter, it also built a slight inventory. As both music players and cameras have become more widespread in the competitors' portfolios, it has been more difficult for Sony Ericsson's Walkman and Cybershot product ranges to stand out. Lack of pure touchscreen devices also impacted overall performance in 2008.

Motorola's performance worsened in the fourth quarter of 2008, when it slipped to fifth place in the worldwide ranking. Some reductions in inventory helped Motorola finish the year in third position with sales that were close to 107 million units. The drop in market share on a year-to-year basis (-5.6 percentage points) is a clear indication of the troubled times the vendor has been facing. Lack of compelling products throughout the portfolio has made it impossible for Motorola to slow down its sales decline. It has been losing share in all key regions because it lacks 3G products and touchscreen devices, and has poor support for "hot" features, such as GPS.

Source: Cellular News.

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

Source: TeleGeography.

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

Source: TeleGeography.

With 18.1 million units sold in 2008, demand for Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs) increased by 3 million units compared to 2007; a 20 percent rise. In quarter 4 the economic crisis took its toll on the market. The industry defied falling prices through a variety of innovations.

Never before have so many Portable Navigation Devices been sold in Europe as in 2008. With 18.1 million units purchased, 2008 volumes surpassed those of 2007 by 3 million, or 20 percent. Germany led the way as the most important market in Europe, with 4.375 million PNDs sold – a growth rate of 22 percent compared to 2007. Sales in Eastern Europe increased by 600 thousand to reach 1.5 million, compared to 16.6 million in Western Europe (up from 14.5 million the previous year) – a growth rate of 15 percent.

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.

The mobile subscriber base in Slovenia has surpassed the population of the country, reports the Agency for Post and Electronic Communications. According to the Slovenian Watchdog, the mobile penetration in the country has reached 100.1% in Q4'08, rising by 4.9% from 2007.

Mobitel, country's largest mobile operator, lead the market with 58.9% of the market share, followed by Simobil which stood at 27.8% and Tusmobil at 5.8%.

Nearly 85,075 of mobile phoner numbers were ported in 2008, escalating by 30% since 2007.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Qatar Telecom has posted a record high of more than 1.8 million mobile customers in Qatar. The subscribers have now exceeded the total population of Qatar, as people look to own multiple phones for business and personal use. Despite of global economic recession, the rapid accumulation of new subscribers up from 1.5 million in November 2008 was achieved.

The gain reflects both the underlying strength of Qatar’s economy and Qtel’s ongoing success in developing new products and services that exceed its customers’ expectations.

The boost in the subscriber base is attributed to re-launch of two of Qtel’s product, the HALA Pay-As-You-Talk service (prepaid) and the all-new “Shahry” post-paid mobile phone service.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research released the fourth quarter edition of its WiMAX report this week, noting that the overall WiMAX equipment and device market held steady in 4Q08 over 3Q08 at $275 million, as the 802.16e mobile WiMAX segment increased 5% to counter a slight dip in the 802.16d fixed WiMAX segment.

In 2008, the number of fixed and mobile WiMAX subscribers hit 3.9 million, up 120% from CY07.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Zain Tanzania’s brand new M-Banking service Zap has signed up nearly 1,400 customers in first 10 days of the launch of the service.

Zain also reported that “hundreds” of people have also applied to register themselves as Zap agents.

Zap was launched by Zain across East Africa ten days back.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Having seen monthly gains averaging 8.9m in the first six months of 2008, the Chinese market did not manage to post a figure above 7.9m in the second six months of the year. This was because of the impact of Unicom’s sale of its CDMA network: in July-September, Unicom saw monthly declines in its CDMA base, presumably because its imminent sale reduced the need to attract new customers; in October, China Telecom acquired the network and cleaned up the base, with a net loss of 13.3m; and in November and December there were further losses to the CDMA base, presumably due to further rationalisation.

However, this clean-up process now seems at an end, with China Telecom gaining 1.02m customers in January to finish the month on 28.93m. China Mobile recorded a gain of 6.64m, its lowest figure since December 2007, and China Unicom added just 0.84m (compared to 1.43m in January 2008), but Telecom’s performance meant that the total market gained just under 8.50m, the best performance since June 2008 and above the 8.44m recorded in January 2008.

Source: Cellular News.

Chile’s subscriber base totals to 14.8 million at the end of 2008, up by 6.03% from 13.95 million at 31 December 2007. Chile added 840,000 mobile subscribers throughout 2008. According to the statistics, mobile penetration rate, at the end of 2008, grew to 87.8% from 84.1% a year earlier. Of the total subscriber base posted, 10.76 million subscribers comprised prepaid users whereas the remaining 4.03 million were contract subscribers. Movistar lead the Chile’s mobile market with 42.57% market share, followed by Entel PCS with 38.80%, Claro with 18.58 and Nextel with 0.05 % market share.

Source: Wireless Federation.

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.

The latest monthly data from Anatel, the Brazilian regulator, shows a marked reduction in the pace of the growth in the market. This should come as no surprise – the fourth quarter saw a record number of new connections and included two of the four best months ever. The industry added a total of 1.31m new connections in January, to take the market total to 151.9m, equivalent to nearly 70% penetration.

The market share numbers that accompany the subscriber data suggest that while Claro, the America Movil subsidiary, has continued to outpace TIM, it has been unable to make much of an inroad into Vivo’s lead. Claro has grown from 38.7m to 39.1m, but Vivo has moved from 44.9m to 45.3m, so the relative positioning is broadly unchanged. TIM, the number three operator, appears to be losing market share and is now some 2.5m behind Claro and not much more than 6m ahead of the proforma total of 30.4m that TNL will have following its merger with Brasil Telecom.

The last point to note relates to technology. Anatel gives us a choice of two numbers for the W-CDMA base: we prefer the higher (2.7m) rather than the lower (1.9m) which would imply a month on month drop of nearly 0.5m – or twice the number of CDMA disconnections. ­Since Vivo’s move to GSM, the number of CDMA accounts has dropped by over 10m and now stands at just 12.6m. It can only be a matter of time before it disappears from this part of the world altogether.

Source: Cellular News.

Three consecutive quarters of negative growth have led the Western European mobile phone market into recession. According to IDC's European Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 53.6 million units in 4Q08, 13.5% lower than the 62 million units shipped in 4Q07. For the full year 2008, vendors shipped 190.5 million units in Western Europe, 5.9% lower than the 202.5 million units shipped in 2007.

"The fourth quarter was the worst quarter ever experienced by phone makers, and a storm of factors led to this," said Francisco Jeronimo, research manager with IDC's European Mobile Devices and Trends service. "A combination of weak end-user demand, currency volatility, and limited credit availability prevented the market from experiencing the usual seasonal increase in shipments. The traditional holiday campaigns and new product launches were not enough to boost sales in comparison with previous years and almost all vendors experienced a significant slump in sales. We expect the first half of 2009 to be very challenging as vendors and distributors grapple with clearing inventory. Should these conditions persist, the mobile phone market may not recover until the middle of 2010."

If there was one highlight in 4Q08 it was that the converged mobile devices segment (commonly referred to as smartphones) grew 25.9% over 4Q07, clearly outpacing the rest of the industry. For full year 2008, converged mobile devices saw growth of 36.1%, representing 17.4% of the total market. Despite the good performance, converged mobile device growth was still not strong enough to support the entire sector.

Source: Cellular News.

Source: TeleGeography.

Trai has cut termination charges by 33%, this reduction will lead to lowered mobile tariffs for consumers. The regulator has slashed the termination charges on local calls to 20 paise a minute from existing 30 paise.

The new incumbents like  Datacom, Unitech, Shyam-Sistema and Loop Telecom among others were insisting on 0-10 paise per minute termination charge whereas the existing GSM operators were opposing any reduction in the charges, as they feared there revenue would be affected.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Results from Australia’s first trial of contactless mobile phone payments show a strong appetite for the technology and give Telstra, National Australia Bank and Visa the impetus to continue to work towards commercialisation of the technology.

The three-month trial at Melbourne’s Docklands saw consumers download the NAB Visa credit card software application to their Telstra SIM remotely, and then use their mobile phone to purchase goods and services by simply waving their phone over a participating merchant’s Visa payWave enabled reader. The costs of purchases were charged back to their NAB Visa credit card account.

The trial exceeded expectations, with a clear consumer demand emerging for contactless mobile payments and services during the trial, leading the three organisations to continue to explore opportunities in this area in the next few years.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Vietnam’s telecommunications sector reportedly earned estimated revenue of $ 440 million dollars in the first month of this year, a year-on-year increase of 46.6% despite the country’s economic slowdown. According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, Vietnam saw about 3.2 million telephone subscribers be registered in January this year, an increase of 160.4% over the same period last year. Mobile subscribers accounted for 85% of the total. Presently, Vietnam subscriber base totals to 82.6 million, of which Vietnam’s two biggies, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and Viettel Corporation rules 90% of the domestic market.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Do I really need a landline since I'm always on my cellphone? That's a question on a lot of minds these budget-cutting days.

A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Americans, for the first time, are spending more for cellphones than landlines. The report said 55 percent of all consumer telephone expenses in 2007 were for cellphones, while landlines accounted for 43 percent (the remaining 2 percent went mostly to pagers and phone cards).

Exactly how much are we spending? Plenty. In 2007, according to the bureau's report, the average American consumer spent $1,110 on telephone services, the bulk - $608 - for cellphones and the rest for landlines ($482) and other services ($20).

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.

India's mobile phone subscriber base jumped by a record 15.41 million customer in January, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The total for the country now stands at 362.30 million, up from 233.63 million at the end of last January.

In the landline segment, the subscriber base has decreased to 37.75 million in the month of January 2009 as against 37.90 million subscribers in December 2008 registering a drop of 0.15 million

The country's teledensity stands at 34.5%.

Source: Cellular News.

Euro­pean low-cost airline, Ryanair has launched an in-flight mobile phone service initially onboard 20 of its, mainly Ireland based aircraft. This is the first step in fitting Ryanair’s entire fleet of over 170 aircraft to allow all passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts on all Ryanair flights.

Passengers on Ryanair’s 20 OnAir enabled aircraft can now make and receive roaming voice calls at between €2-€3 per minute - which is considerably higher than the recommended levels from the European Commission.

Source: Cellular News.

India’s Telecom Commission has set $17.02 million as the price for MVNO licence in India. The Commission also confirms a pre-defined fees an operator will have to pay for individual service area of 10% of the amount that UASL holders pay. MVNO licences for the A category will cost $1 million whereas category B and C circles will be priced at $0.60 million and $0.20 million respectively. MVNOs will also have to pay spectrum charges and a bank guarantee equivalent to 5% of the amount paid by the full network operators.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Voice over IP telephony services are reshaping the fixed-line telecom market in Europe. By mid-year 2008, just under 30 million consumer VoIP lines were in service in Western Europe, up from 20 million only a year earlier. While the aggregate pace of growth across Europe remains rapid, trends vary dramatically by country.

• Market penetration at at mid-year 2008 ranged from slightly less than 50% of households in France to less than 3% in Spain.
• Growth rates ranged from an anemic 13% in Norway to 544% in Portugal.
• Incumbents lead the VoIP market in France, Italy, the U.K., the Netherlands and Norway, but competitive operators hold the lead in most other markets.
• Prices of triple-play bundles of broadband, VoIP, and video services range from €30 to more than €80 per month.

VoIP Penetration of Households, Q2 2007 & Q2 2008

TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple Play Research Service brings clarity to the state of this dynamic market. Contents include:

• VoIP subscriber, revenue and traffic data by country from 2004 to 2008.
• Subscriber and revenue projections by country through 2012.
• Rankings of Europe’s leading VoIP service providers.
• Detailed analysis of the VoIP markets in 13 European nations.
• Profiles of 72 leading consumer VoIP providers.
• Broadband and VoIP pricing summaries in 13 European nations.

All data are updated twice annually, and are current through mid-year 2008. Bi-annual updates, delivered in PDF and Excel spreadsheets, include country subscriber totals, provider rankings, VoIP projections by country and baseline market indicators by country.

Source: TeleGeography.

Geneva, 2 March 2009 — ITU’s new ICT Development Index (IDI) compares developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in 154 countries over a five-year period from 2002 to 2007.

Cost of ICTs lowest in Singapore and the United States

The cost of making a phone call or surfing the Internet can influence the use of these technologies. The Report presents a new tool — the ITU ICT Price Basket — that measures and compares ICT prices across countries. It combines the average cost of fixed telephone, mobile cellular, and Internet broadband and compares 2008 ICT tariffs in 150 countries. It ranks countries based on the relative price of the ICT services and thus measures and compares the affordability of services.

In 2008, ICT prices corresponded on average to 15 per cent of countries’ average GNI per capita, ranging from 1.6 per cent in developed countries to 20 per cent in developing countries, with most countries in the 0−25 per cent range, and most developed countries in the 0-3 per cent range. In other words, significant differences exist among countries based on income levels. Countries with high income level pay relatively little for ICT services, while countries with low income levels pay relatively more. This is often due to very high tariffs for fixed Internet broadband in some developing countries.

Countries that rank at the very top of the ICT Price Basket include Singapore, the United States, Luxembourg, Denmark, Hong Kong (China), United Arab Emirates, Taiwan (China), Sweden, Norway and Finland. Given the income levels of those countries, they offer the most affordable ICT services globally, ranging between 0.4 and 0.6 per cent of monthly GNI per capita. In all of the top 25 countries, ICT services account for less than 1 per cent of monthly GNI. This compares to the bottom 25 countries, where the ICT Price Basket value ranges between 40 and 72 per cent of monthly GNI — which is a clear indicator that ICTs are unaffordable for the large majority of the people in those countries.

Source: ITU.

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

Source: TeleGeography.

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

Source: TeleGeography.

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.

The GSMA  announced new developments in its Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) programme, an initiative that leverages mobile to facilitate access to money transfer services. Complementing the successful alliance that has been in place with The Western Union Company for the past eighteen months, the GSMA has selected Belgacom International Carrier Services (Belgacom ICS) and its technology partner eServGlobal as a new remittance provider in the MMT programme. To add further flexibility for operators, the GSMA has also chosen the RBS Group, a global bank, as a remittance partner and is working with them to finalise the offering.

“Since the launch of the MMT programme in 2007, we’ve made significant progress to catalyse the mobile money market,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer for the GSMA. “We’ve delivered live commercial deployments of mobile remittances and established five active corridors with Western Union, we’ve increased the number of markets served from three to 54, and we’ve moved the market from one wholesale remittance provider in 2007 to 12 providers today. In addition, we’ve established price points that enable mobile operators to offer affordable services to consumers, which will make remittances much more accessible to a larger addressable market. The partnerships we’re announcing today will serve to further accelerate the availability of money transfer and other financial services to a wider section of the global community.”

Source: Wireless Federation.

­The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the GSM Association have announced a programme that will expand the availability of mobile banking services in the developing world. The Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme, supported by a US$12.5 million grant from the foundation, will work with mobile operators, banks, microfinance institutions, government and development organizations to encourage the expansion of reliable, affordable mobile financial services to the unbanked.

"There are over 1 billion people in emerging markets today who don't have a bank account but do have a mobile phone," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. "This represents a huge opportunity and mobile operators are perfectly placed to bring mobile financial services to this largely untapped consumer base. Based on the initial findings of research conducted with the microfinance centre CGAP and McKinsey & Company, we believe that mobile money for the unbanked has the potential to become a US$5 billion market opportunity over the next three years."

Source: Cellular News.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a subscriber base of 3.842 million, at the end of 2008. Mobile Telephony penetration rate has reached 86%.

Operators    

BH Telecom: 1.4Mn subscribers
M:tel: 1.1.Mn subscribers
Eronet: 660,000 subscribers

Source: Wireless Federation.

Leading mobile telecommunications provider Zain announced its plans to bring mobile banking to over 100 million people in East Africa with the launch of its new service, Zap. With the most comprehensive and accessible package of mobile banking features currently available on the continent, Zap will be initially available in Kenya and Tanzania and will shortly launch in Uganda. It represents the most comprehensive mobile banking service and will provide millions of people with access to banking for the very first time.

Source: Wireless Federation.