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

Taiwan’s second largest mobile operator by subscribers, Taiwan Mobile, has reported consolidated revenues of TWD17.35 billion (USD528.8 million) for the second quarter of 2009, a marginal decline of 1% year-on-year. In full EBITDA fell 4% to TWD7.4 billion. Net income for the three months ended 30 June 2009 was TWD3.6 billion, down from TWD3.97 billion in 2Q08, a decline partly attributed to a rise in capital expenditure, up from TWD1.44 billion in the second quarter of 2008 to TWD2.01 billion a year later. The cellco added 167,000 net new wireless subscribers in the quarter, ending June with a customer base of 6.39 million. 3G subscriptions grew from 2.75 million at the end of March to 2.79 million three months later.

The company expects revenues to stabilise in 3Q09, with continued 3G uptake and value-added services (VAS) expected to drive sales.

 

Source: Telegeography

Turkish mobile operators, Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone Turkey, have today officially launched UMTS-based services nationwide. The companies were awarded the country’s first 3G concessions in December 2008 and began to deploy their next generation networks in April 2009. Turkcell CEO Sureyya Ciliv said: ‘We've already covered approximately 60% of the population with 3G technology, and we're going to launch in all of Turkey's 81 provinces. That, as a matter of fact, was the coverage we were supposed to reach in the first three years. We made it in 90 days.’

In April Avea contracted three equipment suppliers to build out its W-CDMA HSPA-enabled networks in the western, Anatolian and Mediterranean regions of the country. Meanwhile, Vodafone has announced that it plans to invest USD1 billion in its network in the twelve months following the initial launch of 3G.

 

Source: Telegeography

New data from TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple Play Research Service reveal that voice over IP (VoIP) subscribers have grown from just over six million in 2005 to 34.6 million at year-end 2008. VoIP now accounts for more than 24% of fixed line telephone subscribers in Europe.

VoIP service revenues of EUR4.1 billion are still dwarfed by the nearly EUR36 billion generated by traditional switched fixed-line services. However, the impact of VoIP on the European fixed-line market is greater than its relatively modest subscriber and revenue share would suggest, due to the strong downward pressure VoIP-based competitors place on voice service prices.

Many European incumbent telephone companies have responded to this pressure by introducing discounted VoIP service, by slashing switched telephone service prices, and by marketing voice as one component of dual-play or triple-play bundles of voice, broadband, and video. These measures have helped incumbents to defend their market shares, but at the cost of sharply reduced voice revenues. Aggregate revenues from switched and VoIP telephone service have fallen from EUR49.4 billion in 2005 to EUR39.9 billion in 2008 and are projected to decline to only EUR26.2 billion by 2013. According to TeleGeography analyst Paul Brodsky, 'Fixed-line telephony was the cash cow that allowed incumbents to invest in mobile telephony, broadband, and video services. However, in Europe today, voice is increasingly just a loss leader, used to sell broadband and video 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.

Market leader Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS) - a joint venture between Orascom and France Telecom - finished the quarter with 21.18m customers. Annual growth stood at 21.0%, down from 51.5% a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, ECMS, which markets its services as Mobinil, added 1.06m customers. This meant that second-placed Vodafone took top spot for net additions for the second successive quarter. It added 1.33m to finish on 18.94m, with an annual growth rate of 34.6%, down from 45.8%. However, in terms of annual net additions ECMS still managed to lead the way with a gain of 5.02m, compared to 4.87m for Vodafone. Both ECMS and Vodafone lost market share on an annual basis, ECMS losing 1.2pp to finish Q1 09 on 47.1% and Vodafone shedding 1.8pp to finish on 43.5%. The reason for this, of course, was third player Etisalat, which added 3.0pp to finish on 9.4%. In real terms, this translates to a customer base of 4.11m. Although it did well to maintain a triple-digit annual growth rate with a 107.3% rise in the twelve months to 31st March 2009, a market share of less than 10% after eight quarters of commercial service in what was a relatively under-developed market is somewhat disappointing.

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

Mobile Money could reach a one-third penetration rate within 5-years, says a new report from Ovum. The report finds the market is still in its infancy, yet it has the potential to become a mass-market service. However, much will hinge on how well the industry addresses various market barriers, and its ability to nurture user demand with clear, simple and attractive propositions.

The mobile money market has accelerated in the last two years in emerging markets, mostly in more mature markets.

"The success of Vodafone's Kenya subsidiary Safaricom with its mobile money service M-Pesa has underlined the potential for mobile money services," says Angel Dobardziev, Emerging Markets practice leader and co-author of the report. Yet, despite more than 100 launches of mobile money services by both service providers and banks globally the marketremains in a fragile state with few well-established services. Whilst there is a range of alternative scenarios, Ovum predicts that the most likely scenario will be a market where service penetration reaches between 30% and 40% of the emerging market's mobile users in 2014. Where the industry resolves the market barriers more quickly than envisaged, an optimistic scenario is possible where strong user demand propels mobile money services to penetrate between 60% and 70% of the mobile users in the emerging market by 2014. One of the key factors influencing market uptake of mobile money services is the relatively low penetration of access to financial services compared to higher (and fast-growing) penetration of mobile services. Service providers along with banks will need to target unbanked and connected customers as they are the key demand driver for the market today, says the report. "Recruitment, training, incentivising and support of networks of mobile money agents will be key to service providers' mobile money strategies, particularly when it comes to targeting unbanked customers", says Dobardziev. "Without access to an extensive distribution network for the users to deposit and withdraw cash as they make use of the service, users will be prevented from making the most of the service." In order to ensure early user disappointments do not extinguish the market, services providers must get the basics of the service right. "This means not losing sight of the fact that telecoms and banking have very different volume, size, margin and error tolerances on their core transactions. As the two worlds draw closer with mobile banking, this will mean a different mindset and approach to service provision, reliability and security," Dobardziev concludes.

Source: Cellular News

­Fueled by mobile penetration into the rural market and by uptake of 3G services, China's telecommunications market will generate $187 billion by 2014, surpassing Japan to become the largest telecommunications services market in Asia, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

China's telecommunications market generated US$110 billion in 2008, making it the second largest telecommunications services market in Asia/Pacific after Japan, notes Daniel Yu, analyst at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "Given continued demand for connectivity and rising adoption of mobile and fixed broadband services, the Chinese market will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8.8 percent between 2009 and 2014, reaching $187 billion by 2014, surpassing Japan as the largest telecommunications services market in Asia," Yu says.

"China, like many emerging markets, is becoming an increasingly mobile market, adding 71.2 million mobile subscriptions in 2008, roughly 12 percent of all additions worldwide and second only to India's 113.3 million net additions," says Yu. Mobile service revenue growth will be supported by a penetration increase from 58 percent at year-end 2009 to 80 percent at year-end 2014. Pyramid expects mobile services to account for more than 76 percent of total services revenue in China by 2014. Despite the declining rate of growth in the economy, Pyramid Research expects the mobile industry to experience healthy growth in 2009 as mobile operators roll out 3G networks and extend coverage to rural areas. "China Mobile, for example, is dedicating 30 percent of its total Capex on 2G network expansion, and 70 percent of the allocated portion will be used in the rural market," Yu says.

Source: Cellular News

­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.

On an annual basis, there was a 43.6% increase in customers - again an impressive figure, but again significantly down on the year-earlier figure of 103.9%. In fact, this was the lowest annual growth recorded since Q4 04. For the seventh successive quarter, MTN subsidiary Irancell topped the market for quarterly growth, adding 2.21m to finish on 18.25m. This represented an annual growth rate of 102.2%, maintaining the triple-digit annual growth it has seen in every quarter since its launch in Q4 06. This is one of the strongest performances recorded by any mobile operator in the world in recent years. Nevertheless, Irancell remained more than 10m customers behind market leader TCI Iran at the end of the quarter. The gap of 11.71m was down from 15.48m a year earlier, but this still suggests that it will be some time before Irancell can think about challenging TCI Iran for the lead. TCI Iran was on 29.96m at the end of Q1 09 having added 1.36m in the quarter. This compares to 2.96m (its record figure) in Q1 08. In terms of proportionate growth, the 22.2% rate recorded in the twelve months ending 31st March 2009 was down from 59.3% in the prior twelve-month period. In real terms, annual net additions were down from 9.12m to 5.45m. Irancell, on the other hand, improved from 7.95m to 9.23m.

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

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) now covers 326 cities with its 3.75G network, towns and areas, according to a statement issued by the company Friday. In the statement, Nasser Al Nasser, Mobily CTO said the company had expanded coverage in areas already covered and added 118 additional sites over the past three months. Most of the new areas covered will serve large corporations and tourists, among them, the King Abdullah Economic City, the towns of Dherma, Jo, Aletteyan, Alquaweh, Aba Alwarood, Albatra, Aljafara. Other areas include Al Shathou, Qebeyan, Balqarn, Altwal, Alhanakiah, Alkhshaibi, Alhaditha residential area on the border, the public residential area in Alahsaa.

The addition of new areas increased Mobily’s coverage from 76% in June to 80%, according to the Mobily executive. In June, Mobily reported that it had 600,000 active HSPA subscribers, who consumed over one gigabyte of data a month. “We are committed to expanding our 3.75G network all over the Kingdom,” Al Nasser said.

“We want our customers to be able to use their connect card, or their HSPA-enabled handset or even iPhone to connect to the Internet at high speeds wherever they are in the Kingdom,” he added. That consumption has increased, as Mobily’s HSPA network carries a daily volume of 40 terabytes of traffic, according to the latest statistics issued by the company. “The volume of traffic on our network allows us to maintain the claim of busiest mobile data network on the face of the planet,” the Mobily CTO said, a description initially bestowed on Mobily by the prestigious GSM World Association. The dramatic increase in the volume of traffic on Mobily’s mobile data network follows an upgrade the company applied on its network adding HUSPA in late March, allowing Mobily to offer its customers a full 3.75G HSPA experience.

Source: Wireless Federation

 

­Romanian mobile network operator, Zapp has announced the imminent launch of the first 3G+ network in Romania. This will be achieved in collaboration with ZTE and by upgrading its WCDMA based network to HSPA+ technology during the month of August.

The first phase of HSPA+ upgrade will cover Bucharest and will allow customers to access the internet with up to 21.6 Mbps download and 5.8 Mbps upload speeds.

"Historically, Zapp always lead the way in the Romanian mobile data market. We have launched the most innovative products and services, we were the first to launch mobile data, we were the first to offer broadband internet access, up to 2.4 Mbps, available nationwide. Now, we are the first to launch the HSPA+ network, confirming our position in wireless data as the leading WISP operator in Romania." said Chris Bataillard, CEO of Zapp. This performance enhancement is being implemented in parallel with Zapp's phase two UMTS rollout, which will expand the 3G coverage from 23 cities, at present, to 63 cities. In addition to deploying the HSPA+ and expanding the UMTS coverage, Zapp is also expanding its EV DO broadband wireless by another 25% to cover 80% of the Romanian population.

The Mobile World database estimates that Zapp ended last year with an estimated 516,000 subscribers - which represents a market share of under two percent. The company has recently been acquired by rival operator, Cosmote.

Source: Cellular News

­Students from around the world will be able to learn together by using SMS in the new school year 2009-2010. An IICD supported Global Teenager Project will experiment with using SMS to ensure that schools without internet access can also participate in one of the world's largest online learning programmes.

Although the Global Teenager Project was already widely spread throughout the world, the programme was only accessible for schools with access to the internet. Through the internet, classes around the world ask each other questions about a certain theme (such as 'politics in my country', 'teen life' and 'how HIV/AIDS affects the world') that they also talked about in class. This way they earn from each others cultures. With the new SMS component, it is now also possible for schools in rural areas with very limited or no access to the internet at all to participate in the project.

Participating schools work together in learning circles. These circles consist of groups of 8 to 12 classes throughout the world that work together on one theme by asking each other questions. "This asks for a slightly different approach," says Bob Hofman, coordinator of the Global Teenager Project. "Students have to write shorter sentences when they ask questions and introduce themselves. And yes, even for students in schools where there is internet, this way of mobile learning could be useful, because they can now speak to their peers from remote areas they would otherwise not be able to speak to." Goal for the school season 2009-1010 is to have two learning circles that run completely or partially on SMS. The first countries that will use SMS for learning in the Global Teenager Project are most likely Zambia, Ghana, South-Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, Romania and the Netherlands.

 

Source: Cellular News

 

­The GSMA, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, has urged the Bangladeshi Government to eliminate the tax on SIM cards. The GSMA says that the growth of the mobile industry in Bangladesh has come to a halt due to increases in taxes across the board on mobile services.

The SIM card tax of Tk. 800 (US$11.6) per connection of each new subscriber is the single largest obstacle to the acquisition of new subscribers, constituting a major barrier to growth and blocking new investments in updated mobile networks that provide broadband via mobile infrastructure.

Increased mobile penetration in Bangladesh in recent years has given access to not only voice communication but data access to the internet to rural areas, which were beyond reach otherwise. Today, mobile connections in the country are 46.7 million - 32% penetration but despite this significant growth, Bangladesh remains below its neighboring countries in terms of mobile and internet penetration. Moreover, mobile adoption growth rates have been consistently falling in the last three quarters and now stand below 3% per quarter, which can be directly attributable to this damaging taxation.

 

Ricardo Tavares, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, GSMA commented that "The SIM card tax is counterproductive as it represents a wall that low income consumers have to climb before having a mobile phone connection. The SIM card tax increases the total cost of ownership of a mobile phone and actually reduces total tax collection by the government from the industry. It is a negative proposition all round, as consumers lack access to mobile services, the government loses with lower tax collection as the number of users declines, and mobile operators have a diminishing customer base. The elimination of the SIM card tax is essential to re-establish the growth path of the mobile industry in Bangladesh and would work in a counter-cyclical way stimulating the whole economy." The GSMA believes that Bangladesh's telecommunications taxes need to be reformed if the world's seventh most populous country is to realize its full potential, and gain the social and economic benefits that have been proven to flow from the widespread use of mobile phones. The GSMA recommends the removal of the entry barrier of Taka 800 SIM tax to make mobile connections affordable to its unconnected 70% population and bring the benefit of access to information to the people especially from remote rural areas. The National Budget of 2009-2010 continued to retain the provision of SIM Tax at Tk. 800 for each new connection of mobile subscription. The GSMA urges the government not to wait until next year's budget but to eliminate the SIM card tax immediately, due to the generalized losses for consumers, the government and industry.

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

Mobile broadband subscribers worldwide topped the 225 million mark at the end of March 2009, representing 93 per cent year on year growth.

According to statistics released by Informa Telecoms & Media on Wednesday, the popularity of mobile broadband remains at its highest in Asia Pacific, which boasted over 90 million subscribers, while growth is most notable in Latin America with 385 per cent year on year growth to over 10 million subscribers.

Typically in many emerging markets, fixed broadband access remains limited and mobile operators are seeing the opportunity to use recently deployed wireless networks as a way of diversifying their revenue streams by connecting millions for whom an internet connection has until recently been out of reach. The Informa statistics incorporate all forms of mobile broadband technology, from 3G HSPA to WiMAX.

Informa’s principal analyst for growth markets, Nick Jotischky, said the evolution of the device market has also contributed to a surge in mobile data traffic. The analyst estimates that the increased usage in non-voice services has resulted in mobile operators recording total data revenues of $46.5bn during 1Q09, which is an 8.5 per cent year on year increase on the corresponding period in 2008. The value of the non-voice market for the whole of 2008 was estimated to be over $180bn, accounting for over 20 per cent of total service revenues. The iPhone also helped, with O2 reporting that 40 per cent of its data traffic in the UK comes from the smartphone market. “Mobile operators cannot afford to overlook the effects of the economic downturn on consumer spending and especially the discretionary spend of data services. Moreover, intense competition and the introduction of bundled offers in order to limit churn has resulted in decreasing SMS revenues for many operators despite an actual rise in traffic. Whilst all data services, be they messaging, entertainment, internet or mobile banking services are becoming more central to mobile operator strategies, they are often more successful as retention tools and differentiators than actual revenue generators,” said Jotischky.

 

Source: Telecoms.com

Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator by subscribers Econet Wireless will launch commercial 3G services alongside an expanded 2.5G data service on 28 August, writes the Zimbabwe Telegraph. Econet CEO Douglas Mboweni said the GSM operator was ready to roll out a comprehensive package of data services based on 3G (W-CDMA), GPRS and EDGE technologies. The new range will be launched initially only in Harare, but extended to all major cities by the end of the year, with the 3G service targeted at the top end of the market and post-paid contract subscribers. 3G capacity will initially be limited to 55 000 customers. Mboweni added that the cellco's GPRS network, which does not support video applications but enables internet browsing and e-mail services, is already being offered to a limited market and would now be substantially expanded with the company’s utilisation of new bandwidth. ‘GPRS is also being used for other critical services such as vehicle tracking systems and point-of-sale terminals,’ he said. Regarding the introduction of EDGE services, Econet says its network in southern parts of Zimbabwe is EDGE-ready.

In other Econet news, The Zimbabwean reports that the firm has cut prices of its bundled handset/SIM/airtime starter-packs in response to the government’s removal of duty on mobile phones. Mboweni said: ‘We are grateful to the Finance Minister for the concession. Our response is to immediately pass this benefit on to the consumer through this reduction. We are not taking any mark-up on the handsets. In fact, as a gesture of goodwill we are reducing the price even on handsets for which we had already paid duty.’

Source: Telegeography

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has invited bids from both private and state-owned operators to roll out around 28,000 fixed line broadband exchanges and 6,000 satellite broadband sites as part of efforts to increase broadband penetration across the country, particularly in rural regions. According to the Economic Times the project will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which at present is understood to have around INR200 billion (USD4.1 billion) in unutilised funds. The successful bidders will be required to share their infrastructure with other operators, and the subsidy granted by the USOF will be allocated in a phased manner, with the final value determined by the degree to which infrastructure is shared.

Source: Telegeography

Cambodia’s state-owned incumbent Telecom Cambodia (TC) gained twice as many fixed lines subscribers in 2008 than in the previous year, boosting its number of lines in service to 26,091, writes local newspaper Phnom Penh Post. In 2008 more than 3,600 fixed lines were added, compared with just 1,500 in 2007. TC's subscriber growth has continued in 2009, with the number of fixed lines up by 1,337 in the first five months of the year. The report also adds that in total there are around 50,000 fixed line voice connections in the country, with the remainder shared between rival telcos Camintel and Mfone.

Meanwhile Camnet, the internet arm of TC, has also witnessed an increased growth in subscribers. ‘In 2007 there were about 300 Camnet subscribers, but by the close of the first half of this year (2009), the number climbed to around 1,000,’ said Lao Saroeun, director general of TC. One reason behind the increase in customers is the operator’s decision to cut the cost of broadband internet access, Saroeun added. Previously, the monthly cost for a 1Mbps downlink connection stood at USD1,300, but since Vietnamese military-owned rival operator Viettel entered the market, Camnet had dropped its price to USD700 for the same amount of bandwidth.

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.

A spokesman for PMT, Patrick Moux, has told RFO radio that the company will try to launch its service as soon as possible. There is currently a single mobile network in the islands, Tikiphone which the Mobile World estimates to have around 200,000 subscribers.

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.

 

­Vodafone's woes continued in Turkey. As in Germany and the UK, it saw the greatest loss of any network, losing 1.24m to finish on 15.48m. Although it remains almost 2.9m customers ahead of third-placed Avea, this is down from a lead of 6.4m a year earlier. With the losses confined to its prepaid base, the contract percentage was up by 1.3pp year on year to 12.7%, although this was still the worst rate on the market by some distance. Moreover, this improvement in customer quality did nothing to boost ARPU, which fell 15.9% annually to TRY11.10 per month. Market leader Turkcell also lost customers, a decline of 0.60m taking its total base to 36.40m. Of course, this still gives it a lead of more than 20m over Vodafone. In addition, like Vodafone it saw an improvement in customer quality, from 18.8% contract at the end of Q1 08 to 21.4% a year later. However, also like Vodafone this did not boost ARPU, which was down 21.2% to USD10.40 - although currency movements no doubt played a role here. The only operator not to see a decline in customer numbers was Avea, which added 0.40m to finish on 12.60m, appearing to benefit directly from the losses at its competitors, especially given the introduction of MNP last year. Avea's annual growth rate was 20.0%, and as we have seen it closed the gap on Vodafone significantly during the year. Although its customer quality declined slightly, at 34.9% it remained by far the highest in the market. Meanwhile, ARPU was at TRY14.00, down 10.8% year on year.

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 greatest loss in Q1 09 was suffered by Vodafone, which shed 0.45m customers to take its total to 18.72m. A year earlier Vodafone was the UK's market leader (if we exclude O2's customers through its Tesco MVNO), but at the end of Q1 09 it was 0.86m adrift of O2. Although its second place remains secure, this was the biggest quarterly decline in customers Vodafone has ever seen. On an annual basis, it added just 0.18m. However, T-Mobile's annual performance was even worse, a 0.26m loss taking its total customer base back under 10m for the second time, with an end-quarter figure of 9.99m. Its Q1 09 loss stood at 0.21m. Virgin, which operates as an MVNO on T-Mobile's network, was the only other major operator to lose customers in Q1 09, a 94.3k decline taking its base to 4.02m. This was its fifth successive quarterly decline, and on an annual basis it lost 0.41m customers. The other operators may not have lost customers, but they did not perform well. O2 top-scored with a gain of just 110.6k, which took its total base to 19.58m. Tesco added around 40k to break the 2m barrier, Orange was up 32k to 16.44m and Hutchison gained half this number to finish on 4.43m. The ARPU figures provided no respite from this somewhat gloomy picture. O2 was down 19.6% to €24.20 and T-Mobile down 19.2% to €21, although the strengthening of the Euro had a part to play here. Vodafone was also down, losing 3.7% to record £20.80, whilst Orange was up 1.1% to £22.58, although its rolling annual average figures obscure the real quarterly trend.

Source: Cellular News

­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.

 

Indonesia ended Q1 08 just behind Japan. Over the last twelve months though, 42m new customers connected in Indonesia compared to fewer than 5m in Japan and today, it is the undisputed number three in the region, with 144.6m customers. Japan has only fallen one place, but with 1.7.5m customers, its lead over fifth placed Pakistan is just over 16m. Pakistan added 13.4m connections over the year and looks set to overtake Japan, if not in the next twelve months, then certainly in the next 24. If Vietnam were to enjoy the same kind of growth over the coming year, it could just overtake Japan too. It closed the March quarter with 73.2m accounts, up 35m on the Q1 08 figure. Vietnam overtook the Philippines in so doing and indeed, all of the remaining countries on this list even though they all experienced satisfactory growth rates. The Philippines closed the quarter with 71.7m accounts, ahead of Thailand (62.7m), Bangladesh (46.3m) and South Korea (46.2m). These ten markets account for 1.68bn customers, or 92.9% of the regional total, marginally up on the 92.5% from last year. That reflects the weight of demographics as much as anything else, with these ten having a combined population of 3.48bn or slightly more than half the world's total.

Source: Cellular News

­Telecom New Zealand says that it has passed the milestone of 100,000 customers on its new WCDMA based 3G mobile network, branded XT, and has launched a special incentive for iPhone users to switch to its network.

Customers connecting an iPhone 3GS to the XT network, and taking up a 24 month One Rate 180 plan ($79.95) will receive a $600 account credit plus 240MB of free data a month for 2 years. With local Apple online store now offering iPhones directly to customers, they no longer need to sign up with Vodafone - they can order it directly and bring it onto the XT network. Customers moving to XT are also able to keep their existing phone number including the 021 prefix. The 3G network passed the 100,000 customer mark last week after just over 5 weeks of operation. "We are thrilled with the number of new XT users. We are absolutely focussed on being the number one provider in mobile and XT puts us firmly on that path," said Mr Hamburger. Telecom has been keeping a close eye on the network over this initial period and continuously using feedback from customers to optimise performance. "We are already planning for expansions in coverage, and looking ahead to later this year when we will further enhance the network and upgrade to HSPA+, when mobile broadband speeds will increase further," said Mr Hamburger.

Source: Cellular News

­The French telecoms regulator, Arcep is expected to make another attempt at offering a fourth 3G license by the end of this month. The President of Arcep told a press conference that the "tender offer will almost certainly be launched by the end of July," without expanding on the details.

French Internet Service Proider, Iliad is the only company to have formally tabled its intention to bid for the license, although Numericable and Virgin Mobile France are mulling a joint bid. A previous bid for the license by Iliad was rejected by the regulator in October 2007. The move could be delayed by legal action from France Telecom's Orange though, as it is pressing the case that the license should be sold at a similar price to those paid by the incumbents at the height of the telecoms bubble. It is expected that the 4th license will have a reserve price of around EUR240 million, compared to the EUR4.95 billion paid by Orange for its license. It should be noted that the radio spectrum allocation is noticeably smaller though.

According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the three incumbent operators market share at the end of Q1 '09 was: Orange (47%), SFR (36%) and Bouygues Télécom (17%)

Source : Cellular News

More people now go online in China than there are people in the United States.

The country's rapid economic growth and expansion of Internet access in more areas has fueled a sharp increase in Internet users, totaling 338 million by the end of June, a government-sanctioned research group said Thursday. That is a 13.4 percent jump since the end of 2008, the China Internet Network Information Center said in a report. The latest U.S. Census Bureau's figure says the population of the U.S. is just under 307 million. China's population is more than 1.3 billion.

China's population of Internet users has been growing at explosive rates despite government efforts to block access to material deemed subversive or pornographic. But Internet penetration is still only 25.5 percent, the center said. The Pew Internet and American Life Project places U.S. online penetration at more than 70 percent. Internet use on mobile phones has increased 32.1 percent since the beginning of the year to 155 million led by rising use by rural dwellers, the report said. China this year rolled out its third-generation mobile phone service — which supports wireless Web surfing — which is expected to set off a new surge in Internet use.

Source: Cellular News

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has directed mobile operators in the country to make mobile number portability (MNP) available by the end of this year. The Gulf Daily News reported that the regulator also announced the standard charge for the service would be BHD10 (USD26), whilst the number porting process should take two days. TRA general director Alan Horne told a press conference: ‘We see this as one of the more important measures...to increase competitiveness and choice for the consumer.’

Source: Telegeography

British fixed line and broadband incumbent BT has announced that it is accelerating its plans for the deployment of its new 'super fast' fibre-optic broadband network, and now expects more than 1.5 million homes to have access to fibre-based services by ‘early summer 2010’.

The telco expects around one million properties to be able to connect directly via fibre by March 2010 in what it claims is a doubling of the speed of its network deployment. It has released a list of 69 locations spread across England, Wales and Scotland that have been earmarked for the latest phase of development, and the revelation comes just days after it revealed it had begun pilots of the technology in the London and Cardiff areas. Commenting on the plans, Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach, the division of the operator responsible for the rollout said: ‘Fibre is the future and so we’re speeding up the pace of our plans. We had aimed to get fibre to half a million homes by next March but we’re now being far more ambitious. We’ve received a tremendous response to date and so we’re keen to get on with the job.’ BT has set aside GBP1.5 billion (USD2.41 billion) for the construction of its new infrastructure, and aims to have made super fast broadband available to around 40% of the population by 2012.

Source: Telegeography

­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.

Based on data gathered for a new report from Balancing Act, there have been dramatic drops in mobile charges, opening the market to a wider number of users. For example in Kenya, between Q3, 2007 and Q4,2008, calls to other subscribers on the same network fell by over half, from KS18.10 to KS8.98. Over the same period, SMS text messages to subscribers on another network fell from KS5.03 to KS3.69. Amongst the 15 countries in this report, there are really only 5 countries that have any scale in population terms: Ethiopia (83 million), Tanzania (39.5 million), Kenya (38 million), Uganda (29.5 million) and Madagascar (20 million). At the other end of the scale there are five countries and territories - Comoros, Djibouti, Mayotte, Reunion and Seychelles - with populations of below 1 million. Nevertheless, it is in the main the Indian Ocean Islands with small populations that have much higher GDP per capita than the more populous countries: Reunion (US$23,501), Seychelles (US$18,700), Mauritius (US$11,300) with a population of 1.27 million, Mayotte (US$4,900) and Djibouti (US$3,700). Tourism has driven growth in Mauritius and Seychelles and the connection to France for the territories of Mayotte and Reunion has had a similar effect. All the other countries in this report range between US$160 (Ethiopia) to US$1,100 (Comoros). None of these countries has oil but Tanzania has natural gas reserves. The reason? The Seacom international cable started operating on 23 July 2009 and the Kenyan Government initiated project TEAMS will follow shortly thereafter. And in Q3, 2010 will come EASSy, the fibre project that started it all but is now lagging well behind in the field. In addition, France Telecom has a project called LION that will connect various of the Indian Ocean islands into these new international cable connections in October 2009: the build has been completed and it now awaits licensing approval. The mainland East African countries currently connected by satellite will see a large increase in international bandwidth used as prices come down from around US$5,000 per mbps to something more like US$500 on the new fibre connections. This cheaper bandwidth price should lead to cheaper Internet prices for consumers.

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).

 

 

"The research will assist in amplifying investment opportunities in the technology, says Len Pienaar, CEO, FNB`s Mobile and Transact Solutions. "In South Africa, cellphones have become the most easily accessible and convenient way of offering services to remote areas, and an understanding of cellphone usage and trends is necessary to leverage the technology effectively." "The findings of the preliminary research for the annual Mobility survey confirm that South Africa's cellular market continues to enjoy robust growth, even with market penetration at around 100%," says Deon Liebenberg, Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa at RIM. "Our own experience reflects that it is not only the number of cellular connections that is growing, but also the applications for which subscribers are using their smartphones. Mobility is changing people's personal and business lives by allowing them to stay in touch with information, applications and other people wherever they are." Preliminary research for Mobility 2009 was based on analysis of Government and institutional data, as well as personal interviews with key role players in the cellular sector, including network operators and wireless application service providers. The research shows that the average number of SIM connections, or active cellphone accounts, per cellphone user in South Africa began to grow steadily after pre-paid accounts were introduced in 1996. It grew from an average of one SIM card per phone user in 1997 to 1.2 per user in 2003 and to 1.47 per user at the end of 2008. The gap between users and connections is expected to continue to grow as both consumers and businesses find more innovative approaches to cellphone usage. "This gives the impression that every South African has a cellphone, but that is obviously not possible," says World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, who is leading the Mobility 2009 project. "It's become clear that many pre-paid users have a SIM card for each major network, to avoid incurring the interconnection fee charged for calls between networks. The low cost of new SIM cards - as little as 50c for a starter pack - also gives anyone the ability to have more than one number." The interconnect fee adds R1.25 to the cost of every call, and has prompted new approaches to cellphone usage in South Africa. "Cellphone functionality has progressively grown beyond the traditional voice and SMS. With the growing trend towards cellphone banking, mobile media, mobile marketing and mobile internet access. In-depth understanding of consumer perceptions and trends is critical in addressing the needs of the consumer," says Pienaar. "RIM looks forward to seeing further findings from Mobility 2009. The research should paint an interesting picture of how people and businesses in South Africa are using their smartphones to be more productive and efficient," says Liebenberg. "It will be particularly interesting to see what the latest trends in the mobile Internet space are. We believe that there is a massive opportunity to bring mobile Internet services to more of the country's people through affordable pre-paid services."

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.

"This is so far good considering the perception the public had. I can say that our campaigns have been focusing on changing the mindset of the public," she said. Management is optimistic the 1.2 million will be achieved by the end of the year. LapGreen Networks, a subsidiary of the Libyan African Investment Portfolio, owns 80% of Rwandatel. Last year, the company signed a US$35 million deal with Huawei to revamp its landline network and replace its CDMA network with a GSM/WCDMA based platform.

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

­At the end of 2008 the Polish VoIP telephony market was worth PLN 440 million (US$139 million), with CaTV operators having generated the largest share of revenue in the segment. In recent years also fixed-line operators have included VoIP services into their offer.

According to research and consulting company PMR, the Polish VoIP market continues to represent a small share of the fixed-line telecommunications market. In 2008 it accounted for approximately five percent of the market in terms of the revenue. The IP telephony is still primarily treated as a tool for making free PC2PC calls by individual users. In the case of the corporate sector, the majority of companies continue to be reluctant towards VoIP solutions and typically use it merely as an additional tool. The individual customers segment is dominated by CaTV operators providing internet telephony integrated in the triple play service. At the end of 2008 CaTV operators had approx. 450,000 VoIP subscribers. It is noteworthy that in terms of the price offer for VoIP the CaTV operators are positioned between providers specialised in IP telephony and traditional fixed-line telecoms. Firstly, it helps to attract customers, and secondly, it enables the CaTV operators to generate relatively higher margins. In order to improve their competitive advantage on local markets, also local internet providers began to launch the VoIP service. The representatives of these companies declare the service does not generate high revenue, however, it helps to retain customers. Apart from implementing their own IP telephony systems, more frequently local ISPs take advantage of the platforms supplied by bigger providers. The market share of specialised VoIP operators (e.g. EasyCall, FreecoNet, HaloNet) remains rather insignificant as far as their revenue is concerned. The market players start to perceive focusing on the individual customers segment in the past as erroneous. At present, operators shift their attention towards business customers, expecting higher revenue resulting from greater traffic and value-added services. The internet telephony services have also been increasingly present in the offer presented by telecoms providing fixed-line telephone services. In their case, the VoIP complements operators' offer and facilitates the retention of customers. Within the upcoming four years, the growth rate in the Polish VoIP market will remain stable. The sector's value is expected to be positively affected by the economic deceleration in Poland. Both companies and households attempting to reduce their telephone bills, may decide the VoIP is a noteworthy alternative. Moreover, the internet telephony will continue to enjoy growing popularity as a part of telecommunications services packages. Western European examples - especially France - prove that this form of VoIP services is the most popular among individual customers. On the other hand, however, the gap between prices offered by traditional telephony and VoIP begins to narrow. As a result the internet telephony loses its greatest competitive advantage - significantly lower call rates. Nevertheless, the IP telephony users will continue to be able to make free calls within the network as well as to take advantage of a wide scope of value-added services. In the long term, a gradual migration of subscribers from traditional to internet telephony is expected, which will chiefly be favoured by operators' investing in the NGN. Nonetheless, since the investments are being postponed, the centre of gravity is moving towards mobile telecommunications and the prices offered by fixed-line operators continue to decline, the process will be much slower than the market players themselves had expected several years ago.

Source: Cellular News

Brazil’s telecoms standards coordinator ABR Telecom says that as of 25 June this year, a total of 1.42 million telephone numbers had been ported in the country, of which 958,286 (67%) were for mobile lines and 464,185 (33%) were fixed line connections. The agency went on to say that more than 1.93 million people have requested number portability (NP) under the government’s new regime, of which 65.5% are for mobile lines and the remainder for fixed telephony. NP was fully implemented nationwide on 2 March covering 193 million Brazilians in 67 different area codes.

Source: Telegeography

According to India’s Economic Times, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has revealed draft legislation for the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP). Having previously indicated that it expected MNP to be implemented by 20 September 2009 in all metros and some states, the TRAI has fleshed out the details of the impending regulations. Under the proposals customers will only be permitted to switch providers after 90 days of service from their existing service provider, and will face a further 90 day wait if wanting to switch again. Subscribers will be required to submit a request in writing to their provider, which will then be responsible for carrying out a series of mandatory checks, including identity verification. The switching process must be completed within five days. Subscribers will face a fee for the service, although the level of this charge has not yet been decided; estimates for the fee are between INR250 (USD5.18) and INR400 (USD8.29). The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already selected two companies – Syniverse Technologies and MNP Interconnect – to implement and manage MNP.

Source: Telegeography

Vodafone Fiji has launched a new service allowing its roughly 600,000 subscriber base to access the internet via a pre-paid mobile service. Until now, the option has only been available to users on a monthly contract. ‘The launch of our pre-paid mobile internet is exciting news for most of our customers, 90% of whom are on pre-paid plans’, said Pradeep Lal, the company's acting managing director, is quoted as saying.

Source: Telegeography

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

Reuters reports that Cuba’s National Statistics Office has released data for end-2008 showing there were 1.4 million fixed and mobile telephone lines in service, giving a total of 12.6 lines per 100 inhabitants in the country of 11.2 million, the lowest combined penetration in the region. The general public were only recently allowed to own mobile phones. The report added that there were a total of 630,000 computers in Cuba, with most understood to be in government offices, health facilities and schools, giving 13% of the population some form of access to the internet, but this is believed to be - in most cases - via a government intranet. No data was available for unrestricted access to the worldwide web.

Source: Telegeography

Jordan’s Telecommunicaton Regulatory Commission (TRC) has announced that it will negotiate directly with the country’s mobile operators in a move to get 3G services launched by the end of this year, reports CommsMEA. The decision comes after last month’s 3G tender failed to produce a winning bid. Cellcos said at the time that the reserve price of JOD50 million (USD70 million), together with 15 annual licence fee payments of approximately JOD2.5 million, made for an unsustainable business case in a market like Jordan. The TRC had hoped to attract investors from Jordan and overseas when the delayed process began in March, but the only bidder, Orange Jordan, had its offer rejected because it did not comply with the terms and conditions of the bid. A spokeswoman for the TRC said Orange Jordan did not submit the required financial bond of JOD10 million. The bid also contained additional conditions which related to mobile spectrum and the ten month 3G exclusivity period, which Orange Jordan did not want to begin from the date the licence was awarded.

The CEO and chairman of Jordan’s TRC, Dr Ahmad Hiasat, told CommsMEA: ‘Taking into account that still the financial crisis is here and there is uncertainty, we intend to go into a direct award of the spectrum to the existing operators within terms that we think are fair to everybody, including the operators, the treasury and consumers.’ Hiasat said the TRC will listen to operators’ concerns and requirements, but he warned that if no agreement is reached within a month the regulator will retender the licence with new terms and conditions. One of the conditions that could be amended is the reserve price, which Hiasat said could be reduced. There is also a possibility that the exclusivity period could be increased from the ten month period stipulated in the original tender, after operators complained it would not give enough time to build and launch a network. ‘Potentially we can award up to four licences… our ultimate goal is not to maximise revenue but rather to have more services and more competition in the telecom sector with all its submarkets. If we conclude with the operators I expect to have the service launched and offered before the end of the year.

Source: Telegeography