Wireless Federation » archive for April, 2007
VolgaTelecom launches GSM in PenzaTelegeography writes…VolgaTelecom has launched GSM mobile services in Penza under the ON brand name, via its local subsidiary Penza Mobile, which simultaneously discontinued its old D-AMPS service. Penza Mobile is VolgaTelecom’s ninth GSM subsidiary in the Volga region. The company plans on installing more than 100 base stations in Penza city and oblast by the end of this year, with network capacity for around 200,000 subscribers.
Weather completes TIM Hellas takeoverTelegeography writes…Greek mobile operator TIM Hellas Telecommunications has announced the completion of the 100% takeover of its parent holding company Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) by Weather Investments, the telecoms holding vehicle of Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris. The deal was first announced in February, when Weather agreed to buy TIM Hellas and its sister company Q-Telecom, Greece’s third and fourth largest cellcos by subscribers, from Apax Partners and Texas Pacific for a total of USD4.4 billion. Sawiris has also proposed a plan to increase Weather subsidiary Wind’s 50%-plus-one-share stake in Greece’s largest alternative fixed line telco Tellas to 100% by buying out its joint venture partner, Greek electricity utility Public Power Corporation (PPC).
Idea Cellular announces year end resultsTelegeography writes…Idea Cellular has announced that at the end of its financial year ended 31 March 2007 it served a subscriber base of 14.01 million, a 90.2% increase on the previous year’s figure and reflecting an improvement in national market share from 7.65% to 8.63%. Its consolidated revenues and EBITDA for the full year were INR44.13 billion (USD1.07 billion) and INR15.10 billion, up 47.6% and 38.3% respectively. The cash profit for the full year was INR11.75 billion, representing a 54.4% increase on the previous year’s figure of INR5.03 billion.
Telmex Q1 profit jumps 9% on broadband boostTelegeography writes…Telmex has posted a better-than-expected 9% rise in first-quarter net profit to MXN8.78 billion (USD795 million), up from MXN8.04 billion a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.5% to MXN45.1 billion, thanks to a 13% growth in internet income. EBITDA fell 2.2% in the quarter to MXN19.5 billion. Telmex added 33,000 fixed lines in the first quarter, while net new broadband customers totalled 304,000, taking its total internet client base to 2.1 million, up 75% from March 2006.
Over 120,000 IPTV usersTelegeography writes…More than 120,000 Canadians now subscribe to Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), according to research by Digital Home, although most are in the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. IPTV is defined as the broadcasting of television services over a high speed internet connection using fixed telephone lines. Consumers connect their televisions to a set top box that connects to their phone line. There are currently four IPTV providers in Canada: MTS, SaskTel, Telus and Bell Aliant. MTS, the incumbent fixed line provider in Manitoba, announced recently that it had signed up 70,000 customers. Its counterpart in Saskatchewan, SaskTel, reported this month that it had 51,000 IPTV customers, whilst official subscriber figures for Telus TV and Aliant TV have not been released, but the numbers are believed to be very small, according to the research. Last August, MTS became the first IPTV provider to offer a High Definition TV (HDTV) service to its customers, followed by SaskTel two months later.
NetCracker’s Donna Bastien to Host Roundtable on IP OSS Challenges at Billing & OSS WorldNetCracker Technology announced today that Donna Bastien, the company’s Director of Marketing, will be hosting a Networking Roundtable on IP OSS Challenges on Friday, April 27, 2007. The session will run three times from 9:15 a.m. - 12:00 noon. In addition, the company will be honored at the show as a finalist in the “Best Overall OSS Company” category of the Billing World Excellence Awards.
The Networking Roundtables–one of Billing & OSS World’s most popular sessions–provide an opportunity for attendees to share questions and experiences in an informal setting.
“This Roundtable will focus on several key issues regarding IP OSS challenges that service providers face, including end-to-end service management and the relationship of OSS to next gen service delivery platforms (IMS/SDP),” says Bastien. “We will also touch on the management and interoperability of network and IT systems as well as managing the customer experience.”
Carphone Warehouse to open 150-200 US mobile phone shopsForbes writes…UK mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse confirmed that it plans to open as many as 200 stores in the US over the next 18 months in partnership with US retailing giant Best Buy (nyse: BBY - news - people ).
The group also said it expects pretax profits for the year ending in March 2008 to be 225 mln stg, compared to around 120 mln in the year just ended.
In a strategy update, Carphone Warehouse said a 5-month US trial had produced ‘encouraging’ results, and that it would now open between 150-200 outlets in existing Best Buy stores before the end of 2008.
Finance director Roger Taylor said the US handset market, which is dominated by the mobile networks’ own brand outlets, is crying out for more independent retailers.
‘Buying mobile phones in the US is a horrible experience. The network stores are just there to push their own business and there’s very little in the way of impartial advice,’ he told Thomson Financial News in a telephone interview.
Increased spending on the Best Buy and Virgin Mobile France tie-ups would cost between 10-15 mln stg this year, and Taylor said that losses from all joint ventures would amount to some 15-20 mln in the current fiscal year.
However, Taylor said a swing into the black at its UK broadband division and growth at its core retail operation would boost pretax profits to 225 mln stg in the current fiscal year, compared to an expected 120 mln the previous year.
The dividend will be raised by 30 pct in the current year, he added, in line with underlying profits growth.
Carphone Warehouse also set out long-term targets for its broadband business. It is hoping to have signed up 3.5 mln users to its high-speed internet access service by March 2010, compared to 2.27 mln at the end of March 2007.
Since launching its cut-price TalkTalk broadband service this time last year, Carphone Warehouse has incurred start-up losses of 70 mln stg on top of the 370 mln it paid for AOL’s internet access business in the autumn.
And it recently warned that delays in migrating customers onto its own unbundled network would result in extra costs of between 10-15 mln stg over the current financial year, wiping as much as half from its original 30 mln stg forecast for the fledgling division.
Finance chief Taylor said the pace of migrating customers had improved dramatically over the past few months, with around 120,000 moving onto Carphone Warehouse’s network every month.
Until a customer is migrated, Carphone Warehouse must use a BT Group (nyse: BT - news - people ) wholesale broadband product, incurring a loss of 5 stg a month on each connection. By the start of April, Carphone Warehouse had only moved 700,000 of its 2.3 mln customers off the BT wholsale product.
The group also announced a change in how it presents its financial performance to the City.
For the purposes of results, Carphone Warehouse will carve the business into two: a Distribution division, embracing its mobile phone stores and fixed-line business outside the UK, and a UK fixed-line division.
The group said revenues at its Distribution unit will rise by between 11-13 pct in the current year, with the profit margin improving by about 70-80 basis points year-on-year to approximately 6.5 pct.
At the fixed-line unit, turnover is forecast to jump by 45 pct, with margins expanding to around 7 pct from 1.5 pct currently.
Capital expenditure for the current year, ending in March 2008, will be 220 mln stg, reflecting the expansion into the US and the spiraling cost of building up its UK broadband business, added the group.
European operators warn of mobile rate hikeAmericasNetwork writes…Mobile phone users in Europe could face higher domestic charges if the European Union forces telecom companies to limit the costs of international calls, an industry group statement, quoted by an Associated Press report, said.
“It could be foreseen that the rate of the decrease of the domestic tariffs will stall, or stop altogether,” Aoife Sexton, acting head of regulatory affairs of the GSM Association, which represents more than 700 cell phone operators around the world, was quoted in the statement as saying.
The Associated Press report said the industry is opposing a bill before the European Parliament that would cap roaming charges for mobile phone calls made abroad within the EU, by imposing a ceiling at 40 euro cents ($0.54) per minute for an outgoing call and 15 euro cents ($0.20) per minute for an incoming call.
Sexton cited a study conducted for the industry which said the proposed EU legislation would cut operators’ annual retail revenues from roaming by more than half, from 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) to 2.4 billion euros ($3.3 billion), the report said.
The European Commission introduced the bill to curb roaming charges, claiming network providers are reaping massive profits from inflated prices for calls from one EU nation to another, the Associated Press report added.
The EU’s executive body aimed to slash roaming fees by as much as 70%, it added.
Last week, the European Parliament’s industry committee went further, suggesting still lower caps in the cost of cross-border calls.
If those suggestions are passed by the full parliament next month and approved by governments of the 27 EU nations in June, Sexton warned phone companies could be forced to operate roaming networks at a loss, harming investment and competition, the report further said.
May Day named by Bolivia for Entel takeoverTelegeography writes…Bolivia has taken a definitive step toward the renationalisation of the country’s largest telecoms company, by ordering the transfer of 47% of Entel stock from a public pension fund to direct government control. President Evo Morales has set 1 May as the deadline for the nationalisation of Entel, Bolivia’s former state telephone company, which was privatised in 1995. Telecom Italia currently holds a controlling 50% stake in the company, while individual private investors own the remaining 3%. Bolivia is negotiating for the purchase of some or all the Italian company’s stake, according to Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana ‘We hope that in the next few days or weeks, the Bolivian government will be able to assume control of the majority share of the stock,’ Quintana said.
Elisa reports 1Q resultsTelegeography writes…Elisa has reported a first quarter pre-tax profit of EUR64 million, up from last year’s EUR39 million, but just below market consensus of EUR65.4 million. Sales for the three months ended 30 March 2007 climbed 9% year-on-year to EUR378 million, while EBITDA saw an improvement to EUR115 million from last year’s figure, excluding non-recurring items, of EUR99 million.
At the end of March the group’s domestic wireless operation claimed 2.23 million subscribers, of which 10% were connected to its 3G network. During the period average revenue per subscription (ARPU) declined slightly quarter-on-quarter to EUR29.7, from EUR30.8 in 4Q 2006, due to decreased interconnection fees. Churn was flat on the previous quarter at 1.2%.
