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German subscriber base grows to 103.4 million subscribers in Q2′08 (Germany)

  • September 3rd, 2008
  • 10:36 am

The German telecom market reaches EUR 5 billion in Q2′08, up 3.7%. The drop in voice revenue of EUR 110 million since last year was partly compensated by the EUR 89 million increases in non-voice revenue.
E - Plus became the only operator to show an increase year-on-year, mainly in the prepaid segment, helping to increase its market share by 1.2% point to 15.0% of revenues.
Vodafone’s share of reveneus declined only half a percentage point to 35.5%, while T-Mobile also dropped 0.5 percent to 35.3 percent. O2 dropped to fourth place with a 0.2 percent to 14.2 percent market share.
The German subscribers increased by almost 3.5 million in the quarter, to a total 103.4 million subscribers.
Market penetration rose to 125.9 percent at the end of June, from 121.6%. T-Mobile and Vodafone remained market leaders with 37.1 and 34.1% market share respectively. Together they lost 1.2% market share to the other operators. E-Plus increased its third place position, reaching a market share of 15.6%. O2 obtained 13.1% market share in the Q2′08.
   

O2 is expected to generate the highest ARPU of $ 32.99 by 2010 (Germany)

  • August 26th, 2008
  • 2:23 pm

German Mobile market shows strong growth with which the country’s mobile penetration rate is rapidly catching up with the EU average. Two out of the four operators is dominating the market. But there is increasingly lively activity from MVNOs and resellers which has triggered competition and placed pressure on tariffs, resulting in lower ARPU. Regulatory pressure on termination tariffs has also bolstered operators to step-up their development of data applications to improve profit margins.

Operators covered for Germany include: T-Mobile, D2 (Vodafone), E-Plus, O2.

Notable highlights of Germany Mobile Forecast include:

  • The number of total subscribers in Germany will increase from 97.2 million to 105.2 million between 2007 and 2010. The wireless penetration level will continue to increase.
  • T-Mobile’s market share will continue to decline from its current level to reach 35.9% in 2010 while E-Plus and O2 will continue to see some increase in their market share figures.
  • In 2010, O2 will generate the highest ARPU of US$ 32.99 (previously US$ 32.78 per month) while T-Mobile will generate the lowest ARPU of US$ 24.22 (previously US $24.06) per month.
  • T-Mobile, E-Plus, and O2 will see an increase in margins at 38.5%, 38.3%, and 27.2% in 2010; while and D2 (Vodafone) will see some declines in EBITDA margins over the forecast period, coming in at 41.2% in 2010.

KPN plans more job cuts in ‘back to growth’ strategy (Netherlands)

  • February 5th, 2008
  • 1:45 pm

Dutch operator KPN has outlined plans to cut thousands of more jobs as part of its new ‘Back to growth’ strategy for the period 2008-2010. The company will cut another 2,000 FTE positions on top of the 8,000 already announced in 2005, while another 1,300 external FTEs will also go over the coming three-year period. The move is expected to result in EUR 240 million in annual cost savings, which the company will reinvest in growing new services such as broadband, TV and business IP services. KPN said it will pursue a “radical simplification” of its business, from front-end retail to back-end network operations, in order to reduce costs. This is expected to lead in the Netherlands business to a return to EBITDA growth after 2008 and revenue growth by 2010.

The company targets increasing EBITDA to over EUR 5.5 billion and sales to over EUR 15 billion in 2010, versus a reported EUR 4.9 billion and EUR 12.6 billion for 2007. That includes contributions from recent takeovers iBasis and Getronics, as well as expected high single-digit revenue and EBITDA growth at the mobile activities outside the Netherlands. For shareholders, KPN also announced plans for a EUR 1 billion share buyback this year and its intention to increase dividends over the medium term to 40-50 percent of free cahs flow, from 35-40 percent currently. Capital expenditure meanwhile will rise to around EUR 2 billion by 2010, from EUR 1.7 billion last year, while free cash flow is expected to exceed EUR 2.4 billion per year.

The new strategy was presented alongside fourth-quarter results showing sales up 20.4 percent from a year earlier to EUR 3.659 billion, thanks to the takeovers. EBITDA increased 5.6 percent to EUR 1.216 billion, while net profit jumped to EUR 1.581 billion from EUR 426 million, thanks to a EUR 1.2 billion tax gain at E-Plus in Germany. The full-year revenue decline of 0.8 percent was roughly in line with the company’s guidance for flat sales, while EBITDA dropped 0.6 percent versus an outlook for a flat result.

   

E-Plus reports 15 million customers (Germany)

  • January 31st, 2008
  • 2:38 pm

KPN’s German mobile subsidiary E-Plus has signed up its 15 millionth customer, winning 900,000 new customers since the end of September 2007, when E-Plus reported 14.1 million customers. The 15 millionth customer chose a Base 2 contract, which is part of E-Plus’s portfolio of mobile flat-rates sold under the Base brand. E-Plus will publish its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2007 on 5 February.

   

E-Plus acquires German retail chain SMS Michel Communication (Germany)

  • January 24th, 2008
  • 8:58 am

Netherlands-based telecommunications operator KPN is acquiring German retail chain SMS Michel Communication with effect from 1 January 2008, for its German mobile subsidiary E-Plus. No financial details were disclosed. With the acquisition of the approximately 200 SMS shops, E-Plus increases its retail footprint in prime city locations, thereby strengthening its position on the German mobile telecoms market in the long term. In the medium term, E-Plus will use around half of the shops as E-Plus shops. The remaining branches will continue to operate independently under the name “SMS – Smart Mobile Services”, offering a broad selection of devices and services to do with mobile telecoms. SMS Michel’s existing partnerships with network operators and end device manufacturers will also remain unaltered by the takeover and are to be intensified further. This acquisition is part of E-Plus’s strategic goal for 2008 to expand the number of sales channels in Germany and follows a marketing agreement, signed on 15 January of this year, with German consumer electronics retailer Electronic Partner.

   

E-Plus plans to change business model - CEO (Germany)

  • December 18th, 2007
  • 2:35 pm

KPN’s German mobile subsidiary E-Plus wants to completely change its business model by signing agreements with multiple partners like software providers and service providers, according to E-Plus CEO Thorsten Dirks in an interview with the Financial Times Deutschland. Dirks said that the current business model that sees E-Plus developing new mobile brand itself will become obsolete. To be a frontrunner, E-Plus wants to sign cooperation agreements with large internet brands like Yahoo! and Microsoft, offer them access to their network and take part of the revenues generate by those brands as its new revenue source. The reason for E-Plus to change its strategy is that the operator has not enough financial means to continuously develop new services and implement them, while it can easily open up its infrastructure for others to launch their services. Dirks said that according to internal calculations, mobile operators will be able to continue operating as they do now for a maximum of three years, after which the decreasing mobile tariffs will take their toll. Details about new services and new partners will be provided during the coming months.

   

Regulator lowers German mobile termination fees by 10% (Germany)

  • December 3rd, 2007
  • 2:57 pm

The regulator for telecom, electricty and gas Bundesnetzagentur (BNA) has determined the termination fees for the four Germany mobile operators T-Mobile Germany, Vodafone Germany, E-Plus and O2 Germany. The new fees are valid from 1 December and amount to EUR 0.0792 per minute for Vodafone and T-Mobile and amount to EUR 0.088 for E-Plus and O2. This means a decrease of almost 10 percent for T-Mobile and Vodafone, whose termination fees were EUR 0.0878 per minute and a decrease of 11 percent for E-Plus and O2, whose termination fees were EUR 0.0994 per minute. BNA did use a cost-based calculation model to set the new termination fees, based on data provided by the operators, instead of the international terminating fee comparison model it used last year. The new termination fees are valid until 31 March 2009.

The German federation of alternative telecom providers VATM welcomes the decrease of the termination fees, but questions the decision of the BNA to lower the difference between the fees that the two larger operators (Vodafone, T-Mobile) can charge and the fees that the two smaller operators (E-Plus, O2) can charged. The difference is lowered from EUR 0.0116 per minute to EUR 0.0088 per minute, but according to the president of VATM, Juergen Gruetzner, it can be questioned if O2 and E-Plus will be able to cover the higher investment and marketing costs they make. The association for alternative broadband providers Breko is of the opinion that the mobile termination fees are still too high in comparision with the termination fees, fixed network operators receive for calls made from mobile networks to fixed networks. That termination fee is EUR 0.00069 per minute, elevent times lower than the new mobile termination fees. The BNA missed a change to correct the difference between the fees, after years of non-regulation, according to Breko’s director Rainer Lueddemann.

   

E-Plus extends Alcatel-Lucent outsourcing deal by 3 years (Germany)

  • October 22nd, 2007
  • 12:15 pm

After a transition phase, E-Plus has extended its contract with Alcatel-Lucent for the expansion, maintenance and operation of its mobile network from three to five years. The extension of the contract was awarded to Alcatel-Lucent because of network quality stabilisation and improvements during the transition phase. Alcatel-Lucent initially took over the operational business units, which are responsible for building, running and maintaining the Düsseldorf-based operator’s mobile network, for a period of three years on 1 March of this year. The outsourcing resulted in the transfer of around 750 E-Plus employees throughout Germany, to Alcatel-Lucent. The agreed transition phase was successfully completed earlier in October. Therefore, all processes such as IT systems for the network management, replacement parts procurement for base stations are now managed entirely from within the Alcatel-Lucent environment.

   

German mobile prices need to fall by 50% - KPN CEO (Germany)

  • September 25th, 2007
  • 12:05 pm

KPN’s German mobile subsidiary E-Plus plans to lower prices even more, according to KPN CEO Ad Scheepbouwer in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt. Scheepbouwer said that the only way that consumers are going to use their mobile phone more is by lowering the minute fees. The growth in usage will then compensate the price decreases. He also said that the current ratio between mobile prices and fixed prices of three times more expensive needs to drop to twice as expensive to become an average European market. KPN targets doubling the current market share of E-Plus (15% based on customer numbers) to around 30 percent.

   

Former E-Plus CEO to become CEO of ONE (Austria)

  • July 6th, 2007
  • 9:54 am

Former CEO of German mobile operator E-Plus and Austrian mobile operator tele.ring, Michael Krammer, has been appointed as CEO of Austrian mobile operator ONE. He succeeds Joergen Bang-Jensen, who leaves ONE now it has been sold to a consortium of private equity investor Mid Europa Partners and France Telecom. Krammer will lead the company as it will be re-branded into Orange Austria. Departing CEO Bang Jensen has said that the agreement to sell ONE to MEP/France Telecom is a good solution for the future of the mobile operator in an interview with Austrian press agency APA. He will leave the company on 1 October and could not comment on possible job cuts arising from the sale of ONE.