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Telkomsel may offer iPhone 3G in Indonesia

  • July 23rd, 2008
  • 12:33 pm

The country’s biggest operator, Telkomsel, will offer the iPhone to its customers. Telkomsel is a state-owned company, with 35 percent of its stake owned by Singapore giant SingTel. As reported earlier, SingTel and its mobile associates will bring Apple Inc’s popular iPhone to Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines later this year.

Also, Hutchison will team up with Apple to offer the iPhone. The telecom company operates mobile phone services in Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Macau, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. So, Indonesia will be its next logical step to offer the iPhone.

But looking at the number of users Telkomsel, which has more than 50 million users now, will win the bid rather than Hutchison. A close soource unveils that “Telkomsel will offer iPhone 3G in Indonesia. It’s almost confirmed.”

“Telkomsel will offer the iPhone to its postpaid customers. Now they are working on how to determine the plan that will be offered to the customers.” as quoted by source.

UK mobile operators suffer a loss of 119k subscribers in Q1 08 (UK)

  • July 17th, 2008
  • 10:59 am

UK mobile customer base saw its first quaterly decline for two years in Q1 08, losing on 119k subscribers to finish the quarter on 70.67million. The net declines was seen with O2, T-Mobile, Virgin and Tesco suffering widespread losses. Tesco lost a maximum of 100k, Virgin lost 68k, T-Mobile 71k and O2 79k. The highest figures for net additions of 114k were achieved by Orange, Hutchison came next with 75k and Vodafone gained 41k. Similar subscriber loss was seen in the Q1 07, but Vodafone’s strong performance, 723k net additons, ensured a growth in the total customer base.

On an annual basis, the Q1 08 loss was counterbalanced by a potent net additions of 1.89 million in the Q4 07, leaving the annual growth at 5.0%, almost exactly the same rate as the preceding 12 months (4.9%). However, no consistency could be seen on the operator level, Virgin, after seeing a growth of 3.2% in the previous year, it was down by 0.9% to 4.42million. O2 recorded a gain in the subscribers on year-on-year basis, but it’s growth rate of 4.7% was less than half the last year’s figure of 10.2%. Tesco’s growth rate halved from 35.9% to 17.9%, taking quater-end customer base to 1.65million.

T-Mobile and Orange, on the other hand, improved strikingly on the 0.9% annual growth in the Q1 07 by both of them. T-Mobile grew to 10.24million, a growth of 4.2%, while Orange grew at 4.4% to 15.76million, but did not advance Vodafone’s lead gained in the Q1 07.

Vodafone, the most consistent performer in the market, edged it’s 6.9% growth rate up to 7.7%, finishing the quater 0.85 million ahead of Orange on 16.6million. O2 scored a 20.05 million subscribers to become the market leader with quater-end.

Vodafone’s India tax bill could hit $4bn (India)

  • July 14th, 2008
  • 9:16 am

Retrospective law amendment could see operator faced with $2 billion tax bill, plus $2 billion penalty.
Vodafone could be forced to pay more than $4 billion if it loses its court case relating to tax claims by the Indian government over its Hutchison Essar acquisition, reports the Financial Times. 

“The U.K. mobile phone group could face a penalty of 100% of the tax owed plus 12% interest a year if it loses the case,” said the report, without citing sources.

India is trying to levy $2 billion of capital gains tax on Vodafone’s 2007 $11 billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar, despite Vodafone being the buyer and not the seller of the asset, on the grounds it should have withheld the tax on behalf of the government.

Vodafone argues that the transaction is not taxable because the deal itself took place overseas.

The acquisition of Essar saw a Dutch company controlled by Vodafone pay a Cayman Island-registered company controlled by Hutchison Whampoa $11 billion to buy another Cayman Island entity that indirectly held a controlling stake in the Indian operator.

However, India’s government contends that since Essar’s operating assets were based in India, the deal is subject to capital gains tax.

Friday’s development relates to a retrospective amendment to the country’s tax law, which states that an entity that did not withhold tax when it should have done is classified as in default.

This means that if Vodafone loses its case, the government can then award a penalty which would bring the final sum payable by the operator to over $4 billion.

According to the Financial Times, Vodafone opposes the amendment on the grounds that India’s constitution forbids imposing such penalties retrospectively.

Both sides concluded their arguments in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, and a verdict is expected in the next few weeks.

India’s Economic Times this week reported that both sides have said they will appeal the decision in the Supreme Court if they lose the case.

The case is being closely watched due to the potential implications for other similar deals in the country, and the outcome will set a precedent for future foreign investment in India.

   

 

Hutch denies €4bn for 3 Italia deal (Italy)

  • July 11th, 2008
  • 1:36 pm

Hutchison Whampoa denied an Italian newspaper report that Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris had offered to buy its struggling 3 Italia telecoms unit for close to €4 billion (US$6.3 billion).

A Reuters report also said the daily newspaper La Repubblica reported on that Sawiris, who owns Italian mobile phone operator Wind, wanted to expand his empire.

But Hutchison said the report was incorrect, the Reuters report said.

“There is no transaction. Our group is financially strong,” said Laura Cheung, a Hutchison spokeswoman, quoted by the report.

The newspaper added that Sawiris had proposed a deal to Hutchison owner and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who thought Sawiris’ initial offer too low and who now appeared to be seeking another €1 billion (US$1.6 billion) on top of that.

   
 

Vodafone tax case rumbles on in India

  • June 25th, 2008
  • 2:25 pm

An Indian court resumed hearing a €1.2 billion (US$2 billion) tax case relating to Vodafone’s purchase of a cell phone operation in the country last year, a Reuters report said.

The UK firm has also restated its position that it was not liable for capital gains tax, the report said.

The hearing at the Bombay High Court is expected to continue at least until the end of this week, a spokesman for Vodafone said, in a case being closely watched by international investors.

Vodafone Group last year paid €7.06 billion (US$11.1 billion) to a unit of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoafor a controlling stake in an Indian mobile operator, which has now been renamed Vodafone Essar.

Vodafone has received a US$2 billion bill from the income tax department, which says the company was liable to pay capital gains tax as most of the assets it bought are based in India.

Vodafone has said Indian law at the time did not require it to withhold tax on the acquisition, and has said that capital gains tax is usually paid by the seller, not the buyer.

It has also questioned the “constitutionality” of a retrospective change to the Indian tax law in May this year that would allow the government to take action against companies which do not withhold taxes when making a transaction.

   

Hutchison writes down value of Thai operation (Thailand)

  • January 19th, 2008
  • 6:53 am

Hutchison Telecom International has announced it will take an impairment charge of HKD 3.854 billion in its full-year 2007 results to write down the value of its Thai mobile operations. It will also realise a tax credit from the operations of HKD 421 million. As a result of the charges, the company expects to report a loss from continuing operations for the year. Hutchison warned already last year of pressure on prices at its Thai subsidiary due to intense competition on the market. Its mobile service Hutch CAT is run in a joint venture with local operator CAT Telecom.

   

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em (Vietnam)

  • January 10th, 2008
  • 2:27 pm

According to an anonymous source reported in VietNamNet Bridge, CDMA cellco HT Mobile has asked the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) for permission to switch its network from CDMA to GSM-based technology. The source said that officials met last week to consider HT Mobile’s application. Though the cellco, a joint venture between Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited (HTIL) and Hanoi Telecom, has not confirmed the report, it is known that in September 2007 it stopped investing in its existing infrastructure.

HT Mobile launched CDMA 850MHz services in January 2007 with the aim of attracting one million subscribers by the year end, but according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database it had only achieved 185,000 by the end of September, in a year in which as many as 14 million new mobile phone subscribers (according to local press estimates) were recorded in the country. Fellow Vietnamese CDMA operator S-Telecom added approximately 750,000 subscribers in the first nine months of 2007, its best period since launching in 2003, but it was the GSM cellcos Viettel, MobiFone and Vinaphone which garnered the vast majority of new users. GSM networks are favoured by Vietnamese mobile users over CDMA, despite the latter being a more recent innovation. One inhibiting factor of CDMA is the smaller range of handsets it offers in comparison with GSM, in a youth-dominated market preoccupied with being able to change phones easily and frequently.

   

HTIL adds 2.2 million subscribers in Q3 (Indonesia)

  • November 17th, 2007
  • 7:12 am

Hutchison Telecom International (HTIL) added 2.2 million new subscribers in the third quarter, driven by the launch of its operations in Indonesia. The mobile operator had 9.055 million customers at the end of September, up from 6.824 million in June. The company reported a profit from continuing operations for the first nine months of the year of HKD 203 million, reversing a loss of HKD 891 million in the year-earlier period. Including the discontinued operations in India, which were sold to Vodafone, profit for the period was HKD 70.234 billion. Profit for the third quarter was HKD 146 million. The company has set a capital expenditure budget for 2007 of HKD 7.0 billion, of which the majority will go to Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. These markets will also account for around two-thirds of 2008 capital spending.

   

Aussies want web, TV access on mobiles

  • November 12th, 2007
  • 7:16 am

 '’ONE in two Australians want to access the internet over their mobile phone, while more than a third want to view live television'’ according to Himanshu Johar, Wireless Federation’s Senior Analyst

Internet access was the most popular form of content, desired by 52 per cent of respondents, followed by live TV (37 per cent) and TV clips (31 per cent). While half those surveyed wanted to use their phone to watch the news and check the weather, the most popular content was entertainment news, nominated by 58 per cent.

According to the global study Anytime, Anyplace by media agency Universal McCann, Australians have been slow to use the full suite of mobile phone applications.

The study found that only 33 per cent of Australians had used their phone to surf the mobile internet, send messages and emails or take photographs.

That ranked far behind the leading nation, Japan (47 per cent) and a number of other European and Asian markets, including China (43 per cent), India (34 per cent) and well behind the global average of 37 per cent.

But the study, which was conducted among 10,000 people who had a mobile phone and broadband access in 21 markets, found the US was last, with just one in five Americans engaging in complex mobile phone use.

The mobile is the world’s biggest portable media and computing platform. By 2011, 3.3 billion people are expected to be connected, according to data from the Wireless Federation, with the use driven by growth in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“These people are really content-hungry,” Universal McCann Insight director Natalie Pidgeon said. “They like to have their scanner on 24/7.

“But the content they’re looking at on their mobile is quite perishable. They don’t want to keep it. Laptops are more about content they can keep: TV series, films and music. It’s the collectable content.”

3G-enabled mobile phones are the most in-demand device globally, with more than 40 per cent of respondents saying they planned to purchase one, followed by a video-capable iPod (39 per cent) and a wireless laptop. In Australia, penetration is higher than the global average of about 20 per cent.

But the study found people expected content to be device-neutral, or able to be viewed on a number of platforms.

“About the only thing they don’t want to transfer content to is a gaming console,” Ms Pidgeon said. “That seems to be for games only.”

The study also found phone users welcomed advertising as long as they had opted to receive it and they received something of value in return.

Two-thirds of respondents globally found branded content was an acceptable form of advertising.

Ads that appear in the middle of video clips were the least acceptable format. 

And Hutchison’s 3 Mobile launched the 20-minute-long cricket show The Pitch, which it is billing as the first in-house telco-made-for-mobile program.

Mira Bashi, 3’s general manager of content and services, said the show, which is available as part of 3’s paid cricket packages, would help develop new media habits.

“I think consumers will sit down and watch it and look forward to it at the end of the day,” she said

    

Orascom sells 3% stake in HTIL (Egypt)

  • October 29th, 2007
  • 2:43 pm

Orascom Telecom has sold 143.43 million Hutchison Telecommunications International shares, representing 3 percent of HTIL’s outstanding shares, at a price of HKD 10.70 per share. Total proceeds from the sale are HKD 1.53 billion. This transaction brings OTH’s ownership in HTIL down to 16.19 percent, and is in line with its strategy to monetise part of its stake in HTIL while retaining its corporate governance rights.