Wireless Federation

Tigo, Colombian Mobile Operator has signed 10,000 subscribers in 3G segment, according to a local media report. The services are offered in capital Bogotá, as well as in Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Cartagena. In October, the services have been instigated including mobile broadband for both prepaid and post-paid subscribers. Comcel, the strong contender in Colombian mobile market is also providing 3G in Colombia. Although, Movistar of Spain’s Telefónica anticipates to launch 3G services soon.

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OMAN Telecommunication Company (Omantel) has qualified for the second stage of a competitive process for third nationwide Mobile Network Operator license in Iran, as part of a consortium comprising local and international partners. According to a press release issued by Omantel, the company’s decision to compete for the third mobile network operator in Iran comes within the framework of the efforts exerted by the company’s management to boost its local and foreign investments by joining a global consortium.

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The Telecom regulator of Romania is anticipating that the market will grow by between 5% and 10% in 2009, following a double-digit rise in 2008. President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANC), Liviu Nistoran, said the growth stood at 16.7% in 2007. Nistoran further said, ‘we predict a two-figure market rise in 2008, with the most important sectors being the fixed broadband internet access and wireless internet, wireless data and mobile telephony.’ ‘I believe the communications market will continue to develop in 2009 as well, but [at] a slower rate, due to the economic crisis. I am counting especially on the constant wireless internet growth, [with] WiMAX licences due to become operational next year,’ he added.

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Econet Wireless has finally instigated the country’s fourth GSM network after braving almost five years of legal and financial setbacks. The firm is going to offer services under the name Yu, targeting the 18-35-year-old audience. Its networks have gone live in Nairobi and it plans to expand to Mombasa next month, before a full nationwide launch by March next year.  In 2007, when Essar of India bought stakes of Econet Wireless International, the firm got the financial strength, with the new partner bringing with it a USD500 million investment. Safaricom dominates Kenyan mobile market which has a subscriber base of 12million and an 80% market share.

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Nokia, one of the biggies in mobile handsets market, is planning to launch mobile phone services in Japan, media reported. The company, which would become the first handset manufacturer to operate telecommunications services in Japan, will attempt to crack one of the worlds most competitive but lucrative markets through its high-end brand Vertu, report said. The new entrant is soon going to shake mobile phone industry of Japan, presently lead by NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. Nokia will be able boost its image and market share. Nokia plans to rent wireless communication networks from DoCoMo and begin services as a “mobile virtual network operator” in the spring, as reported by a news agency. The report further said, Nokia would target wealthy Japanese customers first with its Vertu line, which is made with jewels, precious metals and premium leather. The handsets will retail for 1.6 million yen to 5 million yen ($17,000 to $52,000).

However, Nokia caters 39% share of the world’s handset market, its handset presence in Japan remains small. Vertu phones feature a “concierge key” that enables access to a round-the-clock personal assistant to help with travel, dining and entertaining arrangements. In Japan, there are about 107 million cell phones.

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A new entrant in European mobile phone market is soon going to give tough competition to the existing one. An independent distribution company called Hyundai Mobile Europe have been set up by Austrian distributor Leitz Austria. They are planning to sell Hyundai phones in 23 Western and Eastern European countries. The company was launched in September and has already marketed eight mobile phones in Austria. CEO of Hyundai Mobile Europe, Norbert Winkler said that they are confident that the company will break even in 2009 and reach a market share of between 3 and 5% within the next five years.

Hyundai mobile has inked agreements with Hungarian mobile operator Pannon and Slovenian mobile operator Mobiltel to market its mobile phones, while deals with mobile operators in Austria are expected to be finalised soon. The firm is planning to roll out between 10 and 15 mobile devices in the categories Basic, Music, Lifestyle, Innovation and Business.
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Telefonica O2 Ireland reported a drop of 3.4 % to €234 million in service revenue for the three months to the end of September compared with the same period last year. For this quarter, ARPU showed a decline to €43.70 compared with €47 for the same three-month period in 2007. The operator adds 26,000 new customers and its subscriber base reaches to 1.73 million. Customer numbers are up 5 per cent year-on-year, the company said.

During the three-month period, a total of 609 million text messages were sent, representing a 55 per cent rise in text usage year on year, up from 393 million in the third quarter of 2007. ARPU for the postpay customers drops from €84.90 (2007) to €72.20. Paul Whelan, chief financial officer, Telefónica O2 Ireland, said ARPU had fallen due to “extra value” being offered to customers. The telecoms sector faced the same economic pressures as other sectors and predicted this Christmas would “a lot tougher than previous years, he added. The mobile phone penetration have reached 120%, Whelan said that the “phenomenal growth” in mobile phone penetration was coming to an end.

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Report Buyer has added a new report analysing the telecoms market in Afghanistan as well as in Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka”,  reports that as the political and social rebuilding of Afghanistan proceeds following years of war and civil unrest, the country has been busy putting new national telecommunications infrastructure in place.

The report shows that telecommunication has already started to play a big role in helping repair the Afghanistan economy and society. A properly functioning basic telephone network has been and continues to be a high priority for the Afghani Government. As part of this commitment, an important step was the creation of the Ministry of Communications in 2002, followed by the establishment of a regulator, the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority in 2005.

Authors of the report note that with ongoing unrest in the country and the recovery from war not yet complete, one of the big challenges for the country has been to attract and manage foreign investment. However, there have been some positive signs in the telecom sector in this regard and, interestingly, for a period the telecom sector was the only one in the country that was attracting any foreign capital.

Furthermore, with two mobile operators already in place, the MoC announced in late 2005 that two more mobile licences had been awarded. In July 2006, the Investcom/Alokozai consortium launched its Areeba Afghanistan service in four provinces and by mid-2007 the new operator already had 500,000 subscribers, as the overall market pushed along at an annual growth rate of around 70%.

In a similar story, UAE’s Etisalat was awarded a GSM licence in May 2006 and beginning its operations in August 2007, launched a network with coverage of the country’s main cities, picking up 200,000 subscribers in the first month

For more information log on to www.reportbuyer.com
About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information you can log on to www.wirelessfederation.com

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According to a report, Ecuador’s mobile service providers have grown their subscriber base to approximately 11.3 million in comparison to 9.65 million at this time last year.

Operator                     Subscribers (Million)
Porta                            7.67
Movistar Ecuador           2.95
Alegro PCS                   0.7

Three Mobile operators of Ecuador’s mobile market added 154,164 net new subscribers between them during the period of September. There were a total of 10.45 million GSM subscribers at the end of this month, or 92.5% of the country’s total.

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According to a recent surevey, South Africa has been rated as the world’s fourth fastest and Africa’s fastest growing mobile market, with a coverage on 80% of the total population, nearly 39 million users, representing a market value of US$2.4 billion. The three operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, have been in a cutthroat competition against each other since the launch of MNP in the market last year.
“South Africa offers an extraordinary penetration rate in this burgeoning market, one of the highest in the developing world,” said the report.

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