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Mobistar’s profit drops by 3.7% (Belgium)

  • July 25th, 2008
  • 12:45 pm

Mobistar, Belgium, has revealed it’s financial results for H1′08, showing a drop of 3.7% in net profit to USD 28.5 million (EUR145.1 million) against the same period last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell, down 0.7% to EUR300 million. The figures are stronger than analysts had expected and as a result Mobistar has revised guidance for the financial year, raising both its revenue and net profit share forecasts.
Lower revenues had been expected due to the reduction of mobile termination rates by the Belgian Institute for Post and Telecommunications (BIPT), but the operator claimed that strong performance from its Luxembourg subsidiary, VOX Mobile, helped offset losses. Mobistar is currently the second largest cellco in Belgium, and according to a database, claimed 30.52% of the market at March 2008, trailing Proximus, the wireless arm of former monopoly PTO Belgacom.

   

Belgian iPhones world’s most expensive (Belgium)

  • July 10th, 2008
  • 2:19 pm

Belgians are finally getting the chance to buy one of Apple’s coveted iPhones, at the highest prices in the world.

An Associated Press report also said the 8-gigabyte iPhone will retail for €525 euros (US$825), more than four times the US price of €126 (US$199).

The 16-gigabyte version costs €615 (US$966). The same phone would cost €190 (US$299) in the US.

Belgian Enterprise Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne blamed a local law that forbids companies subsidizing one product by charging more for something else, the Associated Press report said.

He said he will try to scrap this rule in September because it stops phone operators from selling handsets inexpensively along with fixed service contracts, as is common elsewhere. For instance, Dutch customers over the border can pay just €1 (US$1.57) for an iPhone if they pick a contract with operator T-Mobile.

The Belgian iPhone carrier, Mobistar, claims it isn’t worried that high prices will deter customers. It is expecting lines at stores in Brussels when the phones go on sale Friday.

   

 

 

Mobistar CEO to become CEO of BTC on 1 January (Bulgaria)

  • October 30th, 2007
  • 2:46 pm

Bulgarian telecommunications operator BTC will appoint Bernard Moscheni Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on 1 January 2008. He succeeds Martin Staub, who will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of BTC as non-executive member. Bernard Moscheni is currently CEO of Belgian mobile operator Mobistar, a post he will leave at the end of the year.

   

Mobistar CEO to step down by year end (Belgium)

  • October 29th, 2007
  • 2:55 pm

Belgian cellular network operator Mobistar’s CEO, Bernard Moscheni, will step down from the company before the end of the year.The 50.2 percent France Telecom susbsidiary will be headed by Werner De Laet, its current CFO, until a new CEO is appointed. The selection process will be led by Mobistar chairman Jan Steyaert and Orange senior executive vice president Olaf Swantee. Moscheni, who held the CEO post for three years, will take on another professional challenge, according to the company press release.

   

FT mulls Mobistar options (Belgium)

  • October 22nd, 2007
  • 7:09 am

According to Belgian newspaper De Tijd, France Telecom is considering whether to increase or divest its 50.2% stake in Belgian mobile operator Mobistar. ‘The status quo is the least likely option,’ a source close to the French telco was cited as saying. The report said France Telecom has three options - buying out minority shareholders, selling its stake entirely, or pushing Mobistar towards a strategic merger with internet and cable firm Telenet to create a diversified telecoms provider. It added that any decision will most likely be made before Mobistar’s next AGM in May 2008.

   

Mobistar reports half million customers for TempoMusic (Belgium)

  • October 5th, 2007
  • 12:30 pm

Belgian mobile operator Mobistar has attracted 500,000 customers for its TempoMusic service, run with Universal Music. The service offers customers who top up for at least EUR 10, 300 free SMS and ten free listening sessions with the TempoMusicStation, accessed via a shortcode SMS. In total the TempoMusic customers have sent around 1.2 billion SMS.

   

Mobistar H1 profit dips, sees full-year decline

  • July 22nd, 2007
  • 6:30 pm

Mobistar, Belgium’s second-largest cellco by subscribers, has reported a 2.2% fall in first-half earnings, and repeated its downbeat full-year outlook. EBITDA declined to EUR302 million (USD416.8 million). Mobistar, majority owned by France Telecom forecasts that net profit and service revenues would fall this year as regulators cut roaming tariffs and mobile termination rates, the wholesale charge levied to complete a call. Its average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped to EUR36.9 in the first half from EUR39.5 a year earlier, hit in the second quarter by lower mobile termination rates, although its number of clients grew by 5.9%.

   

 

 

Mobistar acquires VOXmobile for EUR 80.3 million

  • May 23rd, 2007
  • 8:33 am

Belgian mobile operator Mobistar has signed an agreement for the take-over of the Luxembourgian mobile telephone operator VOXmobile. In December 2006 the shareholders of VOXmobile authorised a business bank to investigate the strategic options for the company. After the approval of its board of directors Mobistar made a binding take-over offer, that was accepted by VOXmobile. Mobistar buys 90 percent of the VOXmobile shares for EUR 80.3 million. This amount equals proportional the estimated value of the company minus its debts after capitalisation of the shareholders loans. VOXmobile is a Luxembourgian telecom operator that supplies mobile and fixed services for telephony and internet. The company has a licence for GSM 900/1800, UMTS and fix telephony and exploits its own network. In 2006 VOXmobile realised a turnover of EUR 27.673 million and a net loss off EUR 5.75 million. The shareholders of VOXmobile are BIP Investment Partners and Audiolux, who each own 37.5 percent and BIKO, an investment company owned of amongst others by its founders Jean-Claude Bintz and Pascal Koster, for the remaining quarter. With this take-over Mobistar is looking for geographic expansion and extra growth. VOXmobile will continue to exist as a separate entity and will continue to use its own infrastructure and means. The agreement stipulates a continuity of the present management who remains shareholder of 10 percent of the capital. The closing date of the transaction is foreseen for 2 July 2007 at the latest.

   

Belgian regulator sets mobile termination fees

  • April 5th, 2007
  • 3:04 pm

Telecompaper writes…Belgian communications regulator BIPT has issued a communication on the second application of the control mechanism of the mobile operators’ terminating prices set in the BIPT decision of 11 August 2006. BIPT will implement the second phase of a pricecap on mobile termination fees applicable to Proximus, Mobistar and BASE. The tariff change will come into effect on 1 May and follows a price change in November last year. Proximus can charge a mobile termination tariff of EUR 0.0588 during both peak and off-peak hours, Mobistar is capped at EUR 0.095 during peak hours and EUR 0.0498 during off-peak hours, and BASE’s mobile termination fees are set at EUR 0.1044. The set-up fee for all three operators is set at of EUR 0.05.

 

Belgians offered mobile phone payment system

  • March 23rd, 2007
  • 1:31 pm

eetimes writes…Belgians can use their mobile phones as a means of payment using a system of agreements in place between payment systems vendor SA Banksys NV (Brussels, Belgium) and Belgian mobile phone service operators BASE, Mobistar and Proximus.
Although the possibility of using phone calls as payments has been much discussed this is believed to be the first implementation. The service is available to anyone having a Bancontact/Mister Cash bank card and a GSM handset operating on one of the three Belgian mobile telephone networks.

System is based on m-banxafe software developed by Banksys which links a customer’s bank account to a series of SMS messages which make and confirm the payment.

In practice the beneficiary of the payment, typically the vendor, makes a request for payment which is sent over the GSM network as an SMS message. The customer receives an SMS, and confirms the payment using a secret code; the customer and the merchant then each receive a message confirming the transaction. The m-banxafe technology is linked into the vendors and customers bank accounts to effect the transfer of money.

Customers who wish to pay by GSM must have a SIM card enabled for m-banxafe technology and then choose a secret PIN and link the GSM handset to the relevant bank account. There are no subscription or connection charges but each transaction is billed at 25 eurocents including value added tax to the customer and 49 eurocents excluding value added tax to the merchant.