Wireless Federation

Spain adds 245,026 new mobile lines in August, with the total lines reaching 50.10 million at the end of the month. The growth was recorded at 5% on a y-to-y basis, reports the Spanish regulator, CMT. The mobile penetration reaches 110.9 lines per 100 inhabitants. The growth in M2M sector was up by 36.2% since last year, bringing the total number of mobile lines to 51.48 million. The number of postpaid subscribers added were 127,835 and the prepaid were 117,191. Vodafone, Yoigo and the MVNOs saw a positive growth in portability, whereas Movistar and Orange experienced a negative growth.
Vodafone added 18,581 new subscribers, Yoigo added 3,713 susbcribers and MVNOs recieved 1,851 net additions. On the flipside, Orange lost 18,056 ported subscribers, Movistar lost 6,089 ported subscribers.
Q2′08 figures show Vodafone accounted for 29.4% of the total net additions, Movistar for 26.7%, Orange for 20.3%, Yoigo accounted for 14.5% and MVNOs for the rest 9.1%.

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Argentina posts a total of 44.4 million mobile lines by the end of August, a rise of 18.5% since last year. According to the figures by a local consultancy  only between 35 and 37 million lines were actually in service. The two operators that lead the market with nearly 14 million subscribers each are Claro Argentina and Movistar.

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According to a media report, Ericsson has been contracted to deploy a GSM/EDGE mobile network for start-up operator Digicel Panama. Under this deal Ericsson will provide the Irish-owned cellco with a mobile softswitch, optical and microwave backhaul facilities and a convergent charging and billing solution.  Ericsson will also be held responsible for network deployment and systems integration. Also the Swedish firm is the supplier of choice for the Digicel group in 24 markets across the Caribbean and Central America. Currently, Panama has two mobile operators Movistar and Cable & Wireless. Digicel and America Movil won Panama’s third and fourth mobile licences in May, each paying around USD86 million. Both of them aiming a commercial launch by the end of 2008. Digicel is planning to invest USD334 million in its Panamanian subsidiary.
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Movistar Chile and SpinVox together launch the first voice-to-text service in Latin America. The service will now be available to it’s post-paid subscribers. In this service, SpinVox will convert the voice messages into text and deliver it to the reciever as a SMS. Subscribers will not only be able to see the full SMS content but also the caller ID. The service is available either as a monthly bundle of 10 or 20 voicemails or on a message-by-message service.

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Colombia’s lowest mobile rates among the Latin American countries leads to higher penetration rate. A 50% cut in mobile termination charges further reduced the average price per minute of mobile calls by up to 30% in the first quarter of 2008. Drop has affected operator’s ARPU but the cut was partly paid off by increase traffic. América Móvil’s Comcel is the leading cellular company in Colombia, followed by Telefónica’s Movistar and Millicom-controlled Colombia Móvil (trading as Tigo).

Operators                        Subscribers (Million) 
Comcel (AMX)                    25.195
Movistar Colombia (TEF)    8.755
Tigo Colombia (MICC)        3.263

Notable highlights of Colombia Mobile Forecast include:

• The wireless penetration level in Colombia will continue increasing and it will reach 88.7% in 2010. The number of total subscribers in the country will increase from our projected 35.7 million in 2008 to 40.2 million in 2010.

• Comcel, will see a stabilization of its market share over the forecast period. Comcel’s market share by subscribers will be 65.8% in 2010. Tigo Columbia (the 3rd largest operator) will see an increase in its market share at the expense of Movistar Colombia (the 2nd largest operator). Tigo Colombia will see its market share increase from our projected 9.3% to 10.5% while Movistar’s market share decreases from 24.6% to 23.8% over the 2008-2010 forecast period.

• Back in 4Q06, Tigo Colombia replaced Movistar as the operator with the highest ARPU in Colombia. It is expected that this trend will continue during the forecast period, with Tigo Colombia registering the highest ARPU of US$ 14.49 per month in 2010.  Comcel will continue to receive the lowest ARPU among operators in Colombia at US$ 11.03 per month in 2010. Overall, Colombia will be the market where consumers pay the second lowest ARPU in Latin America, after Peru, with average ARPUs of US$ 11.81 per month forecasted in 2010.

• Expecting  relative stability in EBITDA margins across the operator space with Comcel having the highest EBITDA margins at 53.2% in 2010.

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Movistar and Entel PCS, Chile, have planned to fight a legal battle against the anti-trust commission (FNE), together.
The commission had ruled that the implementation of number portability (NP) is a prerequisite for 3G licence auctions to go ahead.
The two operators have been joined by digital trunking operator Nextel, cable operator VTR and the telecoms watchdog Subtel, who already filed a complaint with the SC.
The pair agrees to the Subtel’s argument that introducing number portability is a regulatory issue for Subtel alone to decide. The companies argue that NP implementation will take at least another two years to complete, therefore it is unecessary to delay 3G auctions.

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Venezuela’s, mobile market, is far more dynamic than the fixed-line market, so much so that mobile phones outnumber fixed lines in service by around 4.7 to one. Mobile penetration is among the highest in Latin America. Venezuela is the regional leader in terms of SMS traffic, the number of text messages surpassing the number of minutes an average Venezuelan talks on a mobile phone. Venezuela is the only country in Latin America where CDMA is still the leading technology, but the two leading mobile operators, Movilnet and Movistar, are finally turning to GSM.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Venezuela Mobile Forecast include:

• The number of subscribers in Venezuela will increase from 28 million in 2008 to a forecasted 31.6 million in 2010.
• The wireless penetration level in the country will increase from 100.1% to 108% over this period.
• It is forecasted that Movilnet and Movistar Venezuela will be losing market share to Telvenco. Movilnet is expected to see its market share decline from its projected 40% in 2008 to 39.1% in 2010 while Movistar Venezuela will see a similar drop in market share from 38.3% in 2008 to 38.8% in 2010. On the other hand, Telvenco which will see its market share increase from 21.8% to 22.5% over this period.
• Movistar Venezuela will continue to receive the highest ARPU in the country. However, its monthly ARPU will still decline from US$ 23.34 in 2008 to US$ 19.15 in 2010. Overall, the average ARPU in the country will fall from US$ 18.52 to US$ 15 over this period.

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According to local media report, Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Antel), Uruguay’s state-owned telecommunications company, is interested in taking part in an alliance of regional communication companies. The aim is to have better way to compete against foreign multinationals such as Movistar and Claro. According to Antel’s president Edgardo Carvalho, the company has held meetings with executives of Brazilian group Oi, which is currently undergoing a merger process, after acquiring its competitor Brasil Telecom. The new company is seeking strategic South American allies to form an important conglomerate, able to compete against Claro and Movistar, Carvalho revealed.

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Belgium’s mobile market has three main operators Proximus, Mobistar and Base and around 7 MVNOs. The incumbent’s Proximus unit controls just less than half of the market, and remains the only operator to have launched 3G services. The mobile market has room to grow both in terms of penetration and technology.
Notable highlights of the Belgium Mobile Forecast include:

• The wireless penetration level of Belgium is gradually increasing, and it will reach 106,4% in 2010. The number of total subscribers will increase from the projected 10.78 million in 2008 to 10.53 million in 2010.
• A significant drop in the market share for Proximus is forecasted. It’s current projected mobile market share (by subscribers) of 42.5% will drop to 41.2% in 2010. It is believed that most of the drop in market share will be taken up by Base.
• Based on Q1.08 data, the ARPU forecasts are reversing. According to the forecast, Proximus and Mobistar will continue to receive similar ARPUs over the next three years. It will be US$46.43 per month for Proximus and US$47.72 per month for Mobistar in 2010.
• Proximus will continue to enjoy the highest EBITDA margins in the Belgium operator space in 2010 at 47.3%.

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Spain has reportedly added 539,631 mobile lines in H1′08, taking the total number of mobile lines to 49.6 million.

The Mobile-to-Mobile sector saw 220,842 H1 additions bringing the total to 1.3 million lines, up by 43.2%, which brought the total number of mobile lines to 51 million.

In June, the total number of mobile lines rose by 166,657.Spain saw an addition of 171,936 postpaid subscribers and lost around 5,279 prepaid subscribers.

Between April and June, Vodafone won 41% of the total new additions, Yoigo and MVNOs got 32.7%, and Movistar accounted for 24% of the overall new additions in the quarter. Vodafone, Yoigo and the MVNOs saw a positive balance in portability, while Movistar and Orange registered a negative balance.

Between the period of January and June over 1.9 million mobile phone were ported in Spain, with some 322,654 lines ported in June alone.

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