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Belgacom posts Q3 revenues of $1.89 billion, down by 2.6% (Belgium)

  • November 10th, 2008
  • 5:43 am

Belgiums leading telcoms company, Belgacom reports net profit of $276.8 Million, observing a fall of 7.3% in Q3′08 and revenues of $1.89 billion, down by 2.6% since last year, caused by economic breakdown.
The company said that despite all the challenges from strong competition and pricing regulations, its core results were “solid” for the quarter.
Its mobile operator Proximus added 33,000 new mobile subscribers.
The company continues to look for new acquisition opportunities outside Belgium but good deals that create shareholder value are “not that common.”

   

Proximus to lose it’s market share to Base - 2008-2010 forecast (Belgium)

  • August 14th, 2008
  • 8:16 am

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%.

   

Proximus launches mobile services for women (Belgium)

  • November 27th, 2007
  • 2:39 pm

Belgian mobile operator Proximus has partnered with a number of women’s magazines to launch mobile services targeted at women. In cooperation with publisher Sanoma, Proximus has launched the prepaid services Flair Mobile, Libelle Mobile and Femmes d’Aujourd’hui Mobile. Subscribers will pay EUR 0.29 per minute, EUR 0.12 per SMS, EUR 0.25 per MMS and EUR 0.50 for each mobile internet session. After three minutes, call to national fixed lines and Proximus numbers are free. The subscriptions also one free session each day on the Vodafone live! portal. The mobile websites for the three associated magazines have been re-styled to fit the new offer.

   

Belgacom’s net income up 30% on mobile, TV unit performance (Belgium)

  • August 24th, 2007
  • 9:40 am

Belgacom’s net income went up 30 percent in the first half on the back of strong performance with its TV unit and mobile unit Proximus. The company’s net income rose to EUR 564 million from EUR 434 million in the year-ago period. Group revenue went up only slightly to EUR 3.04 billion, versus EUR 3.03 billion, while EBITDA fell 2.8 percent to EUR 1.08 billion from EUR 1.11 billion in H1 2006. Belgacom has upgraded its 2007 full year guidance for its fixed as well as for its mobile business. The company now expects that group revenue decline will be 1 percent with a flat EBITDA margin. Proximus revenues are expected to rise by 1 percent excluding mobile termination rate cuts impact, and a decline of 4 percent including the impact of the rate cuts.

Year-over-year, the revenues from fixed line services increased by 0.5 percent to EUR 1.82 billion. The decline of traditional voice revenue was limited to 4.9 percent and fully offset by revenue growth from internet, TV and ICT activities. Internet revenue growth reached 12 percent driven by higher DSL volumes and good results in terms of ARPU. The company ended June with 1.18 million ADSL lines, up 11 percent year-on-year. Belgacom added 51,683 new TV subscribers in the first half and exceeds expectations by bringing its total Belgacom TV customer base to 191.348 at the end of June.

Mobile communications services’ revenue decline was limited to 3.1 percent. Excluding the impact of mobile termination rate cuts, the revenue increased by 0.2 percent. Proximus added 104,388 new active customers in the first half, of which 69,564 in the second quarter. This brings the total number of active customers to 4.42 million at the end of June 2007. Net service revenue declined 2.9 percent with the mobile termination rate cuts being the main driver of the voice services revenue evolution (-5.7%), fully offsetting the positive impact of customer growth. Excluding the impact of the MTR cuts, net service revenue increased by 0.6 percent. Data revenue -before deduction of free traffic- grew 28 percent year-over-year and represents about 23 percent of the total mobile revenue. Blended net ARPU stood at EUR 35.6, compared to EUR 37.7 at the end of June 2006. The decrease is primarily driven by the impact of the mobile termination rate cuts in November 2006 and May 2007, as well as by the success of the new Pay&Go and Smile tariffs plans.

   

Belgacom posts 0.5% rise in Q1 revenues

  • May 17th, 2007
  • 1:59 pm

Belgacom reported first-quarter revenues of EUR 1.515 billion, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier. The EBITDA result fell 1.7 percent to EUR 536 million, while net profit improved 27 percent to EUR 319 million thanks to gains on divestments. The fixed-line division reported sales up 0.8 percent to EUR 916 million, with growth in internet products offsetting for the first time the decline in traditional voice revenues. EBITDA rose 2.5 percent to EUR 284 million. Belgacom added 9,826 TV customers in the quarter to take the total to nearly 150,000, generating ARPU of EUR 13.4. Net TV additions for the year are expected to equal last year’s level. Residential ADSL customers reached 1.017 million at the end of March, generating ARPU of EUR 31.5. Belgacom still expects a 1-2 percent decline in fixed-line sales for the full year, with the EBITDA margin stable.

At the mobile unit Proximus, sales fell 2.8 percent to EUR 512 million, hurt by cuts to termination rates, while EBITDA dropped 8.6 percent to EUR 841 million. Belgacom expects annual mobile revenues to fall 5-7 percent, of which 4 percent will stem from termination rate cuts, while the EBITDA margin should reach around 45 percent. Proximus added 34,824 new customers in the first quarter for a total 4.346 million. ARPU fell 1.2 percent to EUR 39.3.

   

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.