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European vendors reshuffle execs

  • April 2nd, 2008
  • 1:08 pm

In a series of executive shuffles at European vendors, Sony Ericsson and Nokia Siemens have appointed new marketing heads, while a new CEO has taken over at smartcard firm Sagem Orga.

Nokia Siemens Networks yesterday appointed Frederic Astier as head of marketing. He was previously a management team member on the Vodafone account. He takes over from Michael Hofmann, who is joining Nokia to handle the Deutsche Telekom business.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications has appointed its Asia-Pacific head, Lennard Hoornik, as its new head of marketing. Lennard had been running Sony Ericsson’s Asian business since January 2006.

Philippe d’Andréa has become Sagem Orga’s new CEO, replacing Patrick Samier who has been reassigned to elsewhere in the SAFRAN group. D’Andrea was previously executive vice president and COO.

   

EU Picks Mobile TV Standard (Belgium)

  • March 18th, 2008
  • 7:28 am

The European Union on Monday chose a mobile TV broadcast standard and suggested that its member governments now ask cell carriers to favor it.

EU commissioners chose DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds, the most widely used mobile TV format in Europe, over rival standards such as Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO and another known as DMB that is favored by Chinese and South Korean manufacturers.

DVB-H is supported by the world’s largest handset maker, Nokia, as well as Motorola, Philips, Sagem, Sony, Ericsson, Samsung and major European cell phone operators Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile. By contrast, Qualcomm’s technology has signed up the two biggest players in the United States — Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

The European Commission said it had to order EU nations to favor DVB-H to create economies of scale and get the nascent technology off the ground.

“They can do that by labeling, they can do that by promoting it in attributing licenses and so on,” said EU spokesman Martin Selmayr.

The EU called on other nations to follow its example.

The EU’s executive is entitled to make decisions on some technical standards on behalf of member governments, which it did, for instance, in pushing the Global System for Mobile communications, or GSM, for mobile phones.

That decision is recognized as leading Europeans to switch to cell phones faster than people in the United States have.

Selmayr said the European Commission believed it was important to forestall a war on standards that could have held back mobile broadcasting in Europe.

The impact of the EU’s choice is limited: EU nations can choose to avoid making decisions favoring the format and are under no obligation to eliminate other standards.

Ovum analyst Matthew Howett said the development and use of other technologies is still possible although EU backing for one standard creates “some certainty” for operators planning mobile broadcasting services and manufacturers making phones and chips.

The EU cited research forecasts of a steep increase in demand for mobile TV in 2009, with the worldwide market reaching $31 billion in sales by 2011.

   

1.53b handsets shipped in 2007

  • March 1st, 2008
  • 1:04 pm

Worldwide handset sales increased 16% to 1.153 billion units in 2007, driven by rising demand in emerging markets, says Gartner.

Nokia, the biggest phone vendor, increased its market share to 37.8%, up from three percentage points from a year earlier. In a disastrous last quarter, Motorola fell nearly ten points to 11.9% over the previous year.

Strong sales in China and India lifted Chinese handset supplier ZTE into top ten for the first time with a 1.2% market share. But the popularity of high-end BlackBerry and iPhone devices also put smartphone vendors RIM and Apple in the top ten. Taiwan’s BenQ, France’s Sagem and China-based Bird were the three displaced from the top group.

Gartner predicted growth to decline to 10% in 2008, with western Europe and North America contributing to just 30% of sales.

Gartner mobile devices research director Carolina Milanes said the strength of emerging market demand meant that handset sales were likely to be “relatively immune to a recession” in the US and western Europe.

   

 

Orange, Thomson, Sagem create joint venture

  • February 21st, 2008
  • 2:34 pm

Orange, Thomson and Sagem Communications have joined forces to create a joint venture, Soft At Home. Soft At Home aims to create and promote a software platform to simplify and accelerate the adoption of residential digital services. The JV is designed to facilitate the deployment and interoperability of digital equipment in the home and combine it with enhanced and innovative services. It will harness the technologies and experiences of its founding shareholders. Soft At Home’s software systems are being offered to telecommunications operators, third-party developers, OEMs and manufacturers.

   

 

 

 
 

Algerie Telecom to roll out FTTH this year

  • February 4th, 2008
  • 1:26 pm

Algerie Telecom said it plans to roll out Fibre to the Home (FTTH) during the course of this year, with an eventual view to launching triple-play services including IPTV. News agency reports said the triple-play service will initially be launched in the four cities of Alger, Constantine, Orange and Setif, before nationwide roll-out in the course of the next 12 months. Algerie Telecom also targets an increase in its ADSL customers to 3 million by the end of next year, six times the present number. The telecom operator will become the first operator in Africa to incorporate FTTH as a key section of its business strategy. “The service will consist of a modem that can connect to the fibre network that will give very high capacities allowing either triple or quadruple play,” said Malik Hachelef, who is overseeing the firm’s FTTH roll-out. Sagem is to supply the equipment for an FTTH network, and Algerie Telecom has authorized WiMAX to fill coverage gaps where ADSL is not available.

   

Safran to sell Sagem Communications to Gores Group (France)

  • October 29th, 2007
  • 3:05 pm

French electronics, communications and defence group Safran has received a binding offer from US investor Gores Group for the acquisition of Sagem Communications at an enterprise value of EUR 383 million. Safran and Gores entered exclusive negotiations for the sale of the subsidiary, which offers broadband and convergence solutions, including printing terminals, digital TV STBs, broadband and residential terminals and telecommunication systems. The company has 6,500 employees and posted an EUR 866 million revenue in the first nine months of 2007, compared to EUR 1.3 billion in all of 2006. Safran said the sale should be finalised in the coming months, following consultation with corporate and employee entities and receipt of the required administrative authorisations. Gores will be majority shareholder and will be joined by minority shareholders including Safran and a large group of employees (management, employee mutual fund, etc).

According to Les Echos, the sale will close in the spring, with Safran keeping 10 percent for an unspecified period. Gores plans to maintain Sagem Communications’ three plants in France under their current directors, said Gores president Steven C Yager, in charge of mergers and acquisitions. In addition to the new funds, the US company will use its connections to help Sagem Communications grow in the US market.

   

Kenya to start national fibre network project in early 2008 (Kenya)

  • October 15th, 2007
  • 2:58 pm

The construction of Kenya’s national fibre-optic network is expected to start early next year. Information Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said the network had received approval from the Treasury and its roll-out will take six months. Arrangements have been finalised with the three companies which were awarded the tenders. These include Huawei, ZTE and Sagem. The companies are currently doing a survey to determine the route the cable will follow and also determine how long it will take to link the respective towns they are supposed to cover. The network has been split in three sections, namely Western Kenya, Coast and North Eastern region, and Central region, which will be handled by each of the three companies. Sagem is expected to handle the Coast and Northern part of the country, Huawei will handle Nairobi and the central area, and ZTE will handle Western Kenya, which runs from the Tanzania boarder post of Namanga to Lokichoggio.

   

Sagem nine-month sales down 17 percent (France)

  • October 10th, 2007
  • 3:00 pm

French mobile phone and broadband customer premises equipment company Sagem reported a turnover down 17 percent to EUR 1.29 billion in the nine months to the end of September, compared with EUR 1.56 billion in the year-earlier period. The company said that mobile phone revenues decreased by 39 percent due to a sharp drop in volumes, although the downturn slowed in the third quarter. The broadband business remained steady, generally recording good sales volumes. Safran Group, which includes aerospace propulsion, aircraft equipment and defence equipment recorded consolidated sales up 6.4 percent to EUR 8.59 billion.

   

France Telecom, Sagem, Thomson to form R&D venture - report (France)

  • September 21st, 2007
  • 12:57 pm

France Telecom will form joint venture with Sagem and Thomson, writes Les Echos. The tie-up would serve to develop common standards to allow different types of electronic devices to communicate better with each other. The future entity already has a code name, HNSA, standing for “home network software applications”. According to unnamed sources, France Telecom’s two partners, both manufacturers of the quad-play operator’s Livebox, would each hold 20 percent of HNSA, with France Telecom owning the remaining 60 percent. France Telecom CEO Didier Lombard hopes to offer stakes to other manufacturers or operators as well, thus helping to develop a truly common convergence standard making media centres/STBs accessible via mobile phones and the internet. Orange France is the domestic market leader with 5.2 million installed Liveboxes and 800,000 ADSL TV customers. The formation of HNSA is not only motivated by the desire to prevent companies from large markets such as the US and China from controlling future standards, but to allow France Telecom and its partners to file patents and collect royalties.

   

Sagem widens operating loss in first half

  • September 3rd, 2007
  • 2:55 pm

Safran Communications widened its operating loss to EUR 73 million from EUR 67 million in the first half. The business, which includes Sagem mobile phones, set-top boxes and broadband terminals, saw its sales fall by 22 percent to EUR 838 million in the first half, compared with EUR 1.08 billion in the year-earlier period. Mobile sales fell by 47 percent to EUR 251 million from EUR 477 million, with an operating loss growing to EUR 94 million from EUR 52 million. Broadband equipment sales down 2 percent to EUR 587 million from EUR 600 million, but turned around a EUR 15 million operating loss into a EUR 21 million operating profit. In the second half of 2007, the company will commercialise a new slim range of Sagem mobile phones, 10 mm voice and multimedia barphones, and 3G and multimedia clamshell phones. It also will commercialise the Porsche Design high-end phone. New digital TV set-top boxes will be released, including an flat box with PVR and a terminal to receive free DTTV via satellite.