Garmin makes higher bid for Tele Atlas (Netherlands)
Portable navigation device maker Garmin has come out with a rival bid for digital mapping group Tele Atlas. Garmin is offering EUR 24.50 per share for the Dutch company, beating an existing agreed offer from rival TomTom worth EUR 21.25 per share. Garmin said it expects to launch its offer before the TomTom bid expires in early December and that it has already secured financing. The offer values Tele Atlas at EUR 2.3 billion. Tele Atlas confirmed it had received the bid from Garmin and was still studying the proposal. Garmin said it is committed to maintaining Tele Atlas management and operations in the Netherlands and would continue to run the company as an independent entity.
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Airtel revenues up 45% to INR 63.4 bln in Q2 (India)
Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel reported fiscal second-quarter revenues of INR 63.37 billion, up 45 percent from the year-earlier period on the back of strong subscriber growth. The net profit for the quarter was INR 16.14 billion, up 73 percent over last year, while EBITDA increased 59 percent to INR 27.1 billion. Bharti Airtel had 51 million customers at the end of September, up 78 percent over the corresponding period last year.
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Vodafone, Alcatel show DVB-SH in Lisbon (Portugal)
The Portuguese government has given its support to the Unlimited Mobile TV initiative launched by Alcatel-Lucent and Vodafone. The demonstration aims to illustrate the potential of mobile TV using DVB-SH technology. A demonstration of the service took place at the Atlantic Pavillion in Lisbon on 30 October. During the demonstration, members of the public were able to receive directly on mobile phones the live broadcasts of Euronews, RTP Mobile, SIC and TVI, in the various languages available.
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ITU says USD 55 billion committed to connect Africa
A summit on improving Africa’s information technology infrastructure wrapped up in Rwanda with investment commitments amounting to over USD 55 billion. ITU head Hamadoun Toure said in a statement that African leaders had committed themselves to creating the right regulatory environment, and private sector leaders had pledged to invest in the continent’s ICT sector. The summit decided to bring forward ICT connectivity goals to 2012 to enable the achievement of the broader Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Commitments were made to interconnect all African capitals and major cities with ICT broadband infrastructure and strengthen connectivity to the rest of the world by 2012. By 2015, broadband and ICT services will be extended to all African villages. The summit also set out to meet the World Summit on the Information Society goals for capacity building, establishing an enabling environment for investment, and e-government services. Toure said telecom companies were making profits, farmers were getting the information they need, and teachers were receiving educational aid. “Mobile phones even have an impact on democracy. During elections, people have used mobile phones to get election results fast and in a transparent manner.”
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Korea ends September with 66.6 mln telephony subscribers (South Korea)
Korea ended September with 66.58 million telephony subscribers, up 0.5 percent from August, according to figures from the communications ministry. Of the total, 23.31 million are fixed-line users while 42.80 million people have a mobile subscription, up 0.7 percent. KT is the fixed-line market leader with 91 percent market share and 21.21 million fixed-line subscribers, followed by hanarotelecom with an 8.4 percent market share and 1.96 million fixed-line users. The country ended September with 42.80 million mobile users, led by SKT with a 50.5 percent share of the market followed by KTF with a 31.7 percent share and LGT with a17.8 percent share of the mobile market. Some 41.14 million mobile customers have mobile internet services. During the first nine months of this year, 6.79 million used mobile number portability to switch providers and 521,194 people used fixed number portability.
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Cisco launches I-Prize for new collaboration technologies (USA)
Cisco has announced the I-Prize, a competition to develop technology business ideas using Cisco’s collaboration products. Entrants will have their ideas run through Cisco’s process for identifying emerging technologies to take to market, and the winning team may have the opportunity to join Cisco as founders of a new emerging technology business unit. Depending on the value of the idea, Cisco may also invest up to USD 10 million over three years to fund the new business unit. Judges will consider both the technology innovation as well as the business opportunity behind the idea, with Cisco targeting IP-based products with the potential to generate up to USD 1 billion in sales within 5-7 years.
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J:Com sees Q3 revenues rise 23%, ups forecast (Japan)
Japanese cabler Jupiter Telecommunications (J:Com) posted third quarter revenues of JPY 194.4 billion, up 23 percent year-on-year from JPY 157.9 billion in the year-ago period. Operating income went up 27 percent to JPY 31.4 billion, from JPY 24.8 billion, and net income surged 31 percent to JPY 18 billion, from JPY 13.7 billion. J:Com ended the quarter with 2.62 million customers, up 22 percent, and 4.60 million revenues generating units. The bundle ratio stood at 1.76 and the ARPU was JPY 7,668 while churn dropped to 0.95 percent. J:Com also revised upwards its full-year revenue forecast to JPY 264.5 billion from an earlier forecast of JPY 263 billion. Profits are expected to come in at JPY 22.5 billion from JPY 20.5 billion.
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Fastweb net loss narrows, revenues reach EUR 1.07 bln (Italy)
Swisscom subsidiary and Italian broadband network operator Fastweb saw its revenues for first nine months of this year grow by 19 percent to EUR 1.068 billion, compare with the same period in 2006. Business revenues amount to 58 percent of the total, while consumer revenues amounted to 42 percent. The third-quarter revenues were EUR 353.8 million, up 11 percent from EUR 319.1 million in the third quarter of 2006. Consolidated EBITDA in the first nine months was grew by 48 percent year-on-year to EUR 317.4 million, while excluding the positive net impact of the extraordinary items booked in the second quarter of this year (EUR 43.5 million), organic EBITDA was EUR 273.9 million, 28 percent more than in the same period last year. The consolidated EBIT profit amounted to EUR 37.6 million compared with an EBIT loss of EUR 72.6 million in the first nine months of 2006. For the first nine months, Fastweb reports a consolidated net loss of EUR 33 million, a 49 percent improvement compared with EUR 64.2 million during the same period last year.
Fastweb’s customer base grew by 55,800 during the third quarter to reach 1.25 million on 30 September. The growth was high in September, due to Fastweb’s re-shaped offer, simplifying and updating its tariffs and making Fastweb TV available also on a stand-alone basis. Fastweb residential ARPU decreased 2 percent quarter on quarter to EUR 733.
In light of the company’s decision to focus on higher-margin core activities and to limit the contribution of low-margin wholesales business, 2007 full year revenue guidance is set at approximately EUR 1.45 billion, 15 percent more than in 2006 and the full year EBITDA guidance is approximately EUR 480 million (+59% on 2006). This includes EUR 43.5 million extraordinary items booked in the second quarter and is based on the same assumptions regarding termination rates that were incorporated in the previous guidance.
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Orange Romania launches fixed telephony service (Romania)
Orange Romania has launched a bundled telephony/broadband service targeting business and residential customers. The so-called Home & Office Packs provide fixed line telephony and broadband internet access via HSDPA and include a SIM card and an HDSPA terminal. The terminal enables users to simultaneously use voice and data services, via Wi-Fi and through a regular network cable, for one or more computers. Home & Office Pack plans cost 12 EUR, 24 EUR or 36 EUR, depending on the number of minutes and amount of Internet traffic included with the service. Customers who already own one or more Orange mobile service plans and purchase a Home & Office Pack will receive free calls from their fixed number to their mobile numbers and from the mobile numbers to the fixed Orange number. Orange Romania is the third mobile operator to launch a landline service in Romania following Telemobil (end-2005) and Vodafone Romania (June 2007 for individuals and September for corporate clients). Also, Orange announced the extension of its UMTS network and the upgrade to HSDPA, offering up to 7.2 Mbps download speed. The areas in Bucharest where the Orange mobile internet may reach the said speed include Unirii Square, Magheru Blvd Universitate, Victoria Square, Pipera and Baneasa.
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