Number of mobile lines in Spain hits 50.2 mln (Spain)
The number of mobile lines taken out in Spain increased 7.3 percent last year to hit 50.2 million, said the telecoms regulator. Spain has a penetration rate of 112.2 lines per 100 residents, said the CMT. An extra 3.4 million mobile lines were added in 2007, 39.7 percent of which were with Vodafone (1.36 million lines) compared to 35.1 percent with the market leader Movistar (1.2 million). Spain’s fourth mobile operator Yoigo scooped 11.4 percent of new lines, or 389,296 users, while MVNOs got 14.5 percent together, equalt o 495,365 lines. Orange lost 22,832 lines overall after scrapping 500,000 inactive lines in April from its tally. During the year, 4.2 million customers switched operator, 6.4 percent more than 2006.
Orange, Thomson, Sagem create joint venture
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.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Colt reports Q4 revenues down 5.5%, profits improve
European carrier Colt Telecom reported fourth-quarter sales of EUR 424.6 million, down 5.5 percent from a year earlier due to cuts in fixed-mobile rates and lower voice revenues. Data revenues rose 10 percent to EUR 220.9 million, while voice revenues fell 18 percent to EUR 203.7 million. EBITDA edged 1.3 percent higher to EUR 71.8 million, and pretax profit grew to EUR 13.5 million from EUR 8.9 million a year earlier. Under its new organisational structure, Colt reported sales from large enterprises up at EUR 174.4 million, while sales from SMEs and wholesale fell versus a year earlier, to EUR 119.3 million and EUR 130.9 million respectively. Wholesale generated the most operating profit, at EUR 10.5 million, while the SME business was loss-making at EUR 1.2 million. After its first full year of profitability in 2007, Colt said it expects “another year of progress” in 2008.
Mexico prepay mobile prices among cheapest in LatAm (Mexico)
Pre-pay mobile tariffs in Mexico are 292 percent cheaper than in Central America, a study of pricing in Latin America and the Caribbean shows. Many operators who want to boost their subscription base are too focused on portability schemes, said the report by Signals Telecom Consulting. The consultancy said customers in the region were more interested in price reductions than in keeping their original phone numbers and said customers could be encouraged to put a different SIM card into their phone to make cheaper calls to a particular destination. The consultancy studied prepay prices in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama and found a low level of return calculated per minute of time available for each USD. Prices were adjusted for equality in purchasing power. Mexico’s Movistar offered the best return per minute for those spending less than USD 18 while for those spending more Iusacell offered the best return.
Govt to act against NTT East, West over competition concerns (Japan)
The Japanese government plans to take action against NTT East and NTT West as the companies are engaging in practices that create barriers to healthy market competition. The communications ministry will ask the companies to submit reports on the practices and ways to improve them before the end of March, the Nikkei writes. Under the Telecommunications Business Law, companies that have a large share of a market are not allowed to give preferential treatment to any service provider and are also not allowed to use information gained through leasing networks to other providers for own marketing activities. However, these rules do not apply to subsidiaries and affiliates. NTT East and West may be mining customer information from lessees of their networks and have encouraged customers to sign up for NTT Communications’ internet services. Furthermore, NTT East and West have sold NTT DoCoMo mobile phones.
Alibaba to seek say in Yahoo! acquisition (China)
Chinese internet company Alibaba plans to seek a stronger voice in Microsoft’s discussions to acquire Yahoo!, which is an Alibaba shareholder. Yahoo! owns 39 percent in Alibaba which has not been involved in the talks but plans to get involved as talks would become more serious, a source close to the matter.Beijing authorities are concerned that an important Chinese firm would come under the control of Microsoft, which uses monopolistic tactics, the source said. Officials at Alibaba declined to comment on the matter.
Egypt closes 2007 with over 30 mln mobile users (Egypt)
The number of mobile phone subscribers in Egypt reached 30.047 million at the end of 2007, up from 29.368 million in November and 18.001 million at the end of 2006, according to figures from the ICT ministry. Mobile penetration was at 40.62 percent of the population at year-end. Fixed-line density increased marginally to 15.2 percent at the end of 2007 from 15 percent a year earlier, while internet use was at 11.7 out of every 100 inhabitants versus 8.3 in 2006. Internet use rose to 8.62 million users, versus 8.29 million in November. The number of ADSL users increased to 427,085 from 394,875 in November and was more than double the figure at the end of 2006.
Omantel buys stake in Worldcall (Oman)
Omantel has finalised an agreement to buy control of Pakistani operator Worldcall Telecom. The company will acquire 60 percent of Worldcall from its shareholders plus a 5 percent stake from the Pakistan Securities Market. The transaction will include 70.65 percent of Worldcall’s subsidiary operations in Sri Lanka. The total consideration for the takeover is USD 193 million. Omantel intends to fund the acquisition through long-term debt. Worldcall offers voice and internet services in Pakistan, via metro fibre, hybrid fibre coaxial and wireless local loop.
Dialog Group sees revenues grow, profits fall in 2007
Dialog Group saw consolidated revenues grow 27 percent to LKR 32.52 billion in the year ended 31 December 2007, versus LKR 25.68 billion in 2006. EBITDA was flat at LKR 13.74 billion and profit after tax fell 11 percent to LKR 8.97 billion from LKR 10.12 billion in the year before. Mobile unit Dialog Telekom contributed well to the Group’s performance while Dialog Broadband Networks and Dialog Television are still building up their networks and services.
Mobile unit Dialog Telekom saw its subscriber base grow 37 percent year-on-year to reach 4.27 million. Revenues went up 24 percent to LKR 31.13 billion, from LKR 25.15 billion, and EBITDA rose 7 percent to LKR 14.33 billion. Dialog Telekom’s profits went up 1 percent to LKR 10.13 billion.
Dialog Broadband Networks has launched CDMA WLL fixed line, and WiMAX broadband access during 2007. The unit saw revenues go up 36 percent to LKR 1.05 billion but the unit posted a net loss of LKR 317.96 million.
Dialog Television (including subsidiaries Communiq Broadband Network and CBN Sat) posted revenues of LKR 722.45 million during 2007, its first year of post-acquisition operations. The unit posted a net loss of LKR 788.53 million.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Nordisk Mobiltelefon proposes rights issue
The board of mobile operator Nordisk Mobiltelefon has proposed a rights issue to existing shareholders to support the company’s operations in Sweden and Norway and to secure operations in other markets until long-term strategies for the development of these markets have been established. The board proposes a one-for-one rights issue with a subscription price of SEK 10 per new share. The maximum number of new shares to be issued is 32.41 million. Subscriptions are accepted until 25 March, with payments for subscribed shares due on 27 March.
