iPhone, Adroid boost T-mobile numbers
Exclusive availability of the first Android-based handset and the ever popular Apple iPhone helped propel T-Mobile‘s wireless subscribers upward during 2008.
T-Mobile’s mobile customers at the end of 2008 reached 128.3 million, up 6.3% year on year.
The firm’s US mobile subsidiary was the first operator to launch the T-Mobile G1, based on Google’s Android, on October 22, 2008. By the end of the year, subscribers to T-Mobile USA hit 32.8 million, following the addition of 621,000 new customers during the final quarter of the year. T-mobile didn’t say how many G1s it shifted but, manufacturer HTC hinted that it had shipped 1 million gadgets worldwide by the end of the year.
Over in the domestic market, Germany, the iPhone 3G and the G1 made significant contribution to increasing competitiveness, where T-Mobile added over 950,000 new customers during the fourth quarter.
Parent firm, Deutsche Telekom also reported that international fixed line broadband userswent up by 8 per cent year on year to 15 million, while traditional fixed lines dropped 7.5% to 33.8 million.
German cellcos propose a hike in MTA
The three German incumbent, according to the local media, have suggested a hike in the mobile termination fees from April’09. O2 Germany has proposed a fee hike from the current EUR0.088/min to EUR0.1643/min, whereas T-Mobile puts forward an increase from EUR0.0792/min to EUR0.0839/min. Vodafone on the other hand suggest a rise in the mobile termination fees from EUR0.0792/min from the current EUR0.0823/min. E-Plus, unlike other incumbents, proposed a decreased MTA fees from EUR0.088/min to EUR0.084/min. The descision on the MTA fees hike will be published on 12 February’09 by BNA, the telecom regulator.
DoCoMo posts net profit worth US$4.86 billion (Japan)
NTT DoCoMo, market leader in Japan in terms of subscribers have posted net profit for the nine months to the end of December 2008 of JPY437.7 billion (USD4.86 billion), up 16% from a year earlier, whilst operating income grows to 19% year-on-year to JPY746.8 billion, despite revenues falling 4% to JPY3.38 trillion. The handset sales and reudced chun is the attributing factor. The company is home to 54.16 million subscribers, up 220,000 from three months earlier, as of 31st Dec’08.
