DT to rename merged domestic fixed, mobile units as ‘T’ (Germany)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to integrate its fixed line and mobile operations in Germany, the domestic brand of German telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom (DT) will be renamed to ‘T’. T-Home brand is currently used by DT for its domestic fixed line operations and markets its German mobile services under the T-Mobile moniker.
2.5 million to three million subscribers has also been targeted by DT to its IPTV service, dubbed ‘Entertain’, by 2012, besides an additional 600,000 customers by the end of this year.
Until, December 31 2009, DT had just over 850,000 Entertain subscribers.
Claro Argentina plans investment of USD800m in 2010
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An investment of around USD800 million has been planned by Argentina’s leading mobile operator by subscribers, Claro. Claro’s total capital expenditure last year was around USD700 million.
Company’s third-generation and fibre-optic networks will receive roughly 70% of the CAPEX, in order to support increasing demand for advanced services.
According to Claro’s president, Carlos Zenteno, 3G subscribers comprise around 20% of Claro’s approximately 17 million wireless customers, while the 3G network reaches 450 cities, covering 80% of the population.
Russia’s MTS customer base rises 7.1% in 2009
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an increase of 7.1% year-on-year, the consolidated customer base of Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group reached 97.81 million, up from 91.33 million. Even the flagship domestic operation of the company had 69.3 million customers at year-end, up nearly five million from a year earlier.
However, a decline in the customer base has been faced by MTS in its Moscow market from 14.9 million at end-2008, to 13.6 million a year later. While growth was recorded in all MTS markets, only one international market, MTS Ukraine saw its customer base falling from 18.12 million to 17.56 million year-on-year.
The cellco’s operations in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus ended 2009 with 7.07 million, 1.76 million, 2.07 million and 4.56 million customers respectively.
Kuwait’s Wataniya net profit declines by 22.5%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With a year-on-year loss of 22.5%, a net profit of KWD11 million (USD37.9 million) has been posted by Kuwait-based National Mobile Telecommunications Company (Wataniya), for the fourth quarter of 2009.
However, its full year net profit was up to KWD108.3 million in 2009, from KWD82.4 million in 2008. No reasons have been revealed by the company behind its declining bottom line.
Its parent company Qatar Telecom (QTel) is also expected to release its preliminary results for the full year 2009 soon, with a full disclosure scheduled for March 7. Wataniya’s operating market includes Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives.
MTN, Bharti & Zain emerge as highest revenue generators
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Over the last three years, an average growth of 45% in the revenue has been recorded by 16 leading service providers. The wireless service providers in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, India and China achieved the highest growth.
MTN, Bharti and Zain have doubled their revenues in the last three years, thus leading the growth charge. Even larger companies like America Movil, China Mobile and Vodafone have recorded growth in the 45%-70% range.
Collectively generating over 55% of their revenues from beyond their home markets, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have all taken great strides in the past to build businesses beyond their home countries.
M-Tel launches 50% discount on fixed line offer (Bulgaria)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A special offer has been launched by Telekom Austria’s Bulgarian subsidiary MobilTel (M-Tel) under which the customers will be given fixed landline for just GBN2.45 per month for six months, a 50% discount on the regular price.
50 free minutes across all national fixed networks will also be offered to the users under the VoiceBox Basic offer, depending on the period of the signed contract. Even if the free offer is not activated, calls to fixed networks will cost just BGN0.05 per minute.
One minute of conversation to a mobile network will cost BGN0.32 per minute.
Polish telco Polkomtel’s network upgrade by NSN
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia Siemens Networks and Polish cellco Polkomtel have joined hands to extend and modernize latter’s 3G/HSPA network to make it smartphone friendly and prepare it for the next generation of mobile broadband.
The improvement will increase Polkomtel’s mobile broadband coverage and capacity to provide its subscribers with improved mobile internet and multimedia services. This will also help the telco to deal with the data surge sparked by the growing number of high-speed data customers as well as that of smart devices.
According to Miguel Marin, chief technology officer at Polkomtel, to maintain company’s leadership in providing valuable new services to Polish subscribers, it has decided to upgrade the network for higher speeds and more capacity and the upgrade will prepare the network to handle new technologies like HSPA+ besides helping it to benefit from the lower energy consumption, and signaling efficiencies of Nokia Siemens Networks’ smartphone friendly technology.
