India’s 3G auction enters final phase
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The final phase of the 3G auction in India seems to be nearing a conclusion with most of the circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, seeing either no or negative demand. Revenue of Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for both 3G as well as Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) has been expected by the Indian government.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom and Tatas along with five other telcos are in the fray to bag the spectrum but it has still not been disclosed who all are in the final round of bids being conducted online.
As per the rule, any operator who has quit at some stage during the process can come back and bid. Mumbai’s last bid stood at Rs 1,397.13 crore, while that of Delhi was Rs 1,363 crore against the reserve price of Rs 320 crore for both service areas. According to Telecom Minister A Raja, government’s revenues may touch Rs 50,000-55,000 crore from auction of spectrum for both 3G and BWA.
Bharti to quickly integrate Zain’s asset after profits fall
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After reporting its first profit drop in three years, India’s leading operator’s by subscribers, Bharti Airtel has decided to quickly integrate its $9 billion purchase of Zain’s African assets to help it cope in a cut-rate home market.
Price war raged in the country and has taken a toll on the revenues generated by the telecom operators who are now suffering loss. Call rates have wilted to as low as 0.7 US cents per minute. Bharti’s stock has lost 10 per cent and Reliance is down 5 per cent on a Bombay Stock Exchange index that is down 1 per cent.
According to Rakesh Rawal, head of private wealth management at Anand Rathi Financial Services, humungous competitive activity to increase market share is only going to increase in the near future before it leads to consolidation.
China telecom Q1 profit declines by 9%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 9.1% drop in the first quarter unaudited net profit, excluding amortization of upfront connection fees has been reported by China Telecom Corp as a result of the continued migration of fixed-line users to mobile services, as well as higher handset subsidies for its mobile business.
Code Division Multiple Access mobile business acquired by China Telecom from China Unicom in October 2008 is still tried to be turned around by the company. The acquisition was done as part of a government-mandated restructuring of the country’s telecommunications sector, with better network coverage and more handset models for consumers.
According to analysts, competition in the industry is likely to rise further this year following the completion of the country’s third-generation mobile network in late 2009 as part of the restructuring while higher marketing expenses and rising network depreciation are likely to weigh on the earnings of China’s telecommunications firms in 2010.
Algeria to block MTN, Orascom deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The proposed deal between South African telecom operator, MTN and Orascom Telecom Holdings will be blocked by the Algerian government. As per the deal, MTN would acquire the Algerian assets of Orascom Telecom Holdings, the Egypt-based international mobile operator which runs networks in a dozen countries.
The government also made it clear that any transaction concerning Orascom Telecom Algerie (OTA) will be null and could also lead to the withdrawal of the license granted to the company. Right of pre-emption to the entire capital of this company has been decided to be utilized by the Algerian ministry.
According to A spokeswoman for Orascom, Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Weather Investments, which owns Orascom, had asked the Egyptian foreign minister to arrange for him to meet the Algerian prime minister to clarify the issues raised by the Algerian authorities.
MTN to acquire part or whole of Orascom Algeria
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Africa’s largest mobile-phone company, MTN and its Cairo-based competitor Orascom Telecom Holdings SAE are in negotiations wherein MTN will buy a part or all of the former. MTN is currently eying new markets to add to its 21 businesses across the Middle East and Africa. The move is aimed at expansion to counter slowing revenue growth in Europe.
Orascom talks with MTN for $10 billion deal is in its advanced stage and the company is seeking to resolve regulatory obstacles in Africa and the Middle East that may scuttle a deal.
According to Mohamed Loonat, an investor with Element Investment Managers holding MTN shares, MTN has been looking for an opportunity for a while now, and there is not a lot of geographic overlap, which is good and for the investors the price of the deal matters a lot.
Billions lost by operators due to billing mistakes
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tens of billions of dollars every year is being lost by the telecom operators round the world because of billing mistakes. $40 billion each year has been lost by global communications industry due to revenue leakage.
Variety of deficiencies has been cited as the reason behind revenue leakage like billing at incorrect rates, faulty recording practices and miscommunication between billing systems. Investigation has been carried out by telecom operator Telus into these reveneue losses since 15 years.
According to a survey, 60% of the operators’ opined that not even half of leakages identified were ever recovered from subscribers or partners. Apart from billing mistakes, there are several other mistakes which are never identified thus showing that the losses could be much higher.
Sprint suffers loss in Q1 (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Losses of $865 million has been reported by telecom operator, Sprint but at the same time it lost only 75,000 net customers, its smallest drop in close to three years. The loss also includes a $365 million non-cash charge related to deferred tax assets.
1.5 percent drop in the revenue has also been reported by the telco which went down to $8.09 billion as compared to the analyst’s forecast of $8.05 billion. A slight increase of 1% has been noted in Sprint’s retail wireless service revenues which edged up $6.4 billion in Q1.
Mobile USA acquisition as well as the success of its Boost Monthly Unlimited offering has been cited as the reasons behind operator’s year-over-year and sequential improvement. ARPU declined from $56 in Q1 2009 to $55 in the current quarter while the company denied to divulge any information regarding specific mobile data revenues and usage metrics for the quarter.
HP to acquire Palm for USD 1.2 billion
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Palm is going to be acquired by HP for USD 5.70 cash per share, or a total of USD 1.2 billion. HP is expected to get more involved in the smartphone and connected mobile device market after availing the facility of Palm’s webOS platform.
HP will also be able to take advantage of features such as multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications by using webOS. The deal is subject to normal regulatory approvals.
The transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31.
Vodafone unveils eight new own-brand mobiles
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Eight new own-brand mobile phones have been launched by Vodafone and it has also unveiled its first Android device. Vodafone 845 running on the Android 2.1 Eclair software will be launched in 12 Vodafone markets, including the UK.
Some of the features of Vodafone 845 are 2.8-inch touch screen, Wi-Fi connectivity and 3 megapixel camera and comes pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 services. A slim 2.5G entry-level full qwerty keyboard device for optimised internet browsing with Opera Mini, e-mail and SMS chat has also been introduced by the telco for the customers in the emerging markets under the brand name Vodafone 546.
For low-end, touch-screen market, Vodafone 543 and Vodafone 547 has been introduced. 2 .4-inch screen, the Opera Mini browser and Vodafone’s pre-pay balance indicator for an on-screen display of how much credit is available to use. Vodafone 350 and 345 are the two other variants of a low-cost handset. The Vodafone 247 offers similar features as that of Vodafone 547 plus a colour display and includes a solar panel for recharging.
HTC predicts 50% rise in the Q2 shipments
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 37 percent year-on-year rise to 3.3 million units has been reported by HTC in the first-quarter shipments of its mobile phones but the average selling price fell from USD 348 in Q4 to USD 339. Recovery in Europe and Asia and continued strength in the US played a major role in the increase in the shipments.
Brilliant sales for older products such as the Droid Eris, HD2, Hero and MyTouch also played wonders for the handset company. Commercial ramp-up for new devices such as the Desire and Legend was started by the company in March expected to drive the sales.
50% rise in the Q2 shipment is also predicted to around 4.5 million units, helping revenues hit a record TWD 50 billion. In the first quarter however, revenues were up 19.3 percent from a year ago to TWD 37.70 billion, and net profit increased 2.5 percent to TWD 5.00 billion.
