Domestic sales boost up Huawei’s revenue
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Despite unfavorable market conditions, revenue of USD 30 billion has been achieved by Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies in 2009. 28.8 percent rise in sales and 26.5 percent rise in profits were recorded last year.
The rise in the revenue has been attributed to domestic market sales, mostly due to the telecommunications companies’ investments in 3G. 46.5 percent of total revenues were due to domestic revenues, up from about 25 percent in 2008. Overseas revenues accounted for 53.5 percent of the total. USD 36 billion revenue has been expected by Huawei this year.
Further investments in Vietnam cancelled by SK Telecom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Low profit and low subscriber growth made ¬South Korea’s SK Telecom to cease investing in its Vietnamese subsidiary. However, the company’s S-Fone partnership with Saigon Post andTelecommunication Corporation (SPT) will remain intact but S-Fone’s plans to deploy a 3G network will be endangered by the move.
An agreement to convert the cooperation into a formal joint venture is reported to be linked to the decision. This will be followed by selling a stake to South Korea-based private equity fund, Rutter Associates. With around 2.5 million customers by the end of last September, the operator has a market share of just 2.5%.
China Telecom mobile users rose to 3.07m
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an increase of 3.07 million in November 2009, China Telecom’s total mobile phone users’ number reached 52.99 million. In January, China Telecom’s newly-added mobile phone users reached 1.02 million, in October it topped 3 million, and in November it outpaced 3 million.
However, the number of local phone users, including fixed-line phone users and wireless local phone users decreased by 1.84 million to reach 191 million. The number of broadband users increased 690,000 in November and 8.57 million in total since 2009 to hit 52.84 million.
3G licenses were awarded to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom at the beginning of this year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Currently, China Telecom ranks first among the nation’s Big Three telecoms operators with a 3G user base of 4.81 million by October 31, 2009.
Service line won’t be affected due to delays to fixed line award, says Vodafone Qatar
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Corporate governance issues has again led to the delay, this time until the first quarter of the next year, in the official award of Qatar’s second fixed line license to Vodafone Qatar.
In September 2008, the British-Qatari joint venture was declared the winner of the second national operator (SNO) license, with commercial fixed line services originally mooted for 2009, whilst in the meantime it broke the monopoly of Qatar Telecom (Qtel) with the launch of 2G/3G services in July 2009.
According to William Fagan, the head of the country’s regulator, ictQATAR , Vodafone Qatar and its local investor Qatar Foundation had still not formed the actual company that will be awarded the fixed license. In order to launch fixed line services before the end of 2010, he expects all problems to be resolved early in the next year.
Ericsson selected as primary vendor for 2G/3G network rollout by Mobile Norway
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Norway, the joint venture formed by Tele2 Norge and Network Norway has selected Ericsson, a Swedish vendor as the main vendor for the roll-out of a new 2G/3G mobile network in Norway. Mobile Norway plans to roll out a network covering 75% of the population in the ‘coming years’.
There has not been any formal announcement of the financial deal or the time frame for the deployment of the new infrastructure.
In September 2007, Network Norway and Tele2 Norgehad announced their partnership and under the terms of the deal, Tele2 Norge acquired 50% of the shares in AMI, holder of Norway’s third GSM-900 license. After the deal, the 50/50 joint venture Mobile Norway came into existence.
Two months after the announcement the Norwegian government revealed that it had received an application from Mobile Norway for the country’s fourth UMTS license. Mobile Norway was also awarded the license for around NOK47 million after a sealed auction in December that year.
Orange & SFR warned by Arcep to meet 3G obligations
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: France Telecom and Vivendi SA has been warned by French telecommunications regulator Arcep to respect their obligations in terms of third-generation mobile coverage. According to Arcep, the 3G coverage of both the mobile operators did not meet the commitments made at the time of tenders for 3G licenses.
By August 21, Orange France’s 3G network covered 84% of the population and SFR’s covered 74% and on December 1, Orange covered 87% of the population and SFR covered 81%. However, Orange France has been asked by the regulator to reach 91% of the population by the end of 2010 and 98% by the end of 2011.
SFR is required to improve its coverage to 84% of the population by June 30, 2010, to 88% by the end of 2010, to 98% by the end of 2011 and to 99.3% by the end of 2013.
Bouygues SA’s Bouygues Telecom, on the other hand has already met the target of 75% by the end of 2010 by covering 80% of the population as of December 1.
France fourth 3G license has been given to Internet operator Iliad SA and the operator is committed to covering 27% of the population in 2012, 75% in 2015 and 90% in 2018.
ZTE chosen by KPN for HSPA roll-out in Belgium, Germany
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: ZTE, Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer has been selected by KPN for supplying HSPA enabled 3G equipment for expanding and technically upgrading its mobile networks in Germany and Belgium.
Both E-Plus Group and KPN Group Belgium will be supported by ZTE with data network expansion strategy and cutting edge future-proof technologies. This partnership with ZTA is expected to speed up the roll-out of KPN’s 3G network in Belgium and Germany at lesser prices.
It will also offer HSPA speeds of up to 21.6 Mbps to their customers target segments.
iPhone 3G most used handset in the USA
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The USA is celebrating third generation with iPhone 3G becoming the most used mobile phone in the country.
Ruling over 4 percent of an “embedded base of all subscribers” of US market from January to October, the bestselling device of Apple tops the list of several other competing handsets such as RIM’s BlackBerry and mobile phones made by LG, Motorola, and Samsung.
iPhone 3G’s accumulative sale is just past the BlackBerry 8300 series which has 3.7 percent of the market share, followed by the RAZR V3 series with 2.3 percent and the LG enV2 with 2.1 percent.
Free win may shakeup French telecom market
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The issue of fourth 3G license to Free, a subsidiary of the aggressive Groupe Iliad at the cost of €240 million has resulted in a major shakeup in the French telecom industry. The decision has been fiercely condemned by other incumbent players- France Telecom’s Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Neuf-SFR who paid €619 million ($885 million) each for their 3G licences a decade ago.
The decision of awarding the license to Free came after Virgin Mobile and Numericable dropped out of the bidding. The operator will receive its license in January and will have two years to build its network. The service is expected to start in 2012 and will cover almost 75% of the population in 2015 and 90% in 2018.
By offering triple-play bundled voice, data and internet TV services for less than €30 ($43) a month, Free has become France’s second largest ISP. Further deduction in the fees for the French customers has been promised by Iliad chief Xavier Niel.
