Orascom Telecom Q3 Net profit falls 40%

Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the Middle East’s biggest mobile network operator by users, posted its third-quarter results.  The company reported a 40% decrease in Q3 net profit as some of its operators faced trouble in some markets. Orascom Telecom’s net profit was $112 million compared with $183.6 million last year.

According to the company, government restrictions in Algeria were causing its local unit Djezzy — the parent firm’s biggest source of revenue — to lose subscribers and market share.

The company’s posted a net income of $934.2 million for the period ending Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $41 million in the second quarter.

According to Naeem Brokerage analyst Ahmed Adel, Orascom’s top line and net income excluding one-off gains was within expectations, but that Djezzy’s performance was a more immediate concern. He thinks they are facing a hard business environment in Algeria which will keep squeezing the business there. Djezzy’s numbers for the quarter were not as bad as they might have been.

As per Orascom, the unit’s total number of mobile subscribers fell to 14.9 million at end-September from 15.1 million at end-June and its market share dipped from about 59% to about 58% owing largely to pressure from the state.

USA’s AT&T to keep Apple till 2010: analyst

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Anyone on Verizon waiting for an iPhone might be dejected to know that there is a 75% probability that AT&T keeps exclusivity in 2010. Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin’s note is in direct contrast with Piper Jaffray’s Chris Larsen’s note in October that there was a 70% chance of the iPhone coming to Verizon this year.

Jonathan also lowered his rating on Verizon to “Neutral” from “Outperform,” and cut his share price target to $30 to $32.

According to Jonathan, if Apple keeps AT&T exclusively, its North American marketshare of smartphones might shrink to 23% in 2010 from 26% in 2009, thus implying 13.3 million units sold.

Apple: World’s most profitable Handset Vendor

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Apple became the world’s most profitable handset vendor in Q3 2009. Nokia slipped into second position, as margins have been hit hard by both the economic downturn and a stagnant presence in the United States.
Alex Spektor, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “We estimate Apple’s operating profit for its iPhone handset division stood at $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Apple overtook Nokia for the first time, which recorded a lower $1.1 billion of operating profit. With strong volumes, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor has successfully broken into the mobile phone market in just two years.”
Neil Mawston, Director of the Wireless Device Strategies service (WDS) at Strategy Analytics, added, “Nokia’s profit margin for its handset division has been shrinking during the 2009 global economic downturn. Strategy Analytics believes that the United States, where Nokia now trails Apple in marketshare, is the key to Nokia’s recovery in 2010. A successful fight on Apple’s high-profit home turf can simultaneously help to revitalize Nokia’s margins and to put a check on Apple’s surging growth.”

Apple became the world’s most profitable handset vendor in Q3 2009, according to industry estimates. Nokia slipped into second position.

Apple’s operating profit for its iPhone handset division stood at $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2009.

Apple overtook Nokia for the first time. Nokia recorded a lower $1.1 billion of operating profit.

Apple has successfully gate crashed the Mobile party and made its mark in just 2 years.

India’s Mobile Market Subscribers to Top 350 Million by 2010, Says The Diffusion Group

The number of mobile subscribers in India is expected to grow from just over 100 million today to more than 350 million by 2010, an addition of 250 million subscribers in just four years, according to The Diffusion Group. The analysts predict that the evolving mobile markets in China and India will reshape the global telecommunications and technology landscape and realign market share among today’s mobile market leaders.

According to The Diffusion Group, China market is widely heralded as the most immediate and largest market opportunity for mobile vendors. India’s growth rate will be equally explosive. When combined, China and India — what TDG calls “New Asia” — have a population of approximately 2.5 billion people and comprise the single largest opportunity for mobile vendors in the history of mobile telecom.”While India’s mobile market growth will in many ways follow China, the reasons for its growth are very different,” noted Michael Greeson, founder of The Diffusion Group. “India continues to experience a level of poverty far deeper than China and has little in the way of fixed-line infrastructure to support telecommunications. More than half of India’s 700 million rural inhabitants have no access to residential electricity and must rely on community pay phones. It is because of this unique confluence of factors that mobile technologies make so much sense to both India’s government and to operators.”

As Greeson notes, modern mobile telecommunications technology offers developing nations a way to cover expansive ‘greenfield’ territories — in this case, areas bereft of home or personal telecommunications — in a faster and less expensive way than traditional fixed telecom infrastructure. Combined with the world’s lowest per-minute charges, inexpensive handsets, and the social status of mobile phone ownership, India’s mobile operators are preparing to exploit this opportunity.

Other key findings from TDG’s study of India’s mobile markets include the following:

  • Despite 12 years of deregulation, the number of fixed-line telecom subscribers has increased less than 15% in the last three years: from 41.5 million to 47.5 million, most of which has been confined to urban areas.
  • In India, the cost of installing new fixed lines is roughly three times the price of installing a mobile line.
  • As of early 2006, about half of all the towns and villages in India could receive a mobile signal. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has set a goal to reach 90% coverage by the end of 2006 – a very ambitious goal, but one that could be within reach given the steps that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Indian government have taken to enable competition and increase foreign investment.
  • Despite the fact that government taxes on mobile phone revenues are amongst the highest in the world, TDG expects that taxes, levies, and spectrum fees will be reduced to cover only the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund and administrative costs.
  • Given the rapid pace of growth, upgrading current infrastructure has taken a backseat to network expansion and quality of service in most areas is extremely poor.
  • Total mobile service revenue will increase over 170% from 2006 through 2010, which translates to a compound annual growth rate of 22.1%.

While India offers tremendous opportunity for mobile telecom vendors, exploiting these opportunities requires understanding India’s regulatory and business environment, as well as comprehending India’s unique social and demographic landscape.

About the market research report

TDG’s 65-page report, “India’s Mobile Markets – Analysis & Forecasts” (July 2006) by Thomas Wolf and Kambam Deepak with Michael Greeson, presents an in-depth analysis of the social, political, technological, and market forces that are shaping India’s telecom evolution and pushing mobile subscriptions to record levels. The report provides forecasts for total subscriber demand, an analysis of 3G subscriber growth, market share analysis among India’s mobile operators, and forecasts for mobile ARPU through 2010.

Source- http://www.tekrati.com

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