Samsung maintains lead in China over Apple’s iPhone (China)
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has maintained its stronghold over the Chinese market, making it tougher for rival Apple Inc. to increase its presence there. According to a report by BN, Samsung currently boasts of a market share three times as much as Apple.
Currently, Apple controls 7.5 per cent share of the Chinese smartphone market while Samsung accounts for 24.3 per cent. Apple has tied up with China Telecom Corp. to sell the iPhone. The report reveals that Apple is shifting its focus towards China as shipments of smartphones in the country are projected to jump 52 per cent this year to 137 million units, overtaking the U.S. for the first time as the world’s biggest market. However, a concern for Apple is that the iPhone is not compatible with the nation’s largest operator, China Mobile.
Thus, while Apple might be maintaining the lead in the worldwide smartphone market, it still has a long way to go to become the leader in China. Samsung has tied up with all carriers thereby expanding its presence; whereas Apple has taken a big risk and eliminated a large portion of the market by focusing on the smaller carriers.
No 4G services until 2014: Minister (China)
Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei has stated that China won’t launch commercial 4G mobile services nationwide until 2014.
Mobile operators worldwide are upgrading to 4G networks to fuel growth. 4G services offer faster data speeds and higher revenue per user than the more widely available 3G services.
According to Miao, China will need three to five years to start large-scale commercial use of 4G services, slowed by the country’s promotion of a 4G technology called TD-LTE that isn’t yet fully mature. Local operator China Mobile Ltd. is likely to adopt the TD-LTE standard for 4G services but China may also allow carriers to adopt a different standard. It is also obvious that the Chinese government doesn’t want to adopt a 4G service too soon as that would disrupt the carriers’ efforts to develop 3G services further.
As per reports, China’s government and its three big mobile operators, China Mobile, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp., invested billions of Yuan to build 3G networks after China launched 3G services in 2009.
China Telecommunications to sell $1.52 bn bills on March 8
China Telecommunications Corp is planning to auction one year bills worth $1.52 billion on the interbank market on March 8.
As per the company’s statement, it will use the proceeds to supplement its working capital.
The company added that Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd. are the main underwriters of the deal.
Chunghwa Telecom inks share resources agreement with China Telecom (China, Taiwan)
Chunghwa Telecom Co. has signed two agreements with China Telecom Corp. to share resources.
The agreements come as China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu is visiting Taiwan.
According to Chunghwa Telecom’s statement, its Northern branch signed a memorandum of understanding with China Telecom’s Fujian province branch to develop business opportunities in Taiwan’s Western Coast Economic Zone. The branches would share network access, products, technology and other resources, as well as cooperate on developing environmentally friendly business plans in China’s Fujian province.
China Telecom is China’s largest fixed-line operator by subscribers. Chunghwa Telecom is Taiwan’s largest telephone company by revenue.
China Telecom considers cooperation with Taiwan’s telecom firms
Sources have revealed that China Telecom Corp. is considering cooperating with Taiwanese telecom operators to launch applications for mobile phones and may purchase Code Division Multiple Access-based smartphones from Taiwanese handset vendors.
According to sources, China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu is due to arrive in Taipei on Tuesday and is planning to visit Taiwanese mobile phone carriers and handset makers including HTC Corp. and Compal Communications Inc.
Sources added that Wang will discuss possible content service cooperation with all five Taiwanese telecom operators: Chunghwa Telecom Co., Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Taiwan Mobile Co., Vibo Telecom Inc. and Asia Pacific Telecom Co.
Wang’s visit comes amidst improving relations between China and Taiwan, and as competition in China’s mobile market intensifies following the completion of the country’s 3G mobile network in late 2009.
To increase its mobile business, China Telecom, China’s largest fixed-line operator by subscribers, has been striving to improve its value-added services and handset offerings.
China Unicom Sells $1.84 Billion of Convertible Bonds to expand 3G Network
A unit of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. has sold US$1.84 billion worth of convertible bonds maturing in 2015 as the company is planning to invest it in expanding its 3G network.
According to a regulatory filing, the notes carry a 0.75% annual coupon and can be exchanged for shares when China Unicom stock raises to US$2.04, about 36% more than yesterday’s closing price. Funds will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The sale comes as China Unicom faces growing competition from rival operators China Mobile Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. in adding subscribers to its 3G services, which are more expensive but offer faster data speeds than widely used 2G services.
According to Paul Wuh, an analyst at Samsung Securities Co. in Hong Kong, The Company expected them to raise debt for all these capital expenditures they are doing. They won’t turn free cash flow positive until the end of next year, and they will need debt to fund their capital expenditures until then.
The bonds were issued by a Unicom unit called Billion Express Investments Ltd.
According to Sophia Tso, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Unicom, this will provide strong capital support for the development of our 3G and broadband businesses.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc, China International Capital Corp Ltd and Nomura Holdings Inc arranged the convertible bond sale. The issuer and investors both have choice to redeem the notes after three years.
China Unicom Net profit drops by 62%
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. revealed its second quarter 2010 net profit knock down 62% compared to last year contributed by the costs of installing its 3G network and subsidizing handsets cut into earnings.
The China’s telecommunications market is facing a strong competition, since the government awarded licenses for third-generation mobile services to China Unicom, China Mobile Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. in the beginning of last year. The carrier is seeking to grab the attention of its customers with handset offers by bidding into the 3G services to boost their revenue.
According to the China Unicom, the net profits plunged to US$371.4 million compared to last year. Revenues reached US$12.07 billion, representing an increase of 7.6% over the same period last year. Company’s selling and marketing expenses grew to 17% to US$1.668 billion from US$ 1.420 billion year earlier. The company aspires to uphold its average revenue per 3G user at more than US$ 14.71 a month.
China Unicom had the second-highest number of 3G users in China’s three big carriers at the end of June. The company’s 3G customers were 7.56 million, compared to 7.18 million for China Telecom and 10.46 million for China Mobile.
Cheap Valuation & dividend highlight better year for China Mobile
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Cheaper valuation compared to its competitors, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU) and China Telecom Corp. (CHA), an attractive dividend yield and improving growth prospects with the launch of more third-generation value-added telecom services is highlighting a better year for China Mobile in 2010.
After the merger of China’s six telecom operators into 3 nationwide full-service operators in late 2008, after a government-mandated industry restructuring, the world’s biggest telecom operator by subscribers, has largely underperformed the broader market due to worries over rising competition. China Mobile’s shares fell 6.4% in 2009.
The stable cash flow and high dividend yield of China Mobile along with the expansion of its 3G handset devices including some low-cost CNY1, 000 phones and new value-added services are major selling points in an increasingly volatile market. According to analysts, other share price catalysts would be the company’s forthcoming mainland listing and the likelihood that China Mobile may raise its dividend payout ratio on lower capital spending.
China Mobile, Larger Than Vodafone, May Say Net Rose (Update2)
Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest cellular operator by market value, may report a 23 percent gain in second-quarter profit after adding a record number of subscribers.
The Beijing-based company, which overtook Vodafone Group Plc as the world’s largest mobile company by market capitalization last month, will report net income rose to 15.7 billion yuan ($2 billion) from 12.8 billion yuan a year earlier, according to the median estimate of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey. China Mobile is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow after the 4 p.m.market close in
Hong Kong.
Chief Executive Wang Jianzhou raised revenue by offering a wider range of wireless phone services such as movie and video downloads and targeting the more than 900 million people living in
China’s rural areas. The mobile operator added 13.1 million users in the second quarter, gaining a record number for three straight months to June.
“With the continued growth of subscribers and strong growth of data revenue,” earnings will keep rising, said Mandy Chan, who helps manage $1 billion at ABN Amro Asset Management Ltd. in Hong Kong, including China Mobile shares.
China Mobile attracted users after it received approval from the telecommunication regulator to cut rates and offer cheaper monthly packages for cell-phone users in
Beijingstarting May. The operator also reduced international roaming charges in the provinces of
Sichuanand
Zhejiang.
The phone operator is expected to report half-year profit rose to 30.2 billion yuan from 24 billion yuan a year earlier, analysts said.
Share Price China Mobile’s market capitalization on July 11 was $132 billion, compared with Newbury, England-based Vodafone’s $110 billion. The Chinese company’s shares have risen 38 percent this year, compared with a 23 percent decline in Vodafone stock.
“The share price reflects the market’s view of the prospects of the companies in the future,” Francis Cheung, an analyst at CLSA Ltd., said. “There’s more growth potential in
Chinathan in
Europe, where the market is more mature.” China Mobile, which lags behind Vodafone and
Japan’s NTT Docomo Inc. in sales, may say second-quarter revenue rose to 69.4 billion from 59.6 billion yuan a year earlier.
The company, which offers global system for mobile communications, or GSM, services, gained 25.8 million subscribers in the first six months of the year for a total of 273.8 million, about two-thirds of the nation’s mobile-phone users. That’s more than Vodafone’s 186.8 million users and Docomo’s 51.9 million combined by the end of July.
User Revenue China Unicom Ltd., the country’s second-largest mobile operator, offers services using both the GSM and code division multiple access standards. Unicom had a total of 135.1 million users at the end of June. China Mobile’s average revenue per customer, or ARPU, an industry measure of the size of a phone bill, probably remained unchanged in the second quarter from a year earlier, and up from the previous quarter, analysts said.
We expect China Mobile’s ARPU to be driven by higher usage and wireless data contribution,” Kelvin Ho, an analyst at Nomura International (
Hong Kong) Ltd. said. Ho estimates China Mobile’s ARPU will be about 90 yuan in the second quarter, unchanged from a year earlier, and up from 86 yuan in the previous quarter. Usage per subscriber probably rose 10.8 percent from a year earlier to 363 minutes per month. Chief Executive Wang, 57, is boosting revenue from new businesses such as short message services, ringtone downloads and wireless services such as emails and games.
Data Services New businesses from such wireless data services may account for 23 percent of revenue in the first six months, compared with 19.7 percent a year earlier, Ho said. Competition also eased as fixed-line phone network operators China Telecom Corp. and China Network Communications Group Corp., slowed promotions of a city-wide cordless service called Little Smart, which has cheaper rates than for cellular calls, as they prepare for the government’s issuing of high-speed wireless licenses.
Chinahasn’t set a timetable for granting licenses for 3G services, which allow subscribers to video conference and download movies faster on their handsets. The Ministry of Information Industry on Jan. 20 said it has adopted the locally developed time division synchronous code division multiple access standard as one of the so-called third- generation services. “A 3G license could be further delayed into second half 2007, which implies the 2007 could be another safe year for China Mobile, and the company could still deliver stellar results until the beginning of 2008,” Wang Jinjin, an analyst at UBS Securities Co. said in a report. China Mobile shares rose 1.5 percent to HK$52.10 as of middayin
Hong Kong, after gaining as much as 1.7 percent earlier.
Source- http://www.bloomberg.com
Technorati : China Mobile, GSM, Hong Kong, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : China Mobile, GSM, Hong Kong, Vodafone
