www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Senegal has reportedly added 299,936 mobile phone subscribers in Q2′09 taking the total base to 6.28 million, up 5%. The mobile penetration in the country reached 51.63%, reports ARTP, the telecoms regulator. This is the lowest quarterly growth in a year, contrasting with 11.03% growth in Q1′09, 7.57% in the Q4′08, 6.12% in the Q3′08 and 14.15% in the Q2′08. At the end fo Q2′09, Sonatel Mobile (Orange Senegal) had 4.04 million subscribers (64.3%), followed by Millicom subsidiary Sentel with 2.11 million (33.6%) and Sudatel affiliate Expresso with 133,194 (2.1%). Of the total mobile subscriber base at June’09 end, 6.24 million accounted for prepaid mobile base while 42,313 were postpaid. The prepaid subscriber base grew by 5%, or 297,358 users in Q2, whereas postpaid subscribers rose by 6.49%, or
2,578 users.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China Telecom, China’s third largest mobile operator, posted a drop of 28% in its H1′09 profits. Operating revenues stood at CNY 103.15 billion, and excluding the amortisation of upfront connection fees, the operating revenues were CY 102.55 billion, up 14.8% from CNY 89.35 billion in the H1′08.
H1 EBITDA dipped by 2.1% to CNY 43.34 billion from CNY 44.27 billion. Profit fell 27.5 percent to CNY 8.41 billion, versus a profit of CNY 11.61 billion in the year-ago period. The operator’s mobile subscriber base grew by 40.7% to 39.28 million.
In 2011, China Telecom targets 100 million mobile subscribers and 65 million broadband subscribers.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Chunghwa Telecom, the Taiwanese mobile operator, has reported an operating revenue of TWD48.06 million (USD1.46 billion) for the three months ended 30 June 2009, down 3.8% year-on-year. The net income for the quarter dipped from TWD12.52 billion in Q208 to TWD11.48 billion a year later. The company added 259,000 net new subscribers to end June with a mobile subscriber base of 9.04 million. The total of 3G subscriptions grew from 2.89 million at the end of June 2008 to 4.11 million a year later.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orascom Telecom, the Egyptian mobile operator has reportedly posted a 38% rise in quaterly net profits to $111.8 million. The operator ended the quarter with more than 84 million mobile subscribers, up from 80 million at March end.
Blended ARPU stood at $6.0 in Q2′09 compared to $5.8 in Q1′09.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain Zambia has reportedly posted a growth of 20% in H1′09 despite a drop in its market share from 75% to 71% during H1′08. According to unaudited interim results for H1, Zain Zambia stated that its revenue grew to K653,199 million compared with K543,611 million gained during H1′08.
On the other hand, Zain Zambia Plc’s gross profit rose to K550,838 million during H1′09 from K471,831 million H1′08. “Despite this, we have still been able to grow our revenues by 20 per cent and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) by 14 per cent compared to the same period in 2008,” said managing director David Holliday. “In order to improve operational efficiency, we re-structured our organization and streamlined internal processes. Recent network disruptions, now resolved, unfortunately marred what would have been an unbroken period of technological excellence and customer experience.”
The operator posted a subscriber base of 2.8 million at June’09-end, up 23% since last year.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel, the India’s leading mobile operator, has reportedly introduced a matrimony service dubbed as ‘MShaadi’ for their mobile subscribers. The interested subscribers will have to dial *321*11#, which is a toll free number. Upon subscription of the services, subscribers will receive alerts of prospective brides or grooms as per their desired criteria. The services will be charged Rs. 5 for five days.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In July,there is a net addition of approximately 7.7 mln new mobile subscribers in China. Out of which, China Mobile gained 4.6 mln, pushing the operator’s total GSM subscriber base to 497.7 mln. In July, a total of nearly 1.1 mln subscribers used China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network services.China Unicom reports a total subscriber base of 141.1 mln, added fewer than 0.7 mln new GSM subscribers. China telecom added less than 2.5 mln CDMA subscribers to its kitty and reports a total subscriber base more than 41.7 mln, of the total new subscribers added in July.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: China Mobile, the nation’s leading mobile operator has reportedly posted 1.09 million 3G subscribers at July’09-end, adding 129,000 new subscribers to its June base.
China Mobile’s total mobile subscribers increased by 4.55 million to 497 million at the end of July, the company said.
The operator has, however, lowered the target of its 3G subscribers for 2009 to three million compared to 10 million projected previously. The downward adjustment was driven by slow process in the establishment of its TD-SCDMA networks and a lack of CPE products.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Russia added 2million new subscribers in July, half of which were added by MegaFon. As many as one in three Russians have more than one SIM card – 199.9 million were in use at the end of July.
MTS and VimpelCom on the other hand added 511,000 and 599,000 new subscribers respectively. However, MTS gains came from outside Moscow. In the Russian capital, the total number of mobile subscribers fell since MTS shed 504,000 subscribers, far more than the number of Muscovites who signed on with VimpelCom or MegaFon.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Ukraine has reportedly added 354,000 subscribers in July, mostly added by Russia’s OAO Vimpel Communications (VIP) and Turkcell-controlled (TKC) Astelit. Ukraine ended July with 55.2 million active SIM cards, and penetration rose to 119.9% from 119.1% at the end of June.
VimpelCom added 122,000, taking the total base to 2.06 million subscribers. Astelit added 140,00 new subscribers.