Bouygues Telecom posts full-year 2010 results (France)
French fixed line, broadband and mobile services provider Bouygues Telecom has announced that its sales rose 5% year-on-year to US$7.786 billion in 2010 and sales from network services increased by 4% at US$7.01 billion.
The telco added that excluding the impact of the cut in voice and SMS call termination rates, sales from network services would have climbed by 14% year-on-year.
According to Bouygues, in 2010, it successfully offset the effect of reduced call termination rate differentials and higher taxes, with EBITDA rising 2% y-o-y to US$1.88 billion, although net profit fell 6% to US$615.29 million, reflecting higher amortization charges mainly linked to commercial success in the fixed broadband segment.
Bouygues Telecom added 842,000 net new mobile contract customers in 2010, representing 23% of net market growth for the segment. The telco had a total of 11.084 million mobile customers as at 31 December 2010, 79% of them on a monthly call plan, increased by 2.5 percentage points over the year.
In addition, strong growth continued in the fixed broadband business, with 154,000 new customers signing up in the fourth quarter of 2010, and 494,000 over the year as a whole, giving the operator a total of 808,000 fixed broadband customers at the year end.
Vodafone announces managed PBX service (Germany)
Vodafone Germany has announced the Vodafone Managed PBX service as part of its new Unified Communications product portfolio.
The virtual PBX service unifies mobile, fixed-line and PC communications for up to 100,000 users worldwide, allowing multi-national organizations to enable seamless communications between their various global sites. It is hosted in the Vodafone data centre.
Smartphones drive Vodafone Ireland’s Q4 growth
Vodafone’s Irish mobile unit states that increasing popularity for smartphones and mobile broadband packages were behind its strong subscriber growth in the last three months of 2010.
The company ended the year with around 2.217 million mobile users, thanks to 34,000 net additions in Q4, up from 2.145 million a year earlier.
The company has reported that almost one in two devices sold by Vodafone Ireland in December was a smartphone predominantly Apple’s iPhone and Google-based Android handsets. Including the operator’s fixed line and DSL businesses, the total subscriber figure rose to 2.4 million at the year end.
According to Vodafone, mobile quarterly minutes of use (MOU) per customer grew 5% year-on-year, to 273 minutes in 4Q10. In addition, data traffic increased by around 5% in the fourth quarter, aided by the poor weather experienced in the country, which forced a large number of people to work from home during December. However, blended average revenue per user (ARPU) fell by 6.9% to US$41.8 a month.
The cellco also announced the launch of a new device designed to boost 3G signal coverage indoors. Vodafone’s ‘Sure Signal ‘device is a femtocell that uses a fixed line broadband connection to create a 3G signal for its network if there is none available, or boost weak signal.
The device, which will go on sale in about two weeks, will cost less than US$129.04.
Airtel to launch Mobile Money Transfers in Region (East Africa)
Bharti Airtel has announced that they will be launching mobile money transfers across the five East African countries.
According to Airtel, the initiative, when approved by the Bank of Uganda (BoU) and corresponding central banks will ease cross border mobile money transfers.
According to Philip Onzoma the Airtel Uganda Head of Business, they are now discussing with the regulator (BoU) about cross border mobile money transfers. There are regulations that come with it especially not to create a loophole for money laundering.
Airtel was signing a partnership agreement with the United Assurance Company (UAP) in Kampala to provide more options for payment of insurance premiums and claims recovery.
Onzoma added that now payments can be done through Airtel’s mobile money platform -Airtel Money that was previously known as ZAP. Airtel money is operational in Kenya and Tanzania.
Isaac Gunda the UAP General Manger explained that UAP will also pay claims to eligible customers who subscribe to Airtel Network. The service targets mostly customers who fall in the micro-insurance profile like individuals, traders as well as some Small and Medium Enterprises who had previously queued up to pay their own time and convenience using their mobile phones.
Onzoma indicated that the partnership will not only ease the process of paying premiums but also provide customers with an easier option of making payments at their own time and convenience while using their Mobile phones wherever they are through Airtel’s wide network presence countrywide.
Gunda noted that with the partnership, UAP customers will spend less time and money when they use this service as compared to paying through banks which charge a high transaction fee. Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.
The company, formerly Zain, offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national and international long distance services to carriers.
Anrceti plans to employ Mobile Number Portability in 2012 (Moldova)
Anrceti, Moldova’s telecoms regulator has announced its plans to employ mobile number portability in 2012.
The draft planning document set downs the objectives, actions to be taken, responsibilities, stages and terms of implementation, expected results, procedures of reporting and assessment of number portability implementation. The document provides for three stages of implementation.
In the first stage (2011), the Agency intends to develop the due regulatory framework to launch number portability and conduct a tender to select the entity entitled to create and administer the centralized data base. The data base will contain all the ported and routing numbers and other information necessary for number portability implementation.
The second stage (2012) provides for the following: creation of the centralized data base, modifications and testing in mobile networks, followed by the launching of portability in these networks.
For the third stage, (2013), similar works are planned for fixed networks. The porting of numbers will be carried out only inside the same type of networks: mobile – mobile, fixed – fixed.
Telkom’s 8ta Aims for 15% of South Africa’s Mobile Market
Telkom South Africa Ltd., Africa’s largest fixed-line phone company is aiming to capture 15% of South Africa’s mobile-phone market in five years after its wireless service starts on Oct. 18.
According to Amith Maharaj, the division’s managing executive, Telkom’s 8ta mobile unit will seek clients among the company’s 4.3 million fixed-line users, of which 2.1 million are businesses.
The company’s mobile offering has been in development for two years and is part of its strategy to offset the fixed-line business’s falling revenue and market share. Telkom’s voice traffic fell 9.3% in the year ended March 31 because of competition from fixed-line rivals and wireless services.
According to Maharaj, 8ta’s call charges will be about 60% lower than the average rates South African mobile-phone users now pay. Customers will earn free air time by receiving calls, and 50 free text messages for the rest of the day after sending at least five messages. The company is targeting as many users as possible. Telkom wants users to talk more on the phone. South Africa has an average of 90 minutes of monthly use per client, compared with 160 minutes in Chile and 190 minutes in Turkey, countries with similar levels of gross domestic product per capita.
Telkom is spending $880 million on building its mobile network. It has constructed 800 base stations and plans 3,200 more. It has a national roaming agreement with MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s largest mobile phone operator.
Telkom will be the fourth mobile operator in South Africa and will compete with MTN, Vodacom Group Ltd., the largest provider of mobile phone services to South Africans, and Cell C Ltd., which is the third-largest operator. Telkom previously owned a 50% stake in Vodacom, which it disposed of through a sale and spinoff.
MTel signs US$199 million EIB loan
Hungary’s dominant telecoms operator Magyar Telekom (MTel) has signed a US$199 million loan deal with the European Investment Bank.
In a statement released, MTel stated that the six-year, forint-denominated loan would be used primarily to finance fixed line and mobile broadband investment projects.
MTS to invest $97 million for upgradation of network (Moscow)
If reports are to be believed, Russian telecommunication company MTS is planning to invest approximately $97.4 million to upgrade its network in Moscow.
As per the report citing spokesperson at MTS, Irina Osadchaya, , the company plans to install equipment that supports 4G long-term evolution (LTE) technology and high-speed packet access (HSPA) technology. Presently, the company is also connecting its base stations to the fiber optic network of its affiliated fixed-line operators Comstar United TeleSystems and the Moscow City Telephone Company.
The report further stated that the company expects to be ready to roll out LTE services in Moscow in the first quarter of 2011.
KT Corp to launch Apple’s iPad this month (Korea)
South Korea’s largest fixed-line operator, KT Corp will roll out Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer in Korea soon this month.
According to the company’s statement, all models of iPad will be officially available via KT this month. The exact launching date will be determined later, it added. KT is also the sole provider of Apple’s popular iPhone 4 in the local market.
KT has required diversifying its offerings of mobile devices in a move to better compete with other operators in one of the world’s most saturated wireless markets.
The Korea Communications Commission, the country’s telecommunications regulator, last month reviewed and approved Apple’s request to sell iPad in the domestic market.
