www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Essar Telecom, the Kenyan mobile operator and a unit of Indian firm Essar Communications, aims at a quadrupled subscriber base i.e. 2 million by March, Chief Executive Officer Srinivasa Iyengar said.
The operators intends to add 1.5 million new subscribers in next 6 months. In year’s time, the operator will make an investment of $230 million for network expansion outside its current strongholds in the capital Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa, Iyengar said.
On 08.31.09, In Mobile, By Editor
On 08.29.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Banglalink, the Bangladeshi mobile operator, owned by Orascom Telecom, has posted a rise in revenues of 29% year-on-year in H1′09 to DT11.83 billion (USD175 million), as its subscriber base grew by 17% to 11.04 million at the end of June, up from 9.45 million at mid-2008. The operator’s market share also increased to 23.7% at mid-2009. The Bangladeshi operator’s ARPU also hiked by 18% to BDT182 by the end of June, compared to BDT154 a year earlier.
On 08.28.09, In Mobile, By Editor
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.
On 08.17.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: mCel, the Mozambique based mobile operator, has reported net profit of MZN548 million (USD20.76 million) for 2008, up 58% year-on-year from MZN348 million in 2007. mCel CEO Gomes Zita said: ‘With the exception of the 2004 financial year, when net profits of MZN660 million were posted due to currency exchange gains, 2008 was our most successful term in the last five years.’
The revenues for the telco grew from MZN5.83 billion in 2007 to MZN7.09 billion in 2008. The operator’s mobile subscriber base rose by 36% to 3.1 million compared to just over 2.3 million at the end of 2007. The company estimates that its market share at the end of 2008 stood at 69%, up 3% year-on-year.
On 08.16.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to the Mauritius government’s statistics office, the mobile subscriber base of the country has surpassed the 1 million mark and reached 1,033,300 at 2008-end, up 11.3% from 928,600 in 2007. The prepaid subscriber base grew by 1.3% and accounted for 969,800 subscribers where as the postpaid subscriber base increased by 11.0% to 63,500 in 2008.
Mobile density in Mauritius rose by 10.6% reaching 81.2 per 100 inhabitants in 2008 from 73.4 in 2007. The mobile coverage, at the end of 2008 stood at 99%.
On 08.16.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The three Chinese mobile operator, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, intend to make an investment of CNY 450 billion in 3G services in coming 3 years, Minister of Industry and IT Li Yizhong reportedly said. Li stated that every mobile operator needs to have at least 50 million 3G users, and try its best to reach 80 million in the next three years.
The regulator anticipates a total 3G subscriber base of 240 million in 3 years of time, a target which is higher than the government’s previous goal of 150 million in three years made in February. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has chosen China Mobile for the commercialisation and roll-out of the TD-SCDMA technology. Li said the commercialisation of TD-SCDMA had proven successful because China Mobile took a more aggressive approach after China Telecom and Unicom launched 3G services based on mature technologies.
On 08.15.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a recent data unveiled by COAI, the total GSM mobile subscriber base of India grew by 9.47 million taking the total subscriber base to 325.7 million.
Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million new subscribers during the July month maintaining a market share of 32.3% for the GSM subscriber base in India. Vodafone Essar added nearly 2.2 million subscribers with a market share of 24.2%.
BSNL added 1.6 million subscribers taking its market share to 15.6%. Idea stood fourth with net additions of 1.42 million and a market share of 14.9%.
Aircel added 1.3 million subscribers, taking the total subscriber base to 23.1 million. MTNL at the same time could only add 35,413 subscribers despite being present in two major metro cities.
On 08.14.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: BSNL, the Indian mobile operator, has reportedly slashed its 3G tariffs in order to raise the number of subscribers. BSNL will now offer prepaid 3G SIMs at INR59 (USD1.22), with pre-paid activation costs of INR120 and post-paid activation costing INR225. The operator will also provide free, unlimited video calls for all connections for the first month for those signing up before 31 August.
The move is driven by low demand for BSNL’s 3G services, as the operator reportedly signs up just 10,733 3G users in the first four months of the service being made available which with the announcement of slashed prices has seen approximately 40,000 subscribers.
The operator has been charging high prices due to lukewarm reception to the new services initially, although the telco also initially offered a limited range of services.
On 08.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Axiata Bangladesh, Aktel, has reportedly reached a subscriber base of 10 million. AKTEL’s chief executive officer Jefri Ahmed Tambi said, ‘When AKTEL started its operations, it had just 150 employees and 20 base station towers. Now we have 1,500 employees and 5,000 base stations.’
On 08.06.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Turkcell has posted net profit of USD245.8 million for the Q2′09, down 42.4% year-on-year. The drop is driven by the ongoing depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar and provisions set aside for litigation which impacted the bottom line by TRY123 million (USD84.4 million). The telco reported revenues of USD1.4 billion for the three months ended 30 June, down 20.3% in comparison to Q208. The telco ended June with a subscriber base of 36.3 million.