Top-20 Telecom Groups – Based on Proportionate Subscribers
InfoCom Top-20 telecom groups takes into account the number of subscribers (fixed, mobile and Internet) based on the group’s proportionate shareholding in other companies (see Fig. 1). For 2Q06, MII China group outranked number two Vodafone by a substantial lead of about 460m subscribers, for a total of 665m subscribers, which are all based in China. The majority of the subscribers are still from fixed line companies that come from MII China’s holdings in China Telecom and China Netcom, while MII China’s mobile subscribers can be attributed to its 75% holding in China Mobile.
Vodafone and 3rd place holder Telef³nica have a wider reach in terms of territories: both have subscribers based in Western and Eastern Europe. Vodafone has holdings in Western and Eastern Europe as well as the US, with the markets that have proportionate subscribers totalling 20m and above being Germany, Italy and the US. Telef³nica has shareholdings in Latin American companies but has reached Eastern Europe through its purchase of Cesky Telecom in 2005 and other Western European countries through its acquisition of O2. Deutsche Telekom also has a number of holdings in Eastern Europe, some of which are incumbents (e.g. Croatia’s T-Hrvatski Telecom and Hungary’s Magyar Telekom) and has mobile and Internet operations in Western Europe and North America (e.g. T-Mobile Germany, UK and USA) to make it reach 4th place with about 168m subscribers.
Other Western European incumbents that have made it to the list are France T©l©com (7th), Telecom Italia (11th), Telenor (12th), TeliaSonera (15th), Portugal Telecom (19th) and BT (20th).
Another company, apart from MII China or China Unicom, that made it into the top-20 without having overseas operations is MIT India, which managed to reach 13th place. Although its overall population is close to China’s, India, in terms of fixed line or mobile subscribers, still is significantly behind China. Rounding off the list is BT, which has about 37m proportionate subscribers in 2Q06, replacing 1Q06′s 20th place holder Turkcell.
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Title: Top-20 telecom groups based on proportionate subscribers in millions at 2Q06
About InfoCom
InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with almost 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.
Source- http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/9660/
Movistar,O2 launch My Europe High Roamer service
Movistar and O2 mobile subscribers will receive free incoming calls when abroad.The mobile operators, both owned by Telefonica, have launched a programme called My Europe High Roamer service, which provides free incoming calls when roaming in Europe.
Movistar customers pay €10 per month to receive calls in 33 European countries, including Spain, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia and Vatican City. O2 customers will pay GBP5 per month, but will initially only be able to receive free calls when in Spain. Making roaming calls when abroad costs GBP 0.25 per minute – a 70 per cent discount on usual prices, says O2.
Source- http://www.dmeurope.com
O2, Movistar deal drops incoming charges when roaming
Telefonica is taking advantage of its new ownership of British mobile operator O2 to launch a roaming deal for British and Spanish customers. Under the My Europe High Roamer service, Spanish Movistar and British O2 customers now can receive free incoming calls when abroad. Customers with a Movistar contract will be charged EUR 10 a month to receive calls in 33 countries including Spain, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia and Vatican City. O2 customers will be charged GBP 5 a month for the subscription, but will only initially be able to receive calls for free when they are in Spain. O2 has said in the first half of next year, customers will be able to receive free calls in at least 35 more European countries. Making calls abroad under the tariff costs GBP 0.25 per minute, which O2 says is a 70 percent discount on usual prices. SMEs are eligible for half-price subscription if they commit to O2 for twelve months.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Starmap mobile alliance fades as O2 leaves galaxy
The European mobile phone alliance Starmap is on the verge of collapse after O2, the largest operator involved in the initiative, moved to pull out of the partnership.
The Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica acquired O2 in an £18bn deal last year, giving the UK operator a wider network of European sister companies. As a result of the deal, O2 will exit the Starmap alliance and work with Telefonica’s other subsidiaries to provide roaming and data services across Europe.
It will maintain bilateral roaming agreements with the remaining members of the alliance, including Italy’s Wind and Norway’s Telenor.
O2′s exit leaves Starmap thinly spread across Europe, given it will no longer have partner networks in major markets including the UK, Germany and Ireland. The remaining companies in the alliance include smaller operators like Pannon in Hungary, One in Austria, and Sunrise in Switzerland.
Starmap was established in late 2003 to offer pan- European roaming services to customers of the participating companies and to collaborate over unique services for corporate customers. The alliance was also designed to give the operators greater power when procuring handsets.
Starmap was set up in response to a rival alliance called Freemove that comprised the large European operators Orange, Telecom Italia Mobile, Telefonica Moviles and T-Mobile.
Both alliances were founded to combatVoda-fone, which owns a pan-European network of subsidiaries. It can thus offer customers consistent services across its operations.
However both Freemove and Starmap have been weakened by industry consolidation. France Telecom’s acquisition of Amena forced the Spanish company to withdraw from Starmap while Telefonica exited Freemove after its purchase of O2.
O2 is expected to launch its “high roamer” service later this week, becoming the first company to scrap the fee a user is charged abroad to receive a call. The “high roamer” tariff will be aimed at contract customers who frequently travel. They will be able to choose a group of countries in which outbound calls will cost around the same as the tariff in their local market.
Source- http://news.independent.co.uk
Alcatel wins Frost & Sullivan 2006 Market Leadership of the Year Award for triple play architecture vision
Paris, September 21, 2006 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced it has won the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership of the Year Award in the European fixed telecoms market category. The award recognizes the company’s achievement in defining the network architecture for triple play deployments. Alcatel’s successful triple play service delivery architecture has been widely adopted in Europe and the company’s activities across the globe have substantially helped to put triple play at the forefront of the telecommunications market today. Frost & Sullivan’s award will be given to Alcatel at the “Excellence in Information and Communications Technologies” event to be held in London on October 24, 2006.
“Alcatel, with a clear vision of the direction being taken by the marketplace, developed a product portfolio and defined a network blueprint that has been widely accepted in the European marketplace and beyond,” said Frost & Sullivan Analyst, Fernando Elizalde. “By combining a high-quality solution, excellent attention to customer requirements and superb marketing, the company has become the leader in the telecommunications market for triple play architecture. Thus, these cumulative factors make Alcatel the deserving recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership of the Year.”
“Alcatel has developed an end-to-end, reference triple play architecture and we are very pleased that Frost & Sullivan has recognized our efforts in this high-growth market,” said Michel Rahier, president of Alcatel’s fixed communications activities. “We see triple play as a driving force in the IP transformation of our customers’ networks. In such strategic network transformation process, they can leverage Alcatel’s leadership positions in products, solutions and integration capabilities.”
With a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio Alcatel was able to grow not only its customer base, but also its product share within the existing customer base. Alcatel is involved in the majority of triple play programs in Europe. Incumbent telecom operators as well as alternative service providers have engaged Alcatel to help them build triple play network architectures as well as IP transformation projects.
Alcatel’s triple play footprint includes European incumbent operators such as Belgacom, France Telecom, KPN, Swisscom, TDC, Deutsche Telekom, T-Online Hungary, Telef³nica of Spain, Iceland Telecom, Elion Enterprises and Telekom Austria. Alternative and cable operators where Alcatel has deployed its triple play solutions include Be Unlimited, Ya.com, Auna, Com Hem, NTL, and Sistema JSFC, among others. Alcatel is involved in more than 40 major triple play deployments worldwide including AT&T who selected the portfolio as part of its project Lightspeed which will provide IPTV, video on demand, and high-speed Internet for up to 18 million households in the U.S.
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com
About Alcatel’s IP Network Transformation
As operators increasingly move to an all-IP world, they turn to Alcatel to partner on such strategic network transformation process. Leveraging its unmatched portfolio of IP systems and applications, as well as its intimate knowledge of network complexity and business issues, Alcatel helps operators offer next generation enhanced services while optimizing operational costs. Alcatel’s end-to-end integration expertise also allows them to respect their timeframes, control the migration paths and manage the associated risks. Alcatel is currently involved in more than 40 network transformation projects worldwide including AT&T (project Lightspeed), BT (Fusion and Enterprise Fixed-Mobile Convergence) and Telstra.
Source- http://www.euronext.com
