3 to invest €15m in phone stores
Mobile phone operator 3 Ireland plans to open 28 of its own stores around the country by the end of next year.
The company says the new ’3Stores’ will create more than 200 new jobs and will involve an investment of up to €15m. 3 says it will open the outlets in ‘prime locations’ in shopping centre and main streets.
Eight stores will open before Christmas, with a flagship store in Dublin. Stores in Cork and Waterford will open next month.
3 operates one of the country’s third generation mobile licences and began operating last year. It is owned by the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa group.
Source- http://www.rte.ie
Ministers welcome cuts in roaming charges
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey has praised Irish mobile operators for introducing new tariffs designed at reducing roaming costs in Ireland (IREL.OB – news) and the UK.
Following a meeting held on Thursday between the minister and his Northern Ireland counterpart, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Marie Eagle, MP, it was confirmed that all of the UK’s and Ireland’s
mobile phone operators are now offering reduced tariffs for customers roaming between the two territories.
The announcement follows the decision by Meteor to introduce cheaper roaming rates between the UK and Ireland two weeks ago. Other Irish mobile operators, 02, Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L – news) and Three had previously brought in cheaper tariffs in March 2006.
Speaking on Thursday, Minister Dempsey said that he was aware of the initiatives undertaken by mobile phone operators in going further than just addressing inadvertent roaming.
“I am particularly pleased that all the Irish mobile phone operators have introduced roaming initiatives that benefit both bill paying and pay-as-you go users,” said Minister Dempsey.
Minister Eagle meanwhile claimed that the introduction of new tariffs by UK mobile phone operators could lead to savings of up to STG3 million for mobile phone users in Northern Ireland.
“The introduction of new tariffs by all the operators is good news for all mobile users within Ireland and the UK but particularly for those citizens and businesses in border counties,” said Minister Eagle.
Both ministers said that the roaming issue has now moved to EU level, where the European Commission is planning legislation to slash mobile phone charges within the EU25.
Under the proposed legislation, wholesale costs — the fees mobile operators pay one another for processing roaming calls — will be capped. The EU will annually review an average of this cost in order to set the cap. Then, the mark-up at retail will be limited to 30 percent. The caps will apply to calls both made and received while abroad.
The proposal has come under attack from mobile operators who could reportedly lose up to EUR4 billion in revenues should the legislation be approved.
However, while most operators can only see fault with the proposed legislation, most admit that something needs to be done to reduce roaming costs in the EU.
In a statement released on Thursday Three Ireland said that it agrees with the Commission’s argument that international roaming prices are exorbitant.
“The Three group believes retail rates for international roaming are high as the direct result of the unjustifiably high level of wholesale international roaming rates. Three believes the industry must now collectively address consumer and EU concerns by dramatically lowering wholesale roaming charges across the Europe,” said the company in its statement.
Source- http://uk.news.yahoo.com
3 Ireland handsets available at Carphone Warehouse
3 Ireland handsets and mobile services are now available at all Carphone Warehouse outlets in Ireland.Irish mobile operator 3 Ireland has teamed up with mobile device retailer Carphone Warehouse to make 3 Ireland’s handsets and services available in all forty eight Carphone Warehouse stores nationwide.
Source- http://www.dmeurope.com
UK and Ireland welcome roaming cuts
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey has praised Irish mobile operators for introducing new tariffs designed at reducing roaming costs in Ireland and the UK.
Following a meeting held on Thursday between the minister and his Northern Ireland counterpart, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Marie Eagle, MP, it was confirmed that all of the UK and Ireland’s mobile phone operators are now offering reduced tariffs for customers roaming between the two territories.
The announcement follows the decision by Meteor to introduce cheaper roaming rates between the UK and Ireland two weeks ago. Other Irish mobile operators, 02, Vodafone and Three had previously brought in cheaper tariffs in March 2006.
Speaking on Thursday, Minister Dempsey said he was aware of the initiatives undertaken by mobile phone operators in going further than just addressing inadvertent roaming.
“I am particularly pleased that all the Irish mobile phone operators have introduced roaming initiatives that benefit both bill paying and pay-as-you go users,” Dempsey said.
Eagle, meanwhile, claimed that the introduction of new tariffs by UK mobile phone operators could lead to savings of up to £3m for mobile phone users in Northern Ireland.
“The introduction of new tariffs by all the operators is good news for all mobile users within Ireland and the UK but particularly for those citizens and businesses in border counties,” said Minister Eagle.
Both ministers said that the roaming issue has now moved to EU level, where the European Commission is planning legislation to slash mobile phone charges within the EU25.
Under the proposed legislation, wholesale costs – the fees mobile operators pay one another for processing roaming calls – will be capped. The EU will annually review an average of this cost in order to set the cap. Then, the mark-up at retail will be limited to 30 per cent. The caps will apply to calls both made and received while abroad.
The proposal has come under attack from mobile operators who could reportedly lose up to €4bn in revenues should the legislation be approved.
However, while most operators can only see fault with the proposed legislation, most admit that something needs to be done to reduce roaming costs in the EU.
In a statement released on Thursday, Three Ireland said it agrees with the commission’s argument that international roaming prices are exorbitant.
“The Three group believes retail rates for international roaming are high as the direct result of the unjustifiably high level of wholesale international roaming rates. Three believes the industry must now collectively address consumer and EU concerns by dramatically lowering wholesale roaming charges across the Europe.”
Source- http://www.theregister.co.uk
European Phone Stocks, Vodafone Fall; EasyJet, Corus Advance
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — Vodafone Group Plc led European telecommunications shares lower after Deutsche Bank AG cut its recommendation on the stock.
EasyJet Plc advanced after the airline said profit beat its forecast, while Rio Tinto Group declined along with metal prices. Corus Group Plc rose after the Wall Street Journal reported Tata Steel Ltd. is in talks with the U.K. steelmaker.
Indexes were little changed before a U.S. report that may show the world’s largest economy created the fewest jobs in four months in September.
“We will all be looking at the jobless data to gauge the potential slowdown of the U.S. economy,” said Geoff Langham, head of trading at CMC Markets, a spread-betting company in London. “Falling oil prices will support the market.”
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index lost 0.1 percent to 344.59 as of 8:33 a.m. in London. The Stoxx 50 also fell 0.1 percent as did the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 12 nations sharing the euro.
The Stoxx 600 climbed to a five-year high yesterday as speculation increased that the Federal Reserve will lower U.S. interest rates next year.
A U.S. government report today will probably indicate employers added 120,000 workers to payrolls during the month, down from 128,000 in August, according to the median estimate of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The unemployment rate probably held at 4.7 percent, just above the five-year low of 4.6 percent reached in May and June.
The Labor Department is scheduled to release the figures at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.
National Markets
National benchmarks fell in all 15 western European markets that were open except for Ireland, Norway and Portugal. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 were little changed, slipping less than 0.1 percent.
Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone operator, fell 1.2 percent to 124.75 pence.
Deutsche Bank cut its recommendations on shares of Vodafone to “hold” from “buy.”
Vodafone faces “challenges” over the next two years in competition and regulation that will depress prices, analysts at Deutsche Bank including Gareth Jenkins wrote in a note to clients. “While usage growth remains robust in European mobile, service revenue continues to slow.”
The Stoxx 600 Telecommunications Index dropped 0.8 percent, the worst performance among the broader index’s 18 industry groups.
Rio Tinto, the world’s third biggest mining company, fell 0.8 percent to 2,467 pence. Anglo American Plc, the second- biggest, declined 0.7 percent to 2,220 pence.
Copper dropped after charts some traders use to predict price movements gave sell signals. Futures on the London Metal Exchange fell as much as $29, or 0.4 percent, to $7,270 a metric ton. Copper has dropped 3.5 percent this week.
EasyJet, Corus
EasyJet rose 2.1 percent to 508.25 pence. Europe’s second- biggest low-cost airline said full-year profit beat its forecast after the carrier flew more passengers and average ticket prices rose.
Pretax profit for the year ended Sept. 30 was “slightly ahead” of previous guidance for growth of 40 percent to 50 percent, EasyJet said. Revenue rose 21 percent to 1.62 billion pounds ($3.04 billion) while average fares gained 7.8 percent.
Corus, the U.K.’s largest steelmaker, advanced 1.3 percent to 480 pence, extending yesterday’s 16 percent gain. Tata, India’s biggest privately owned steelmaker, is in talks with Corus and might make a bid worth as much as $10 billion in the next few days, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Tata executives said they had nothing to add to a statement yesterday that an approach to Corus might or might not be made, and a Corus spokeswoman declined to comment, the newspaper added.
PartyGaming Plc, the world’s largest publicly traded online gaming company, jumped 8.1 percent to 43.25 pence. The Financial Times reported it plans “at least two” takeover deals, including one for Gamesys, a smaller U.K. rival. The paper cited Chief Executive Officer Mitch Garber.
Source- http://www.bloomberg.com
DVB-H Trial by 3 Ireland
Irish 3G operator, 3 Ireland, said Monday that it has been awarded a license by regulator ComReg to trial broadcast mobile TV services for one year.
3, which already runs a 3G streaming TV service over its networks, is understood to be looking at alternative technologies to take mobile TV forward. DVB-H technology which the Irish unit plans to trial is a digital broadcast platform which promises to increase the number of channels available as well as introduce new features such as interactive TV. One of the other benefits of broadcast technology is that it eliminates the need to buffer the content, unlike with streaming services. DVB-H is championed by Nokia and Samsung
Robert Finnegan, 3 Ireland’s managing director hinted that he expects Ireland to be in a position to switch over to digital TV before many other European countries. “Ireland has a high take-up of digital TV services compared to many EU countries with 42 per cent of all households using digital TV services,” he said.
The UK is not expected to switch over to digital until 2010/2011. Other operators in the 3 group are also looking at DVB-H. 3 Ireland’s sister company in Italy launched a DVB-H service called WalkTV earlier this year and is already broadcasting mobile TV to 140,000 plus customers.
3 Italia bought regional broadcaster Canale 7 last year, giving it a network that covers 40 per cent of the population and a license for the spectrum.
Source-http://blogtwopointzero.blogspot.com
Technorati : 3G, DVB-H, Ireland, Mobile, Nokia, Samsung, Wireless
Ice Rocket : 3G, DVB-H, Ireland, Mobile, Nokia, Samsung, Wireless
Irish mobile retail revenues grow 4 percent
There are 4.37 million 2G and 3G mobile subscribers in Ireland, according to figures from the Irish regulator ComReg. The mobile penetration rate stands at 103 percent. The proportion of prepaid customers is stable at 76 percent, with the remaining 24 percent being postpaid subscribers.
Mobile retail revenue for the quarter was EUR 477 million, a 4 percent increase on the previous quarter based on revised revenue calculations for the market. Market share by revenues is led by Vodafone with 48 percent, O2 has 41.2 percent of the market and Meteor has 10.8 percent of the market. Some 71,500 people used mobile number portability in the quarter and a total of 614,500 switched providers retaining their number since MNP was launched in 2003. Mobile ARPU in Ireland is estimated at EUR 47.06 per month in Q2, having fallen slightly for the second consecutive quarter.
Mobile voice traffic totalled in excess of 1.7 billion minutes in the quarter, a 10 percent increase in the quarter, and a 23 percent increase in voice volumes year-on-year. SMS messaging in the quarter continued to grow in popularity, with almost 1.5 billion messages sent, which is an average of 114 SMS messages per subscription per month.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Technorati : 2G, 3G, Ireland, Mobile, O2, SMS, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : 2G, 3G, Ireland, Mobile, O2, SMS, Vodafone
3 Ireland awarded mobile TV licence
Mobile operator 3 Ireland has been awarded a licence to trial broadcast TV over mobile phones from market regulator ComReg. The one-year licence will allow 3 to test DVB-H technology, building on services already developed by its sister company 3 Italia. Three Ireland already offers some video content via a streaming service.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Technorati : 3 Ireland, Mobile
Ice Rocket : 3 Ireland, Mobile
It is Predicted that Japanese Mobile Subscribers Will Reach 107.9 Million by the End of 2010
DUBLIN, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 15, 2006–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Japanese Mobile Market Forecast 2003-2010 First Half 2006 to their offering.
This is a regular report published twice a year. The report presents an analysis of future trends in the Japanese mobile market as determined through an examination of issues in each category during the first half of 2006 (from January to June). In addition, it provides a prediction of Japan’s mobile market until 2010 in consideration of future market conditions, Japan’s economy, mobile handset regulations, the movement of players in the segment, and the future lifestyles of users. The report also presents an overview of the development of the market since 2000.
For this report, we conducted primary and secondary research on the mobile operators (including newcomers) in Japan as well as using our own research methodologies to forecast the developments in the Japanese mobile market from 2006 to 2010.
In the first half of 2006 (from January to June), Japanese mobile operators focused on enriching their handset line -ups as market competition intensified in the face of a strategic alliance between mobile operators TU – KA and au, and the upcoming introduction of Mobile Number Portability (MNP). In particular, NTT DoCoMo and au, which enjoyed dominant positions in the market as the first and second largest mobile operators, respectively, grappled with rising challenges from competitors in order to retain their users. In March 2006, Softbank, having received a mobile business license from the government, took over Vodafone, heralding another large change in the landscape of Japan’s mobile market. Softbank is poised to introduce mobile services through Vodafone in October of this year with the launch of MNP in Japan. Such drastic changes in the Japanese mobile market in 2006 created a new turning point in the development of the industry.
Up until 2001, the Japanese mobile market posted double – digit growth with a penetration rate hovering around 50%. However, in 2002, the market became saturated and the pace of growth slowed. In 2001, NTT DoCoMo introduced 3G services in the market. From that time until 2004, more than half of all mobile users migrated to 3G. Currently, Internet access and new provisions for content have become common and essential services, while becoming a larger share of data ARPU. Mobile handsets, which have been the important voice and data communications tool, have come to play an integral part in the everyday lives of the Japanese consumers.
According to this report, the total number of mobile subscribers will reach 96.6 million, with a penetration rate of 75.6% by the end of FY 2006 (ending March 2007 in Japan). The Japanese mobile industry is viewed as saturated and its growth rate is falling year by year. However, it faces a turning point as value -added services are being developed based on the improvement of high- end networks, newcomers are entering the market, and a new market for the business users is being created by the mobile operators.
Currently, the Japanese mobile market is driven by several factors. For example, since 2005, easy-to – use mobile handsets with limited features have been released, targeted at seniors, and in late 2005 and early 2006, handsets with designs and GPS functions suited to children gained in popularity. Additionally, NTT DoCoMo and au successfully appealed to new customer groups while promoting family subscriptions, and handsets and tariff plans tailored to business users were introduced in 2006.
At the same time, Willcom, a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) operator, has continued to perform robustly in 2006, following similar results in 2005. After reaching a peak in April 2002, PHS began to decline and the ser vice held a weak position in the market delivering services to niche and data card users. However, in February 2005, Willcom debuted and put vigorous efforts into increasing the number of Japanese PHS users to 4 million by June 2006. Now, more and more users are utilizing Willcom handsets as second handsets, as Willcom has implemented attractive flat rate services for both voice and data communications, and smartphone type handsets. In considering that Willcom is likely to continue its strong performances and that PHS will remain immune from the ripple effects of the upcoming introduction of MNP scheduled for the autumn of 2006, PHS services are expected to influence future trends in the Japanese mobile market.
This report forecasts that the number of Japanese mobile subscribers will record 4.03% in terms of CAGR from 2003 to 2010 and reach 107.9 million by the end of 2010, taking into account various changes in the Japanese mobile market.
Companies Mentioned Include:
- TU-KA
- au
- NTT DoCoMo
- Softbank
- Vodafone
- KDDI
- Willcom
- Fujitsu Limited
- Mitsubishi Electric
- Sharp
- Motorola
- Panasonic Mobile Communications
- NEC
- BB Mobile
- eMobile
- IP mobile
Source- http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060915/20060915005284.html?.v=1
Technorati : Ireland, Japan, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Ireland, Japan, Mobile
Sales in the Mobile Handsets Market Increased to Over 800 Million Units
DUBLIN, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 15, 2006–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Worldwide Wireless & Mobile Market Forecast, 2005 – 2010 to their offering.
This market study provides a picture of the worldwide wireless market, today and five years into the future. The study is allocated into several regional sections: Worldwide overview, North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, Latin America and the Rest of the World. Each section provides detailed information, including: information on future trends, subscriber numbers, penetration rates, subscribers by technology (air interface), subscribers by network generation networks, wireless data capable subscribers, wireless data users, average revenue per user, ARPU uplift from wireless data services, internet associated revenue, allocated by airtime and content.
Mobile phone sales since 2000 have been less than stellar. In fact, there was actually a significant decline in handset sales in 2001 – the first time this had occurred. The past few years have shown observers that selling handsets is much more complicated than just putting devices on shelves. In fact, many variables such as churn, new networks, economics and unexpected events can greatly affect sales. Fortunately for handset manufacturers and carriers, new devices with fresh designs and features have continued to spur replacement. Mobile handset sales in 2005 increased significantly to over 800 million units, driven by subscriber growth in the developing markets and the increased handset replacement rate in mature markets.
This market study examines worldwide wireless and mobile handset sales. Detailed forecasts which give information on overall sales, sales by region, and sales by technology are provided. This study should be read in conjunction with the Worldwide Wireless & Mobile Market Forecast since the handset shipment forecasts are based on the subscriber projections included in this report.
Topics Covered
Executive Summary
Methodology
Definitions
Forecast Assumptions
Worldwide Overview
Worldwide Wireless Forecasts
North America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Asia Pacific
Japan
Latin America
Rest of the World
Companies Mentioned
- NTT DoCoMo
- Vodafone KK
- KDDI
Source- http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060915/20060915005171.html?.v=1
Technorati : Handset, Ireland, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Handset, Ireland, Mobile
