Orange Jordan dominates 55% market share in broadband segment (Jordan)
Orange Jordan, a subsidiary of Jordan Telecom Group, said that its fixed and wireless broadband Internet represents around 55 percent of the kingdom’s total market share.
Orange Jordan’s Chief Executive Sami Smeirat told Dow Jones Newswires that they have around 400,000 subscribers in both the wire and wireless broadband.
As per the report, Smeirat said Orange, in which France Telecom (FTE) owns a 51 percent stake, has currently over 34 percent market penetration as far as the mobile services are concerned, or around 2.6 million subscribers.
Jordan currently has three mobile operators, including Zain Jordan, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company, Orange Jordan, and Batelco’s unit Umniah.
Orange Jordan saw growth in broadband 3G services boosting the 2011 bottom line in a sector which has seen a fierce turf war among the three operators and is hit by sluggish economic growth.
Roaming deal between France Telecom and lliad may result in $2.63 billion (Europe)
Mobile operator France Telecom’s Chief Executive Stephane Richard has said that the roaming deal with competitor Iliad could generate an amount of $2.63 billion in an interview with the Liberation newspaper.
Richard added that they had said the contract would bring $1.3 billion. However, it could be double depending on Free’s capacity to develop its network.
He said that Free quickly gained a significant market share as it offered fees as low as $2.6 a month. Free mainly sells pre-payment lines without handset, an offer that may convince as much as 15 percent of the market.
Android controls 50 percent of smartphone market in the U.S. (USA)
Google’s Android operating software accounted for over 50 percent of the U.S. smartphone market for the first time in February, according to a report by Mashable.
The figures were a 17-point increase over February 2011. As per the report, Apple’s share for iOS for the month was 30.2 percent, which was up five points over the same time period. RIM’s BlackBerry platform claimed 13.4 percent vs. 28.9 percent in February 2011 while Microsoft had 3.9 percent of the market compared to the previous 7.7 percent.
The report reveals that overall, in February; 234 million Americans aged 13 and up used mobile devices. Some 69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during that time. Meanwhile, the U.S. market appears to lag the rest of the world for Android adoption. Global market share for the platform approached 50 percent last August.
Warid to invest US$ 25 million towards network expansion (Pakistan)
Mobile telecommunication firm Warid Telecom is planning to invest an additional US$ 25 million this year towards network expansion and improvement, as said by Sriram Yarlagadda, the Warid chief executive officer and the director for telecom business.
Yarlagadda said that they would concentrate on their core business of brand building, boosting customer base, new area coverage and network expansion. He added that they have limited capabilities to run the call centres. This is not a core role for telecoms world over. Further, they are not best placed to run the concept.
He also said that they needed to bring experts in this field like Spanco to help enhance the kind of service they want to offer their customers. Yarlagadda added that Spanco will expand the call centre base, which will help provide superior quality customer care service to boost our customer satisfaction. Further, he said that the company will concentrate on growing market share and revenues.
Alan Harper, the Eaton Towers chief executive, said thatEaton Towers’ expertise in tower management and commitment to top quality service will allow Ugandan operators to focus on providing innovative mobile services and expanding its subscriber base. At the same time, their ownership and management of the telecoms network infrastructure will ensure that the local networks will continually be enhanced and expanded, whilst maintaining low operating costs for the mobile operators. He added that these partnerships, with local operators, bring significant benefits to all parties.
Telecom operators in Taiwan to launch cloud-based business (Taiwan)
According to a report by China Economic Review, telecom operators in Taiwan are looking to launch new cloud-based products in an attempt to better compete with one another and increase their market share in the nation.
As per the report, Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., the island’s largest telecom service provider, is planning to launch new products next week, focused on individual consumers, while rival operator Far EasTone Telecommunications Co. Ltd. is targeting the enterprise customer base.
However, Taiwan Mobile Co. Ltd. has been focusing on both retail and institutional customers to penetrate the local cloud technology-based market.
MTN to work towards better voice quality and data services (Ghana)
South Africa based mobile operator MTN, is working towards improved the voice quality and data services offered to consumers. According to reports, Michael Ikpoki, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Ghana Limited, said it has initiated key infrastructure investment to support voice quality, capacity and data growth of the company.
He said the infrastructure provided was lower in the first half of last year, due to operational supplier difficulty. Ikpoki added that the company would focus all its energies on improving customers experience by investing in network improvement, hiring experienced staff, providing quality service, improving distribution networks and brining on board more value-added services, among other things.
He said that the MTN Group will continue to provide competitive voice offerings aimed at maintaining market share as lower traffic and mobile termination rates, mainly in South Africa and Nigeria impacted revenue growth.
Ikpoki said MTN Ghana has delivered a solid performance as subscribers increased by 16.5 per cent to 10.2 million subscribers owing to attractive promotions. He noted that the market share declined marginally to 52 per cent from 53 per cent, but that could be attributed to the competitive nature of the market.
He said the company would continue its efforts to strengthen its position on the non-voice service and maintain and improve customer experience.
Vimpelcom reports strong cash flow in Q4 2011 results (Russia)
VimpelCom Ltd., Russia’s third- largest wireless company by subscribers announced its operating and financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.
As per the company report, Jo Lunder, CEO, Vimpecom, said that the company has delivered strong operational performance across all business units in the fourth quarter of 2011, driving organic revenue growth of 5 per cent, stable EBITDA and strong cash flows of USD 1.8 billion in the period. The final dividend payment of USD 0.35 per common share underscores the Company’s commitment to pay annual dividends of at least USD 0.80 per common share from 2011 to 2014.
In Russia, they are implementing their plans to improve the business performance and they regained market share during the year, which they intend to maintain while increasing their focus on profitable growth. In Italy, they saw further market share increases in the mobile and fixed line segments. Data revenues grew strongly in both these markets and in the Ukraine. The Africa & Asia business unit continued to deliver excellent subscriber growth and the CIS unit produced double digit revenue growth.
He added that their focus in 2012 will continue to be on the delivery of their Value Agenda and the 2011 results provide a good platform for profitable growth and improved cash flows. The process of integrating the businesses acquired in 2011 is now completed and in 2012 they expect to leverage the benefits of their increased size and capabilities.
Samsung maintains lead in China over Apple’s iPhone (China)
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has maintained its stronghold over the Chinese market, making it tougher for rival Apple Inc. to increase its presence there. According to a report by BN, Samsung currently boasts of a market share three times as much as Apple.
Currently, Apple controls 7.5 per cent share of the Chinese smartphone market while Samsung accounts for 24.3 per cent. Apple has tied up with China Telecom Corp. to sell the iPhone. The report reveals that Apple is shifting its focus towards China as shipments of smartphones in the country are projected to jump 52 per cent this year to 137 million units, overtaking the U.S. for the first time as the world’s biggest market. However, a concern for Apple is that the iPhone is not compatible with the nation’s largest operator, China Mobile.
Thus, while Apple might be maintaining the lead in the worldwide smartphone market, it still has a long way to go to become the leader in China. Samsung has tied up with all carriers thereby expanding its presence; whereas Apple has taken a big risk and eliminated a large portion of the market by focusing on the smaller carriers.
Globe Telecom reports 7 percent rise in subscriber additions (Philippines)
Philippines telecommunications company Globe Telecom has reported an increase in its subscriber base for the past year. According to company reports, Ernest Cu, President, Globe Telecom has said that the firm had a total of 30 million subscribers by the end of 2011, representing a 13 per cent increase over its client base of 26.47 million at the end of the previous year.
The telecom operator has been working towards increasing its market share and increasing its subscriber base across segments, in comparison with rival Smart Communications. Cu added that they have actually been converting more and more users from rival operators to Globe, in addition to converting more of their own prepaid users to postpaid users.
As per the company, gross subscriber acquisitions increased to 6.1 million in the fourth quarter. Further, the total additions for the year stood at 23.2 million, representing a 7 per cent rise from 21.8 million subscribers in 2010.
Looking towards the finances for this year, the operator claims that it has sufficient funds to carry out the required capital expenditures for 2012. As per sources, Albert Larrazabal, CFO, Globe, has said that the company would require raising US$ 585 million this year to carry out the planned network upgrade. He added that the company also plans to undertake US$ 234 million in retail bonds by June or July this year, while the remaining US$ 117 million will be raised in 2013. Larrazabal also said that the company will prepay its debt amounting to US$ 70 million this month.
Larrazabal states that the benefits of the transformation will be felt towards the second half of the year, actually what will happen as they roll out in different areas. Sources claim that the network upgrade is expected to improve quality in voice, text and data services.
