Vodafone Czech Republic ARPU at USD 30
Vodafone Czech Republic achieved 49,000 net customers additions between July – September 2009, the largest quarterly growth in 2009. Net customer growth for January-September was 92,000 users.
The operator has over 2.984 million mobile subscribers as on 30 September, up 5.5 percent year-on-year.
Postpay subscribers stood at 1.54 million approx.
Mobile ARPU reported is CZK 522 or USD 30 approx.
Aside from key Stats: Vodafone CZ is promoting a free MMS offer where it will offer 77 free MMS messages per month for the next four months for its subscribers. Customers need to apply for the bundle, which will continue after the free period with a monthly fee.
Apple’s iPhone comes to M1 in singapore
M1 will sell the iPhone to its subscribers later this year, breaking Singtel’s monopoly over the iPhone in Singapore.
Starhub, the third mobile operator has chosen to remain tight-lipped about its plans and negotiations with Apple.
The price of the iPhone in singapore is likely to drop with this development.
CAT gets nod to purchase Hutchison-CAT’s cellular businesses.
The board of CAT Telecom has given the green light to sign a memorandum of understanding with Hutchison Telecom on CAT’s plan to buy four Thai cellular and related businesses from the Hong Kong telecom operator. Hutchison-CAT is a 75:25 joint venture of Hutchison Telecom and CAT.
The board has assigned CAT CEO, Jirayuth Rungsrithong to sign the MOU before the end of this week.
CAT will buy BFKT, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Telecom. CAT also plans to buy assets of Hutchison Telecom in the joint venture – its call centre and content businesses.
The CAT board also approved the plan to hire Allen & Overy for legal advisory services, Bualuang Securities for financial advisory services and Chulalongkorn University’s Chula Unisearch for HR advisory services.
CAT will transfer under itself a combined 1,000 employees of the four businesses it plans to buy.
Hutchison Telecom had invested about Bt30 billion in the CDMA business since Hutchison-CAT’s service debut in 2003.
Interestingly also, Krisda said CAT was concerned about a clause in the draft law governing the creation of the new broadcasting and telecom regulator in Thailand. The clause mandates that if CAT were to list shares in the stock exchange, it will have to either pay half of its revenue to the state or return to the state the spectrum it granted to private concessions.
Bharti Airtel is India’s largest Music company!
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Music has become the largest contributor to Value Added Services Revenue of the mobile operators in India. In a recent announcement, India’s largest telecom operator by subscribers’ number, Bharti Airtel has claimed its Music Bharti†to be the largest music company in India ahead of another giant of the music industry, Saregama. After this announcement by Deputy CEO Sanjay Kapoor, it becomes easy to understand why Bharti Airtel decided to set up separate divisions for Mobile Entertainment and Mobile Commerce.
Meanwhile, there are doubts regarding the top slot claimed by Bharti after beating Saregama. Saregama has still not revealed its financial results for 2008-09 whereas Airtel has generated Rs. 708 crores from music distribution in 2008-09 (FY09). But having a glance of the financial results of the two companies in the year 2007-08, Bharti Airtel emerges as a undisputed king by generating Rs. 458.4 crores in FY08 while Saregama earned 143.7 crore.
Though music is not produced by Airtel, it contributes to the revenue of the company through distribution via caller ringback tones, mobile radio and music on demand. Earnings from SMS service has already being superseded by the money generated by music. Rs. 481.3 crores of Airtel’s Value Added Services (VAS) revenues in Q4 was not from SMS but from this non-SMS component.
Airtel collects and sells music from many music publishers like Saregama, T-Series, Yash Raj Films, UTV, Rajshri Films, and several publishers from SIMCA and it has not yet decided to enter into the field of music publishing.
Croatia set to get its first MVNO
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new operator Telcro and T-Mobile Hrvatska have signed a contract as a result of which Croatia will get its first MVNO. The services are set to launch during the summer of 2009.
The company has funding from twenty investors of which the bulk are Croatian and the remainder based in the USA.
According to company director, Kre…¡imir Profaca, an MVNO can be profitable with just a few tens of thousands of subscribers, compared to the millions needed by the network operators and although the market is being saturated, thanks to multiple SIM ownership the real penetration rate could be as low as 60%.
MVNO deal signed by Tele2 in Germany
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement has been signed between Tele2 Telecommunications Services GmbH and VIAG Interkom in Germany as per which Tele2 will use Interkom’s wireless network to provide the air interface for Tele2′s fixed line customers.
With over 1 million residential and business fixed telephony customers, Tele2 is one of Germany’s largest Indirect Access Operators.
According to Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, President and CEO of Tele2 AB, Germany is the largest telecoms market in Europe and this MVNO will enable Tele2 to offer an attractively priced offering of both fixed and mobile services on one bill to its customers.
The MVNO is expected to be operational in Q2 2002.
