VAS to generate $2.06 billion in revenue in 2012 (Taiwan)
Value added services (VAS) offered on mobile devices are estimated to bring Taiwan’s top three telecom carriers a total of US$2.06 billion in revenue this year, around 50 percent more than that they scored altogether last year, according to a report by Taiwan Economic News.
Brisk sales of smartphones at Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Taiwan Mobile Corp. and Far EasTone Telecom Co. Ltd. have accelerated their revenues from value added services on the mobile computing devices. Last year, the services fetched the three providers a total of US$1.39 billion in revenue.
The report revealed that Chunghwa raked in revenue US$524 million from value-added mobile services in 2011, while the other two scored US$434-441 million from the services each.
Further, as per the report, Far EasTone’s revenue from value-added services for the first quarter grew 48 percent from the same quarter last year.
Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone separately projected smartphones to constitute 70 percent of their total procurements this year, up from 50 percent on their procurement list. Chunghwa recently revised upward smartphone’s percentage on its 2012 procurement list to 70 percent from 55 percent.
Apple said to be worth more than Poland at a value of US$ 500 billion (USA)
With iPhone maker Apple crossing the US$ 500 billion mark, the industry has been abuzz with news stating that the U.S. giant is now worth more than the entire country of Poland. According to reports, Tim Cook, CEO, Apple said that Apple is the sixth company in history to reach a value of US$ 500 billion.
The comparison arises as the share market value of Apple reached US$ 506 billion while the GDP of Poland was reported to be US$ 497 billion. Reports reveal that the value is expected to be more than Belgium, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan as well.
Cook had told its shareholders at the annual meeting that the company has more money than it needs, and the board and management are thinking very deeply about ways to use the cash.
Industry analysts believe that such a comparison is unfair as the valuation of a company takes into account the combined profits and future cash flows. On the other hand, the GDP of a country refers to the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year. However, the fact that such a comparison could be thought of highlights the success of Apple and its profitability. Analysts believe that while Apple is a very strong company, it is yet to be seen as to how long it can continue the success run.
Further, the release of the new iPad which will go on sale by March 16 is expected to enhance the earnings of the company.
MTN Group’s subscriber base reaches 164.5 million (Africa)
South Africa-based multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Group, has reported subscriber additions of 22.9 million for the year, taking its total subscriber base to 164.5 million. According to the company report, West and Central Africa (WECA) Region was responsible for 71.557 subscribers, followed by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with 55.338 million subscribers and the South and East Africa (SEA) region contributed 37.606 million subscribers.
The total revenue for the Group stood at US$ 16.09 billion, up 9.7 per cent from the previous year, which was at US$ 14.53 billion. Data revenue was at US$ 1.07 billion while revenue generated from SMS was US$ 990 million.
Sifiso Dabengwa, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Group, said that the company will continue to look for opportunities for acquisitions around the world. The company is working towards improving customers experience by investing in network improvement, hiring experienced staff, providing quality service, improving distribution and brining on more value-added services, among other things.
Apple’s revenue to reach $200 bn mark soon (USA)
A group of researches believe that Apple Inc. can keep posting sales growth of more than 50% in the next two years as a mobile applications boom fuels demand for devices such as the iPad.
According to researchers, Apple sold almost 15 million iPads in its debut year and more than 90 million iPhones in its four-year lifespan. Demand for the devices has spawned a market for downloadable apps that let users shop, work, play games and handle other tasks on the go. That in turn keeps customers buying Apple’s products, and puts the company on course for higher revenue than International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
It is also expected that the company will be bigger than IBM next year, and they’ll be bigger than HP the year after that. At current growth rates, they’re going to be a $200 billion revenue company.
Hewlett-Packard had sales of $126 billion in the year that ended in October and IBM’s revenue was $99.9 billion last year, making them the largest technology companies, respectively, by sales. Apple ranks No. 1 by market capitalization.
China Telecom Q4 profits increase by 5%
China Telecom Corp Ltd has reported an increase of about 5% in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by growing revenue from mobile and broadband services.
According to reports, China Telecom posted a net profit of US$482.97 million for the fourth quarter of 2010 and reported a net profit of US$2.4 billion for the full year.
China Telecom, a newcomer to China’s mobile market, operates the country’s largest fixed-line network and is aggressively promoting broadband over that channel.
Its shares went up by about 25% in 2010, beating a 5% advance by the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
MTN Ghana subscription increases by 9%
The annual report of MTN Ghana revealed that the company saw a 9% increase in subscribers as of December 2010, bringing the number to 8.7 million.
According to MTN, the increase was largely driven by the introduction of new price plans and a revision allowing subscribers to view discounts in monetary terms rather than percentages.
The report also revealed that MTN Ghana’s performance was encouraging, considering aggressive competition through headline tariff reductions. SIM card registration has also had an impact.
Revenue increased by 14% ahead of subscriber growth, mostly due to increases in airtime and subscription revenue. SMS revenue also increased significantly, contributing 5% to revenue.
According to Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN Group President and CEO, the Group’s strong operational performance was underpinned by a 22% increase in subscribers to 141.6 million from 116.0 million in the prior year, as well as improved efficiencies due to various cost initiatives and despite higher levels of mobile penetration, aggressive competition and increased regulatory requirements. MTN continued to maintain network quality and capacity and to offer attractive segmented value propositions to customers.
Mobile applications download revenue in UK reached $452 mn in 2010
According to a new research report, smartphone users in the UK downloaded over 860 million applications in 2010 with 105 million downloads counting for paid apps. Revenue reached US$451.69 million for the UK’s total paid application download.
The majority of phone users are still feature phone owners who are using mobile applications not as actively as smartphone users. In the years to come, this potential will be explored and will drive up market growth.
Most of the devices shipped in the UK run on Symbian OS, which is in line with the rest of Europe. Owners of these devices are rather passive in using mobile applications, compared to the activity level of other OS users. The most active community of app downloads and ad impressions are iOS holders.
Another interesting finding of the report is that young females show the highest dynamics of device adoption in 2010. With the current growth rate, female smartphone adopters will catch up with their male counterpart within a year. Even though UK smartphone user base still is slightly dominated by men, women are adapting/ taking on new smartphones models very quickly.
Qtel reports record 2010 revenue of US$7.5 billion
Qatar Telecom (Qtel) announced that 2010 full year Group revenue increased 13.1% to end 2010 at QAR27.2 billion (US$7.47 billion), as the Group’s consolidated customer base reached 74.1 million (FY 2009: 60.4 million).
Distributable earnings for 2010 including profits from the Nawras IPO taken directly to retained earnings increased by 21.3% to QAR3.4 billion (US$927.5 million). Earnings per Share (EPS) for 2010 grew 2.2% to QAR 19.69.
As part of the Group’s diversification strategy, Qtel has maintained solid operational and financial progress, successfully balancing the management of competitive pressure to maintain market share in mature markets with the ongoing development of operations in growth markets.
Key highlights of the year include the roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Home in Qatar, the successful implementation of a value-driven strategy by Indosat in Indonesia, strong revenue growth in Algeria leading to a first annual net profit for Nedjma, the successful defence of market leadership position in Tunisia, the launch of fixed line and home broadband services by Nawras in Oman and continued subscriber growth for Asiacell in Iraq.
The Group also successfully launched IPOs in Oman and Palestine, saw strong support for a 10-year Bond for Indosat and for the Qtel Group’s bond sale, which was more than ten times oversubscribed.
Qatar Telecom (Qtel) provides a full range of telecommunications services in Qatar and across its presence in 17 countries. Our vision is to be among the top 20 telecommunications companies in the world by 2020 through expansion in both the MENA region and South East Asia.
TIM Brazil Q4 net profit raises
Brazilian mobile phone Company, TIM Participacoes SA has announced that its net profit more than quadrupled in the fourth quarter as revenue increased and a non-recurring gain boosted the bottom line.
The Brazilian unit of Telecom Italia SpA reported fourth quarter net profit of $1.13 billion, increased from US$249.10 million a year earlier.
The company registered a one-time gain of US$838.32 million in the period due to a fiscal credit. TIM’s results include Intelig, a local long-distance operator acquired by TIM in 2009.
The company’s net revenue rose to US$2.33 billion from US$2.09 billion a year earlier.
According to TIM, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization,(EBITDA), rose 10.66%. The EBITDA margin ended the fourth-quarter at 30.6%, up from 30.4% in the fourth-quarter of 2009.
TIM ended the period as Brazil’s third-largest mobile phone operator with a total of 51 million clients and a market share of 25.1%. By comparison, in the year ago period, the company registered 41 million clients and a market share of 23.6%.
Swisscom profits decline on flat revenues (Switzerland)
Swisscom has announced that its full-year revenues were essentially flat, with a 0.1% drop to US$12.42 billion – although at constant exchange rates, revenue would have increased by 2.1%. The Group’s Italian subsidiary Fastweb reported a 1.5% rise in net revenue in local currency to US$2.55 billion.
Net profit though came down by 7.1 percent to US$1.84 billion.
Excluding Fastweb, Swisscom increased net revenue by 2.3% to US$9.89 billion. The increase was largely attributable to the economic recovery, the acquisition of subsidiaries by Swisscom IT Services and growth in mobile communications and bundled products. As a result of the provision of US$107.33 million set aside in the first quarter of 2010 for the Fastweb VAT proceedings, operating income (EBITDA) fell by 1.9% to US$4.84 billion.
The number of mobile customers in Switzerland increased year-on-year by 226,000 or 4% to 5.8 million. In 2010 , Swisscom sold 1.38 million mobile devices, of which around half were smartphones. Revenue from mobile data traffic with Swisscom customers rose year-on-year by 33% to US$457.75 million. Overall price erosion in mobile communications in 2010 amounted to around 13% (price based on volume).
