Sprint report net loss of $863 million in Q1 2012, adds 1.1 million subscribers (USA)
Sprint Nextel Corp. announced its Q1 2012 results wherein it reported a net loss of $863 million and a diluted net loss of $.29 per share for the first quarter of 2012. The company had wireless service revenues of $7.2 billion during the quarter, an increase of more than 7 percent year-over-year, driven primarily by Sprint platform postpaid ARPU growth of $4.03 – the largest year-over-year increase on record for the U.S. wireless industry. The company reported total net subscriber additions of nearly 1.1 million during the first quarter, bringing total ending subscribers to a record 56 million.
The total number of customers on the Sprint platform grew almost 4 percent sequentially including 263,000 postpaid net subscriber additions, 870,000 prepaid net subscriber additions and 785,000 wholesale and affiliate net subscriber additions. Sprint recorded more than 1.5 million iPhone sales in the first quarter with 44 percent going to new customers. Prepaid churn on the Sprint platform improved to 2.92 percent, the tenth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement.
According to Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, the continuing revenue growth on the Sprint platform, which represents the future of the company, driven by record ARPU improvement and strong net subscriber growth, contributed to the Adjusted OIBDA performance of $1.2 billion. He added that the value and simplicity of their unlimited data, talk and text plans, combined with an unsurpassed customer experience and their increasingly robust device portfolio make for a strong combination.
In terms of customer experience, during the first quarter, Sprint recorded its lowest level of calls to customer care per postpaid subscriber on record, consistent with more third-party recognition of Sprint’s customer experience.
Sprint also launched several innovative products and services in addition to its 4G LTE devices. Sprint introduced its first tablet for under $100 with a two year agreement, ZTE Optik as well as ZTE Fury, a family-friendly Android-powered device. Boost Mobile began offering LG Rumor Reflex – the fifth device from Sprint with eco-friendly attributes and the second from Boost. Additionally, the company introduced Sprint Complete Collaboration, the most comprehensive hosted and fully managed unified communications bundle available for businesses and launched additional Sprint Biz 360 solutions, phone and applications for small businesses. Sprint also created New Ventures, a new organization focused on delivering new business models that leverage open platforms to drive revenue and overall customer satisfaction for the global marketplace.
Taiwan to Implement 4G service by July 2013 (Taiwan)
The mobile industry in Taiwan hopes to begin the implementation of fourth-generation (4G) wireless standards in July 2013, in an attempt to enhance the broadband penetration across the island, as reported by Taiwan today.
Su Herng, National Communications Commission (NCC) Minister, has said that the Cabinet has greenlighted their plan for implementing 4G telecom standards. Further, the issuing of licenses will be completed by June 2014. Su also said that as part of this process, the NCC is consulting with the private sector and all relevant parties, as well as mapping out complementary measures addressing the needs of business and the public.
The minister also added that the NCC remains flexible on technologies adopted by local operators in developing and delivering their services. Su further said that a task force had been set up to oversee the project, claiming that their goal is to cut the process to 90 days and assist these firms meet market demand.
The commission has also asked mobile network operators in the country to work towards a text messaging system that can send warnings to subscribers during national emergencies.
TeliaSonera leads with maximum subscribers on its 4G network (Sweden)
Mobile network operator TeliaSonera has emerged as the leading operator for 4G wireless services in Sweden, with over 100,000 customers on its 4G network.
According to a report by BN, Haakan Dahlstroem, head of mobility services, TeliaSonera, said in an interview, that the company began offering 4G in Stockholm and Oslo in December 2009, knowing that devices for users would be slow to arrive. He said that after being late to market with 3G mobile broadband, the provider wanted to signal to business customers that it would invest to have the most advanced network for their laptops and tablets.
The report added that Dahlstroem said that when they took the decision to be early with 4G it was based more on image than on network offload. He added that changes will happen over a long time. Further, the majority of terminals on their network are 3G but they still have a lot of 2G out there.
As per the interview, Haakan expects to launch the operator’s first Samsung Electronics Co. 4G handset in Sweden by this week.
With data demand consistently increasing, telecom operators have been upgrading their networks to support the demand and retain their customer base. 4G wireless services offer users faster transfer speeds enabling them to stream videos and movies online in a smooth and uninterrupted manner.
As per the report, Dahlstroem said that the majority of Nordic 4G customers are in Sweden. Further, the operator also offers 4G in Finland and Denmark, and has very small numbers of 4G customers in the Baltics.
He added that problems with low data throughput, dropped calls and poor coverage in the Danish network have been solved. Also, capabilities for voice calls with 4G are likely to be added in 2013. Finally, he claimed that TeliaSonera is continuing to increase capacity in the 3G network while it expands coverage in the 4G network.
MTS adds 105 million subscribers by February (Russia)
MTS has announced that it has consolidated a subscriber base of 104.11 million by the end of February, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year and 0.5% more than in January.
In Russia, the subscriber base grew by 3.9% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month to 71.86 million. The number increased to 18.27 million in Ukraine, an increase of5.1% from a year earlier and 0.29% more than in January.
The subscribe base reached 9.11 million in Uzbekistan, which grew by 25% year-on-year and up by 1.1% month-on-month. The number totaled 2.39 million in Turkmenistan, or 31.2% more than February 2010 and a drop of 0.7% from the previous month. The subscriber base grew to 2.49 million in Armenia, an increase of 18.5%year-on-year and up by 0.1% month-on-month. In Belarus, MTS increased its base 4.3% year-on-year and by 0.2% from January.
Vodafone Roaming Services teams up with BICS
BICS and Vodafone Roaming Services are pooling their resources to connect their two communities and achieve greater efficiencies.
BICS consists of Belgacom, Swisscom and South Africa’s MTN and it will initially use the partnership to manage their roaming traffic with Vodafone operators.
According to Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS, this cooperation is a major step for the mobile industry to guarantee seamless roaming for all mobile users when they cross national borders. It is a direct response to the expansion of the mobile environment globally in terms of subscribers, networks, technologies and applications.
Sistema Shyam (MTS) to invest USD 55 Mn
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), a joint venture company between Russia’s Sistema and Shyam Group of India, will be investing USD 55 Mn to expand its code division multiple access (CDMA) network in one of the southern states in India (Andhra Pradesh) by the end of this year.
MTS India has successfully launched in 12 circles now and MTS India CEO, Vsevolod Rozanov, said the plan for this year was to complete all the 22 circles with an investment of over USD 1.1 Bn.
Currently, MTS India has 4.5 million subscribers, including 72,000 for high-speed data services. Data is the future of our company and is clearly a differential business model than other aggregators. We expect data services to account for one-third of our revenues and achieve break-even by 2013,†Rozanov told Business Standard in India.
Replying to a query, Rozanov said the company would switch to another vendor if China-based Huawei Technologies’ products were not allowed into India.
It may be recalled that the Indian government has blocked Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation from selling telecom network equipment to domestic phone carriers due to security reasons.
India becomes 2nd largest group of mobile phone users
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After becoming the second most populated country in the world, India is set to achieve another record of having half a billion wireless connections, thus becoming the second largest group of mobile phone users after China.
With 488.40 million wireless connections at the end of October 2009, India will breach half-billion wireless connections by the end of the year. The country will now have teledensity (phone connections per 100 population) of roughly 45%, an urban teledensity closer to 97% and a rural teledensity of about 18%.
However, the actual number of subscribers might be less than half a billion, since a few hold multiple SIM cards and not all of them are in use at the same time. Mobile phone being a preferred technology for voice and data communications has resulted in the decline of wireline connectivity to 37.25 million phones.
Price rise for Telmex’s fixed line only customers(Mexico)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile operator Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) announced that only the fixed line only subscribers in Mexico will have to face price rise, while there will be no rise on the packages including a broadband service. For the packages that have monthly fee, local and long distance calls, digital services, and high speed internet, the prices will remain the same.
Lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico’s Chamber of Representatives, passed a legislation levying 3% excise on telecommunication services in October 2009. Telmex took the decision in order to avoid the offset of the increase in taxes on telecom firms, by increasing the cost of the services to its customers.
Earlier, 4% tax was proposed but it was reduced by one percent by the lawmakers.
Telenor concerned over lack of spectrum (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Claiming it as the largest single day launch in telecom history, Uninor, Telenor’s Indian unit launched its GSM network covering nearly 600 million people. But at the same time, the company also expressed its
concerns over the lack of spectrum.
The company said that when they got the license, they were said to be given extra spectrum after reaching certain subscribers level. Two third of Uninor is owned by Scandinavia’s Telenor while the rest is owned by India’s Unitech Group.
The company plans to cover 22 telecom circles in India in which eight circles will be covered in this month while five will be covered early next year. Instead of offering per second billing, Uninor has offered 25 paise per minute tariff for local calls, and 49 paise for STD.
TOT launches 3G network in Thailand
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The launch of 3G network by Thailand’s state-controlled mobile network TOT got a cold response from the subscribers. However, initially the network will be available only in Bangkok and the areas surrounding it. Expansion of the network in the near future relies on the auction of the 3G license.
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will offer four licenses- three of 10 Mhz and a fourth with 15Mhz of radio spectrum while the reserve price will range between US$100-US$200 million. The process will not take place until next year as there is a lack of executives to form a quorum.
Small trials of 3G networks are already run by the current operators over their existing GSM radio spectrum, while CAT Telecom which is a CDMA operator, is seeking an overseas investor to assist in 3G rollout plans
