Bharti Airtel Q3 net drops by 40.62% (India)

Bharti Airtel had reported a 40.62% drop in third quarter net income to US$286.06 million, affected largely by an increase in spectrum charges and one-time costs related to its brand relaunch.

The company had registered a net income of US$481.75 million in the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal.

The company’s total revenues, however, were up by 51.14% at US$3.41 billion in the December quarter, compared to US$2.26 billion in the year-ago period.

According to the company’s statement, on a year-on-year basis, its income before taxes dropped on account of an increase in spectrum charges in India (US$17.55 million) and an increase in net interest outgo (US$103.37), apart from the one-time brand relaunch cost and forex losses.

It added that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, Bharti Airtel’s income before taxes was impacted by the one-time brand relaunch cost of US$74.62 million. In addition, adverse foreign currency fluctuation in Africa and India resulted in an exchange loss of US$33.14 million for the company in the third quarter of the 2011 fiscal.

The company’s average revenue per person (ARPU) stood at US$4.34 in the December quarter, compared to US$4.43 in the September quarter.

Mobile TeleSystems Announces Financial Results for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2010

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, today announces its unaudited US GAAP financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2010.

Key Financial Highlights of Q3 2010

- Consolidated revenues up 10.8% y-o-y to $2,911 million

- Consolidated OIBDA up 8.2% y-o-y to $1,309 million with a

45.0% OIBDA margin

- Consolidated net income attributable to the Group of $475

million

- Free cash-flowincreased in Q3 2010 and reached $2.4

billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2010

Key Corporate and Industry Highlights

- Acquisition of a 95% stake in Metro-Telecom for RUB 339.35

million ($11.01 million)

- Acquisition of Multiregion, one of the leading groups of

broadband and cable TV providers in Russia, for $123.5 million

- Decrease in the interest rates on Gazprombank’s RUB 6.46

billion facility and on Sberbank’s RUB 53 billion facilities

- Completion of a series of transactions involving the sale by

the Comstar group of companies to Rostelecom of the 25%+1 share in the

charter capital of Svyazinvest for RUB 26 billion

- Successful completion of voluntary tender offer to the

Comstar shareholders resulting in the acquisition of 37,614,087

ordinary Comstar shares, or approximately 9.0% of Comstar’s issued

share capital

- LTE launch in Uzbekistan – first commercial network in the CIS

- Outlook upgrade of the S&P credit rating from Stable to

Positive

- Affirmation of the Fitch credit rating at BB+/Outlook Stable

- Voluntarily repayment of the second tranche of the

syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was

originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity

- Redemption of the $400 million Eurobond in October 2010

- Placement of the series 07 and series 08 ruble-denominated

bonds totaling RUB 25 billion

- Transfer of MTS ordinary share to the “A1″ listing on the

Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX)

- Completion of 3G deployment throughout markets of operation

with 3G launch in Turkmenistan

- Signing of a non-binding indicative offer to acquire for RUB

11.59 billion ($379.01 million) Sistema-Telecom, whose primary

assets include the distinctive ‘egg’ trademarks used by MTS and its

subsidiaries

Commentary

Mikhail Shamolin, President and CEO of MTS, commented, “For the period, we delivered strong sequential and annual growth in all of our markets of operation. During the quarter we improved Group’s revenue 10.8%% year over year to $2.9 billion dollars. We attribute this growth to the positive seasonal dynamics, subscriber additions and a general increase in usage in our core markets.”

Alexey Kornya, MTS Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said, “We have been very successful in our efforts aimed at optimizing our debt portfolio. We reached an agreement to lower interest rates on our Sberbank facilities in the total amount of 53 billion rubles. In line with our preference for ruble denominated debt, we voluntarily repaid the second – and last – tranche of our outstanding syndicated loan in the amount of $161.5 million; the loan was originally signed in April 2006 and carried a 5-year maturity. At the end of the period, non-ruble debt accounted for roughly 37% of our debt portfolio, but this should decrease by the end of the year.”

Mr. Kornya added, “In October we completed the redemption of a $400 million Eurobond. Just recently, we tapped local debt markets placing series-07 and series-08 ruble-denominated bonds – a 5-year 15 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.15% and a 7-year 10 billion RUB issue with a coupon of 8.7%. This makes us the first Russian corporate to solicit 7-year money from the market, which is a strong statement on our financial position given the volatility we are now seeing in global capital markets.”

Continued Mr. Shamolin, “As you are aware, we are moving forward with the acquisition of Comstar that creates the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS. As a part of the process, we launched a voluntary tender offer (VTO) to Comstar shareholders for up to 9.0% of Comstar’s issued share capital. The VTO was successful, which allowed us to increase our ownership stake in Comstar to 70.97% of Comstar’s issued share capital (or 73.33% excluding treasury shares). The merger process is expected to be completed by mid-April 2011 subject to the shareholders’ approval of the transaction and certain regulatory steps. We will seek the approval from the shareholders of both MTS and Comstar at Extraordinary General Meetings on December 23, 2010.”

He continued, “Earlier this week we signed a non-binding indicative offer to acquire 100% of Sistema Telecom LLC. As you may recall, in 2006 Sistema introduced the umbrella brand to link its telecommunications assets in the eyes of their customers. In the years since, however, the market has undergone significant changes that saw ownership of many of these key assets shift to MTS. Today, we are truly operating under a unified brand to all of our customers and are continuously extending our brand to different services. Given the prospects we see in our market, we feel it is only logical to acquire full control of our logos and trademarks to ensure that all shareholders benefit equally in the brand’s further development as we continue to implement our “3i” strategy.”

This press release provides a summary of some of the key financial and operating indicators for the period ended September 30, 2010. For full disclosure materials, please visit http://www.mtsgsm.com/resources/reports/.

Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at http://www.mtsgsm.com/blog/

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS”) is the leading telecommunications group in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, offering mobile and fixed voice, broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services in one of the world’s fastest growing regions. Including its subsidiaries, the Group services over 105.2 million mobile subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT). Additional information about the MTS Group can be found at http://www.mtsgsm.com.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “will,” “could,” “may” or “might,” and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company’s most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned “Risk Factors” that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of Russian, U.S. and other foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies, our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so, strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses, including Comstar-UTS, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, our competitive environment, dependence on new service development and tariff structures, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, risks associated with telecommunications infrastructure, governmental regulation of the telecommunications industries and other risks associated with operating in Russia and the CIS, volatility of stock price, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks.

Wireless Telecom Group Announces Third Quarter Financial Results Including Year to Date Revenue Growth of 6% and $1.1 Million Increase in Net Income from Continuing Operations

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc announced today results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2010.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, the Company reported net sales from continuing operations of $17,928,000, compared to $16,924,000 for the same period in 2009, an increase of 6%.

For the first nine months of 2010, the Company reported net income from continuing operations of $657,000, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $(440,000), or $(0.02) per diluted share, for the same period of 2009, representing an increase of approximately $1.1 million over the previous year.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2010, the Company reported net sales from continuing operations of $5,710,000, compared to $6,240,000 for the same period in 2009, a decrease of 8%.

The Company also reported net income from continuing operations of $39,000 or $0.00 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2010, compared to a net loss of $(18,000), or $(0.00) per diluted share for the third quarter of 2009.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2010, the Company reported no activity from discontinued operations, compared to net income of $181,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2009.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, the Company reported a net loss from discontinued operations of $(1,743,000) or $(0.07) per diluted share, compared to net income of $240,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, for the same period of 2009. The nine month loss in 2010 from discontinued operations consists of an operating loss of $(1,312,000), or $(0.05) per diluted share and an adjustment of $(431,000), or $(0.02) per diluted share, which reflects a change in the estimated carrying value less the costs to dispose of the net assets of Willtek.

Paul Genova, CEO of Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., stated, “Our year to date sales reflect an improvement over last year of 6% due to improving market conditions for our products, and while third quarter sales were below the comparative quarter last year, overall order activity is improved. This trend has continued since the end of the third quarter, increasing our order backlog which we expect to reflect well in our results for the remainder of the year. Our cost reduction efforts have also delivered improvement with operating expenses reduced by approximately 9% for the quarter and nine months compared to last year and we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with approximately $11.4 million in cash and cash equivalents at September 30, 2010.

“With the completion of the sale of Willtek on May 7, 2010, we continue to focus our efforts on our core business as we look to expand our customer and product base. We believe the global demand for high speed data transmission and the need for improved communications infrastructure bodes well for our Microlab products for In-Building Distributed Antenna Systems. Further, we are developing several specific applications for our flagship products in our Noisecom and Boonton brands which will enable our customers to perform sophisticated test & measurement procedures and meet the demands of a growing worldwide market.”

Wireless Telecom Group designs and manufactures radio frequency (RF) and microwave-based products for wireless and advanced communications industries and markets its products and services worldwide under the Boonton, Microlab and Noisecom brands. Its complementary suite of high performance instruments and components includes peak power meters, signal analyzers, power splitters, combiners, diplexers, noise modules, precision noise and generators. The Company serves both commercial and government markets with workflow-oriented, WiFi, WiMAX, satellite, cable, radar, avionics, medical, and computing applications. Wireless Telecom Group is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, and maintains a global network of Sales and Service offices for excellent product service and support.

Wireless Telecom Group’s website address is http://www.wtcom.com. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Such risks and uncertainties are identified in the Company’s reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.

See following Selected Financial Results

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.

SELECTED FINANCIAL RESULTS

(In thousands, except per share amounts)

Three months ended           Nine months ended

Sep 30,                     Sep 30,

————————-  ————————–

(Unaudited)                 (Unaudited)

2010         2009           2010         2009

———– ————-  ———— ————-

Statement of Operations Data:

Net sales                                        $ 5,710     $ 6,240        $ 17,928      $ 16,924

Gross profit                                       2,696       2,929           8,455         7,778

Operating expenses

Research and development                          544         508           1,639         1,561

Sales and marketing                             1,180       1,129           3,132         3,272

General and administrative                      1,013       1,355           3,092         3,822

——–    ——–       ———       ——

Total operating expenses                           2,737       2,992           7,863         8,655

Interest and other (income) – net                    (88)      (126)           (93)        (114)

Income (loss) from continuing operations

before income taxes                                 47          63             685          (763)

Income (loss) from continuing operations              39         (18)           657          (440)

Income (loss) from discontinued operations -

net of taxes                                         -         181          (1,743)         240

Net income (loss)                                   $ 39       $ 163        $ (1,085)    $   (200)

========    ========       ===========  == ====== ==

Net income (loss) per common share:

Basic and diluted

Continuing operations                           $0.00      ($0.00)         $0.03        ($0.02)

Discontinued operations                          0.00        0.01           (0.07)        0.01

——–    ——–       ———–     ——

Net income (loss) per common share                 $0.00       $0.01          ($0.04)      ($0.01)

========    ========       ===========     ====== ==

Weighted average shares outstanding:

Basic                               25,658      25,658          25,658        25,658

Diluted                             25,658      25,658          25,687        25,658

September 30,               December 31,

2010                        2009

————————-  ————————–

(Unaudited)

Balance Sheet Data:

——————————————–

Cash & cash equivalents                                     $ 11,389                      $ 14,076

Working capital                                             $ 22,240                      $ 26,154

Total assets                                                $ 37,084                      $ 45,132

Total liabilities                                            $ 5,756                      $ 11,942

Shareholders’ equity                                        $ 31,328                      $ 33,190

Philippines’ Globe Telecom ready to launch 4G

Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. plans to launch in the next few years the “real 4G” technology in the Philippines, promising to offer wireless broadband Internet connection speeds never seen before in the country.

The company conducted a demonstration of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network for members of the press.

The LTE technology, which is optimized for broadband connections, is one of the two candidates being evaluated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the step up from the existing 3G technology.

Globe said it began the trial of LTE technology early this year in partnership with Japanese firm NEC Corp.

However, the company declined to give a definite guideline as to when it could start a more widespread rollout of the new network.

“As part of our thrust to provide superior customer experience, Globe sustains its network buildup and continues to look out for the latest mobile technologies that will benefit the Philippine market,” Globe network technologies strategy head Emmanuel Estrada said.

“As we see mobile broadband growing and more subscribers clamoring for faster and higher bandwidths, LTE will help us meet demand and further improve our broadband service offering in the near future,” he said.

LTE technology is a type of cellular mobile technology that is optimized for broadband connectivity. This means that companies with LTE networks will be able to offer higher Internet speeds than what is available on the existing 3G network.

Globe said 3G technology was designed mainly for traditional telephone services such as voice calls, with provisions for broadband connectivity only on a limited basis.

The company said the new technology is in line with its strategy of growing its broadband business amid the saturation of the market for traditional call and text services.

Globe said the LTE will not only make existing mobile phone applications run faster but also pave the way for new functions that were previously available only for devices with fixed-wire connections.

At the end of the third quarter, Globe had over one million broadband subscribers, growing 95 percent over the same period last year.

T-Mobile USA Reports Third Quarter 2010 Results

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today reported third quarter of 2010 results. In the third quarter of 2010, T-Mobile USA reported service revenues of $4.71 billion compared to $4.73 billion in the third quarter of 2009, and OIBDA of $1.32 billion compared to $1.56 billion reported in the third quarter of 2009.

Net customer additions were 137,000 in the third quarter of 2010 compared to 77,000 net customer losses in the third quarter of 2009. Additionally, the number of customers using smartphones continued to increase significantly during the quarter, driving blended data ARPU growth.

“The revenue trend in the third quarter showed continued improvement. Lower OIBDA was a direct result of the efforts to grow smartphone customers and higher investment in T-Mobile’s 4G network. These early investments will enable us to provide great customer experiences and allow us to scale our cost structure effectively as more customers utilize data services,” said Philipp Humm, CEO and President, T-Mobile USA.

America Movil Profits mount by 8.8% in Q3

Am©rica M³vil has announced that its third-quarter revenues increased by 5.3% to US$12.4 billion, while net profits rose by 8.8% to US$1.9 billion. Wireless service revenues of US$6.72 billion, which represent approximately 60% of service revenues, rose 9.1% while fixed-line revenues remained flat.

The company recorded a subscriber base of 266.8 million, a rise of 11.5% compared to last year. This includes 216.8 million wireless subscribers, up 11.6% year-on-year, and 50 million fixed line accesses that increased 10.9% in the period. Of that, 28.1 million correspond to fixed voice, 12.5 million to broadband and 9.4 million to PayTV. The company added 5.5 million wireless subscribers in the third quarter, 37.6% more than in the same quarter of 2009 with postpaid net additions 22.4% greater than those of a year before.

According to the company, the subscriber growth was remarkable in Mexico, where net Central America they tripled whereas in Chile and Colombia they were up 189% and 121% respectively. In total gains Brazil came in first with 1.9 million net additions, followed by Mexico with 1.1 million, Colombia with 352 thousand, Chile with 336 thousand and Argentina with 295 thousand. The company’s operations in Ecuador and Peru added 268 and 218 thousand subscribers respectively. The fastest growth in relative terms was observed in Chile with 32.8%, and the U.S. with 26.2%, followed by Peru with 18.1% and Brazil with 15.3%.

Wireless data was the major reason for the company’s growth, revealing a growth rate of 27.1%, with its share of wireless service revenues rising to 22.0%. In the fixed-line business broadband and video services maintain a strong momentum.

Etisalat net profit falls by 23% in Q3

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), UAE-based telecoms operator has reported a 23% fall in third-quarter net profit to US$473 million, as it seeks expansion opportunities abroad.

As per reports, the company generated revenue of US$1.98 billion in 3Q10, versus just under US$2.27 billion in the same period a year ago due to increased competition in its domestic market. Net profit for the nine months ended 30 September 2010 totaled US$1.52 billion, down from US$1.74 billion in the same period of 2009, while revenue generated in the nine-month period fell 2% year-on-year to US$6.35 billion. Etisalat recorded 7.81 million mobile subscribers at 30 September 2010, an increase of 10,000 over the quarter. At the same date, fixed telephone lines totaled 1.25 million, while internet connections declined by 40,000 quarter-on-quarter to 1.35 million due to falling dial-up users.

Tata Communications net profit triples in Q3 (India)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tax write-back and lower costs helped in the tripling of Tata Communications net profit in the third-quarter. INR2.81 billion has been gained by tax write backs compared with a tax expense of INR394.5 million a year earlier.

An increase from INR821.9 million to INR2.82 billion has been recorded in the net profit for the October-December period. While the Revenue fell 23% to INR7.70 billion from INR9.99 billion. Total costs slipped 12% to INR7.66 billion from INR8.74 billion.

Hong Kong shares end morning higher; China Mobile leads

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) – Share prices finished the morning session higher, in line with Wall Street’s gains on Friday after positive US August jobs data, dealers said.

Strong buying interest in China Mobile, a rally on the Tokyo market and a drop in oil prices back below the 70 usd a barrel level provided additional support, they said.

The Hang Seng index ended the morning up 95.76 points or 0.55 pct at 17,519.48, off a low of 17,480.04 and high of 17,538.59.

Turnover was 15.66 bln hkd.

‘The August jobs and other data in the US were favorable on the whole… and raised hopes that the Fed will keep interest rates steady,’ said Matthew Kwok, head of research at Tanrich Securities, referring to the US Federal Reserve.

Wall Street’s gains following the data encouraged investors across the region, including Hong Kong, he said.

‘The drop in oil prices also helped eased worries on inflation and made investors more confident that a new rate increase will not happen anytime soon. The easing of these worries explain the gains of rate-sensitive property and banking counters,’ Kwok said.
The property sub-index gained 86.44 points or 0.41 pct at 21,077.08, extending Friday’s 0.59 pct gain.

Cheung Kong was up 0.70 hkd or 0.81 pct at 87.25, Henderson Land up 0.15 hkd or 0.34 pct at 44.10, Sun Hung Kai Properties up 0.30 hkd or 0.35 pct at 85.40, Wharf Holdings up 0.20 hkd or 0.76 pct at 26.55 and New World Development up 0.02 hkd or 0.14 pct at 14.0.

‘Sales of apartments in the past two months have been good on expectations that interest rates have already peaked or about to peak, and I expect this positive sentiment to be sustained in the coming days,’ says Tanrich’s Kwok.

He said China Mobile posted strong gains on a combination of factors.

‘The company remains a favorite among both retail and institutional investors who like its strong cash flow and it’s ability to give a high dividend payout,’ Kwok said, adding that the stock is also benefiting from the ‘off-and-on talk of a further appreciation of the yuan.’

China Mobile finished the morning up 1.11 pct or 2.14 pct at 52.95.

Banking stocks were mostly higher, with HSBC up 0.80 hkd or 0.57 pct at 141.80, unit Hang Seng Bank up 0.40 hkd or 0.41 pct at 98.55, Bank of East Asia up 0.10 hkd or 0.29 pct at 35.0 and BOC Hong Kong down 0.14 hkd or 0.82 pct at 17.0.

‘BOC Hong Kong has gained about 15 pct in the past few days and its fall on consolidation and some profit-taking is not surprising,’ said Kwok.

Shimao Property Holdings surged 0.51 hkd or 6.65 pct at 8.18, extending last Friday’s 3.37 post-results gain after news that it won a 530,000 square metre site in Jiaxing, Zhejiang for 484 mln yuan.

Sino Biopharmaceutical was up 0.03 hkd or 2.14 pct at 1.43 after it said it has agreed to establish a joint venture company that will produce ethylene and propylene.

Nam Tai Electronics was down 0.09 hkd or 7.69 pct at 1.08 after it said it expects third-quarter and full-year results to be weaker than previously anticipated due to lower sales.

Among other China-related stocks, Chalco was up 0.07 hkd or 1.31 pct at 5.43, PetroChina up 0.12 hkd or 1.37 pct at 8.85, China Unicom up 0.09 hkd or 1.27 pct at 7.19, Sinopec up 0.16 hkd or 3.40 pct at 4.87 and Angang New Steel up 0.11 hkd at 1.73 pct at 6.48.

Source- http://www.forbes.com

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