Mobile Internet Outpaces Desktop Internet

Palm Shipments Up, Sell-through Down

Palm said it shipped 783,000 smartphone units during the quarter ending November 27, 2009, representing a 5% decrease on the previous quarter and a 41% increase compared to the same period a year earlier. It said that smartphone sell-through for the quarter ending November 27 was 573,000 units, down 29% from the previous quarter and down 4% year-over-year. source: Palm statement

RIM Keeps Growing Fast

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, said that revenue in the quarter ending November 28, 2009 rose 41% year-on-year to 3.92 billion US dollars as it shipped approximately 10.1 million devices, up from 6.7 million in the same period of 2008.

RIM forecast that revenue for the quarter ending February 27, 2010 will be between 4.2 billion and 4.4 billion US dollars, which would be up about 24% on the same period a year earlier. source: RIM statement

Ovi Downloads Growing Rapidly

The number of downloads from Nokia's Ovi applications store is growing 100% each month and has now reached one million a day, according to an article in The Financial Times. The article said the store now has 80 million active users, up fron 54 million in August.

"We have screens up in our offices running the Twitter feeds all day long. It's like sitting there and getting punched in the face. But when we make improvements we see the impact instantly," George Linardos, head of products at Nokia's media group, told the FT, referring to criticism of Ovi. source: Financial Times

America Movil to Maintain Mexico Spending

America Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile operator, could invest around 850 million US dollars in its Mexican operations during 2010 - the same as in 2009, according to remarks made by Chief Executive Daniel Hajj during a press conference. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

OECD Operator Revenues Down

Total revenues for mobile operators in the 30 OECD countries are forecast to decline to 408 billion euros in 2009 from 411 billion euros in 2008, according to Wireless Intelligence. Capital expenditure accounted for 10% of operator revenues in the third-quarter of 2009, compared to about 14% a year earlier, the research firm added. source: Wireless Intelligence statement

Telekom Austria Sales Slipping

Telekom Austria said it expects revenues in 2010 to amount to roughly 4.7 billion euros compared with a forecast of 4.8 billion euros in 2009. Depending on the extent of investments for the migration to an all-IP based fixed voice network, Telekom Austria said it expects capital expenditures to be up to 800 million euros compared with a forecast of 700 million euros for 2009. The company said its capex forecast does not reflect a material roll out of glass fiber, which it does not expect to start in 2010. source: Telekom Austria statement

Gameloft Sees Mobile Boom Ahead

"100 million users worldwide have downloaded Gameloft games to Samsung handsets, in the next few years I would expect to see 10 times that," Michel Guillemot, president and CEO of Gameloft, told a Samsung press conference in London on Tuesday, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

QTel on Target

Qtel expects to meet its target of between 9% and 11% profit growth this year as it eyes acquisitions and licenses in the Middle East and Asia, the company's chief executive told Zawya Dow Jones Monday. The Doha-based company has spent most of the 6.5 billion to 7.3 billion Qatar rials (1.79 billion to 2 billion US dollars) earmarked for capital expenditure in 2009 mainly in Qatar, Iraq, Algeria and Palestine, Nasser Marafih added. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Nokia Sets Out Stall for 2010

This week, Nokia forecast that industry mobile device shipments will rise approximately 10% in 2010 and that its market share will be flat next year, compared to 2009. Nokia also said it expects a flat market in euro terms for the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market in 2010, compared to 2009. Nokia added that it continues to target services net sales of at least 2 billion euros in 2011 and 300 million active users for its services by the end of 2011.

Nokia also said that its operational priorities for 2010 include re-engineering its Symbian user interface, delivering a major product milestone before mid-year 2010 and another major product milestone before the end of 2010. The Espoo-based handset maker also said it plans to deliver its first Maemo 6-powered mobile computer, with an iconic user experience, in the second half of 2010, while significantly increasing the proportion of touch and/or QWERTY devices in its smartphone portfolio. source: Nokia statement

Orange Mulls "Perfect Storm"

Olaf Swantee, the global head of France Telecom's Orange mobile business, told a conference last week that the reduction in voice revenues, new regulation and the economic downturn had resulted in a "perfect storm" for operators and said the changes were structural and were unlikely to return once economies recover, according to a Reuters report.

"There are only so many hours in the day that people can phone and we're seeing voice ARPU (average revenue per use) decline quite significantly," the news wire quoted him as saying. At the same conference, Vodafone's European CEO Michel Combes mooted the idea of charging content providers and/or subscribers a premium in return for a guaranteed quality of service, according to Reuters. source: Reuters

Twentyfold Data Traffic Rise at O2 UK

O2, the U.K.'s largest mobile operator, said last week that data on its network had increased twentyfold in the past year, according to a report by Mobile Today. The report also quotes O2 as saying: "We have a small number of “hotspots” where customers may have lower levels of service than they expect. Typical symptoms include calls going straight to voicemail, dropped calls or difficulty in establishing a data connection." source: Mobile Today

To boost capacity, the operator, which is selling Apple's iPhone in the U.K., said it plans to add 200 new base stations in London alone in the next 12 months, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009. In 2010, O2 said other areas of the UK will see similar developments.

Derek McManus, Chief Technology Officer for O2 in the UK said: “In the past 12 months the mobile industry has seen an unprecedented change in demand [....] on mobile data networks. To put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously. source: O2 statement

Broadband Boost for VimpelCom

VimpelCom Plans Capex Hike

VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile operator, said its revenue rose 3.5% year-on-year in the third quarter to 71.3 billion Russian rubles (2.48 billion US dollars), as its subscribers in Russia rose 13% to 51 million.

In Vietnam, a new market for VimpelCom, the operator said it had 1,071 base stations on air by the end of September, covering 24% of the total population, while in Cambodia, it had 370 base stations on air covering 47% of the total population. source: VimpelCom presentation

VimpelCom plans to increase capital spending in 2010 by 50% over 2009, according to a report by Interfax, which cites Chief Executive Boris Nemsic. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

China Mobile To Push Mobile TV

China Mobile plans to launch a trial mobile television service on 3G handsets by the end of this year and is aiming to have tens of millions of users for the service before the end of 2011, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Chairman Wang Jianzhou also said the operator plans to launch "mobile reader services" next year and is working with Datang Telecom Technology Co., Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and Hanwang Technology Co. on compatible devices, according to the report.

Wang Jianzhou also said that China Mobile will cut back on capital spending next year, according to the Dow Jones report. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Orascom Sees Slower Growth

Orascom Telecom said that its total subscribers were almost 89 million at the end of September, an increase of 12% over September 2008. In the first nine months of 2009, in local currencies, revenues in Algeria increased by 6%, revenues in Pakistan were stable, in Tunisia rose 21%, in Egypt were up 6% and in Bangladesh soared 25%.

Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, said: “While the economic environment has improved in recent months the competitive environment remains challenging; in this context OTH has continued to perform well, although 2009 will be a year of slower growth than 2008, in line with our forecasts." The group's capital spending in the first nine months was down 37% to 897 million US dollars. source: Orascom Telecom statement

Rapid Rise in Zain's Revenues

For the first nine months of 2009, Zain Group said its consolidated revenues rose 24%year-on-year to 1.78 billion Kuwaiti dinars (6.22 billion US dollars) as its customer base increased 28% to almost 72 million following Zain's entry into Saudi Arabia and Ghana.

"With improving currency stability in many of our African operations, we expect to attain better results in 2010 and beyond,” said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain, which has a "commercial presence" in 24 countries. source: Zain statement

Mobile in Western Europe Now Shrinking

MTS Sees Growth in Russia

In local currencies, MTS said it expects single-digit year-on-year revenue growth in Russia and a single-digit year-on-year revenue decline in the Ukraine in 2009. In the third quarter, MTS's revenues in Russia rose 7% year-on-year to 56.27 billion Russian roubles (1.95 billion US dollars), while in the Ukraine revenues fell 2% to 2.22 billion Ukranian hryvnia (272 million US dollars).

Anticipating "investments in 3G, transport networks development, retail expansion and OPEX optimization initiatives", MTS said its capex in 2010 is likely to be between 22% and 25% of revenues, compared with 22% in both 2009 and 2008. MTS said it expects the Russian telecoms market to grow 6% a year from 2008 to 1.63 trillion Russian roubles in 2012. source: MTS presentation

SFR Sales Slip Slightly

Vivendi said that revenues in SFR, its French telecoms unit, fell 1.3% year-on-year in the third quarter to 3.09 billion euros, as a result of the impact of the "economic slowdown on roaming traffic and out of bundle usage and also the impact of a mobile voice termination regulated price cut."

At the end of September 2009, SFR's fixed broadband customer base had risen 15% year-on-year to 4.28 million. Vivendi said that Maroc Telecom's revenues rose almost 2% year-on-year to 694 million euros in the third-quarter, as its customer base rose 11% to more than 21 million. source: Vivendi statement

Outlook Brighter For BT

Aided by currency movements, BT said that it now expects its revenue to decline between 3% and 4% in the year to March 31, 2010, rather than the 4% to 5% it had forecast. It also lowered its capital spending forceast for the year to March 31, 2010 to 2.6 billion pounds (4.3 billion US dollars) from 2.7 billion pounds.

In the third-quarter, BT's revenue fell 6% year-on-year, stripping out the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, to 5.12 billion pounds. BT blamed challenging market conditions for a 8% fall in underlying revenue in its global services division and 5% fall in its retail division. source: BT statement

Spain Leaves Telefonica Feeling Flat

Despite 6% organic revenue growth in Latin America, Telefonica said that its organic revenue grew 0.1% year-on-year in the third quarter to 14.13 billion euros. The company's revenues in Spain fell almost 7% year-on-year, but rose 2% in the U.K. in pounds sterling and climbed almost 6% in Germany.

Telefonica said capital spending in the first nine months of the year was 4.38 billion euros, down 19% on the same period in 2008. source: Telefonica statement

Clearwire Manages Modest Growth

Clearwire said that it had 173,000 subscribers for its mobile WiMax service at the end of September following net subscriber additions of 44,000 in the quarter. The operator's revenue increased by 13% year-on-year to 69 million US dollars in the third quarter.

During the quarter, Clearwire's mobile WiMax coverage increased by 67% to cover 10 million people as the company spent 400 million US dollars on capex compared with 129 million in the same quarter of 2008. It said it is still on track to provide coverage to 30 million people by the end of the year. source: Clearwire statement

Buoyant Quarter for SingTel

Driven by customer growth in Singapore and Australia, SingTel said its revenues rose 8% year-on-year, at constant exchange rates, to 4.1 billion Singapore dollars (2.96 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending September 30.

SingTel forecast that it will see single digit revenue growth in local currencies in Singapore and Australia in the year to March 31, 2010. It also expects its capital spending to be below 800 million Singapore dollars in Singapore and around 1.1 billion Australian dollars (1.02 billion US dollars) in Australia. source: SingTel presentation

Traffic Up and Revenue Down For Vodafone

Hit by falling voice revenues in Europe and slowing growth in India, Vodafone said that its organic revenues fell 3% year-on-year to 21.8 billion pounds (36.4 billion US dollars) in the six months ending September 30. The group's organic data revenue in Europe grew almost 18% year-on-year, compared with about 22% in the six months ending March 31.

Vodafone said that its data traffic in Europe has grown from less than 5 petabytes in the quarter ending December 31, 2007 to around 15 petabytes in the quarter ending September 30, 2009 and is now 2.5 times voice traffic. Still, the Newbury-based operator said utilisation of its European networks was still only at 30% in the quarter ending September 30 and that only 5% of sites are running at utilisation rates of 90% or more during busy times.

Vodafone said the HSPA+ roadmap will meet its needs for the next 2 to 3 years, as upgrading the network to a peak-rate of 21.6 Mbps from 7.2 Mbps will result in a 50% performance boost. It added that it can increase its backhaul capacity fourfold using ethernet microwave technology.

Vodafone also said it now has 83 million customers, 89,000 base stations and one million distributors in India. source: Vodafone presentation

Mobile Internet Boosts Brazil's Vivo

Brazilian mobile operator Vivo said its net service revenue rose 4% year-on-year in the third quarter to 3.79 billion Brazilian reals (2.2 billion US dollars), as mobile data revenues grew 40%, driven by a 76% rise in mobile Internet revenues. Vivo said usage of 3G data plans, through smartphones and data cards, grew 181% year-on-year.

In September 2009, Vivo's 3G WCDMA network, launched in October 2008, served 561 municipalities, reaching 60% of the population. source: Vivo statement

Vodacom Keeps Growing

Lifted by a 17% increase in customers, Vodacom said its revenue grew by almost 5% year-on-year in the six months to September 30 to 28.7 billion South African rand (3.88 billion US dollars) on a like-for-like basis.

Vodacom's mobile broadband customers rose 54% year-on-year to 964,000 in South Africa, while group mobile data revenues climbed 30% to 1.97 billion rand. The group forecast that it will spend 5 billion rand on capex in South Africa in the year to March 31, 2010 and 2 billion rand in its international operations, down from its earlier forecast of 3 billion rand. source: Vodacom presentation

Telecom Italia Tumbles

Telecom Italia said that its revenues fell almost 6% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis in the third quarter to 6.76 billion euros, as revenues in Italy declined almost 7%.

In the Italian mobile business, revenues fell more than 8% in the first nine months of 2009. The company blamed "a reduction in the number of handsets sold, shrinking sales of traditional value-added services (text messages) and content, as well as changing trends in regulated interconnection rates."

However, the company said its revenues in Brasil grew 1% in the first nine months as "revenues from products increased by 21.7%" and revenues from value-added services grew by 21.3%. source: Telecom Italia statement

Deutsche Telekom Down 3%

In the first nine months of 2009, Deutsche Telekom's revenue fell 3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to 48.4 billion euros. Revenue declined in most of the group's European operations and in the U.S., stripping out the impact of currency movements.

Deutsche Telekom said its U.S. business lost 77,000 net customers in the third quarter of 2009, compared with net customer additions of 670,000 in the third quarter of 2008 and 325,000 in the second quarter of 2009. The company blamed the turnabout on competitive intensity, "including handset innovation."

As it rolls out a UMTS/HSDPA network in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom said its cash capex in the U.S. increased year-on-year from 1.8 billion euros to 2.2 billion euros in the first nine months of 2009 due to currency fluctuations and cash payment timing differences. source: Deutsche Telecom statement

Qualcomm Sees Growth Ahead

Thanks to rising sales of WCDMA handsets, Qualcomm said that it expects its like-for-like revenues to rise between 2% and 10% year-on-year to between 2.55 billion and 2.75 billion US dollars in the quarter ending December 27. The chip company's revenues fell 19% year-on-year in the quarter ending September 27th to 2.69 billion dollars.

For the year ending September 2010, Qualcomm expects revenues to rise between 1% and 9% to between 10.5 billion and 11.3 billion dollars. source: Qualcomm statement

3G Sales Soar for Safaricom

Driven by a 94% increase in data revenues, Kenya's Safaricom said that its revenue rose 18% to 40.66 billion Kenyan shillings (541 million US dollars) in the third quarter. Safaricom said that revenues from mobile broadband services climbed 160% and revenues from its M-PESA money transfer service soared 248%. The operator said it now has 1.8 million "distinct" data users.

Safaricom said that its 2G mobile sites have increased to 1,972 from 1,741 in September 2008 and 384 sites have been upgraded to 3G. The operator is also rolling out WiMAX to corporate branch networks, small businesses and home workers. It added that the SEACOM undersea cable, which came into operation at the end of July, has increased its data capacity.

Safaricom has launched a new tariff, called Supa Ongea, that dynamically gives subscribers discounts of up to 90% based on the time and their location with on-net call charges ranging from 80 cents to 8 Kenyan shillings per minute.

The operator said its M-PESA customer base had grown to 7.9 million users as of September 2009, while the number of agents for the service has reached 13,326 compared with 4,230 in September 2008. source: Safaricom statement

Belgacom Flat in Third Quarter

Belgacom said that its revenues in the third quarter were almost flat year-on-year at 1.48 billion euros. The operator said the number of SMS sent per customer increased 23% in the first nine months of 2009 to 71 per month, driven by the substitution of voice by SMS.

Belgacom reconfirmed that it still expects a revenue decline of about 1% in 2009 and capital spending to be between 10% and 11% of group revenue. In the first nine months, Belgacom's capex was 405 million euros - 101 million euros less than for the same period of 2008, which included the renewal of the football broadcasting rights for 105 million euros, covering three football seasons. source: Belgacom statement

China Unicom Passes One Million 3G Subs

China Unicom said it now has more than 1 million 3G subscribers, including 5,000 iPhone owners, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The Chinese operator also said that it expects to add an additional 1 million 3G subscribers each month. source: Dow Jones Newswires/Total Telecom

Handset Sales Boost KT

KT said that its revenues rose 4% year-on-year in the third quarter to 4.82 trillion won (4.07 billion US dollars) on a like-for-like basis propelled by 14% year-on-year rise in wireless revenues.

Mobile handset sales were up 36% year-on-year to 862 billion won, and boosted by sales of flat-rate data plans, KT's wireless data revenue climbed 11% year-on-year to 303 billion won. Wireless data ARPU rose 7% year-on-year to 6,980 won. source: KT statement

PT Telkom To Up Capex

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia plans to spend 20 trillion Indonesian rupiah (2.09 billion US dollars) in capital expenditure next year, up from a target of 17 trillion this year, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The company's finance director said that the company also expects its revenue to grow by a single digit (between 0% and 10%) in 2010, as it adds at least 10 million new mobile subscribers. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Bharti's Revenue Growth Slows

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, said that its revenues rose 9% year-on-year in the quarter ending September 30 to 98.46 billion rupees (2.08 billion US dollars) as the total customers on its network climbed 42% to more than 113 million. Year-on-year growth in the previous quarter was 17%. Non-voice services made up 15% of Bharti's total revenues in the quarter ending September 30 - unchanged from the previous year.

During the quarter, Bharti's capital expenditure was 22.78 billion rupees. As of September 30, Bharti's network covered 83% of India's population using 99,501 network sites compared with 77% using 82,554 sites on September 30, 2008. source: Bharti Airtel statement

Software Sales Shore Up Alcatel-Lucent

Following a weakening in demand for second-generation mobile equipment, Alcatel-Lucent said that revenues fell 11% year-on-year, at constant currencies, to 3.89 billion euros in the third quarter. The Paris-based company said it continues to expect the global telecommunications equipment and related services market to be down between 8% and 12% at constant currency in 2009.

France Telecom-Orange has selected Alcatel-Lucent for an LTE field trial in Paris in both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) modes. To date, 16 operators have selected Alcatel-Lucent's LTE solution for trials.

Boosted by rising sales to operators, Alcatel-Lucent's applications software revenue rose 16% year-on-year, at constant currencies, to 286 million euros in the third quarter. But the company said rich communications, which includes messaging and IMS had a softer quarter, after a strong first half, but "its prospects remain very solid given recent wins in IMS, especially in China and in the US."
source: Alcatel-Lucent statement

MTN Reaches 108 Million Subs

Operating in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, MTN Group said it had 108 million subscribers on 30 September 2009, a 5% increase for the quarter and almost a 20% increase for the year to date. The biggest percentage gain was in Rwanda, where MTN's subscriber base rose 20% in the quarter to 1.66 million.

However, in South Africa, MTN's subscriber base declined from 17.2 million at the end of June 2009 to 16.4 million at 30 September 2009 following the introduction of a regulation requiring the registration of customers. But MTN still expects to achieve the total group subscriber net addition guidance for 2009 of 22.6 million. source: MTN statement

Mobile Growth For Unicom

China Unicom said that its revenue for the first nine months of 2009 was 114.93 billion Chinese yuan (16.81 billion US dollars) of which 51.79 billion came from mobile service revenues - equivalent to 80.6% of its mobile services revenues in the whole of 2008. Citing the merger with China Netcom, Unicom didn't give directly comparable figures for 2008. source: China Unicom statement

Samsung Gains More Market Share

Boosted by a 16% increase in handset shipments and rising sales of mobile WiMAX network equipment, Samsung Electronics said that revenue in its telecoms division rose 21% year-on-year to 10.71 trillion Korean won (9.03 billion US dollars) in the third quarter.

Samsung estimated its share of the combined US and EU handset markets at almost 28% in the quarter, compared with 22% for the whole of 2008, and its share of emerging markets at almost 17%, compared with 13% last year. It also forecast that 180 million smartphones will be sold worldwide this year and that smartphone penetration will rise to 16% from 12% in 2008. source: Samsung Electronics presentation

DOCOMO Lowers Forecast

Anticipating better-than-expected cellular service revenues will be offset by lower-than-expected handset sales, NTT DOCOMO lowered its revenue forecast for the 12 months to March 31, 2010 to 4.28 trillion yen (46.98 billion US dollars), compared with its initial forecast of 4.38 trillion yen. That would amount to a fall of almost 4% from the previous year.

In the third quarter of 2009, DOCOMO's operating revenues fell 3% year-on-year to 1.06 trillion yen, as its voice ARPU fell to 2,970 yen from 3,450 yen in the third quarter of 2008. However, data ARPU climbed to 2,450 yen from 2,410 yen.

By March 2015, DOCOMO said it plans to have 20,000 LTE base stations serving approximately 50% of the Japanese population thanks to a capital investment of between 300 billion and 400 billion yen. source: NTT DOCOMO presentation

Sprint Sales Slide

Still losing valuable post-paid customers, Sprint Nextel said that is revenues in the third quarter were 8.04 billion US dollars, down 9% on the same period in 2008. Still, Sprint said that the average data ARPU generated by its post-paid CDMA customers rose to 19 dollars from 16 dollars a year ago.

Capital expenditure was 431 million dollars in the quarter, compared to 485 million dollars in the third quarter of 2008. The operator said that Sprint 4G (WiMAX) is now available in 17 markets and should be available to a population of more than 30 million people by the end of 2009, and cover a population of up to 120 million people in about 80 markets by the end of 2010. source: Sprint Nextel statement

Mobile Devices Drag Down Motorola

Motorola reported a 27% year-on-year fall in sales to 5.45 billion US dollars in the third quarter as mobile device revenues plummeted 46% to just 1.69 billion dollars, making it now the smallest of the company's three divisions in terms of revenue.

Motorola, which shipped 13.6 million handsets in the quarter, estimated its global handset market share at just under 5%. Still, the U.S. company said it has launched two new smartphones in time for the peak holiday season and Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola, said: "Next year, we will continue to expand our smartphone portfolio and deliver improved financial results.” source: Motorola statement

SoftBank Ups Capex Forecast

SoftBank said that its sales were almost flat year-on-year in the quarter ending September 30 at 682.9 billion yen (7.47 billion US dollars) as a revenue decline in its fixed-line divisions canceled out a 6% rise in its mobile unit. Mobile data ARPU climbed to 1,990 yen in the quarter ending September 30, up from 1,710 yen in the same quarter of 2008.

SoftBank upped its capital spending forecast for the year ending March 31, 2010 by 40 billion yen to 260 billion yen, which would be the same as the previous year. source: SoftBank presentation

SK Lifted by Wireless Internet

Boosted by rising wireless Internet usage and new subscribers, SK Telecom said that its revenue rose 5% year-on-year to 3.06 trillion Korean won (2.58 billion US dollars) in the third quarter. Thanks to greater uptake of flat-rate data plans, SK said that its wireless Internet revenue rose 7% year-on-year to 662 billion won, accounting for 24% of cellular service revenues, as its wireless Internet ARPU expanded to 9,191 won.

"On September 25th, SK Telecom implemented various tariff cut measures including discount for long term subscribers, introduction of per-second charge system, lowering of subscription fee, lowering of prepaid tariff and introduction of heavy discount flat rate data plan," said SK Telecom's CFO Dong-Hyun Jang. "We expect to minimize the counter effects of tariff cut on revenue as such measures lead to strengthening of SK Telecom's core competitiveness through greater customer retention, increase in mobile usage and revitalization of wireless Internet services." source: SK Telecom statement

France Telecom Sees Sales Slide

Hit by regulatory price controls and the weak European economy, France Telecom said that its revenues fell almost 4% year-on-year, stripping out the impact of currency movements, to 12.69 billion euros in the third quarter of 2009. Revenues fell 10% in Poland, 7% in the U.K., 5% in Spain, but just 1% in France.

In most of the countries where France Telecom's mobile unit, Orange, operates, falls in voice revenues were partially offset by rising data revenues. As of September 30, Orange had 6.86 million 3G mobile broadband customers in France, a 64% increase year-on-year, and 4.72 million 3G mobile broadband customers in the U.K., also up 64%.

The Paris-based company cut capital spending by almost 17% year-on-year to 1.2 billion euros in the quarter. source: France Telecom statement

Baltics Leave TeliaSonera Flat

As revenue declines in Norway and the Baltics offset growth in Sweden, TeliaSonera said that its net sales, excluding the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, were flat in the third quarter at 27.07 billion Swedish krona (3.83 billion US dollars).

Maintaining its forecast that revenues will be flat or slightly down in 2009, the Stockholm-based company said its capital spending was down 9% year-on-year to 3.24 billion krona in the third quarter. Capital spending in the first nine months amounted to 11% of sales compared to 15% in 2008. source: TeliaSonera presentation

Domestic Market Pulls Down KPN

Hit by falling sales in The Netherlands and regulation, KPN said that its revenues fell 5% year-on-year, on a like-for-like basis, in the third quarter to 3.33 billion euros.

Boosting cash flow, KPN lowered it expectations for capital spending in 2009 to between 1.8 and 1.9 billion euros compared with 1.9 billion in 2008. The Dutch company also reconfirmed its revenue target of between 13.6 and 13.8 billion euros for 2009, compared with 14 billion euros in 2008. source: KPN statement

3G in China Lifts ZTE

Boosted by the roll out of 3G networks in China, ZTE said that its revenues rose 43% year-on-year to 15.14 billion Chinese yuan (2.22 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of 2009. ZTE said that network equipment sales climbed 47% year-on-year, while handset sales rose 39%. source: ZTE statement

Mobile Data Drives América Móvil

Pan-Latin America mobile operator América Móvil said its third quarter revenues were 99.8 billion Mexican pesos (7.5 billion US dollars), up 17% on the same period of 2008, boosted by currency movements and strong data-revenue growth.

América Móvil said its 3G networks, which now cover 70% of the population in its region of operations, "have proven to be fruitful, as they have allowed for a significant expansion in data revenues even in a weak economic environment."

After adding four million new subscribers in the quarter, América Móvil had 194.3 million wireless subscribers and 3.8 million fixed-lines at the end of September 2009. source: América Móvil statement

Growth Slows at Verizon

Verizon said its total operating revenues grew 0.6% year-on-year to 27.3 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2009 on a like-for-like basis. Boosted by a 29% rise in mobile data revenues to 4.1 billion dollars, Verizon Wireless' revenues rose 5% to 15.8 billion dollars.

While revenues in its fixed-line business shrank 5%, customers for Verizon's fibre-optic service climbed 49% year-on-year to 3.3 million, while customers for its fibre-optic television service soared 68% to 2.7 million.

“The Verizon network is now an engine for next-generation communications services that will create new short- and long-term opportunities for us," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "As the U.S. economic and employment picture improves, and as we accelerate reductions in our own cost structure, we are well-positioned to quickly and significantly improve our growth profile.” source: Verizon presentation

Russia Lifts Tele2

Driven by the addition of new mobile customers in Russia, Tele2 reported a 3% year-on-year rise in revenues in the third quarter to 9.76 billion Swedish krona (1.44 billion US dollars).

Capital spending, mainly resulting from expansion in Russia, amounted to 1.17 billion krona, an increase of 24% from the third quarter of 2008. source: Tele2 statement

KDDI Slips Slightly

Blaming rising competition in the Japanese market, KDDI reported a year-on-year fall of almost 1% in operating revenues to 869.36 billion yen (9.44 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending September 30.

However, KDDI's mobile data ARPU climbed to 2270 yen (25 US dollars) in the quarter from 2210 in the same quarter of 2008. The operator plans to introduce WiMAX-mobile hybrid devices in the next six months to improve its competitiveness in the mobile data market.

KDDI's capital expenditure in the quarter ending September 30 was 117.35 billion yen, down 14% from the same period in 2008. source: KDDI presentation

Telmex Down 5%

Telmex, Mexico's largest fixed-line telephone company, its sales fell 5% year-on-year in the third quarter to 29.5 billion Mexican pesos (2.28 billion US dollars) as a drop in local, long distance and interconnection revenues offset strong growth in the company's Internet access and corporate data businesses, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The newswire also reported that Telmex maintained its capital expenditure target of eight billion pesos for 2009, even though it has already spent 86% of that. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

China Telecom's Growth Accelerates

Aided by the purchase of China Unicom's CDMA operation, China Telecom reported that its operating revenues in the third quarter rose 17% year-on-year to 51.6 billion yuan (7.56 billion US dollars). Its revenues grew 15% in the first half of 2009.

In the third quarter, China Telecom added 2.4 million wireline broadband subscribers taking the total number to 51.5 million and 7.5 million mobile subscribers, taking its total mobile subs to 46.8 million. source: China Telecom statement

Wireless Shores Up AT&T

In the third quarter, AT&T's consolidated revenues fell 1% year-on-year to 30.9 billion US dollars, as growth in wireless and advanced wireline data services in large part offset declines in voice, legacy data and print advertising products.

AT&T said its wireless service revenues rose 10% to 12.4 billion dollars, as its wireless data revenues — from messaging, Internet access, access to applications and related services — rose almost 34% year-on-year to 3.6 billion dollars in the third quarter.

AT&T said that almost 42% of its 63 million postpaid subscribers at the end of the third quarter had integrated devices (smartphones), adding that the average ARPU for integrated devices continues to be 1.8 times that of the company's non integrated-device base.

In the wireline business, rising U-verse TV penetration drove 32% year-on-year growth in consumer IP revenues in the third quarter, AT&T's best growth in this category to date. AT&T also said that its capital expenditure in the first nine months of 2009 totaled 11.6 billion dollars, down 22% on the previous year. source: AT&T statement

Sales Setback for Ericsson

Blaming a tougher market environment, Ericsson said that is revenues fell 12% year-on-year, adjusted for currency movements, to 46.4 billion Swedish krona (6.72 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of 2009.

However, professional services sales increased 4% year-over-year in local currencies, while total service sales, including network rollout, now account for 40% of Ericsson's sales.

Ericsson said that global mobile subscriptions grew by 133 million in the third quarter to a total of 4.4 billion, while WCDMA subscriptions grew by 36 million to a total of 411 million. In the second quarter, fixed broadband connections grew to 422 million, adding 12 million subscribers, according to the Stockholm-based company. source: Ericsson statement

Revenues Rise Rapidly for LG

LG Electronics said that sales in its mobile communications division climbed 22% year-on-year to 4.65 trillion Korean won (4 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of 2009, powered by a 25% increase in handset revenues to 4.38 trillion won. Handset shipments climbed 37% to 31.6 million units boosted by strong sales in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

In the fourth quarter, LG plans to bolster its smartphone lineup to meet rising demand in North America, in particular. source: LG Electronics statement

Vodacom Expects 10% Revenue Rise

Despite more difficult trading conditions, particularly in its international operations, South Africa-based Vodacom Group said it expects to report group revenue growth of approximately 10% for the six months ended 30 September 2009, compared to the six months ended 30 September 2008. source: Vodacom statement

IPhone Sales Up 7%

Apple said that it sold 7.4 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2009, representing 7% growth over the same period in 2008.

China Mobile Sales Still Strong

With its customer base still growing steadily, China Mobile reported revenue of 114.06 billion Chinese yuan (16.7 billion US dollars) for the third quarter of 2009, up 9% from 104.66 billion in the same period last year.

Although usage of China Mobile's SMS and wireless music services continued to rise, the number of MMS users on its network fell to 132.68 million at the end of September compared with 134.88 million at the end of June. source: China Mobile statement

Sales Slip at Etisalat

Etisalat recorded net revenues of 7.36 billion Arab Emirate dirhams (2 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of 2009, a fall of less than 1% from the same period in 2008. The Abu Dhabi-based company, which operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa serving more than 74 million customers, saw revenues rise 10% in the first half of 2009. source: Etisalat statement

Google Sees Android Exploding

Proclaiming the worst of the recession is now over, Google reported a 7% year-on-year increase in revenues to 5.94 billion US dollars for the third-quarter.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said that adoption of its Android operating system for smartphones “is about the explode.” Google said 32 operators in 26 countries are now selling Android phones. source: ZD Net

Sales Slump at Sony Ericsson

Losing market share, Sony Ericsson said its sales fell 42% year-on-year to 1.62 billion euros in the third quarter as its handset shipments fell 45% year-on-year to 14.1 million.

Sony Ericsson forecast that the global handset market will contract 10% in 2009 from about 1.19 billion units in 2008. The company estimated that its market share in the third quarter was 5%. source: Sony Ericsson statement

Intel's Mobility Sales Down 12%

Intel said that revenues in its "Mobility Group" fell 12% year-on-year to 4.13 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2009, dragged down by lower sales of microprocessors for laptops. The company added that revenue from its new Atom micro architecture, which is targeted at netbooks, rose 15% quarter-on-quarter to 415 million dollars. source: Intel statement

Nokia's Industry Outlook Improves

Nokia said its sales in the third quarter fell 19% year-on-year at constant currencies to 9.8 billion euros following a 8% fall in device shipments to 108 million units and a 20% fall in sales at Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia's sales fell 24% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2009.

Nokia estimated its share of the converged mobile device (smartphone) market was 35% in the third quarter 2009, at the same level as in the third quarter 2008 and down from 41% in the second quarter 2009.

Nokia also said it expects industry mobile device volumes to be approximately 1.12 billion units in 2009, down 7% from 1.21 billion units in 2008 - better than the 10% fall it had predicted. It also expects the mobile infrastructure and fixed infrastructure and related services market to decline approximately 5% in euro terms in 2009, rather than the 10% decline it had expected. source: Nokia statement

Telefonica To Grow, But Slowly

Telefonica forecast that the compound annual growth rate for its revenues will be between 1% and 4% between 2008 and 2012, while its capital spending between 2009 and 2012 will be approximately 30 billion euros. In 2008, capex was 8.4 billion euros. source: Telefonica statement

HTC Revenues Tumble 10%

Smartphone maker HTC said that its revenues declined 10% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2009 to 34 billion Taiwanese dollars (1.06 billion US dollars). The Taiwanese company didn't give a reason for the decline, but analysts say average prices in the smartphone market have been falling as competition increases. source: HTC statement

Samsung Sales Up 19%

Samsung Electronics said its revenue in the third quarter of 2009 was approximately 36 trillion Korean won (30.87 billion US dollars), up almost 19% on the 30.27 trillion won it made in the same quarter of 2008. The Korean company didn't give a reason for the strong performance, but the Financial Times attributed it to recovering sales of televisions and mobile phones, together with climbing semiconductor prices. source: Samsung statement

AT&T To Invest $18 Billion in 2009

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told reporters his company will invest $18 billion this year - at the top end of its earlier capital spending guidance, according to Dow Jones Newswires. He added that AT&T plans to employ 3,000 "high-tech" workers this year. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Rapid Rise in RIM's Revenue

Research In Motion said it expects revenue for the quarter ending November 28, 2009 to be between 3.60 billion and 3.85 billion dollars, a rise of approximately 34% on the same period a year earlier. RIM reported a 37% year-on-year rise in revenue to 3.53 billion US dollars in the quarter ending August 29, as it sold 8.3 million Blackberry devices compared with 6.1 million in the same quarter in 2008.

RIM said the revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 81% for devices, 14% for service, 2% for software and 3% for other revenue. source: RIM statement

Real Revenue Per User Rising in North America

In North America, consumers on average hold 1.3 mobile connections each, compared with 1.5 for their counterparts in Western Europe, according to researchers at Wireless Intelligence.

The researchers also said that real revenue per user in North America has increased from 60 U.S. dollars in 2006 to almost 64 dollars now. However, it added that real revenue per user in Western Europe will fall to 33 euros this year from 34.2 euros in 2008. source: Mobile Business Briefing

Mobile Internet Penetration Above 30% in Europe

Vodafone said that mobile Internet penetration is now greater than 30% in Europe, is at 5% in India and 3% in other emerging markets, while smartphone penetration is 17% in Spain and 13% in Italy. It added that smartphone owners on average use mobile data services seven times as much as those with WAP-enabled handsets, while the best smartphones generated 24 times as much usage. source: Vodafone presentation

MegaFon's Revenue Up 3%

MegaFon, Russia's third largest mobile operator, reported a 3% year-on-year increase in revenue to 43.9 billion roubles (1.41 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2009, as its subscribers rose 17% to more than 45 million. Average minutes of use fell 5% year-on-year, but rose 6% from the first quarter. source: MegaFon statement

UK Merger To Generate Big Savings

Deutsche Telekom said the proposed merger and integration of T-Mobile UK with Orange UK should generate synergies with a net present value in excess of 3.5 billion UK pounds (4 billion euros), with operational synergies reaching an annual run rate of 445 million pounds from 2014 onwards.

To achieve these opex synergies, the joint venture would expect to spend 600 to 800 million pounds on integration costs over the period from 2010 to 2014. Those costs would primarily relate to the decommissioning of mobile sites, the rationalisation of the network of retail stores and the streamlining of operations.

Deutsche Telekom also said the potential for capital expenditure savings, net of integration capex, is estimated at 620 million pounds on a cumulative basis over 2010-2014, prior to stabilising at approximately 100 million pounds a year from 2015 onwards. source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Ericsson Sees 7 Billion Mobile Users in 2014

Ericsson CFO and CEO-elect Hans Vestberg predicted 7 billion mobile subscribers, including 3 billion mobile broadband subscribers, by 2014, according to Total Telecom. Speaking at the Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris, he noted that these numbers will include some users with more than one SIM. source: Total Telecom

Mobile Data Traffic Up Fourfold

"Last year data traffic in fixed networks was up 50%… mobile data traffic grew by four times," said Mika Vehvilainen, chief technology officer at Nokia Siemens Networks, at the Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris, according to a Total Telecom report. "Mobile [data] network traffic will be up 300-fold in the next five years, in fixed it will go up 30 to 40 times," he added. source: Total Telecom

Mobile Data Traffic Soars For Deutsche Telekom

Data traffic is up by several hundred percent year-on-year and revenues from UMTS services are growing by 30%-40%, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann, told attendees at Nokia World on Wednesday, according to a Total Telecom report. "We expect that trend to continue," he predicted. source: Total Telecom

SFR Slips Slightly

SFR, the French telecoms unit of Vivendi, reported a 0.3% fall in revenues on a like-for-like basis to 6.14 billion euros in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period of 2008. Mobile service revenues increased by 0.5% to 4.25 billion euros driven by a larger customer base and a 34% rise in data revenues thanks to SMS, MMS and "mass-market" mobile Internet offers.

At Maroc Telecom Group, another unit of Vivendi, revenues were 1.31 billion euros, up 2% compared to the same period in 2008 at constant currency. source: Vivendi statement

Fixed-line Unit Hits Unicom

China Unicom said that its service revenue in the first half of 2009 amounted to 74.51 billion Chinese yuan (10.9 billion US dollars), representing a like-for-like decline of 4% over the same period of last year. The company said: "With the restructuring of telecommunications industry and the issuance of the 3G license, industry competition environment has become increasingly complicated."

Service revenue in Unicom's GSM business climbed almost 6% to 34.19 billion yuan, while service revenue in the fixed-line business declined 10% on a like-for-like basis to 40.19 billion yuan. Revenue from fixed-line broadband services was 11.73 billion yuan, representing an increase of 10% over the same period of last year. China Unicom also said that revenue from GPRS-based services reached 1.32 billion yuan. source: China Unicom statement

VimpelCom Sees 12% Growth

VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile operator, reported a 12% year-on-year rise in revenues to 69 billion roubles (2.18 billion US dollars) for the second quarter, as its mobile subscribers climbed 19% to almost 64 million.

After slashing capital spending 68% year-on-year to 5.02 billion roubles for the quarter, VimpelCom said it plans to increase capex in the second half of year to ensure the sustainability of its business and capture growth opportunities. source: VimpelCom statement

Rapid Revenue Rise at MTN

Pan-Africa and Middle East operator MTN said that its revenue rose 24% year-on-year to 57.3 billion South African rand (7.28 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2009 boosted by strong sales growth in Nigeria and Iran, in particular, and some small acquisitions.

MTN said data revenue in its home market of South Africa rose 21% to 2.05 billion rand as the company increased the packet capacity on its network by 80%. Capital spending rose 50% to 15.5 billion rand as MTN expanded coverage and built-out 3G networks in South Africa and some other countries. source: MTN presentation

China Telecom Lifted by Mobile Unit

Boosted by the acquisition of China Unicom's CDMA mobile operations, China Telecom said that its operating revenues grew 15% year-on-year to 102.55 billion Chinese yuan (15.01 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2009.

China Telecom, which now has more than 39 million mobile subscribers, said that in June 2009 it accounted for 29% of net additions in the Chinese mobile market compared with just 12% in January 2009. It added that its wireline broadband customers and wireless Internet access customers have increased by 4.8 million and 1.6 million on a net basis, reaching a total of 49 million and 4 million respectively.

Revenue from wireline broadband access reached 22.75 billion yuan, an increase of 18% compared with the same period of last year. Capital expenditure was 17.03 billion yuan, a decline of 9% compared with the first half of 2008. source: China Telecom statement

Orascom Held Back by Pakistan

Orascom Telecom said its revenues in the first half of 2009 fell 2% year-on-year to 2.45 billion US dollars due to adverse currency movements. In local currencies, revenues rose 7% in Algeria and 22% in Tunisia, while falling 2% in Pakistan.

Group capital spending fell 41% year-on-year to 591 million US dollars in the first half of 2009, as Orascom cut back on investments in Pakistan and Bangladesh to boost its cash flow. source: Orascom Telecom statement

China Mobile Calls for TD-SCDMA Handsets

China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is hoping that the number of TD-SCDMA handset models will rise to 200 by the end of 2009, according to a report in the Financial Times. Wang Jianzhou said while more than 7,000 phone models support GSM, the most popular mobile phone standard, as of June there were only 50 TD-SCDMA handset models. source: Financial Times

Softbank Bucks Downward Trend

Softbank said at the end of July that its revenues rose 3% year-on-year to 666.3 billion Japanese yen (7.1 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30, thanks primarily to a 9% jump in sales in its mobile communications division.

Softbank's mobile division increased its number of subscribers by almost 10% to almost 21 million, of which 93% now have a 3G device. Softbank said it plans to reduce capital spending to 220 billion yen in the year to March 31, 2010, down from 259 billion yen in the previous year source: Softbank statement

Competitive Pressure on China Mobile

China Mobile said its operating revenue reached 212.91 billion Chinese yuan (31.13 billion US dollars) for the six months ended June 30, representing an increase of almost 9% over the same period of last year, compared with growth of almost 16% throughout 2008.

The company said it added almost 36 million new customers taking the total customer number to 493 million, while 3G customers climbed to 959,000 by the end of June 2009. It added that its "value-added business", which includes messaging and wireless music services, grew rapidly and now accounts for 28% of total revenue.

"Macroeconomic slowdown, a rising mobile communications penetration rate and changes in the competitive environment of the telecommunications industry in China have posed challenges to the development of the Group's business in the first half of 2009" the company observed. But it added that "China's economy is stabilizing and continues to grow." source: China Mobile statement

ZTE's Sales Soar

Boosted by the rollout of 3G networks in China, ZTE said that its revenues rose 40% year-on-year in the first half of 2009 to 27.7 billion Chinese yuan (4.05 billion US dollars). The Group reported operating revenue of 14.95 billion yuan in China, representing year-on-year growth of 112%, while international sales climbed less than 1% to 12.76 billion yuan. source: ZTE statement

Telekom Austria Tumbles 7%

Dragged down by a double-digit decline in its fixed-line business, Telekom Austria said that its revenues in the second quarter declined by almost 7% year-on-year to 1.19 billion euros. Stripping out the impact of currency movements, revenues in its mobile business rose 0.2%.

The group postponed investments and cut capital spending to 149 million euros from 191 million in the second quarter of 2008. source: Telekom Austria statement

SK Telecom Up 5%

At the end of July, SK Telecom said that an increase in subscribers and wireless Internet revenues boosted total sales by almost 5% year-on-year in the second quarter to 3.07 trillion Korean won (2.48 billion US dollars). Wireless Internet revenues rose 12% to 671 billion won thanks to a 33% increase in flat-rate data plan subscribers to 3.18 million.

SK Telecom also said that it increased capital expenditure by 10% to 667 billion won in the first half of 2009 to boost WCDMA capacity and improve call quality. source: SK Telecom statement

Mobile Data Shores Up KT

KT of Korea said in early August that its second quarter operating revenues fell 3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to 4.87 trillion Korean won (3.93 billion US dollars) due to a reduction in fixed-line subscribers and an increase in discounts on mobile services.

However, overall wireless revenues fell just 0.3% shored up by a 9% rise in mobile data revenues as KT's customers adopted flat-rate data plans and made greater usage of messaging services. source: KT statement

DOCOMO Hit by Falling Voice Revenues

NTT DOCOMO said at the end of July that its revenues fell 7% year-on-year in the quarter ending June 30 to 1.08 trillion Japanese yen (10.6 billion US dollars), as customers switched to cheaper voice calling plans and purchased fewer handsets.

However, DOCOMO subscribers rose by 2% year-on-year to almost 55 million and its revenue from data services climbed 7% to 391 billion yen, even as cellular voice revenues declined 14% to 490 billion yen. Although capital spending fell almost 7% year-on-year in the quarter to 153 billion yen, DOCOMO is planning to have 20,000 LTE base stations providing coverage for 50% of the populated areas of Japan by March 31, 2015.
source: DOCOMO presentation

Indosat Lifts Qtel

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said that its revenues in the second quarter of 2009 rose 30% year-on-year to 5.93 billion Qatari rials (1.63 billion US dollars) thanks to customer growth in its home market and the acquisition of Indosat. However, Wataniya Telecom, which encompasses the Qtel Group’s presence in Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Maldives and Palestine, reported a revenue decline of 6% to 2.9 billion rials for the first half of 2009 as a result of increasing competition. source: Qatar Telecom statement

Sprint-Nextel Struggles On

At the end of July, Sprint-Nextel reported a 10% year-on-year fall in revenues in the second quarter of 2009 to 8.14 billion US dollars, as the U.S. operator lost prepaid wireless customers.

Capital expenditures were 321 million dollars in the quarter, about 50% down on the second quarter of 2008, which included approximately 100 million dollars in nonrecurring capital expenditures related to the deployment of WiMAX prior to the transfer to those assets to Clearwire. source: Sprint-Nextel statement

Alcatel-Lucent Sees Double-Digit Decline

Alcatel-Lucent said at the end of July that its revenues in the second quarter of 2009 fell almost 11% year-on-year at constant currency exchange rates to 3.9 billion euros.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, commented: “Looking forward, market conditions remain difficult and operators continue to be selective about their investments. We reiterate our view that our addressable market should be down between 8% and 12% at constant currency in 2009." source: Alcatel-Lucent statement

BT Sales Slip 3%

BT said at the end of last month that its underlying revenue fell 3% year-on-year in the quarter ending June 30 to 5.24 billion pounds (8.66 billion US dollars), as sales continued to decline in its domestic retail and wholesale businesses.

BT said it continues to expect a decline of between 4% and 5% in revenue in the year ending March 31, 2010. source: BT statement

Sales Slump at Motorola

Motorola said at the end of last month that it generated sales of 5.5 billion US dollars in the quarter ending July 4, 2009 - a decline of 32% compared with the quarter ending June 28, 2008. Mobile device sales were down 45% to 1.8 billion dollars, while revenues in its Home and Networks Mobility unit fell 27% to 2 billion dollars. source: Motorola statement

Turning Point for Cisco?

Cisco said last week that its sales in the quarter ending July 25 fell 18% year-on-year to 8.5 billion US dollars, but John Chambers, the telecom equipment maker's CEO, said that there were a number of positive signs in the economy and that the quarter may prove to have been a turning point for Cisco's business. source: Cisco statement

Deutsche Telekom Hit By U.S. Slowdown

Deutsche Telekom said last week that its revenue, stripping out the impact of the acquisition of OTE and currency movements, fell 3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2009. As the economic slowdown and regulation dragged down revenues across its European operations and in the U.S., the group generated 16.2 billion euros in sales in the quarter.

Service revenues in the U.S., once the growth engine of the group, declined almost 2% to 4.65 billion US dollars in the second quarter as American customers chose cheaper tariff plans. Seeking to improve its 3G coverage in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom lifted group capital spending 20% year-on-year to 2.21 billion euros for the quarter. source: Deutsche Telekom presentation

SingTel Bucks the Slowdown

Stripping out the impact of currency movements, SingTel said that its group revenues rose 12% year-on-year to 3.85 billion Singapore dollars (2.67 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30, thanks in part to strong growth in mobile customers in Australia attracted by the iPhone. source: SingTel statement

Telstra Sees Low Growth Ahead

Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms company, said it now expects its revenue to grow in the low single digits in the year to June 30, 2010, after growing 3% on a like-for-like basis in the previous year to 25.51 billion Australian dollars (21.44 billion US dollars).

Telstra said that its wireless broadband revenue grew 69% to 587 million Australian dollars, with customer numbers almost doubling to more than one million, in the year to the end of June 2009. source: Telstra statement

3 Group Grows 3%

Hutchison Whampoa said that revenue in its 3 Group of mobile operators, which are mostly based in Europe, rose 3% year-on-year in local currencies in the first half of 2009, together generating 26.38 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.4 billion US dollars).

Yesterday, Hutchison Telecom, which has operations in South East Asia and Israel, blamed the economic climate for a 8% decrease in underlying revenue to 6.41 billion Hong Kong dollars. source: Hutchison Whampoa statements

Telefonica Ekes Out Growth

Telefonica reported, at the end of July, a 1% year-on-year increase in organic revenues for the first half of 2009 to 27.59 billion euros driven primarily by 7% growth in Latin America and a 6% increase in the U.K. However, revenues in Spain fell 6% and the decline there accelerated in the second quarter.source: Telefonica statement

France Telecom Trips Up

Blaming the economic slowdown and regulatory interventions, France Telecom said at the end of July that its revenues fell 1% year-on-year on a comparable basis to 12.77 billion euros for the second quarter of 2009. A 7% fall in sales in Poland, a 6% decline in Spain and a 5% fall in the U.K., more than offset a 1% rise in sales in France and a 4% in its other operations, most of which are in Africa and the Middle East.

France Telecom said the number of 3G mobile broadband customers increased 62% in one year to almost 22 million at 30 June 2009. Revenues from mobile data services in France were up 26% year-on-year boosted by both messaging and non-messaging services.

Capital spending was 1.3 billion euros in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 19% on a comparable basis, the company said. source: France Telecom statement

Revenues Slide at Telecom Italia

Telecom Italia said last week that its organic revenues fell almost 4% year-on-year to 13.95 billion euros in the first half of 2009. Revenues in its Italian mobile unit fell 7% as sales of handsets and valued-added content declined, SMS usage dropped and regulation forced down interconnection tariffs. However, TI's Brazilian unit posted a 2% increase in revenues thanks to a 12% rise in subscribers.

Capex during the first half of 2009 was 2.04 billion euros, down 913 million euros compared with the same period in 2008. Telecom Italia reaffirmed its previous guidance for 2009. source: TI statement

Russian Revenues Lift MTS

Boosted by rising subscribers, MTS said that its revenue in Russia rose 7% year-on-year to 51.02 billion Russian roubles (1.58 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2009. However, MTS lost subscribers in Ukraine, the operator's second largest market, and its revenue there fell 8% year-on-year to 1.98 Ukrainan hryvnia (244 million US dollars). source: MTS statement

Fastweb Shores Up Swisscom

Shored up by a 13% year-on-year rise in revenue at Italian subsidiary Fastweb, Swisscom reported a 0.3% rise in net revenue at constant currencies to 5.92 billion Swiss francs (5.49 billion US dollars) for the first half of 2009. In the group's Swiss business, continuing price erosion due to competitive pressure and regulatory measures resulted in a 2% fall in net revenue.

Swisscom said that its capital expenditure in the first half of 2009 was down 7% to 860 million Swiss francs. source: Swisscom statement

Chunghwa Sees 2009 Sales Slide

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom is aiming for full-year 2009 revenue of 183.4 billion Taiwanese dollars (5.58 billion US dollars), compared with 201.67 billion Taiwanese dollars in 2008, according to a Dow Jones Newswires summary of local newspaper reports. The company is also reported to be aiming for 1% to 2% growth in annual revenue from 2010, targeting at 191.30 billion Taiwanese dollars by 2013.

Chunghwa Telecom has also decided to cut capital expenditure for the next five years to between 28 billion to 30 billion Taiwanese dollars per year, compared with more than 30 billion for the last few years, the report said. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones Newswires

Verizon Keeps Growing

Verizon Communications, which recently acquired fast-growing wireless operator Alltel, said that its underlying operating revenue grew almost 2% year-on-year to 26.9 billion US dollars in the second quarter, as it added new customers for its mobile and fibre services.

Underlying mobile data revenue climbed 33% to 3.9 billion dollars in the quarter and Verizon Wireless said that 40% of all the devices it sells are now smartphones or PDAs. Verizon also said that its capital spending of 8.1 billion dollars in the first half of 2009 was almost 4% lower than in the same period of 2008. source: Verizon presentation

Telmex Hit By Economic Crisis

Mexico's leading fixed-line operator Telmex reported a year-on-year fall in sales of almost 4% to 29.79 billion Mexican pesos (2.25 billion US dollars) for the second quarter, as lower income from local and long-distance telephone service outweighed a 27% rise in Internet revenue, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Broadcom Sees Stability

Telecoms chip maker Broadcom expects to generate revenues of between 1.12 and 1.19 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2009, down approximately 11% on the 1.3 billion it generated in the same period of 2008.

Net revenue for the second quarter of 2009 was 1.04 billion US dollars, down 13% year-on-year as the company reported a return to a "more stable ordering pattern." source: Broadcom statement

TeliaSonera Cuts Capex

TeliaSonera said that its net sales, stripping out the impact of currency movements and acquisitions, fell almost 1% year on year in the second quarter to 27.48 billion Swedish krona (3.68 billion US dollars).

For calendar 2009, TeliaSonera said it now expects net sales in local currencies and excluding acquisitions to be in line with or slightly below the level of 2008, while capex will be in the range of 13% to 14% of sales, compared with 15% the previous year. source: TeliaSonera statement

Organic Sales Slip 2% at Vodafone

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator by sales, said its organic revenues slipped 2% year-on-year to 10.74 billion pounds (17.64 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30, despite a 19% climb in organic revenue from data services to 888 million pounds.

Hit by the weak economy and termination rate cuts by regulators, organic service revnues fell 8% year-on-year in Spain and almost 5% in Germany and the U.K., while rising 3% in Italy and 23% in India. Capital expenditure was up 4% year-on-year to 1.18 billion pounds in the quarter. source: Vodafone statement

Ericsson Succumbs to Sales Slowdown

On a like-for-like basis, Ericsson's sales fell 3% year-on-year in the second quarter to 52.1 billion Swedish krona (6.97 billion US dollars) as the macro-environment took its toll on network equipment sales. Ericsson said that services now represent 38% of its sales.

Ericsson said mobile subscriptions worldwide grew by 149 million in the second quarter to a total of 4.3 billion, adding that the number of new WCDMA subscriptions is accelerating and grew by 40 million in the quarter to a total of 377 million. In the first quarter of 2009, fixed broadband connections grew by 13 million to 408 million, according to Ericsson. source: Ericsson statement

KDDI Lays Out LTE Plans

Hit by falling mobile sales, KDDI of Japan saw its revenues fall 2% year on year to 853.7 billion yen (9.02 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30. Capital spending was up 4% year on year to 135.2 billion yen.

But KDDI said that its mobile capex peaked in the year ending March 31, 2009. It expects to spend 515 billion yen on LTE-related capex, including peripheral equipment, such as servers, between 2010 and 2015. source: KDDI presentation

KPN Sees Sliding Revenues

Stripping out the impact of disposals, KPN said its total revenues fell 2% year on year in the second quarter of 2009 to 3.41 billion euros as a result of falling sales in the Netherlands.

Focusing on profitability, KPN said it now expects its revenues in 2009 to be between 13.6 and 13.8 billion euros compared with 14 billion euros in 2008, while it expects 2010 revenues to be comparable with 2009. KPN expects capex to be 2 billion euros in both 2009 and 2010, compared with 1.9 billion euros in 2008. source: KPN statement.

Telenor Flatlines

In the second quarter of 2009, Telenor's revenues were almost flat at 26.92 billion Norwegian krone (4.29 billion US dollars) compared with the same period of 2008. The company, which now has 168 million mobile connections in Europe and Asia, said its capital spending was just 3.25 billion krone in the quarter, down 49% year-on-year.

Telenor said it expects its organic revenues in 2009 to be in line with 2008, while capital expenditure, excluding licences and spectrum, is expected to be in the range of 16% to 19% of revenues. source: Telenor statement

Revenues Slip at AT&T

The macro-economic climate forced AT&T's revenues in the second quarter down to 30.7 billion US dollars, compared with 30.9 billion in the same quarter of 2008, despite growth in sales of wireless and advanced fixed-line data services.

AT&T’s wireless data revenues increased by 934 million dollars, or 37%, versus the year-earlier second quarter. Wireless text messages on the AT&T network exceeded 108 billion - nearly double the total for the year-earlier quarter. The number of 3G LaptopConnect cards on AT&T’s network increased by nearly 50% over the year to 1.4 million.

AT&T said its investment of 7.4 billion dollars in capex in the first half of 2009 is in line with its earlier guidance. source: AT&T presentation

Capex To Be Flat At América Móvil

América Móvil, the pan Latin America operator, plans to invest 3 billion US dollars in its operations in 2010 - the same figure as in 2009, according to remarks by Chief Executive Daniel Hajj reported by Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Bharti Tops 100 Million Subs

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, said that its consolidated revenues for the quarter ended June 30 grew 17% year-on-year to 99.4 billion Indian rupees (2.06 billion US dollars) as its customer base grew 48% to 105 million.

The growth would have been even higher if not for a reduction in regulated termination charges effective from 1st April 2009. Net of access and interconnect charges, Bharti said its revenues grew by 22% year-on-year. In the previous quarter, revenue growth was 26% source: Bharti Airtel statement

Qualcomm Raises Guidance

Wireless chip maker Qualcomm said that it now expects its revenue for the fiscal year ending September 28 to be between 10.25 and 10.45 billion US dollars down between 6% and 8% on the previous year. In the quarter ending June 28, Qualcomm's revenues were down less than 1% year-on-year at 2.75 billion US dollars thanks to a "robust" migration to 3G products and services worldwide despite the economic downturn. source: Qualcomm statement

Chinese Slow To Embrace TD-SCDMA

China Mobile said that less than 1 million of its 493 million subscribers were using its new 3G network, based on the TD-SCDMA standard, in the month of June. source: China Mobile operation data

América Móvil Bouyed by New Subs and 3G

América Móvil said its second quarter revenues rose 11% year-on-year to 94 billion pesos (7.12 billion US dollars) as the group added 3.7 million subscribers bringing the total to more than 190 million and boosted mobile data revenues. In its home market of Mexico, the mobile company's data revenues jumped 45% year-on-year buoyed by demand for 3G services.

América Móvil said it has continued lowering prices and today its average price per minute of voice in Latin America is the lowest in the OECD block with the exception of the U.S. source: América Móvil statement

Sales Rise 3% at Tele2

Pan-European operator Tele2 said that growth in demand for its mobile and broadband services drove a 3% organic increase in year-on-year sales to 10.13 billion Swedish krona (1.33 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2009. source: Tele2 statement

Vodacom Sees Slowing Growth

Southern African mobile operator Vodacom Group saw organic revenue growth of 6% year-on-year to 14.2 billion South African rand (1.84 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30 as group customers rose 20% to 41.3 million. “We expect customer growth to slow in the remaining quarters [of 2009] as customer registration is now required in our three largest markets," said Pieter Uys, CEO of Vodacom. source: Vodacom Group

High Handset Sales Lift LG

LG Electronics' mobile communications division reported a 26% year-on-year rise in revenues to 5.14 trillion Korean won (4.11 billion US dollars) for the second quarter of 2009. Boosted by strong demand for touch-screen and QWERTY keypad models, handset sales accounted for 4.88 trillion won, up 30% on the previous year as handsets shipments climbed 8% to almost 30 million.

Anticipating the global economic downturn will continue, LG sees the global handset market declining more than 6% year-on-year to around 280 million units in the third quarter, but LG expects to see steady growth thanks to the roll out of new models. source: LG statement

Apple Ships 5 Million More iPhones

Apple said it sold 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter ended June 27, 2009, representing 626% unit growth over the year-ago quarter and 37% unit growth on the previous quarter. Apple also said users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from its App Store in its first year. source: Apple statement

Saudi Telecom Climbs 15%

Saudi Telecom Co., which has investments in Malaysia, Turkey, India, Kuwait, and Indonesia, said its operating revenues increased 15% to 24.82 billion Saudi Arabian riyals (6.63 billion US dollars) in the first-half of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Zain Sees Better Results Ahead

Boosted by a 37% increase in customers across the 24 countries in which it operates, Zain Group reported a 24% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenues to 1.16 billion Kuwaiti dinars (4.01 billion US dollars) for the first half of 2009. "With improving currency stability in many of our African operations, we expect even better results in the second half of 2009,” said Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak. source: Zain statement

TI Wireless Sales Down By A Third

Chip maker Texas Instruments said revenue in its wireless division fell 33% year-on-year to 601 million US dollars in the second quarter of 2009 as sales of baseband chips and its OMAP application processors declined. In the first quarter, the division's sales were down 40%. source: TI statement

Turk Telekom Rises

Turkish fixed-line operator Turk Telekom reported revenues of 2.6 billion Turkish lira (1.73 billion US dollars) for the second-quarter, up 4% from the same period in 2008, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Net profit fell 1.3% year-on-year to 657.3 million lira. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Etisalat's Revenues Up 10%

Claiming not to have been directly affected by the global financial crisis, Etisalat reported a 10% year-on-year rise in net revenues to 14.74 billion Arab Emirate dirhams (4.01 billion US dollars) for the first half of 2009. However, growth in the first quarter of 2009 was higher at 13%.

Etisalat said it now serves more than 85 million subscribers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. source: Etisalat statement

Google Growth Slows Further

Curbed by the global recession, Google's revenues grew 3% year-on-year in the second quarter compared with an annual growth rate of 6% in the first quarter. Google reported revenues of 5.52 billion dollars for second quarter of 2009. source: Google statement

BSNL Slides 8%

Hit by rising competition from mobile operators, India's state-owned BSNL reported revenues of 349 billion Indian rupees (7.18 billion US dollars) for the year ending March 31, down 8% on the previous year, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Nokia Lowers Outlook for Market Share

With its mobile device shipments down 15%, Nokia said that its revenues fell 24% year-on-year in constant currency terms to 9.91 billion euros in the second quarter. The average selling price of Nokia's devices fell to 62 euros in the quarter, down from 65 euros in the previous quarter.

Nokia said it had 38% of the global mobile device market in the second quarter and 41% of the global smartphone market. It now expects its market share in mobile devices to be approximately flat in 2009, compared with 2008, instead of rising. It also now expects Nokia Siemens Networks market share to decline moderately in 2009, compared to 2008, rather than remain constant. source: Nokia statement

Sony Ericsson Sinks 40%

With unit shipments down 43%, handset maker Sony Ericsson said that its revenues fell 40% year-on-year to 1.68 billion euros in the second quarter.

The company maintained its forecast that the global handset market in 2009 will contract by at least 10% from around 1.19 billion units in 2008. Sony Ericsson estimates that its market share was over 5% in the second quarter. source: Sony Ericsson statement

Sales Climb for Intel's Atom

Intel said that revenue from its Atom microprocessors and chipsets, which are designed for netbooks, was 362 million US dollars in the second quarter - up 65% on the previous quarter. source: Intel statement

Chunghwa Predicts Revenue Slip

Taiwan's largest phone company, Chunghwa Telecom, expects its revenue in the third quarter to fall 2% year-on-year to 45.85 billion Taiwanese dollars (1.39 billion US dollars), due to the economic slowdown, stiffer competition and tariff reductions imposed by the telecom regulator, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Mobile Internet Lifts SFR

SFR, the second largest mobile operator in France, still expects mobile revenue to grow slightly this year, driven mainly by mobile Internet usage, the group's Chief Executive Frank Esser told Dow Jones Newswires. "In three years from now around 50% of our customer base will use smartphones such as i-phone, blackberry, google phone, and others, compared to around 10% today," he added.

However, Esser said that interventions by regulators will cut more than 200 million euros from SFR's EBITDA in 2009. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Samsung Sees 10% Climb in Sales

Samsung Electronics said it expects consolidated sales of between 31 trillion won (24.46 billion US dollars) and 33 trillion won for the second quarter of 2009, compared with 29.1 trillion won in the same period a year earlier. source: Taiwan News

HTC Up 10% In Q2

HTC, a leading maker of Windows and Android-based smartphones, reported a 10% year-on-year rise in revenues to 38.2 billion Taiwanese dollars (1.16 US dollars) for the second quarter of 2009. The company said in late April it expected second-quarter revenues of between 37.5 billion and 38.5 billion Taiwanese dollars. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

3G Uptake Slow at China Mobile

China Mobile said that in May, just 746,000 of its 488 million subscribers used its new 3G network, adding that it has experienced "various challenges" in the deployment of its 3G TD-SCDMA technology.

The company said that the TD-SCDMA industry chain is still at an early stage of development, with the related technologies and products lacking in sophistication and maturity. source: China Mobile SEC filing

Palm's Sales Slide

Smartphone maker Palm reported a 44% decline in revenues to 736 million US dollars for the year ending May 29, 2009 as unit shipments fell 25% to 2.4 million. source: Palm statement

Telefonica Sees Improvement

Telefonica SA is seeing signs of improvement in the company's operating environment in the second quarter, according to Dow Jones. "We knew that 2009 would be a tough year, but in the second quarter we are seeing some improvement compared with the first quarter, in some areas more than others," Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta said during the company's annual general meeting. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

India Ups 3G Reserve Price

The Business Standard reported that the Indian government today set a reserve price of 4,040 crore Indian rupees (841 million US dollars) for each license in its planned auction of 3G spectrum, a move that would ensure the auction generates a total of at least 32,320 crore rupees. source: The Business Standard

RIM Forecasts Slowing Growth

Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, forecast that revenue for the quarter ending August 29, 2009 will be between 3.45 and 3.70 billion US dollars, up about 40% on the 2.58 billion in the same period last year.

Revenue for the quarter ending May 30, 2009 was 3.42 billion dollars, up 53% from the 2.24 billion in the same quarter of last year. During the quarter, RIM shipped 7.8 million devices, adding 3.8 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was 28.5 million. source: RIM statement

MegaFon Sees Stabilisation

Thanks to an increase in subscribers, MegaFon, Russia's third-largest mobile operator, reported a 11% year-on-year rise in revenues for the first quarter of 2009 to 42.2 billion roubles (1.36 billion US dollars). Although minutes of use per customer and ARPU fell in the first quarter as a result of the economic downturn, MegaFon said it is now "seeing some positive signs of stabilization in these operational trends." source: MegaFon statement

India to Raise More than $5 billion from 3G Auction

India's telecommunications minister expects the government to raise at least 250 billion Indian rupees (5.25 billion US dollars) from the auction of 3G spectrum, which is scheduled to take place before the end of 2009, according to Dow Jones. In its February budget, the government had forecast the auction would raise 200 billion rupees. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

LG Sees 2009 Holding Up

LG Electronics expects its mobile handset profitability and shipments this year to be similar to 2008, as the impact of the economic downturn on the industry has been less severe than initially expected, a senior executive told Dow Jones. In 2008, the South Korean phone maker shipped 100.7 million handsets worldwide and its operating profit margin from the business was 11%. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Double Digit Growth in Indonesia?

An increase in subscribers at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Indonesia's largest telephone company, could lead to revenue growth in the first half of 2009 in the "low double digits" compared to the 30.2 trillion Indonesian rupiah (3 billion US dollars) it generated in the same period a year ago, the company's finance director told Dow Jones. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Telecom Italia CEO Optimistic

Telecom Italia Chief Executive Franco Bernabe said he is "optimistic" about the company's second quarter results, according to Dow Jones. He added that there are signs of recovery in the wider economy. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Qualcomm Raises Forecast

Citing stronger than expected demand for 3G services, Qualcomm raised its guidance for the quarter ending June 28, 2009, projecting that it will earn revenues of between 2.67 and 2.77 billion US dollars compared its prior guidance range of 2.4 to 2.6 billion dollars. source: Qualcomm statement

Fivefold Rise in Global IP Traffic by 2013

Global IP traffic is set to increase fivefold from 2008 to 2013, approaching 56 exabytes per month in 2013, up from approximately 9 exabytes per month in 2008, according to Cisco.

The telecoms equipment supplier said mobile data traffic will roughly double each year from 2008 to 2013, increasing 66 times between 2008 and 2013, with video accounting for almost 64% of the world's mobile data traffic in 2013. source: Cisco statement

U.S. Internet Advertising Down 5%

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. fell 5% year-on-year to 5.5 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. source: IAB statement

PLDT To Raise Forecasts

PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan indicated the Philippines-based company is set to revise its earnings targets upwards after a stronger-than-expected first half of 2009, according to a Dow Jones report. PLDT expects to add between 3 million and 4 million mobile subscribers in 2009, down from 5.2 million new subscribers in 2008, according to the report. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

iPhone Price Revamp

Apple and AT&T halved the price of the iPhone 3G with 8GB storage on a two year contract to 99 US dollars to make way for the faster iPhone 3G S with a better camera, longer battery life, richer graphics and a more sophisticated operating system. The iPhone 3G S 16GB model will cost 199 US dollars with a two year contract from AT&T, while the 32GB model will cost 299 US dollars on the same contract. source: Apple statement

Call Charges at Bottom - Bharti

Bharti Airtel doesn't expect call charges in India to fall further despite increasing competition, Deputy Chief Executive Sanjay Kapoor told Dow Jones Newswires. "Rates are already at the bottom," he is reported to have said.

Dow Jones said that Indian mobile phone users pay less than one cent a minute for short-distance calls. Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, records 1.45 billion minutes of usage a day, according to the report. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

Ericsson Sees Netbook Boom

Ericsson estimated that more than 300 million netbooks will be sold worldwide between 2009 and 2014 and the majority will be equipped with a mobile broadband modem. Ericsson also forecast that, by 2011, more than 30 percent of netbooks will be sold by mobile operators. source: Ericsson statement