About this weblog

What you need to know: This weblog captures key data points about the global telecoms industry. I use it as an electronic notebook to support my work for Pringle Media.

Monday, July 27, 2009

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

Friday, July 24, 2009

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

Thursday, July 23, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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

Monday, July 20, 2009

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

Saturday, July 18, 2009

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

Thursday, July 16, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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

Monday, July 6, 2009

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
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