Growth Slows for Vivo

Fuelled by a 19% increase in subscribers, Vivo, Brazil's largest mobile operator, said its operating revenue rose 9% year-on-year to 4.02 billion Brazilian reals (1.95 billion US dollars) in the first quarter of 2009. Across 2008, Vivo's revenues grew 14%.

As Vivo increased 2G coverage to 84% of the Brazilian population and HSPA coverage to 399 municipalities, capital expenditure leapt 101% to 541 million reals in the first quarter of 2009. Vivo said "self-supported data and value added services" revenue grew 29% year-on-year to 442 million reals. source: Vivo statement

Telus Lowers 2009 Forecast

Citing the worsening economy, Telus of Canada cut its guidance for 2009, now projecting that revenues will grow between 0% and 3% to between 9.7 and 9.9 billion Canadian dollars (8.36 and 8.53 billion US dollars).

For the first quarter of 2009, Telus reported a 1% year-on-year rise in revenue to 2.38 billion Canadian dollars (2.05 billion US dollars), driven primarily by 3% growth in wireless revenue and 6% growth in wireline data revenue, more than offsetting the ongoing declines in local and long distance wireline voice revenues.

Telus increased capital expenditure by 48% to 474 million Canadian dollars in the first quarter to fund the build-out of wireless and wireline broadband. source: Telus statement

Canada's BCE Slips Slightly

BCE, Canada's largest telecoms company, said that operating revenues in the first quarter decreased by 0.5% year-on-year to 3.62 billion Canadian dollars (3.1 billion US dollars) as growth in wireless, video, and data revenues were offset by declines in local and access, long distance, and equipment revenues.

Capital spending declined 6% year-on-year to 482 million Canadian dollars despite BCE's rollout of more fibre and its plans to launch HSPA services in 2010. source: BCE statement

Mobile Data Deficit at Telecom Italia

Dragged down by regulatory and economic pressure on its domestic mobile operation, Telecom Italia said that its underlying revenues fell 4% year-on-year to 6.79 billion euros in the first quarter.

The performance of the Italian mobile unit was hit by a contraction in revenues from SMS and the sale of content value added services, regulatory-imposed changes to interconnection pricing and a reduction in the volume of handsets sold.

Telecom Italia, which reconfirmed its EBITDA targets for 2009, cut capital spending by 17% to 1.02 billion euros compared with the first quarter of 2008. source: Telecom Italia statement

Cisco Sees Stabilisation

Cisco said that "for the first time in many quarters, our global customers are seeing some stabilisation, a leveling out in their business." Even so, the company posted a 17% year-on-year fall in revenues to 8.2 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2009. The telecoms equipment maker also said that deferred revenue was 8.8 billion US dollars at the end of the quarter compared with 9.3 billion dollars at the end of the previous quarter.

Following a 24% fall in net income to 1.3 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2009, Cisco said that it now has more than 33 billion US dollars in cash and investments. source: Cisco presentation

Deutsche Telekom Stutters

Stripping out the impact of acquiring OTE and currency movements, Deutsche Telekom said that its revenues would have fallen 2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009. Measured in US dollars, revenue growth at T-Mobile USA was just 4%, down from 13.5% across the whole of 2008.

However, in T-Mobile's European operations, non-voice revenue increased by more than 40% year-on-year to 432 million euros in the first quarter, while T-Mobile USA, which is now rolling out a 3G network rapidly, saw a 31% increase in non-voice revenues to 467 million US dollars.

Excluding OTE, the Bonn-based company said that it expects its adjusted EBITDA to be down between 2% and 4% in 2009 compared with 2008. source: Deutsche Telekom report

TIM Stalls in Brazil

Held back by an exodus of contract customers, TIM Participações of Brazil said that revenues rose 0.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009 to 3.01 billion Brazilian reals (1.43 billion US dollars). Still, revenue from "value-added" services, primarily mobile broadband, rose 31% year-on-year to 430 million reals.

TIM's capital spending in Brazil fell 30% to 194 million reals in the first quarter, representing just 6.5% of net revenues. As it adopts a new marketing strategy, TIM expects to see higher revenue growth in the second half of 2009. source: TIM statement

Zain's Revenues Rise 25%

In the first quarter of 2009, the Zain Group achieved a 25% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenues to 567 million Kuwaiti dinars (1.96 billion US dollars) thanks to a 41% rise in customers fuelled in part by the rollout of new operations in Saudi Arabia and Ghana.

Zain, which has operations in 23 countries in the Middle East and Africa, said that currency fluctuations knocked more than 18 million dinars from its bottom line, but it still increased net profit by 3% to almost 76 million dinars. source: Zain statement