VimpelCom Cuts Back on Capex

Reacting to the deterioration in the economic climate in the CIS region, VimpelCom said it will cut capital spending to between 12% and 15% of consolidated revenue in 2009 from 25% in 2008. Last year, VimpelCom's capital spending rose 45% to 2.57 billion US dollars as it rolled out both 3G and fixed-line broadband networks.

By the end of 2009, VimpelCom operated fibre to the building (FTTB) networks in 47 cities and 3G networks in 40 cities. In the fourth quarter of 2008, VimpelCom's total number of residential broadband subscribers in Russia, including FTTB and 3G, increased by 0.4 million to 1.2 million.

Boosted by the acquisition of Golden Telecom and new mobile subscribers, VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile operator, said that its net operating revenues reached 10.12 billion US dollars in 2008, up 41% from 2007. source: VimpelCom statement

Zain Cuts Targets

Blaming the global economic slowdown, Zain told Dow Jones Newswires that it plans to cut capital spending to between 1 billion and 1.5 billion US dollars in 2009 compared with 2.59 billion dollars in 2008. Zain, which has mobile operations across Africa and the Middle East, also lowered its target for an increase in net profit in 2009 from 30% to 20%. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Telekom Austria Slightly Weaker

After a 5% year-on-year fall in revenues to 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter of 2009, Telekom Austria said it expects its full year revenues to be "slightly weaker" than the 5.1 billion euros it had forecast. Telekom Austria said the decline in first quarter revenues was mainly due to lower voice usage and wholesale revenues in its fixed-line business.

Mobilkom austria grew its mobile broadband subscriber base by 42% year-on-year to 440,900 at the end of March 2009, while data revenues as a percentage of traffic-related revenues rose from 31.6% in the first quarter of 2008 to 37.4% in the first quarter of 2009. source: Telekom Austria statement

Telefonica Rides Latin American Growth

Boosted by 9% growth in its Latin American operations, Telefonica reported a 3% year-on-year rise in organic revenues to 13.7 billion euros for the first quarter of 2009. Although Telefonica's UK and German mobile businesses continued to grow, revenues in the group's Spanish mobile unit fell 9% to 2.17 billion euros, mainly as a result of lower handset, interconnection and voice usage revenues.

Telefonica's total capital spending fell 9% to 1.2 billion euros in the first quarter and the Madrid-based company reiterated its earlier guidance that revenues and operating income will increase between 1% and 3% in 2009. source: Telefonica statement

Leading paid-for iPhone Apps

Source: UK iTunes store

Telecom Equipment Revenue Trends Q1 2009

Most major western telecoms equipment suppliers have been hit by the ailing economy, falling demand for handsets and rising competition from China, South Korea and specialist smart phone manufacturers.

Revenues Slide At Nortel

Blaming its filings for creditor protection and the economic downturn, Nortel Networks said that its revenue in the first quarter of 2009 fell 29% year-on-year, stripping out the impact of currency fluctuations, to 1.73 billion US dollars.

Nortel said that R&D expenses were 341 million dollars in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 420 million for the first quarter of 2008. source: Nortel statement

Fixed-line Falls in Indonesia

Despite a 9% rise in mobile revenues, Telekomunikasi Indonesia reported a 2% year-on-year fall in total revenues to 14.7 trillion Indonesia rupiah (1.42 billion US dollars) in the first quarter of 2009 as fixed-line and IT services sales fell. source: Telekomunikasi statement