KDDI Pins Hopes on Smartphones

KDDI, Japan's second largest telecoms company, forecast that its revenues will grow 0.7% in the financial year ending March 31, 2012 to 3.46 trillion Japanese yen (42.41 billion US dollars) after a fall of 0.2% the previous year.  KDDI expects smartphones to account for 33% of all handsets its sells in the year to March 31 compared with just 9% the previous year. The company said that the data ARPU of customers who change to a smartphone rises by approximately 1600 yen.

KDDI also forecast that its capital spending will be 460 billion yen, including 20 billion yen related to repairs following the earthquake in east Japan, in the current financial year. That would amount to an increase in capex of 3.7% on the previous year. source: KDDI presentation

Ericsson's Sales Soar

Ericsson said that its sales for comparable units, adjusted for currency and hedging, increased 25% year-over-year in the first quarter to 53 billion Swedish krona (8.78 billion US dollars). Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, said that the sales growth was "driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband and especially for the multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000.”

The Stockhom-based company added: "Global mobile penetration is 79% and total mobile subscriptions have reached 5.5 billion. India and China accounted for about 48% of the estimated 190 million net additions during the first quarter, adding around 65 and 30 million respectively. Indonesia and Vietnam were third and fourth countries in terms of net additions."

Ericsson also reported: "Global fixed broadband subscriptions grew by 14 million new subscriptions to reach 523 million during the fourth quarter 2010, mainly boosted by strong growth in DSL in China. DSL represents more than 60% of all fixed broadband subscriptions."

Annual WCDMA/HSPA radio access network investments passed GSM investments in 2009, eight years after the 3G introduction in Western Europe, according to Ericsson. WCDMA "will remain the dominant access technology for many years to come, in terms of global investment, despite the fact that 4G/LTE is being rolled out and launched" the company added. source: Ericsson statement 

Voice Volumes Lift China Mobile

China Mobile, China's largest mobile operator, said its operating revenue reached 118.17 billion Chinese yuan (18.15 billion US dollars) in the first quarter of 2011, representing an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period of last year.

China Mobile added that, as of 31 March 2011, its total customer base exceeded 600 million, compared with 584 million at the end of 2010. Total voice usage volume for the first quarter of 2011 increased by 13.8% compared to the same period of last year.  The Beijing-based company added that SMS usage volume increased by 3.3% compared to the same period of last year, while "the mobile internet access business and other data businesses maintained a relatively rapid growth." source: China Mobile statement

KPN Hit By Voice and SMS Substitution

KPN said that its revenues in the first quarter of 2011 fell 1.3% year-on-year to 3.24 billion euros, partly because of lower-than-expected revenues in its home market of The Netherlands.

KPN said that increasing usage of new apps is resulting in accelerated substitution of SMS and voice by data and that its current tariff bundles are "not positioned to fully monetize data usage growth." KPN said it is seeing significantly less SMS usage and decreased outside bundle calling in the Netherlands. source: KPN presentation

Smartphone Sales Surge at Verizon

Verizon, the U.S.'s second largest telco, said its consolidated revenue grew 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter to 27 billion US dollars. It said that wireless service revenues grew 6.3%, wireless data revenues rose 23.7% and fibre-based services climbed by 23.7%.

Verizon's capital expenditure in the first quarter was 4.4 billion dollars, compared with 3.4 billion dollars a year earlier, but the telco said it still plans to keep capital spending flat in 2011. source: Verizon presentation

AT&T Sustains Sales Growth

AT&T, the largest telecoms company in the U.S., said its consolidated revenue grew 2.3% year-on-year to 31.2 billion US dollars in the first quarter, fuelled by 10.2% wireless revenue growth. AT&T added that it activated 3.6 million iPhones in the quarter, while approximately 40% of the 5.5 million smartphones it sold in the quarter were Blackberry, Android and Windows 7 devices.

AT&T said the text messages sent via its network increased by more than 25% year-on-year to 179.8 billion, and multimedia messages increased by 54.2% to 3.7 billion.

AT&T added that its wireline consumer revenue grew 0.5% year-on-year, driven by a 218,000 increase in subscribers for its U-Verse TV service to 3.2 million. The giant telco said its capex was 4.13 billion dollars in the quarter compared with 3.15 billion a year earilier. source: AT&T statement

Nokia Sees Trouble Ahead

Nokia said its net group sales rose 4% year-on-year in constant currencies in the first quarter of 2011 to 10.4 billion euros, driven by a 15% rise in sales at Nokia Siemens Networks. Sales in Nokia's devices and services division climbed just 1% in constant currencies to 7.09 billion euros.

Nokia said a 1% year-on-year increase in its global mobile device volumes during the first quarter "was driven primarily by an improvement in overall market conditions, offset by an intense competitive environment and tight component availability for certain products."

The Finland-based company said it expects shortages of certain components, related to the earthquake in Japan, to continue to impact its mobile device volumes at least through the second and third quarters of 2011. Nokia expects sales in its devices and services division to be between  6.1 billion and 6.6 billion euros in the second quarter 2011, compared with 6.8 billion euros in the same quarter in 2010.

Nokia said its sales forecast is based on a number of factors, including a "greater impact from our lack of dual-SIM devices than we experienced in the first quarter 2011 and a lower contribution from new products in the second quarter 2011 compared to the first quarter 2011 as we plan to start shipping the majority of our new products in the second half of the year."

Nokia estimated its mobile device market share was 29% in the first quarter 2011, down from an estimated 33% in the first quarter 2010 and an estimated 31% in the fourth quarter 2010. source: Nokia statement

iPhone Lifts Apple Even Higher

Apple said its net sales in the quarter ending March 26 soared 83% year-on-year to 24.67 billion US dollars as sales of the iPhone and related products and services climbed 126% to $12.3 billion. Apple shipped 18.6 million iPhones in the quarter, up 113% year-on-year.  As of March 26, 2011, Apple was selling the iPhone in 90 countries through 186 carriers.

The Californian company also said that net sales of the iPad and related products and services were $2.8 billion in the quarter, as the company shipped 4.7 million units, compared with 7.3 million the previous quarter. During the quarter, the combined net sales for the iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore were $1.4 billion, up 23% year-on-year. Apple sold 9.02 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 17% unit decline from the year-ago quarter. source: Apple statement