Telecoms Capex to Climb in 2011

Capital spending across the global telecoms industry will increase 2.9% in 2011 to 275.7 million US dollars, according to research firm the Yankee Group. source: Yankee Group statement

Mobile Broadband Uptake Rises Rapidly in the U.K.

Consumer research by UK regulator Ofcom between September and December 2010 found that 17% of UK households are using mobile broadband to access online services, with 7% using it as their only means of internet access, compared to 3% in 2009.

The research, which looks specifically at the performance of mobile networks using dongles and datacards and does not consider smartphones, found that the average download speed achieved by consumers on mobile broadband networks is 1.5 Mbps and basic webpages took on average 8.5 seconds to download, compared with 6.2 Mbps and an average of less than 0.5 seconds on fixed broadband networks.

Ofcom said that O2, on average, delivered web pages faster than the other four operators and had lower average latency than 3, Orange and Vodafone. Ofcom said: "The slower speed of web page downloading on mobile broadband compared to fixed broadband is largely the result of higher levels of latency. In addition to increasing the time for web page downloads, high latency may make connections less suitable for some online games and VoIP." source: Ofcom statement

Android Sprints Away

source: Gartner statement

Vodafone Sees Small Growth Spurt

Vodafone Group, one of the world's largest mobile operators, said its group revenue climbed 4.2% year-on-year on an organic basis in the quarter ending March 31, lifted by a 2.5% rise in service revenues. Group revenue in the year ending March 31 climbed 2.8% on an organic basis to 45.88 billion UK pounds (74.28 billion US dollars).

Vodafone reported organic service revenue growth of 11.8% in the quarter in its operations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, supported by "increasing voice penetration and a more stable pricing environment" in India.  However, the U.K.-based group said that its organic service revenue fell 0.8% in Europe in the quarter as declines in southern Europe more than offset growth in Turkey, Germany, the U.K. and The Netherlands.

Vodafone said its smartphone penetration in Europe is now up to 18.7% from 11.6% a year earlier. Some 48% of these smartphone customers are taking some form of data plan, up 6 percentage points year-on-year. Vodafone said the volume growth in data traffic is easing and it expects capital expenditure in the year ending March 31, 2012 to be at a similar level to the previous year. source: Vodafone presentation

Ericsson Expects Solid Growth

Ericsson said that it is targeting net compound annual sales growth of between 4% and 10% in the period between 2010 and 2013. The Stockholm-based telecoms company also said that it expects mobile broadband subscriptions to grow 40% per annum over the next six years. source: Ericsson presentation.

Latin America Lifts Telefonica

Telefonica said its revenue rose 1.4% year-on-year in organic terms in the first quarter to 15.44 billion euros, thanks to 5.7% growth at Telefónica Latinoamérica and 2.4% growth at Telefónica Europe, which offset the 5.7% fall at Telefónica España.  Telefonica said its sales were negatively impacted by mobile termination rates cuts, slicing 1.0 percentage points off revenue growth.

Telefónica said its "mobile accesses reached 223.1 million by the end of the first quarter of 2011, up 8% year-on-year." Spain's largest telecoms company said that "increased tariff segmentation and the availability of a higher range of handsets with more competitive prices across all the segments," enabled it to increase its mobile broadband connections to 26.5 million at the end of March 2011, compared with 16 million a year earlier. The Madrid-based company also said its capex rose 30% to 1.55 billion euros in the first quarter. source: Telefonica statement

Android Passes 100 million Milestone

Less than three years after the launch of the first Android smartphone, Google said that more than 100 million Android devices have now been activated, with 400,000 new Android devices being activated every day. source: Mobile Business Briefing 

SoftBank Sees Strong Growth

SoftBank, one of Japan's largest telecoms companies, said its sales rose 5% year-on-year in the quarter ending March 31 to 754.74 billion Japanese yen (9.33 billion US dollars). Sales in the mobile communications division climbed 11% to 485.93 billion yen, as SoftBank added another one million mobile connections in the quarter. The company claimed it is spending significantly more capex per subscriber than its rivals. source: SoftBank spreadsheet