Fixed-line Unit Hits Unicom

China Unicom said that its service revenue in the first half of 2009 amounted to 74.51 billion Chinese yuan (10.9 billion US dollars), representing a like-for-like decline of 4% over the same period of last year. The company said: "With the restructuring of telecommunications industry and the issuance of the 3G license, industry competition environment has become increasingly complicated."

Service revenue in Unicom's GSM business climbed almost 6% to 34.19 billion yuan, while service revenue in the fixed-line business declined 10% on a like-for-like basis to 40.19 billion yuan. Revenue from fixed-line broadband services was 11.73 billion yuan, representing an increase of 10% over the same period of last year. China Unicom also said that revenue from GPRS-based services reached 1.32 billion yuan. source: China Unicom statement

VimpelCom Sees 12% Growth

VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile operator, reported a 12% year-on-year rise in revenues to 69 billion roubles (2.18 billion US dollars) for the second quarter, as its mobile subscribers climbed 19% to almost 64 million.

After slashing capital spending 68% year-on-year to 5.02 billion roubles for the quarter, VimpelCom said it plans to increase capex in the second half of year to ensure the sustainability of its business and capture growth opportunities. source: VimpelCom statement

Rapid Revenue Rise at MTN

Pan-Africa and Middle East operator MTN said that its revenue rose 24% year-on-year to 57.3 billion South African rand (7.28 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2009 boosted by strong sales growth in Nigeria and Iran, in particular, and some small acquisitions.

MTN said data revenue in its home market of South Africa rose 21% to 2.05 billion rand as the company increased the packet capacity on its network by 80%. Capital spending rose 50% to 15.5 billion rand as MTN expanded coverage and built-out 3G networks in South Africa and some other countries. source: MTN presentation

China Telecom Lifted by Mobile Unit

Boosted by the acquisition of China Unicom's CDMA mobile operations, China Telecom said that its operating revenues grew 15% year-on-year to 102.55 billion Chinese yuan (15.01 billion US dollars) in the first half of 2009.

China Telecom, which now has more than 39 million mobile subscribers, said that in June 2009 it accounted for 29% of net additions in the Chinese mobile market compared with just 12% in January 2009. It added that its wireline broadband customers and wireless Internet access customers have increased by 4.8 million and 1.6 million on a net basis, reaching a total of 49 million and 4 million respectively.

Revenue from wireline broadband access reached 22.75 billion yuan, an increase of 18% compared with the same period of last year. Capital expenditure was 17.03 billion yuan, a decline of 9% compared with the first half of 2008. source: China Telecom statement

Orascom Held Back by Pakistan

Orascom Telecom said its revenues in the first half of 2009 fell 2% year-on-year to 2.45 billion US dollars due to adverse currency movements. In local currencies, revenues rose 7% in Algeria and 22% in Tunisia, while falling 2% in Pakistan.

Group capital spending fell 41% year-on-year to 591 million US dollars in the first half of 2009, as Orascom cut back on investments in Pakistan and Bangladesh to boost its cash flow. source: Orascom Telecom statement

China Mobile Calls for TD-SCDMA Handsets

China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is hoping that the number of TD-SCDMA handset models will rise to 200 by the end of 2009, according to a report in the Financial Times. Wang Jianzhou said while more than 7,000 phone models support GSM, the most popular mobile phone standard, as of June there were only 50 TD-SCDMA handset models. source: Financial Times

Softbank Bucks Downward Trend

Softbank said at the end of July that its revenues rose 3% year-on-year to 666.3 billion Japanese yen (7.1 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30, thanks primarily to a 9% jump in sales in its mobile communications division.

Softbank's mobile division increased its number of subscribers by almost 10% to almost 21 million, of which 93% now have a 3G device. Softbank said it plans to reduce capital spending to 220 billion yen in the year to March 31, 2010, down from 259 billion yen in the previous year source: Softbank statement

Competitive Pressure on China Mobile

China Mobile said its operating revenue reached 212.91 billion Chinese yuan (31.13 billion US dollars) for the six months ended June 30, representing an increase of almost 9% over the same period of last year, compared with growth of almost 16% throughout 2008.

The company said it added almost 36 million new customers taking the total customer number to 493 million, while 3G customers climbed to 959,000 by the end of June 2009. It added that its "value-added business", which includes messaging and wireless music services, grew rapidly and now accounts for 28% of total revenue.

"Macroeconomic slowdown, a rising mobile communications penetration rate and changes in the competitive environment of the telecommunications industry in China have posed challenges to the development of the Group's business in the first half of 2009" the company observed. But it added that "China's economy is stabilizing and continues to grow." source: China Mobile statement

ZTE's Sales Soar

Boosted by the rollout of 3G networks in China, ZTE said that its revenues rose 40% year-on-year in the first half of 2009 to 27.7 billion Chinese yuan (4.05 billion US dollars). The Group reported operating revenue of 14.95 billion yuan in China, representing year-on-year growth of 112%, while international sales climbed less than 1% to 12.76 billion yuan. source: ZTE statement

Telekom Austria Tumbles 7%

Dragged down by a double-digit decline in its fixed-line business, Telekom Austria said that its revenues in the second quarter declined by almost 7% year-on-year to 1.19 billion euros. Stripping out the impact of currency movements, revenues in its mobile business rose 0.2%.

The group postponed investments and cut capital spending to 149 million euros from 191 million in the second quarter of 2008. source: Telekom Austria statement

SK Telecom Up 5%

At the end of July, SK Telecom said that an increase in subscribers and wireless Internet revenues boosted total sales by almost 5% year-on-year in the second quarter to 3.07 trillion Korean won (2.48 billion US dollars). Wireless Internet revenues rose 12% to 671 billion won thanks to a 33% increase in flat-rate data plan subscribers to 3.18 million.

SK Telecom also said that it increased capital expenditure by 10% to 667 billion won in the first half of 2009 to boost WCDMA capacity and improve call quality. source: SK Telecom statement

Mobile Data Shores Up KT

KT of Korea said in early August that its second quarter operating revenues fell 3% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to 4.87 trillion Korean won (3.93 billion US dollars) due to a reduction in fixed-line subscribers and an increase in discounts on mobile services.

However, overall wireless revenues fell just 0.3% shored up by a 9% rise in mobile data revenues as KT's customers adopted flat-rate data plans and made greater usage of messaging services. source: KT statement

DOCOMO Hit by Falling Voice Revenues

NTT DOCOMO said at the end of July that its revenues fell 7% year-on-year in the quarter ending June 30 to 1.08 trillion Japanese yen (10.6 billion US dollars), as customers switched to cheaper voice calling plans and purchased fewer handsets.

However, DOCOMO subscribers rose by 2% year-on-year to almost 55 million and its revenue from data services climbed 7% to 391 billion yen, even as cellular voice revenues declined 14% to 490 billion yen. Although capital spending fell almost 7% year-on-year in the quarter to 153 billion yen, DOCOMO is planning to have 20,000 LTE base stations providing coverage for 50% of the populated areas of Japan by March 31, 2015.
source: DOCOMO presentation

Indosat Lifts Qtel

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said that its revenues in the second quarter of 2009 rose 30% year-on-year to 5.93 billion Qatari rials (1.63 billion US dollars) thanks to customer growth in its home market and the acquisition of Indosat. However, Wataniya Telecom, which encompasses the Qtel Group’s presence in Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Maldives and Palestine, reported a revenue decline of 6% to 2.9 billion rials for the first half of 2009 as a result of increasing competition. source: Qatar Telecom statement

Sprint-Nextel Struggles On

At the end of July, Sprint-Nextel reported a 10% year-on-year fall in revenues in the second quarter of 2009 to 8.14 billion US dollars, as the U.S. operator lost prepaid wireless customers.

Capital expenditures were 321 million dollars in the quarter, about 50% down on the second quarter of 2008, which included approximately 100 million dollars in nonrecurring capital expenditures related to the deployment of WiMAX prior to the transfer to those assets to Clearwire. source: Sprint-Nextel statement

Alcatel-Lucent Sees Double-Digit Decline

Alcatel-Lucent said at the end of July that its revenues in the second quarter of 2009 fell almost 11% year-on-year at constant currency exchange rates to 3.9 billion euros.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, commented: “Looking forward, market conditions remain difficult and operators continue to be selective about their investments. We reiterate our view that our addressable market should be down between 8% and 12% at constant currency in 2009." source: Alcatel-Lucent statement

BT Sales Slip 3%

BT said at the end of last month that its underlying revenue fell 3% year-on-year in the quarter ending June 30 to 5.24 billion pounds (8.66 billion US dollars), as sales continued to decline in its domestic retail and wholesale businesses.

BT said it continues to expect a decline of between 4% and 5% in revenue in the year ending March 31, 2010. source: BT statement

Sales Slump at Motorola

Motorola said at the end of last month that it generated sales of 5.5 billion US dollars in the quarter ending July 4, 2009 - a decline of 32% compared with the quarter ending June 28, 2008. Mobile device sales were down 45% to 1.8 billion dollars, while revenues in its Home and Networks Mobility unit fell 27% to 2 billion dollars. source: Motorola statement

Turning Point for Cisco?

Cisco said last week that its sales in the quarter ending July 25 fell 18% year-on-year to 8.5 billion US dollars, but John Chambers, the telecom equipment maker's CEO, said that there were a number of positive signs in the economy and that the quarter may prove to have been a turning point for Cisco's business. source: Cisco statement

Deutsche Telekom Hit By U.S. Slowdown

Deutsche Telekom said last week that its revenue, stripping out the impact of the acquisition of OTE and currency movements, fell 3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2009. As the economic slowdown and regulation dragged down revenues across its European operations and in the U.S., the group generated 16.2 billion euros in sales in the quarter.

Service revenues in the U.S., once the growth engine of the group, declined almost 2% to 4.65 billion US dollars in the second quarter as American customers chose cheaper tariff plans. Seeking to improve its 3G coverage in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom lifted group capital spending 20% year-on-year to 2.21 billion euros for the quarter. source: Deutsche Telekom presentation

SingTel Bucks the Slowdown

Stripping out the impact of currency movements, SingTel said that its group revenues rose 12% year-on-year to 3.85 billion Singapore dollars (2.67 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30, thanks in part to strong growth in mobile customers in Australia attracted by the iPhone. source: SingTel statement

Telstra Sees Low Growth Ahead

Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms company, said it now expects its revenue to grow in the low single digits in the year to June 30, 2010, after growing 3% on a like-for-like basis in the previous year to 25.51 billion Australian dollars (21.44 billion US dollars).

Telstra said that its wireless broadband revenue grew 69% to 587 million Australian dollars, with customer numbers almost doubling to more than one million, in the year to the end of June 2009. source: Telstra statement

3 Group Grows 3%

Hutchison Whampoa said that revenue in its 3 Group of mobile operators, which are mostly based in Europe, rose 3% year-on-year in local currencies in the first half of 2009, together generating 26.38 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.4 billion US dollars).

Yesterday, Hutchison Telecom, which has operations in South East Asia and Israel, blamed the economic climate for a 8% decrease in underlying revenue to 6.41 billion Hong Kong dollars. source: Hutchison Whampoa statements

Telefonica Ekes Out Growth

Telefonica reported, at the end of July, a 1% year-on-year increase in organic revenues for the first half of 2009 to 27.59 billion euros driven primarily by 7% growth in Latin America and a 6% increase in the U.K. However, revenues in Spain fell 6% and the decline there accelerated in the second quarter.source: Telefonica statement

France Telecom Trips Up

Blaming the economic slowdown and regulatory interventions, France Telecom said at the end of July that its revenues fell 1% year-on-year on a comparable basis to 12.77 billion euros for the second quarter of 2009. A 7% fall in sales in Poland, a 6% decline in Spain and a 5% fall in the U.K., more than offset a 1% rise in sales in France and a 4% in its other operations, most of which are in Africa and the Middle East.

France Telecom said the number of 3G mobile broadband customers increased 62% in one year to almost 22 million at 30 June 2009. Revenues from mobile data services in France were up 26% year-on-year boosted by both messaging and non-messaging services.

Capital spending was 1.3 billion euros in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 19% on a comparable basis, the company said. source: France Telecom statement

Revenues Slide at Telecom Italia

Telecom Italia said last week that its organic revenues fell almost 4% year-on-year to 13.95 billion euros in the first half of 2009. Revenues in its Italian mobile unit fell 7% as sales of handsets and valued-added content declined, SMS usage dropped and regulation forced down interconnection tariffs. However, TI's Brazilian unit posted a 2% increase in revenues thanks to a 12% rise in subscribers.

Capex during the first half of 2009 was 2.04 billion euros, down 913 million euros compared with the same period in 2008. Telecom Italia reaffirmed its previous guidance for 2009. source: TI statement

Russian Revenues Lift MTS

Boosted by rising subscribers, MTS said that its revenue in Russia rose 7% year-on-year to 51.02 billion Russian roubles (1.58 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2009. However, MTS lost subscribers in Ukraine, the operator's second largest market, and its revenue there fell 8% year-on-year to 1.98 Ukrainan hryvnia (244 million US dollars). source: MTS statement

Fastweb Shores Up Swisscom

Shored up by a 13% year-on-year rise in revenue at Italian subsidiary Fastweb, Swisscom reported a 0.3% rise in net revenue at constant currencies to 5.92 billion Swiss francs (5.49 billion US dollars) for the first half of 2009. In the group's Swiss business, continuing price erosion due to competitive pressure and regulatory measures resulted in a 2% fall in net revenue.

Swisscom said that its capital expenditure in the first half of 2009 was down 7% to 860 million Swiss francs. source: Swisscom statement