AT&T To Invest $18 Billion in 2009

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told reporters his company will invest $18 billion this year - at the top end of its earlier capital spending guidance, according to Dow Jones Newswires. He added that AT&T plans to employ 3,000 "high-tech" workers this year. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Rapid Rise in RIM's Revenue

Research In Motion said it expects revenue for the quarter ending November 28, 2009 to be between 3.60 billion and 3.85 billion dollars, a rise of approximately 34% on the same period a year earlier. RIM reported a 37% year-on-year rise in revenue to 3.53 billion US dollars in the quarter ending August 29, as it sold 8.3 million Blackberry devices compared with 6.1 million in the same quarter in 2008.

RIM said the revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 81% for devices, 14% for service, 2% for software and 3% for other revenue. source: RIM statement

Real Revenue Per User Rising in North America

In North America, consumers on average hold 1.3 mobile connections each, compared with 1.5 for their counterparts in Western Europe, according to researchers at Wireless Intelligence.

The researchers also said that real revenue per user in North America has increased from 60 U.S. dollars in 2006 to almost 64 dollars now. However, it added that real revenue per user in Western Europe will fall to 33 euros this year from 34.2 euros in 2008. source: Mobile Business Briefing

Mobile Internet Penetration Above 30% in Europe

Vodafone said that mobile Internet penetration is now greater than 30% in Europe, is at 5% in India and 3% in other emerging markets, while smartphone penetration is 17% in Spain and 13% in Italy. It added that smartphone owners on average use mobile data services seven times as much as those with WAP-enabled handsets, while the best smartphones generated 24 times as much usage. source: Vodafone presentation

MegaFon's Revenue Up 3%

MegaFon, Russia's third largest mobile operator, reported a 3% year-on-year increase in revenue to 43.9 billion roubles (1.41 billion US dollars) in the second quarter of 2009, as its subscribers rose 17% to more than 45 million. Average minutes of use fell 5% year-on-year, but rose 6% from the first quarter. source: MegaFon statement

UK Merger To Generate Big Savings

Deutsche Telekom said the proposed merger and integration of T-Mobile UK with Orange UK should generate synergies with a net present value in excess of 3.5 billion UK pounds (4 billion euros), with operational synergies reaching an annual run rate of 445 million pounds from 2014 onwards.

To achieve these opex synergies, the joint venture would expect to spend 600 to 800 million pounds on integration costs over the period from 2010 to 2014. Those costs would primarily relate to the decommissioning of mobile sites, the rationalisation of the network of retail stores and the streamlining of operations.

Deutsche Telekom also said the potential for capital expenditure savings, net of integration capex, is estimated at 620 million pounds on a cumulative basis over 2010-2014, prior to stabilising at approximately 100 million pounds a year from 2015 onwards. source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Ericsson Sees 7 Billion Mobile Users in 2014

Ericsson CFO and CEO-elect Hans Vestberg predicted 7 billion mobile subscribers, including 3 billion mobile broadband subscribers, by 2014, according to Total Telecom. Speaking at the Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris, he noted that these numbers will include some users with more than one SIM. source: Total Telecom

Mobile Data Traffic Up Fourfold

"Last year data traffic in fixed networks was up 50%… mobile data traffic grew by four times," said Mika Vehvilainen, chief technology officer at Nokia Siemens Networks, at the Broadband World Forum Europe in Paris, according to a Total Telecom report. "Mobile [data] network traffic will be up 300-fold in the next five years, in fixed it will go up 30 to 40 times," he added. source: Total Telecom

Mobile Data Traffic Soars For Deutsche Telekom

Data traffic is up by several hundred percent year-on-year and revenues from UMTS services are growing by 30%-40%, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann, told attendees at Nokia World on Wednesday, according to a Total Telecom report. "We expect that trend to continue," he predicted. source: Total Telecom

SFR Slips Slightly

SFR, the French telecoms unit of Vivendi, reported a 0.3% fall in revenues on a like-for-like basis to 6.14 billion euros in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period of 2008. Mobile service revenues increased by 0.5% to 4.25 billion euros driven by a larger customer base and a 34% rise in data revenues thanks to SMS, MMS and "mass-market" mobile Internet offers.

At Maroc Telecom Group, another unit of Vivendi, revenues were 1.31 billion euros, up 2% compared to the same period in 2008 at constant currency. source: Vivendi statement