Christmas Seals Smartphone Surge

In 2011, Apple’s App Store is on pace to exceed 10 billion downloads, which will double the cumulative number of downloads earned across 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Flurry Analytics. Android Market reached more than 10 billion cumulative downloads in December, up from three billion in May, Flurry said. source: Flurry blog entry

RIM Predicts 12%-18% Sales Fall

RIM said it expects its revenue for the quarter ending March 3, 2012  to be between 4.6 billion and 4.9 billion US dollars on the back of BlackBerry smartphone shipments of between 11 million and 12 million units. Revenue in the equivalent quarter last year was 5.6 billion dollars and BlackBerry shipmentrs were 14.9 million.

RIM's co-CEOs said: “RIM continues to have strong technology, unique service capabilities and a large installed base of customers, and we are more determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial performance." source: RIM statement

Tablet Growth Tempered

Device manufacturers shipped 18.1 million media tablets into the channel in the third quarter, according to analyst firm IDC. That represents an increase of 264.5% from the same quarter last year, but is 5.8% below IDC's original forecast of 19.2 million units.

IDC said Apple had a 61.5% worldwide market share (down from 63.3% in the second quarter).  Samsung was number two with 5.6% and HP third with 5%. Barnes & Noble took the number four spot with a 4.5% market share. ASUS rounded out the top five with a 4% share. source: IDC statement

RIM Warns of Sales Stumble

RIM said it shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones in the quarter ended November 26, 2011. In the equivalent quarter last year, RIM sold 14.2 million Blackberries. RIM added that it sold approximately 150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in the quarter and sell-through to end customers, based on RIM’s internal data, was higher than this amount.

However, the Ontario-based company warned that adjusted revenue in the quarter, excluding a charge against revenue of approximately 50 million US dollars related to the service outage that occurred in the quarter, is expected to be slightly lower than the previously guided range of between 5.3 billion and 5.6 billion dollars, "reflecting product mix and the impact of PlayBook sell-through programs in the quarter." In the equivalent quarter last year, RIM's sales were 5.5 billion dollars.

RIM said it is still in the process of finalizing its outlook for the current quarter, but based on preliminary estimates, RIM expects unit shipments in the fourth quarter to be below third quarter levels. source: RIM statement

HTC Now Sees Flat Q4

Smartphone maker HTC said: "Due to global macro economic downturn and market competition" it now expects its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011 to be approximately the same as the fourth quarter of 2010. The Taiwan-based company expects that "growth will return in the first half of 2012." source: HTC statement

VimpelCom Sees Steady Growth

VimpelCom said its revenues rose 5% year-on-year, on an organic basis, in the third quarter to 6.09 billion US dollars, driven by 8% growth in Russia and 19% growth in its CIS operations. source: VimpelCom presentation

Deutsche Telekom's Revenues in Retreat

Deutsche Telekom said its revenues in its continuing operations (excluding T-Mobile USA) fell 3.9% year-on-year on an organic basis to 10.99 billion euros in the third quarter of 2011. Revenue in Germany fell 5% to 6 billion euros, while service revenues in the U.S. fell 1.8% year-on-year to 4.53 billion US dollars.

In Germany, Deutsche Telekom's fixed-line revenues fell 5.1%, while mobile revenues rose just 0.1%. Still, mobile data revenues in Germany climbed 26% year-on-year to 410 million euros. source: Deutsche Telekom presentation 

Telefónica's Sales Slip

Telefónica reported a 1% year-on-year decline in revenues in organic terms in the third quarter to 16.04 billion euros. For the first nine months of 2011, Telefónica's revenues rose 0.3% in organic terms, with a 4.9% rise in revenues in Latin America, offsetting a 7.1% fall in revenues in Spain. 

Telefónica said, that in the first nine months of 2011, "growth in mobile broadband accesses was reflected in mobile data revenues, growing at 19.6% in organic terms and accelerating with respect to previous quarters to account for 30% of Telefónica's mobile service revenues. Noteworthy was the strong increase in non-P2P SMS data revenues (+38.8% year-on-year in organic terms), which represent more than 50% of total data revenues." source: Telefonica statement

Telecom Italia Sees Faster Sales Growth

Telecom Italia reported a 3.7% year-on-year increase in organic revenues in the third quarter of 2011 to 7.52 billion euros, lifted by strong growth in Brazil and Argentina. Although revenues fell 3.8% in Italy, the decline was less than the previous quarter.

Telecom Italia said that almost 20% of its customers in Brazil now have smartphones, fuelling fast growth in mobile data revenues. source: Telecom Italia presentation

Global Telecom Growth Accelerates

Following a 4.1% increase in 2010, global telecom service provider revenue will grow 7.6% in 2011, to 1.86 trillion US dollars, according to Infonetics. The research firm forecasts telecom service revenue provider will rise to 2.17 trillion dollars in 2015, driven by mobile broadband. Infonetics expects global telecom carrier capex to total 310.8 billion dollars in 2011, up 5.8% over 2010.  source: Infonetics statement 

Vodafone Grows the Top Line

Vodafone Group said its organic service revenues rose 1.3% year-on-year in the quarter ending September 30th to 11.04 billion British pounds (17.77 billion US dollars), despite a 4.5% fall in voice revenues. Messaging revenues climbed 4.8% and data revenues 23.1%. Vodafone's Indian operation reported a 20.1% rise in organic service revenues to 1.06 billion pounds, but organic service revenues fell 9.3% in Spain to 1.17 billion pounds.

Vodafone said it is now making 250 million pounds a year from "new services" - 6.2 million machine-to-machine connections, operator billing, 27 million money transfer users, push mobile advertising and near field communications. Vodafone believes its addressable markets for these services will be worth 10 billion pounds by 2020. source: Vodafone presentation  

Bharti Invests in Growth

Bharti Airtel, with operations spanning 19 countries in Africa and South Asia, said that its revenues rose 13% year-on-year in the quarter ending September 30th to 172.7 billion Indian rupees (3.52 billion US dollars). The group's customer base climbed 22% to almost 237 million.

After expanding its African networks, Bharti said it now has 135,813 network sites compared with 123,869 a year earlier. Capital spending was up 43% year-on-year to 47.29 billion rupees in the quarter. In Africa, where it added 925 new base stations in the quarter, capital spending rose 586% to 575 million dollars. source: Bharti statement

Alcatel-Lucent Sees Uncertainity Ahead

Alcatel-Lucent said its revenues fell 0.7% year-on-year at constant currencies in the third quarter to 3.8 billion euros, dragged down by a 2.6% fall in revenues in its networks segment.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, commented: "For the remaining part of 2011, given these market uncertainties, and selective spending from our customers, especially in Europe, we now expect weaker revenues there than initially planned in the fourth quarter of 2011." source: Alcatel-Lucent statement

Qualcomm Sees Another Sales Surge

Mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm reported a 39% year-on-year increase in revenues to 4.12 billion US dollars in the quarter ending September 25, 2011. "We delivered record revenues, earnings and MSM chipset shipments, driven by the popularity of smartphones, continued adoption of 3G technologies, particularly in emerging regions, and our industry-leading patent portfolio," said Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm.

Qualcomm forecast that its revenues in the current quarter will be between 4.35 billion and 4.75 billion dollars, which would amount to a year-on-year increase of between 30% and 42%. source: Qualcomm statement

DOCOMO Expects Rapid Data Growth

NTT DOCOMO said it is aiming to increase its "packet revenues" from carrying data services by 50% by its 2015 fiscal year to 2.7 trillion Japanese yen (34.6 billion US dollars), up from 1.8 trillion yen in the 2011 fiscal year (ending March 31, 2012). In the same timeframe, it expects traffic on its network to grow twelve-fold, as the number of smartphones it serves rises to 40 million by the end of the 2015 fiscal year, compared with 10.2 million at the end of 2011 fiscal year.

DOCOMO plans to spend 550 billion yen (about 7 billion dollars) across fiscal 2013, 2014 and 2015 expanding its LTE network, which it says will offer download speeds of up to 100Mbps.

The Tokyo-based operator also plans to increase its revenues from "new businesses", such as M2M, media, healthcare and financial services, 2.5 times from 400 billion yen in fiscal 2011 to 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2015. source: DOCOMO presentation

DOCOMO also said that its operating revenues in the quarter ending September 30th rose 1.6% year-on-year to 1.07 trillion yen, despite a 1.5% fall in cellular service revenues. Revenues were boosted by rising sales of smartphones. source: DOCOMO presentation

HTC Shipments Almost Double

HTC, a leading maker of smartphones, said its total revenues in the third quarter were up 70% year-on-year to 135.8 billion Taiwanese dollars (4.5 billion US dollars), boosted by a 93% leap in handset shipments to 13.2 million units.  The Taiwanese company said its sales volumes rose ninefold in China year-on-year.

HTC forecast that its fourth quarter revenue will be between 125 billion and 135 billion Taiwanese dollars, amounting to an increase of between 20% and 30% year-on-year. It also forecast that unit shipments will be between 12 million and 13 million in the fourth quarter. source: HTC statement

América Móvil Notches Up More Growth

América Móvil, the largest telecoms company in Latin America, said its third quarter revenues climbed 8.6% year-on-year at constant exchange rates to 167 billion pesos (12.8 billion US dollars) "buoyed by data services that expanded rapidly on both the mobile and fixed platforms and by PayTV revenues that climbed 58%."

The company said "mobile revenues increased 10.7% and fixed-line revenues 3.2%; in South America they were up 12.0% at constant exchange rates. Absolutely all our operations registered revenue increases from a year before, with growth rates in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru in the teens and that of Argentina slightly above 20%. Revenues of our U.S. operation, Tracfone, continued to expand rapidly—35% year-on-year." source: América Móvil statement

Smartphones Shift Gears At Samsung

Samsung Electronics said its telecoms sales climbed 37% year-on-year to 14.9 trillion Korean won (13.48 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of 2011, lifted by a 20% rise in handset shipments. Samsung said the growth was led by its smartphone portfolio, notably the Galaxy SII. source: Samsung presentation

Sprint Outlines High Cost of iPhone

Sprint, the third largest telco in the U.S., said its operating revenues rose 2% year-on-year to 8.3 billion US dollars in the third quarter, due to higher postpaid ARPU and growth in the number of net prepaid subscribers, partially offset by lower wireline revenues and lower wireless equipment revenues.

Sprint said that it expects to spend 11.5 billion dollars distributing the iPhone (in upgrades and handset sales) between 2011 and the end of 2015. It expects to earn 8.5 billion dollars back in profits from the iPhone over the same period. By 2014, it expects the iPhone to be a source of profits, adding 500 million dollars a year to OIBDA. source: Sprint presentation 

France Telecom Fights Slowdown

France Telecom said its revenues fell 2.1% year-on-year, on a comparable basis, in the third quarter to 11.28 billion euros. The Paris-based company said regulation cost it 188 million euros in revenue for the quarter, but it also acknowledged that it has seen an "anticipated slowdown".

France Telecom said its mobile data revenues climbed 14% year-on-year, boosted by a doubling in the number of smartphones on its networks to 14.2 million. source: France Telecom presentation

Nokia Opens the Windows

Nokia unveiled its first handsets to run the Windows Phone operating system. It described the flaghship device, the Nokia Lumia 800, as "stunningly social," adding that it features "one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9." The Lumia 800 also has a 3.7 inch AMOLED display, a 1.4 GHz processor and 16GB of internal memory.  The approximate retail price for the Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 euros, excluding taxes and subsidies, according to Nokia. source: Nokia statement

Ericsson's Sales Soar as Traffic Climbs

Ericsson, the leading supplier of mobile networks, said its sales increased 24% year-on-year, on a comparable basis, in the third-quarter to 55.5 billion Swedish krona (8.48 billion US dollars). Ericsson attributed the performance to strong demand for mobile broadband and the Swedish company saw sales rise 64% in Latin America and 49% in Northern Europe and Central Asia.

Ericsson said that more than 85% of the world's population  now has GSM network coverage and more than 40% has WCDMA/HSPA coverage.  However, it said that LTE networks "only covers a few percentages today. In five years time, it is expected that LTE will have roughly the same population coverage as WCDMA/HSPA has today."

The Stockholm-based firm also said  it expects approximately 30% of all handsets sold in the third quarter to be smartphones, compared to around 20% for the full year 2010. "However, out of the installed base of subscriptions worldwide only around 10% use smartphones," Ericsson added.

Global fixed broadband subscriptions reached about 550 million by the end of the second quarter 2011, mainly boosted by strong growth in DSL in China, according to Ericsson. source: Ericsson statement

Verizon Rides Wireless Data Wave

Verizon Communicatons said that its revenue rose 5.4% year-on-year in the third quarter to 27.9 billion US dollars, boosted by 20.5% growth in wireless data services and 18.5% growth in fibre-optic based services.

Verizon Wireless added that on October 20th its LTE service was available in 165 markets covering a population of more than 186 million, across the country.  During the quarter, the company introduced five new LTE devices: the Droid Bionic by Motorola, the Pantech Breakout, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, the Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr netbook and the HP Pavilion dm 1-3010nr notebooksource: Verizon presentation

AT&T Flatlines Despite Wireless Growth

AT&T said its consolidated revenues fell 0.3% year-on-year to 31.5 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2011, dragged down by a 2.2% fall in "wireline" revenues. The giant U.S. telco said that wireless service revenues increased 4.3% to 14.3 billion dollars in the quarter, as the company posted a net gain in total wireless subscribers of 2.1 million, to reach 100.7 million in service. source: AT&T statement

China Mobile Maintains Momentum

China Mobile's operating revenue in the third quarter climbed 8.8% year-on-year to 133.75 billion Chinese yuan in the third quarter of 2011 - exactly the same growth rate as it achieved in the first half of 2011. Its customer base rose 2.7% during the quarter to 633.5 million, as its 3G customer base climbed 23% to 43.2 million.

China Mobile said: "Wireless data traffic (including WLAN) increased by 143.1% in the first three quarters of 2011 compared to the same period of last year. Key services such as Wireless Music also achieved favorable growth. Mobile Reading, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Video businesses have achieved certain scale. The favorable growth in customer base, voice usage volume and value-added business resulted in a steady increase of operating revenue." source: China Mobile statement

Smartphone Sales Slide For Nokia

Nokia said its net revenues fell 10% year-on-year at constant currencies to 8.98 billion euros in the third quarter, as rising sales at Nokia Siemens Networks failed to offset a sharp fall in device revenues. Nokia said its sales from devices and services fell 22% year-on-year in constant currencies, as device shipments fell 3% to 107 million units.

Nokia's smartphone shipments fell 38% year-on-year to 16.8 million units in the quarter, while mobile phone shipments rose 8% to almost 90 million. Nokia said: "The year-on-year increase in our mobile phones volumes in the third quarter 2011 was driven by strong demand for our dual SIM devices, which reached 17.9 million during the quarter, as well as higher demand for our QWERTY products." source: Nokia statement

Apple's Growth Slows

Apple said its revenues rose 39% year-on-year in the quarter ending September 24th to 28.3 billion US dollars, lifted by a 166% increase in iPad shipments to 11.12 million and a 21% rise in iPhone shipments to 17 million.  iPhone-related revenue rose 24% to 10.98 billion dollars, while iPad-related revenue rose 146% to 6.87 billion dollars. Apple's revenues rose 82% year-on-year in the previous quarter.

Apple forecast that its revenues in the current quarter will rise to 37 billion dollars (39% growth compared with 26.7 billion dollars in the equivalent quarter last year), following the sale of 4 million iPhone 4S units in the weekend after it went on sale on the 14th October. However, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, noted that the current quarter will span 14 weeks rather than 13. source: Apple statement

Google Rides Mobile Advertising Wave

Google said its mobile advertising business is now on track to generate 2.5 billion US dollars in revenue a year, which amounts to growth of 2.5 times in the past year. Google also said that its Google+ social network now has 40 million users who have uploaded 3.4 billion photos, while its Chrome web browser has 200 million users, and people have activated 190 million Android phones. source: New York Times article

HTC Sees More Stellar Sales Growth

HTC Corporation, a leading maker of smartphones, said its total revenues rose 79% in the third quarter to 135.82 billion Taiwanese dollars (4.45 billion US dollars). The company didn't give reasons for the sales rise, but analysts say it has seen strong demand for its Android-based handsets.  source: HTC statement

iPod Sales top 320 million

Launching the iPhone 4S, Apple said it has now sold more than 320 million iPods worldwide. The Californian company also said that its App Store now has  500,000 apps, including more than 100,000 game and entertainment titles, while the iTunes Store has more than 20 million songs, 85,000 TV shows and 14,000 movies to purchase. source: Apple statement

Amazon Launches Keenly-Priced Tablet

Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire, a tablet computer with a seven inch multi-touch display, priced at 199 US dollars. The Kindle Fire, which is designed to provide "instant access" to Amazon's digital entertainment services, will ship with 8GB of memory, a 1024 x 600 pixel screen and a new web browser, which draws on Amazon's formidable Cloud services.

In a clear shot at Apple, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said: "There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp." source: Amazon statement

iPad Maintains Iron Grip

Apple’s iPad will account for 73.4% of worldwide media tablet sales in 2011, down from 83% share in 2010, according to reserach firm Gartner. “Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. "This allowed Apple to bring the iPad out at a very competitive price and no compromise in experience among the different models that offer storage and connectivity options.”

“So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications” Ms. Milanesi added. source: Gartner statement

RIM's Sales Slide 10%

Research In Motion, maker of Blackberry, said its revenue fell 10% year-on-year to 4.2 US billion dollars in the quarter ended August 27, 2011.  RIM said it shipped approximately 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones (compared with 12.1 million the previous year) and approximately 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets during the quarter.

RIM expects revenue for the quarter ending November 26 to be in the range of 5.3 billion to 5.6 billion dollars, compared with 5.49 billion dollars the previous year. RIM expects BlackBerry smartphone shipments  to be between 13.5 million and 14.5 million units in the current quarter, compared with 14.2 million in the same period last year.

“We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products. Overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand
for older models,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion.source: RIM statement

Smartphones outsell Feature phones in Western Europe

In western Europe, feature phone shipments fell 29% year-on-year to 20.4 million units in the second quarter, while smartphone shipments increased 48% to 21.8 million units, according to IDC. The analyst firm said the total western European mobile phone market declined 3% year on year to 42.2 million units in the quarter. source: IDC statement 

Twitter Claim 100 million Active Users

Micro-blogging service Twitter said that it now has 100 million active users around the world. It claims that half of these users log in each day and 40% of its user base just read their feed, rather than posting themselves. source: Twitter blog post

Mobile Prices Down Sharply in Decade

Total global mobile voice minutes increased tenfold between 2001 and 2010 to 1.6 trillion last year, according to Wireless Intelligence. The research firm, a unit of the GSMA, said that is equivalent to an increase from three to five hours of call time per user per month across the world, and has come about as a result of a simultaneous drop in the effective price per minute of calls to a quarter of what it was nine years previously.  source: Wireless Intelligence statement

ZTE Devices Breakthrough

Telecoms equipment maker ZTE said its revenue rose 21.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 37.34 billion Chinese yuan (5.85 billion US dollars). Revenues in China rose 6.8% to 16.53 billion yuan, while international revenue soared 36.4% to 20.81 billion yuan. ZTE reported year-on-year revenue growth of 8% in its carriers’ networks division, 44% for its devices division (to 11.21 billion yuan) and 42% for its telecommunication software systems, services and other products.

The Shenzhen, China-based company added: "Sales of the group’s terminal products (comprising 3G handsets in various modes and data cards) in the domestic market were gaining pace as the population of domestic 3G users continued to grow. Internationally, the group sustained strong growth as its terminal products, including the 3G handsets, data cards and netbooks made breakthroughs among global mainstream carriers." source: ZTE statement

China Unicom Outpaces Rivals

Growing faster than its bigger rivals, China Unicom said its revenue rose 22.9% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 101.39 billion Chinese yuan (15.87 billion US dollars), fuelled by a fourfold increase in "sales of telecoms products." Service revenues rose a more modest 12.7%, boosted by threefold growth in 3G subscribers.

The operator said it spent 6.32 billion yuan building out its 3G network in the first half (out of total 2011 3G capex budget of 19.47 billion yuan). source: China Unicom presentation

Double-Digit Growth for China Telecom

China Telecom said that its operating revenues, excluding the amortisation of upfront connection fees, climbed 11.7% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 120.11 billion Chinese yuan (18.8 billion US dollars).

China Telecom said its total number of mobile subscribers reached 108 million at the end of June, representing a net addition of 17.85 million from the end of last year. Of which, 21.54 million were 3G subscribers, representing a net increase of 9.25 million from the end of 2010. Total number of (fixed-line) broadband subscribers reached 70.09 million, representing a net addition of 6.61 million from the end of last year.
 
The telco said that in the first half of the year, "we achieved a critical breakthrough in 3G smartphones. There are over 100 3G smartphone models available for sale, and the sales of 3G smartphones priced around 1,000 yuan (157 US dollars) outperformed our peers."
 
It added that "technologies such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) have been deployed to reinforce the identification capability of the mobile network on customers and services, and to implement the precise mobile traffic management." Capital expenditure for the first half was 20.97 billion yuan. source: China Telecom statement

China Mobile Claims 3G Leadership

China Mobile said its operating revenue rose 8.8% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 250.1 billion Chinese yuan (39.15 billion US dollars), lifted by a rising customer base and 42.8% growth in its wireless data business. In the first quarter, growth was 8.3% year-on-year.

China's largest mobile operator said it now has more than 35 million 3G customers (out of a total of 610 million) served by 199,000 3G base stations. The company claims to have 43.5% market share in 3G and that it has the largest Chinese app store (its Mobile Market generated 260 million downloads in the first half of 2011).

China Mobile said its capex climbed very slightly year-on-year to 61.8 billion yuan in the first half. The company now has approximately 800,000 base stations. source: China Mobile presentation 

Nigeria and Iran lift MTN

Pan-Africa and Middle East mobile group MTN said that its revenues increased by 9% year-on-year on an organic basis in the first half of 2011 to 56.54 billion South African rand (7.98 billion US dollars). MTN's capital spending was down by 26% on an organic basis to 5.71 billion rand, mainly because of logistical delays. source: MTN presentation

Google Buys Motorola to Protect Android

Announcing it will buy Motorola  Motorola Mobility Holdings for about 12.5 billion US dollars, Google said that "more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries."

"Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," said Google CEO Larry Page. source: Google blog post

Telecom Italia Shores Up Revenues

Telecom Italia said that its revenues grew 2.1% year-on-year in organic terms in the second quarter of 2011 to 7.47 billion euros, lifted by strong growth in its units in Argentina and Brazil. In Italy, revenues declined 6%, compared with 7.4% in the first quarter. source: Telecom Italia presentation

Deutsche Telekom Sees Sales Slide

Deutsche Telekom, Germany's largest telco, said that its net revenue from continuing operations (therefore, excluding its U.S. unit and U.K. joint venture) fell 3.3% year-on-year to 10.97 billion euros in the second quarter of 2011. Revenue fell 3.4% in Germany and 5.5% in the rest of Europe, but its Systems Solutions unit lifted revenues 1.5% to 2.28 billion euros.

The company blamed the decline on falling revenue from voice telephony services, partly as a result of regulation, in Germany and price erosion in its other European operations, which include units in Greece, Romania, the Netherlands and Austria. source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Global Mobile Revenues Rise 4%

Global mobile operator revenues reached 1.057 trillion US dollars in 2010, according to Wireless Intelligence, with operators investing around 200 billion dollars in capital expenditure during the year. WI figures indicate the global mobile industry grew 4.3% last year, compared with 5.5% in 2009.

Voice service revenue still accounted for 75% of recurring revenues in developing countries in 2010, and 70% in developed countries, according to the research firm, which is owned by the GSMA. WI said data revenues (excluding messaging) represented 16% of total revenue in the developed region in 2010, compared to 11% in the developing region. source: Wireless Intelligence statement

Samsung Sees Telecoms Sales Soar

Samsung Electronics said it telecoms sales rose 43% year-on-year to 12.18 trillion Korean won (11.29 billion US dollars) in the second quarter, lifted by a sharp climb in handset shipments and average selling prices, plus better network sales. source: Samsung presentation

Sprint Leans on Prepaid Customers

Sprint, one of the leading U.S. telcos, said its revenues climbed 4% year-on-year in the second quarter to 8.3 billion US dollars. Sprint said the "improvement was primarily due to higher postpaid ARPU, growth in the number of net prepaid subscribers and higher wireless equipment revenues, partially offset by net losses of postpaid subscribers and lower wireline revenues."

Sprint said it lost approximately 101,000 net postpaid subscribers during the quarter, a net improvement of 127,000, or 56%, compared to the second quarter of 2010.

Sprint said its capex in the quarter was 640 million dollars, compared with 437 million dollars in the second quarter of 2010 as the company "invested primarily in data capacity as a result of increased data usage to maintain a competitive position in data service and overall network quality." source Sprint statement 

Alcatel-Lucent Takes Positive View

Alcatel-Lucent, the Paris-based telecoms equipment maker, said its revenues rose 10.4% year-on-year in the second quarter at constant currencies to 3.90 billion euros. The company said it is seeing: "Positive market trends around the world [and] massive adoption of new services and devices." source: Alcatel-Lucent presentation

France Telecom Ramps Up Capex

Dragged down by regulation, France Telecom said that its revenue fell 1.3% year-on-year, on a comparable basis, in the second quarter to 11.34 billion euros. Revenues were down 2.2% in France, but climbed 4.2% in Spain, driven by a rise in the company's mobile customer base and demand for broadband.

France Telecom said that its capital spending in the first half of 2011 was almost 11% higher than in the same period of 2010, as it seeks to improve its networks. source: France Telecom presentation

Ericsson Rides Mobile Broadband Growth

Ericsson said that its group sales, on a like-for-like basis, in the second quarter increased by 27% year-over-year to 54.8 billion Swedish krona (8.47 billion US dollars), driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband.

Ericsson estimated the operator network equipment market, which it values at 95 billion US dollars in 2010, will show between 3% and 5% CAGR between 2010 and 2013, powered by between 6% and 8% CAGR in the mobile networks market. Ericsson said it grew its market share in the radio access segment during the first quarter 2011, both measured in terms of shipped volumes and value.

Ericsson estimated its addressable telecom services market, which it values at 96 billion to 101 billion dollars in 2010, will show between 6% and 8% CAGR between 2010 and 2013. That figure includes the telecom OSS/BSS market for software and systems integration, which Ericsson values at about 35 billion dollars in 2010.

Ericsson added that WCDMA/HSPA networks now cover around 40% of the world’s population, while LTE networks only cover a few percent.  Global fixed broadband subscriptions grew by 15 million new subscriptions to reach 537 million during the first quarter 2011, mainly boosted by strong growth in DSL in China, according to the Stockholm-based company. DSL represents more than 60% of all fixed broadband subscriptions, while Fiber-to-the-Building represents around 15%, Ericsson said. source: Ericsson statement

Vodafone Sees Steady Growth

Vodafone said that its group revenues rose 2.3% year-on-year on an organic basis to 11.66 billion British pounds (18.91 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending June 30th, boosted by a 24.5% rise in group data revenue.

However, the U.K.-based group said its service revenue in Europe declined by 1.3% on an organic basis, hit by cuts in regulated mobile termination rates and "macroeconomic challenges in southern Europe. Vodafone said its unit in Spain saw organic service revenue decline by 9.9%, "with price reductions adding to ongoing macroeconomic pressures."

In Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, Vodafone's service revenue grew by 8.7% on an organic basis, fuelled by 16.8% growth in India. source: Vodafone statement

AT&T Rides Wireless Data Wave

AT&T, the largest telco in the U.S., said its revenues grew 2.2% year-on-year in the second quarter to 31.5 billion US dollars, thanks to "strong wireless growth, IP data and video and improved business wireline trends."

AT&T also said it now plans to spend 20 billion dollars on capex in 2011 to meet growing demand for wireless services. Its original guidance was for capex "in the low-to-mid 19 billion dollar range."
source: AT&T presentation

Verizon Revs Growth Engine

Verizon Communications, one of the largest telcos in the U.S., said that its revenue grew 6.3% year-on-year in the second quarter to 27.5 billion US dollars. Verizon said that its revenue from wireless data services climbed 22.2% and its revenue from services over its fibre network rose 20.7%.

In the second quarter, Verizon  introduced three new LTE devices: the Droid Charge by Samsung, Revolution by LG and the MiFi 4510L Mobile Hotspot by Novatel Wireless, while the LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is set to launch by the end of July. Verizon said it sold 1.2 million LTE smartphones and Internet data devices during the second quarter. source: Verizon statement

Nokia Suffers Sharp Fall in Handset Sales

Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, said its sales fell 7% year-on-year in constant currencies to 9.28 billion euros in the second quarter of 2011, as its "smart devices" sales fell 32% to 2.37 billion euros and its mobile phone sales fell 20% to 2.55 billion euros. Nokia blamed the declines on competitive pressures and an inventory build-up in China and Europe.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said: "During this time of transition, we expect competitive pressures to continue.  However, we have a clear strategy to address the concerns about our product competitiveness."

Nokia Siemens Networks' sales climbed 21% in constant currencies to 3.64 billion euros boosted by a stronger infrastructure market in most regions and the acquisition of some assets from Motorola.   Excluding the acquired Motorola networks assets, Nokia Siemens Networks' net sales would have increased 13% year-on-year. source: Nokia statement

Apple Sees Dramatic Sales Surge

Apple said that its revenues rose 82% year-on-year in the quarter ending June 25 to 28.57 billion US dollars, boosted by a 150% increase in revenues from sales of iPhones and related products to 13.31 billion dollars and a 179% increase in sales of iPads and related products to 6.05 billion dollars.

Apple said it expects to earn revenue of about 25 billion dollars in the current quarter, which would represent a year-on-year increase of 23%. source: Apple statement

Google Returns to Rapid Growth

Google, the Internet advertising giant, reported revenues of 9.03 billion US dollars for the second quarter of 2011, an increase of 32% compared to the second quarter of 2010.

Google's new CEO Larry Page said more than 10 million people have joined the Google+ social networking service since it launched a limited, invitation-only trial earlier this month, according to Mobile Business Briefing.  The news service also reported that Google revealed that 550,000 phones a day are now being activated on Android (up from 400,000 a day in May), with more than 135 million total Android device activations to date. source: Mobile Business Briefing

Sony-Ericsson Rocked by Earthquake

Sony-Ericsson said that its sales fell 32% year-on-year to 1.19 billion euros in the second quarter of 2011, as handset shipments fell to 7.6 million units from 11 million in the same period of 2010.

Bert Nordberg, CEO of Sony Ericsson said, “Sony Ericsson’s second quarter profitability was affected by the March 11 earthquake in Japan. We estimate that the impact of earthquake-related supply chain constraints on our portfolio was close to 1.5 million units, with most of the effect in the early part of the quarter. Our shift to Android-based smartphones continues with smartphone sales accounting for more than 70% of our total sales during the quarter. We have shipped more than 16 million Xperia smartphones to date."

Sony Ericsson estimated that its share of the global Android smartphone market during the quarter was approximately 11% by volume and 11% by value. source: Sony-Ericsson statement

Snapshot of Android Fragmentation

Source: Android Developers web site

Apple App Downloads Accelerate

Apple said that its customers have downloaded around 5 billion apps so far this year, according to Reuters, compared with 10 billion across the previous two-and-a-half years. Apple said it has paid developers more than 2.5 billion US dollars through its App Store, which currently contains around 425,000 apps for iPads, iPhones and iPod touches. source: Reuters article

LG Slashes Handset Sales Targets

LG Electronics cut its 2011 smartphone sales forecast to 24 million handsets from a previous target of more than 30 million, while reducing its overall handset sales target by a quarter to 114 million units from 150 million, according to Reuters. In the first half, LG of South Korea sold almost 50 million mobile phones, including slightly more than 10 million smartphones, compared with almost 58 million in the first half of 2010. source: Reuters article

HTC's Revenues Double

HTC, a leading supplier of smartphones, said its revenues in the second quarter 2011 rose 104% to 124.4 billion Taiwanese dollars (4.31 billion US dollars). source: HTC statement

Samsung Ships 3 Million Galaxy S II Smartphones

Samsung Electronics said it has now shipped three million of its Galaxy S II smartphones into the channel. The handset, which runs Android and is Samsung's most advanced smartphone, was announced in February 2011. source: Samsung statement

Telefonica Sees Sales Growth Slow

Telefonica said that its revenues rose 0.9% year-on-year in organic terms to 30.89 billion euros in the first half of 2011, down from 1.4% in the first quarter. Revenues in Latin America rose 5.6% offsetting a 6.1% fall in Spain.

César Alierta, Executive Chairman, said:  "The outstanding performance in Brazil consolidates our leadership in a market which will soon become Telefónica's main source of revenue, and where the integration of the fixed and mobile businesses will allow the Company to capture synergies of 3,700-4,600 million euros, a significantly larger amount than initially forecasted." source: Telefonica statement

Nokia Talks Up Series 40

Nokia said its Series 40 software, used to run feature phones, is the largest mobile platform in the world by volume, with more than half a billion "Nokia Series 40 mobile phones in consumers' hands today."

Nokia added that there has been more than 35% growth in the number of app downloads to Series 40 phones in the past two months, and now make up about a quarter of the total downloads from Nokia's Ovi Store. source: Nokia statement

RIM Sees Growth Coming to an Abrupt Halt

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, expects its revenue for the quarter ending August 27, 2011 to be between 4.2 billion and 4.8 billion US dollars, compared with 4.62 billion dollars in the same quarter last year.

“Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start. The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter." said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion.
 
In the quarter ending May 28, RIM's revenue grew 16% year-on-year to 4.9 billion dollars. Overseas revenue rose 67% year-over-year, suggesting the company saw a sharp slowdown in North America.  During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 13.2 million BlackBerry handheld devices and approximately 500,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets. source: RIM statement

Fixed Traffic To Rise Fivefold by 2015

source: TeliaSonera presentation

Facebook Leads UK Mobile Internet

source: ComScore presentation

Apple Sells 200 Million iOS Devices

Launching its iCloud service, Apple said it has sold more than 200 million devices running its iOS operating system, including 25 million iPads (up from 15 million at the beginning of March). Apple said its App Store now has more than 425,000 applications that work with iOS. source: Bloomberg article

France Telecom to Invest in Growth

France Telecom said it is aiming to achieve compound annual revenue growth of 0.6% in the period from 2011 to 2013. During that timeframe, the group expects to spend around 18.5 billion euros in capex, including 1 billion euros for fiber deployment in France.  In the 2013 to 2015 "conquest phase", France Telecom expects compound annual revenue growth of 2.7% and capex to fall from 12% of revenues to 11% of revenues.

Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of France Telecom-Orange, said: “Our Conquests 2015 business plan now moves into an adaptation phase that is preparing the ground for a subsequent, even more decisive conquest phase..... we will be able to capitalize on a number of positive factors between now and 2015. These include the economic outlook in the countries in which we operate, an increasingly favorable regulatory environment, the quality of our networks, strategic new growth opportunities that we have identified, as well as our new strategy for building partnerships with other players in the digital ecosystem.” source: France Telecom statement

Nokia Warns of Flagging Sales

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, said it now expects net sales in its Devices & Services division "to be substantially below its previously expected range of 6.1 billion to 6.6 billion euros for the second quarter of 2011. In the second quarter of 2010, the division's revenues were 6.8 billion euros. Nokia blamed lower-than-expected average selling prices and mobile device volumes, resulting from "the competitive dynamics and market trends across multiple price categories, particularly in China and Europe."

Nokia said it is continuing to invest to bring new capabilities to its Symbian smartphone line up and "has taken price actions on its current smartphone portfolio, and is intensifying its focus on retail point-of-sales marketing." The Finland-based company added that it has now begun shipping dual-SIM devices and "has increased confidence that the first Nokia product with Windows Phone [software] will ship in the fourth quarter 2011." source: Nokia statement

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 

Nokia Loses Top Spot in Western Europe

Source: IDC statement

Telecom Italia Flatlines

Telecom Italia said that its group revenue declined 0.2% year-on-year on an organic basis to 7.07 billion euros in the first quarter of 2011, as a 7.4% decline in revenues in Italy was mostly offset by a 13.8% increase in revenues in Brazil and a 27.2% rise in revenues in its recently-acquired business in Argentina.

The Italian company said that smartphones accounted for 40% of its handset sales in Brazil compared with 16% in the first quarter of 2010. source: Telecom Italia presentation

Deutsche Telekom in the Doldrums

Deutsche Telekom's revenues fell 3.5% year-on-year, on an organic basis, to 14.6 billion euros in the first quarter of 2011, as its sales declined in both Europe and the U.S.  Revenue in Germany was down 3.2% to 6 billion euros as a result of declining voice telephony revenues for both mobile communications and fixed networks.

T-Mobile USA, which is set to be acquired by AT&T, saw is sales slide 2.1% in dollar terms, but service revenues actually climbed 0.4% lifted by strong growth in data revenue and moving the handset insurance business in-house.

DT increased capital spending by almost 13.2% year-on-year to 2.12 billion euros in the quarter. source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Bharti Maintains Double Digit Growth

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, reported a 13% year-on-year rise in revenues in its operations in South Asia in the quarter ending March 31 to 121.2 billion Indian rupees (2.69 billion US dollars), boosted by a 28% rise in customers in the region to almost 168 million. Bharti said that revenues in its recently-acquired African operations, which added 2.1 million customers in the quarter, amounted to 41.82 billion rupees in the three month period.

Bharti said its 131,304 base stations across 19 countries now serve a total of 220.88 million connections. source: Bharti Airtel statement

Telenor Sees Sales Spurt

Telenor, which runs mobile networks in Europe and Asia, said that its revenues grew 6.6% year-on-year on an organic basis in the first quarter of 2011 to 24.09 billion Norwegian krone (4.55 billion US dollars), as its subscriber base increased by 9 million in the quarter, compared with a rise of 3.5 million in the first quarter of 2010. source: Telenor presentation

Mobile Data Keeps América Móvil Growing

América Móvil said its first quarter revenues totaled 156.2 billion Mexican pesos (13.5 billion US dollars), up 6.3% year-on-year. The Mexico City-based telecoms company said at, constant exchange rates, its revenue from mobile data services increased by 37.8% and its revenue from fixed data services by 7.4%.

However, the pan-Americas telecoms company reported that fixed voice revenues declined 4.3% as revenue reductions in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean more than offset the 3.7% rise observed in South America. However, América Móvil's revenues in the U.S. rose 43.3% year-on-year to 868 million US dollars.

América Móvil said that it added nearly 6 million wireless subscribers and 1.5 million fixed line "revenue generating units" in the first quarter. At the end of March, the company had "231 million wireless subscribers, 13.6 million broadband accesses, 28.7 million landlines and 10.8 million PayTV clients, for a total of 284 million accesses, 12.1% more than a year before." source: América Móvil statement

Regulation Restrains France Telecom

France Telecom said its revenues fell 1.4% year-on-year on a comparable basis to 11.23 billion euros in the first quarter of 2011. Excluding the impact of regulatory measures, the Paris-based company said its revenues would have climbed 0.4%, as its total group customers rose 7% to 215.9 million.

The company's mobile revenues increased 5.9% in France, 7% in Spain, 4.5% in Poland and 5.8% in Africa and the Middle East, excluding Egypt. France Telecom said its capex was equal to 9.6% of revenues, representing 1.08 billion euros in investments, in the first quarter, "in line with the target capex rate of about 13% for the year." source: France Telecom statement

LG Sees Market Share Slide

LG Electronics, a leading mobile phone maker, said revenues in its mobile communications division declined 8.3% year-on-year in the first quarter to 3.38 trillion Korean won (3.15 billion US dollars). LG said that handset shipments fell 10% year-on-year to 24.5 million units. source: LG presentation

RIM Warns of Sales Shortfall

Research in Motion said that it expects its shipments of BlackBerry smartphones in the quarter ending May 28 to be at the lower end of the range of 13.5 million to 14.5 million it forecast in March.

RIM added that lower-than-expected average selling prices are expected to result in revenue that is slightly below the range of 5.2 billion to 5.6 billion US dollars it forecast on March 24 for the quarter. However, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it expects shipments of its BlackBerry PlayBook in the quarter to continue to be in line with it previous expectations. source: RIM statement 

HTC Expects Q2 Sales to Double

HTC, a leading maker of smartphones, said that it expects it second quarter revenue to be around 120 billion Taiwanese dollars (4.19 billion US dollars), up 97% year-on-year. It forecast that it will ship between 11 million and 11.5 million handsets in the quarter, more than twice as many as in the second quarter of 2010.

In the first quarter of 2011, HTC's revenues rose 174.5% year-on-year to 104.16 billion Taiwanese dollars, boosted by a 192% year-on-year increase in handset shipments to 9.7 million. source: HTC statement

Smartphone Sales Surge for Samsung

Samsung Electronics said its telecoms sales rose 19% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011 to 10.64 trillion Korean won (9.96 billion US dollars), driven by a 9% rise in handset shipments to 70 million and an increase in average selling prices. Samsung said that smartphones accounted for 18% of its shipments in the first quarter compared with 14% in the previous quarter.

Samsung said it expects industry handset shipments to rise to 1.5 billion units in 2011 from 1.36 billion in 2010. The Korean company also expects product and price competition in the tablet market to intensify with new model launches. source: Samsung presentation

Sprint's Sales Climb

Sprint, one of the largest mobile operators in the U.S., reported first quarter revenues of approximately 8.3 billion US dollars, which is a 3% increase from the same quarter a year ago. Sprint said the year-over-year improvement "was primarily due to higher ARPU for postpaid and prepaid, growth in the number of prepaid subscribers and higher wireless equipment revenues, partially offset by net losses of postpaid subscribers and lower wireline revenues."

Sprint said that capital expenditures amounted to 555 million dollars in the quarter, compared to 419 million dollars in the first quarter of 2010.  Sprint said it has now launched or announced 22 "4G devices" and offers "4G service" in 71 markets in 28 states. Sprint uses WiMAX to provide its "4G services", which it says are "up to 10x faster" than 3G services running at 600 Kbps. source: Sprint statement

DOCOMO Sees Sharp Fall in ARPU

NTT DOCOMO, Japan's largest mobile operator, said that its operating revenues fell 2.6% year-on-year in the quarter ending March 31 to 1.015 trillion Japanese yen (12.48 billion US dollars).  DOCOMO said that its ARPU in the quarter fell almost 6% year-on-year to 4,760 yen, as a 15% decline in voice ARPU more than offset a 4% rise in packet (data) ARPU.

The Tokyo-based company forecast that rising usage of smartphones will lift its ARPU to 4,890 yen, increasing its total revenues marginally, in the year ending March 31, 2012, to 4.23 trillion yen, up from 4.224 trillion the previous year. As it restores facilities damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake, DOCOMO forecast that it will spend 705 billion yen on capex in the year ending March 31, 2012, compared with 668.5 billion the previous year and 686.5 billion the year before that. source: DOCOMO statement