Telecom Italia Returns to Growth

Telecom Italia said that its revenues rose 0.8% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis in the fourth quarter of 2010 to  7.67 billion euros, after falling 4.4% in the third quarter, 5.3% in the second quarter and 4.9% in the first quarter.

Franco Bernabè, CEO of Telecom Italia, said: "Today, thanks to greater competitiveness in the domestic market and the larger presence in Latin America – further consolidated through a 2.1% increase in Telecom Argentina’s economic interest – Telecom Italia is a more solid group, that can look to the future confidently."

In 2011, the Milan-based group said that it is aiming to keep revenues broadly stable and spend 4.8 billion euros on capex, compared with 4.58 billion euors in 2010. source: Telecom Italia statements

Deutsche Telekom Down Again

Deutsche Telekom, Germany's largest telecoms company, said its revenue fell 1.6% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to 15.48 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenues in the U.S. and Germany were broadly flat, while revenue elsewhere in Europe declined.

Deutsche Telekom said cash capex totaled 8.6 billion euros in 2010, down 7% on 2009. But the Bonn-based company also invested an additional 1.3 billion euros in new spectrum acquired in auctions in Germany.

Aiming to launch commercial LTE services in Germany in April 2011, Deutsche Telekom said it plans to invest 10 billion euros in the country in 2011 and 2012. source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Telefonica Sees 2% Growth

Telefonica of Madrid, one of the world's largest telecoms companies, said that it expects its group revenues to grow up to 2% in 2011. It also plans to increase capex to about 9 billion euros in 2011 from 8.54 billion euros in 2010.

In 2010, Telefonica's revenue grew 2.4% on a like-for-like basis to 60.74 billion euros, lifted by 2.7% organic growth in Latin America and a 19.3% increase in mobile data revenues to 9.3 billion euros. source: Telefonica statement

Regulation Pins Down France Telecom

France Telecom said that its revenues fell 0.5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 11.73 billion euros. The Paris-based group said that, stripping out the impact of regulatory measures, its revenues would have risen 1.2%, driven by growth in Spain and its "rest of the world" division, which includes mobile operations in Africa and the Middle East.

France Telecom said it expects its revenues, excluding the impact of regulation, to increase slighlty on a like-for-like basis in 2011 compared to 2010. The group expects to spend 13% of its revenues on capex as it roll outs mobile broadband and optical fibre services in France, while extending its 2G and 3G mobile networks in Africa and the Middle East. In 2010, capex was 12.1% of revenues. source: France Telecom statement

China Claims More than 50 million 3G Subs

China's mobile operators had almost 52 million 3G subscribers at the end of January, compared with 39 million at the end of October. China Mobile saw its total mobile subscriber base rise to about 589.3 million in January 2011, including 22.6 million 3G subscribers, while China Unicom's subs increased to 169.7 million during the month, including 15.5 million 3G subscribers and China Telecom’s customer base rose to about 94.1 million, including 13.6 million 3G subscribers.  source: Mobile Business Briefing

Google: 170 Android Handsets on Sale

At the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that Android phone activations were now running at more than 300,000 a day with 170 Android-based handsets currently available from 27 device vendors - making it the “world’s fastest-growing mobile platform.” source: Mobile Business Briefing.

Nokia Sets New Course

On February 11th, Nokia said it expects "attractive mobile device industry revenue growth in 2011 and over the longer-term, driven by the further adoption of smartphones by consumers globally and the further adoption of mobile devices and services, particularly in emerging markets."

The world's largest handset maker also said it expects 2011 and 2012 to be transition years, as the company invests to build "the planned winning ecosystem with Microsoft."

Nokia added that it expects the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market to grow slightly in 2011 and that Nokia Siemens Networks' net sales to grow faster than the market.

Nokia also said that there are currently 200 million people worldwide using handsets running the Symbian operating system and that it expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in the years to come. source: Nokia statements

Why Microsoft?

Nokia's official blog described the deal with Microsoft as working like this: "Nokia pays Microsoft royalties, it gives Microsoft unprecedented reach, it also gives them access to services such as Maps. Nokia’s hardware expertise creates devices that truly let the Microsoft’s new OS shine.

"In return, Nokia gets a substantial reduction in its operating expenses; it gains a range of services to enrich its smartphone offering. There’s a new revenue stream for Nokia in the form of mobile advertising. It gets marketing support with a value of billions of dollars.

"The real point is that there’s a co-dependency between Nokia and Microsoft – both partners need the other to fully succeed. That’s part of what makes it the right choice." source: Nokia blog entry

In a speech at the Mobile World Congress, Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, said: "80% of the world's population today are in cell phone signal range, and yet only 20% of them are connected to the Internet." source: Mobile Business Briefing.  

Sales Surge for Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent, one of the leading suppliers of telecoms networks, said that its revenues grew 15% year-on-year in constant currencies in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 4.86 billion euros. The rise was fuelled by a 34% increase in sales in its wireless division to 1.16 billion euros. source: Alcatel-Lucent presentation

Sprint Boosted by Acquisitions

Sprint Nextel said that its revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 climbed 6% year-on-year to 8.3 billion US dollars. The U.S. telecoms company attributed the growth to the acquisitions of Virgin Mobile and iPCS in the fourth quarter of 2009, higher equipment revenues and prepaid service revenues.

In the quarter, Sprint Nextel increased capital expenditure to 608 million dollars, from 554 million dollars a year earlier, to improve the coverage and capacity of its mobile broadband network. source: Sprint statement

Mobile Data Moves América Móvil's Needle

Pan-Americas telecoms group América Móvil said that its service revenues increased 7.1% year-on-year at constant exchange rates in the fourth quarter of 2010, thanks to a 36.6% increase in mobile data revenues and a 79.3% increase in pay TV revenues. At constant exchange rates, mobile voice revenues rose 8.8% and fixed broadband revenues 3.6%, while fixed-line voice revenues declined 6.3%.

América Móvil said its revenues for 2010 totaled 607.9 billion Mexican pesos (50.44 billion US dollars), with wireless revenues increasing 13.2% buoyed by 40.4% data revenue growth, and fixed-line revenues staying roughly unchanged.

América Móvil finished December with 225 million wireless subscribers and 51.5 million fixed "revenue generating units." Both groups grew at a similar pace of around 12% year-on-year, the operator said.

In the U.S., the group's Tracfone unit reported a 62.4% increase in fourth quarter revenues to 789 million dollars, with minutes-of-use tripling to 300 minutes per subscriber. Tracfone's total revenues for 2010 climbed 67.3% to 2.8 billion dollars. Tracfone added 1.1 million subscribers in the fourth quarter and 3.3 million in the year to finish December with 17.7 million clients. source: América Móvil statement.

Emerging Markets Lift Vodafone

Vodafone Group, one of the world's largest mobile operators, said its service revenues grew 2.5% year-on-year on an organic basic to 10.96 billion British pounds (17.68 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending December 31. The growth was fuelled by a 27% increase in data revenue and a 9.3% rise in service revenues in developing countries. Vodafone said that service revenues grew 4.6% in its South Africa-based Vodacom subsidiary and 16.7% in its Indian unit

Vodafone said that group revenue would have grown 4.6% year-on-year, without downward changes in regulated mobile termination rates. The UK-based operator added that 17% of its customers in Europe (including Turkey) now have smartphones. source: Vodafone presentation

Bharti Boosted by Africa

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, said its revenues grew almost 53% year-on-year to 3.52 billion US dollars in the quarter ending December 31, boosted by its acqusition of most of Zain's African operations. Bharti said its revenues in India and South Asia rose 13.7% year-on-year, while its revenues in Africa climbed 8.7% quarter-on-quarter to 911 million dollars.

Bharti said it had almost 128,000 base stations in 19 countries serving 208 million customers at the end of 2010. Its capital expendture in the quarter ending December 31 was 964 million dollars compared with 421 million dollars in the same quarter of 2009 (before it acquired the African operations). source: Bharti statement

Competition Keeps DOCOMO Down

NTT DOCOMO, Japan's largest mobile operator, said that its operating revenues in the quarter ending December 31 were 1.071 trillion yen (13.07 billion US dollars), which amounts to a year-on-year decline of 2.3%.

The Toyko-based firm said: "As Japan's mobile phone market continues to mature in line with the cellular penetration rate, competition among operators is expected to remain intense in such areas as acquisition of subscribers and further improvement of service offerings.

"Under these market conditions, although an increase in the number of subscribers and an increase in packet communications revenues are expected, operating revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 are estimated to be 4.209 trillion yen, a decrease of 75.4 billion yen (1.8%) from the prior fiscal year, primarily due to a decrease in voice revenues and equipment sales." source: DOCOMO statement