Telefonica Leans on Latin America

Telefonica said its revenues grew 0.1% on an organic basis in 2011 to 62.84 billion euros. Its guidance at the start of the year had been for revenue growth of up to 2%.  A 7.6% decline in revenues in Spain was offset by a 5 5% rise in revenue in Latin America. Telefonica said that changes in mobile termination rates "across all regions" had wiped 842 million euros off its revenues.

In the fourth quarter, Telefonica' revenues in Spain fell 9.5% year-on-year, in the UK they were down 6.8% in pound sterling and in Ireland by 16.7%. In the UK, call volumes were down almost 16% year-on-year. Still, in the quarter, revenues rose 1.2% in Germany, 5.3% in Brazil and 12.9% in Argentina. The Madrid-based group said it expects revenue to grew at more than 1% in 2012 at current exchange rates and that its capex-to-sales ratio will be the same as 2011 at about 16%. source: Telefonica statement

Deutsche Telekom Tries Repositioning

Deutsche Telekom said that its organic revenue dropped 3.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 14.91 billion euros. Revenues fell 10% in Hungary, 7% in Greece and 6.1% in Germany, where fixed line revenue was down 7.8%.

The company said: "Continued intense competition in many markets, a difficult economic environment in several countries, and burdensome regulatory decisions had an ongoing negative influence on the business of telecommunications companies and, therefore, also on Deutsche Telekom's business."

T-Mobile USA's revenues fell 4.4% year-on-year to 4.41 billion US dollars, as rivals' launch of the iPhone 4S meant a net loss of 802,000 contract customers. As it seeks to reposition T-Mobile USA as "making amazing 4G services affordable", DT plans to spend 1.4 billion dollars in incremental capex to launch LTE services in the US in 2013. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom said that its LTE network now covers 14% of the population. source: Deutsche Telekom presentation

IP-Messaging Eats Into SMS

Consumers’ increasing use of IP-based social messaging services on their smartphones cost telecom operators 8.7 billion US dollars in lost SMS revenues in 2010, and 13.9 billion dollars in 2011, according to Ovum. The analyst firm expects the decline, representing nearly 6% of total messaging revenue in 2010 and 9% in 2011, to continue as the popularity of messaging apps continues to grow.  source: Ovum statement

France Telecom Grapples with Uncertainty

France Telecom-Orange said its revenues fell 1.7% year-on-year on a comparable basis to 11.43 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2011, dragged down by a 4.1% decline in both France and Poland. The unrest in Egypt and the civil war in Ivory Coast also hit the Paris-based group. However, in Spain, revenues were up 5% year-on-year to 1.01 billion euros in the fourth quarter.

France Telecom-Orange Chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard said. "Having acquired a foothold in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo this year, the group now serves more than 226 million customers around the world. We are conscious that the macro-economic and competitive context in 2012 remains uncertain." source: France Telecom-Orange statement 

Apple and ZTE Climb the Charts

source: Gartner statement

Data Moves Needle at América Móvil

América Móvil, which has operations across Latin America, said its revenues increased 8.6% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011 on a like-for-like basis to 182 billion Mexican pesos (14.2 billion US dollars). The company said, at constant exchange rates, mobile data revenues rose 27% and fixed broadband revenues climbed 15% and PayTV revenues were up 48%.

América Móvil said it finished December with 300 million connections, of which 242 million were wireless subscribers. Wireless connections were up 7.4% year-on-year. The group's U.S. unit, Tracfone, said its revenues rose 31% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to more than one billion US dollars. source: América Móvil statement

Vodafone Sees Slower Growth

Vodafone said its group service revenue grew 0.9% year-on-year on an organic basis in the quarter ending December 31 to 10.6 billion British pounds (16.8 billion US dollars). The equivalent figure for the previous quarter was 1.3%. The U.K.-based multinational said its service revenue would have grown 3.1% if it wasn't for mandated reductions in regulated mobile termination rates. India, where service revenues grew 20%, was the group's main growth engine.

Service revenue in Europe declined 1.7% to 7.4 billion pounds on an organic basis, while revenue in Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific climbed 7.6% to 3.2 billion pounds. Group voice revenue was down 4.7%, but messaging revenue climbed 4.3% and data revenue 21.8%. source: Vodafone presentation

Bharti Remains Bouyant

Bharti Airtel said its revenues in the quarter ending December 31 rose 17% year-on-year to 184.76 trillion Indian rupees (3.76 billion US dollars), lifted by a 17% increase in mobile customers. In India and south Asia, revenues from mobile services were up 11% to 101.76 trillion rupees, while revenues in Africa climbed 16% to 1.06 billion US dollars.

Bharti said it had almost 176 million GSM mobile customers on its network in India and south Asia at the end of 2011. During the quarter, blended ARPU was 187 rupees (3.7 dollars) per month as compared to 183 rupees per month in the previous quarter. The blended monthly usage per customer, during the quarter, was 419 minutes. Non voice revenue, which includes Bharti's Voice Mail Service, Call Management, Airtel Talkies and other value-added services, such as Hello Tunes, Music on Demand and Airtel Live, contributed  14.3% of the total  revenues.

Bharti said it had almost 51 million GSM mobile customers on its networks in Africa at the end of 2011. The ARPU for the quarter in Africa was 7.1 dollars per month. The blended monthly usage per customer, during the quarter was 125 minutes. Non voice revenue contributed 8% of the total revenues. source: Bharti statement

HTC Expects Tough Quarter

HTC, one of the world's leading smartphone makers, warned that its revenues in the first quarter of 2012  will be between 64 billion and 70 billion Taiwanese dollars (between 2.16 billion and 2.36 billion US dollars) -  a year-on-year fall of between 32.8% and 38.5%. It blamed the fall on a "product transition."

The Taiwan-based company said revenue in the fourth quarter was 101.42 billion Taiwanese dollars, down 2.5% year-on-year. Revenue for the whole of 2011 was up 67% year-on-year to 465.79 billion Taiwanese dollars. The company said: "Despite short-term difficulties, momentum will resume in the upcoming product cycle  driven by HTC’s brand strength, innovation, and design/engineering capabilities." source: HTC presentation

Android Tightens its Grip

source: Canalys statement

Qualcomm Sees Strong Sales Growth

Qualcomm, a leading supplier of chips for handsets, said its revenues rose 40% year-on-year to 4.68 billion US dollars in the quarter ending December 25. The San Diego-based firm said shipments of its "mobile station modem" chipsets climbed 32% year-on-year to 156 million units, fuelled by rising demand for smartphones.

“We are raising our revenue and earnings guidance as our broad licensing partnerships and extensive chipset roadmap, led by our integrated Snapdragon processors, position us well for strong growth in fiscal 2012," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.

Qualcomm said it spent 873 million US dollars on research and development in the quarter ending December 25 compared with 649 million dollars in the same quarter of 2010. It forecast that its revenues in the current quarter will be between 4.6 billion and 5 billion dollars, up between 19% and 29% year-on-year. source: Qualcomm statement