Pay TV Props Up América Móvil

América Móvil reported a 6.9% increase in first quarter revenues to 195.4 billion pesos (14.97 billion US dollars) at constant exchange rates. In Brazil, revenue growth was 8.5%, with wireless revenues rising 5.7% and fixed revenues increasing 11%, fuelled by a 21% growth in pay TV revenues. In Mexico, mobile service revenues rose 4.1% to 67.8 billion pesos and fixed-line revenues rose 0.8%. "On both platforms, service revenues [in Mexico] exhibited their strongest performance in several quarters," the group reported.

América Móvil said it finished March with 342.9 million "accesses", 4.5% more than in the same period of 2013. This figure comprises 272.2 million wireless subscribers, 31.4 million landlines, 19.6 million broadband accesses and 19.7 million PayTV units. The group said its fixed line operations added 1.2 million revenue generating units (RGUs) in the quarter, of which 571,000 were Pay TV units and 492,000 broadband accesses.

The Mexico City-based group said: "Economic activity continued to improve marginally in much of the developed world during the first quarter of the year, whereas in many developing countries, particularly those more dependent on commodity prices—and in particular those with trade links to China—it decelerated somewhat. In Mexico the economy appears to be making a comeback, continuing with the improved trends that began to take form during the fourth quarter." source: América Móvil statement

Samsung Sees Mobile Sales Slip

Samsung Electronics reported a 1% fall in revenues in its IT and Mobile Communications division in the first quarter of 2014 to 32.44 trillion Korean won (31.48 billion US dollars). Samsung said: "The company maintained solid tablet sales momentum by shipping nearly 13 million units during the slowest quarter....For the next quarter, smartphone and tablet demand is expected to slightly increase under continued weak seasonality, but Samsung will maintain solid earnings momentum through full-fledged global sales of Galaxy S5. Based on its differentiated features, and initial response from the market, Samsung expects Galaxy S5 to surpass sales of Galaxy S4." source: Samsung statement

Revenue Decline Slows for Orange

Orange said its consolidated revenues fell 3.8% on a comparable basis in the first quarter of 2014 to 9.8 billion euros. The Paris-based operator said: "Excluding the impact of regulatory measures, the decrease was 3%, an improvement of 0.8 percentage points compared to the 4th quarter 2013 figure, which primarily related to France and the Enterprise segment."

In France, Orange's revenue decline slowed to 4.9% after falling 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2013, while in Spain, growth (+3.2%) was slightly higher than in the 4th quarter of 2013 (+2.7%), led by mobile handset sales on instalment payment plans and by fixed services.

In the first quarter, Orange's capital spending was 1.16 billion euros - 11.8% of revenues (+0.6% percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2013 on a comparable basis) as Orange upped spending on high speed fixed and mobile broadband. source: Orange statement

NTT DOCOMO Forecasts Turnaround

NTT DOCOMO said its operating revenues fell 0.2% in the year ending March 31 to 4.46 trillion Japanese yen (43.9 billion US dollars). However, it forecast that revenues will rise by 3% to 4.59 trillion yen in the year ending March 31, 2015.

Kaoru Kato, CEO, said: "We are getting back on track toward growth through measures aimed at medium-term growth, including improvements in customer satisfaction through new billing plan offerings, fully leveraging the impact of our introduction of the iPhone and new devices and services, enhancement of our network, and a transformation of our business portfolio."

Japan's largest mobile operator reported that its average revenue per user fell to 4,390 yen in the quarter ending March 31 from 4,670 yen in the same quarter last year. However, its so-called Smart ARPU rose to 500 yen from 460 yen. NTT DOCOMO defines Smart ARPU as revenues from sale of content, collection of charges, advertising, handset insurance and other sources.  The operator' said 7.69 million people now subscribe to content from its dMarket app store. source: DOCOMO presentation

AT&T Hits the Accelerator

AT&T forecast it will achieve consolidated revenue growth of at least 4% in 2014 following a 3.6% rise in revenues in the first quarter - its strongest revenue growth in two years. AT&T generated 32.5 billion dollars in revenues in the quarter and invested 5.8 billion in capex (the equivalent figures for Verizon were 30.8 billion and 4.2 billion).

The U.S. telco said that its wireless revenues rose 7% in the quarter thanks in part to a 50% rise in equipment revenue as AT&T phases out handset subsidies. source: AT&T presentation

LTE Drives Growth for Verizon

Verizon said its revenue rose 4.8% year-on-year in the first quarter to 30.8 billion US dollars (growth in the previous quarter was 3.4%). Wireless service revenues were up 7.5% year-on-year to 18 billion dollars, as Verizon activated a further 8.1 million LTE devices in the quarter. Consumer revenue in the wireline market was up 6.2% year-on-year to 3.8 billion dollars.

Fran Shammo, CFO, said: "Capital expenditures in the quarter totaled 4.2 billion dollars, up 548 million dollars with all the increase in wireless. With our 4G LTE coverage build complete, wireless spending is now focused on adding capacity and density to our existing coverage and utilizing our AWS spectrum to further optimize the network." source: Verizon presentation

Mobile Ads Give Facebook A Stellar Quarter

Facebook reported a 72% year-on-year increase in revenue for the first quarter to 2.5 billion US dollars. The social network said "mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 59% of advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2014, up from approximately 30% of advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2013." source: Facebook statement

iPhone and Services Lift Apple

Apple reported a 5% year-on-year increase in revenue in the first quarter of 2014 to 45.65 billion US dollars, lifted by a 14% increase in iPhone sales and a 11% rise in software and services revenue. Apple said it expects to generate revenue of between 36 billion and 38 billion in the current quarter. The midpoint would represent an increase of 5% year-on-year. source: Apple statement

North America Drags Down Ericsson

Ericsson said its sales fell 7% year-on-year on an organic basis in the first quarter to 47.5 billion Swedish krona (7.22 billion US dollars). The network equipment maker blamed "lower coverage project activity in North America and Japan."

Still, Ericsson said LTE sales were steady year-on-year and highlighted the several positive market trends:

• Improved network performance, a differentiator
• Increased industry interest in SDN and NFV
• Operators looking to optimize fixed and mobile IP networks for efficient video delivery

source: Ericsson presentation

Google Almosts Doubles Investment

Google reported a 19% increase in revenues year-on-year to 15.42 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2014. However, the cost per click it could charge advertisers fell 9% year-on-year. Google said its YouTube, Android/Play and Chrome businesses are "demonstrating high consumer success", but it is having to invest in its social, commerce, and enterprise businesses to drive adoption and innovation.

Google also reported that it invested 2.35 billion dollars in property, plant and equipment in the first quarter up from 1.2 billion dollars a year earlier. source: Google presentation

Intel Flirts with Flatlining

Intel said it expects to generate revenue of 13 billion US dollars in the second quarter "plus or minus 500 million dollars," compared with 12.8 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2013. It also reiterated its earlier guidance that revenues will be approximately flat in 2014.

In the first quarter of 2014, Intel's revenue was up 1% year-on-year at 12.8 billion dollars.  “In the first quarter we saw solid growth in the data center, signs of improvement in the PC business, and we shipped 5 million tablet processors, making strong progress on our goal of 40 million tablets for 2014,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Research firm IDC expects the industry to ship 260 million tablets in 2014.

“Additionally, we demonstrated our further commitment to grow in the enterprise with a strategic technology and business collaboration with Cloudera, we introduced our second-generation LTE platform with CAT6 and other advanced features, and we shipped our first Quark products for the Internet of Things,” added Krzanich.

Intel said its "Internet of Things Group" revenue was up 32% year-on-year to 482 million dollars, but revenue in the Mobile and Communications Group was down 61% year-on-year to 156 million dollars. source: Intel statement

China Sustains Huawei's Growth Rate

Huawei, a leading telecoms equipment maker, said its revenue rose 8.5% in 2013 to 239 billion Chinese yuan (39.46 billion US dollars). That is a slight improvement from the previous year when its revenue climbed 8%.

The Shenzhen-based company said: "In 2013, Huawei's carrier network business delivered a solid performance, achieving 166.5 billion yuan in sales revenue, up 4% year-on-year. The sales revenues of the enterprise and consumer businesses [mostly devices] increased tremendously in 2013, by 32.4% and 17.8% to 15.2 billion yuan and 57 billion yuan, respectively. Huawei earned 65% of its revenue from markets outside of China in 2013, and in the Chinese market, Huawei achieved 84 billion yuan in sales revenues, up 14.2% year-on-year." source: Huawei statement