Apple Takes Even Larger Slice of Smartphone Profits

Source: Investment bank Canaccord Genuity via Statista

Ericsson Calls Trends in Connectivity

Ericsson Anticipates Modest Market Growth

Ericsson forecast that the bulk of its addressable market will grow by between 2% and 4% per annum between now and 2018. Within that market, telecoms operators' spending on networks and equipment will grow between 1% and 3% per annum, while their spending on related services and support solutions will rise faster, Ericsson added. It claims to be the market leader in mobile networks and global services. source: Ericsson presentations

Vodafone Predicts Further Performance Improvement

Vodafone Group reported a 2.3% organic year-on-year increase in revenue in the quarter ending September 30th with service revenue up 1.2%. The UK-based group also signalled that it will cut back capital spending in the fiscal year beginning April 2016 after its Project Spring investment programme is completed.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said: "Service revenue in Europe declined 1.3% in H1, reflecting continued competitive pressures in a number of markets. However, revenue trends continue to improve, with Q2 service revenue down 1.0%* (Q1: -1.5%), the fifth consecutive quarter of easing rates of decline... and Southern Europe in particular showed a strong rate of recovery"

Vodafone said the overall performance of the group in the first half of the current financial year has been in line with its expectations, and it expects revenue and profitability trends to improve in the second half. source: Vodafone presentation

Telefónica's Growth Accelerates

Telefónica reported a 4.8% organic year-on-year rise in revenues to 11.92 billion euros for the third quarter of 2015. It attributed the performance to recovery in Spain, strong growth in Hispanic America, rising data revenues and higher sales of digital services. For example, Telefónica said that "video revenue", driven by strong demand for pay TV, climbed almost 26% year-on-year to 652 million euros in the quarter.

César Alierta, Executive Chairman, said: “This acceleration in commercial activity was underpinned by the intense network modernisation effort implemented in recent years. Thus, Telefónica España continued to accelerate the FTTH rollout, with 13.4 million premises passed up to September. Meanwhile, Telefónica Brasil expanded its FTTx network to 16.6 million premises, and Telefónica Deutschland's LTE coverage reached 73% of the population. These are some examples of the network transformation, which is allowing us to increase our differentiation, strengthen our leadership in key markets and respond to increasing demand for data consumption. To this end, we have invested 7,101 million euros in the first nine months of the year." source: Telefónica presentation

North America Fuels Facebook Growth

Facebook reported a 41% year-on-year increase in revenue for the third quarter to 4.5 billion US dollars. That compares with revenue growth of 58% across the whole of 2014. In the third quarter, revenue growth was particularly strong in North America, which still accounts for half of Facebook's total revenues, at 49%. source: Facebook statement

New Services Bolster Growth for KDDI

KDDI, Japan's second largest telco, reported a 6% year-on-year rise in revenues for the six months to September 30th to 2.15 trillion yen (17.7 billion US dollars). Revenue in the personal services segment, which provides mobile and fixed-line communications services to individual customers, rose 7.2%, while revenue from "value services" climbed almost 12%. These value services include au Smart Pass, a content subscription service, and au Wallet, a prepaid digital money service that earns KDDI commission. source: KDDI statement

New US Customers Lift Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom reported a 2.2% year-on-year rise in revenue on an organic basis to 17.1 billion euros in the third quarter. Total revenue in Germany increased by 0.1% year-on-year to 5.6 billion euros in quarter, while total revenue in the US increased by 6.7% to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars, fuelled by an influx of 2.3 million customers in the quarter to take the total number to 61.2 million.

The German group said: "T-Mobile US continues to engage very successfully in new initiatives of the Uncarrier strategy while at the same time rapidly building out the network. The company achieved its annual target of population coverage of 300 million people with LTE technology in the third quarter, months earlier than planned." source: Deutsche Telekom statement

Television Buoys BT

BT, the UK-based telecoms group, reported flat revenue in the quarter ending September 30th at 4.5 billion UK pounds (6.9 billion US dollars).  A 5% fall in revenue in the Global Services division was offset by a 7% rise in consumer revenue, fuelled by strong demand for BT TV. source: BT statement