Mobile news: snippets from the weekend press.

[mobaholic]

What do the weekend papers say this week 23.02.09?

The Financial Times

The Turkish telecom subsidiary, Avea, is set to overtake Vodafone in an increasingly cut-throat Turkish telecoms market.  Vodafone’s Turkish arm was among the network’s worst performing businesses in quarter four 2008.  Avea have gained 300,000 customers since November 2008, when number portability between networks became possible.

The Times

The mobile phone industry has agreed to design universal chargers to work for any handset.  Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG have all agreed to provide universal chargers, which use 50% less energy than current models.

The Telegraph

Luxembourg-based corporate telecoms group Colt Telecom is calling on shareholders for funds of £178 million (€201 million).  The group has debts of €262m, due at the end of 2009.

Source:-   Mobile Today.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 02.03.09

The Times

O2 has a strong quarter due to iPhone exclusivity.  The UK division became the group's star performer, enjoying a 10.6 per cent rise in annual sales, as O2's parent company, Telefónica Europe, reported a 5.9 per cent rise in full-year sales to €4.3 billion (£3.8 billion).

Carphone Warehouse may shed 10 per cent of its head office and support service staff in the UK.  About 450 jobs are at risk.  Cuts may be made from the extra call centre staff recruited two years ago to deal with barrage of customer complaints after free broadband was offered through Talk Talk.  Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, admitted last month that the demand for broadband was now ‘subdued’.

The Guardian

Mobile phone operator O2 has sold over a million iPhones in the UK and its exclusive deal to sell the Apple device has helped it buck the gloomy economic trend and report a 10% rise in revenues.

Financial Times

Motorola predict it will see upturn in beleaguered Mobile phone business by Q2.  Greg Brown, joint chief executive of the US handset said the upturn would be due to a reduced operating cost.

Source:-   here.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 09/03/2009.  Dataselect owner Peter Jones caught up in VAT crack down.

Daily Mail

Data Select owner Peter Jones has been caught up in a VAT clampdown by tax authorities after delays recouping VAT payments to Phones International.  The company owes the money after being caught up in HM Revenue & Customs’ crackdown on the mobile phone industry.  The delays relate from 2006 but there is no suggestion that the Dragons’ Den star was involved in any fraud.

Times

Carphone Warehouse launched attack on telecoms regulator Ofcom’s proposals to allow BT to raise the amount it charges broadband providers to rent capacity on its local network of copper wires.  If Ofcom allow the proposals to go ahead Carphone would have to put prices up by 11% next month and up 22% over the next three years.

Financial Times

Huawei says it will target $30bn deals this year.  It is confident it will expand in fixed and mobile to detriment of rival manufacturers Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent.

Canadian telecoms equipment maker Nortel hopes to complete its reorganisation plans and emerge from bankruptcy protection before mid-year. The UK arm of Nortel was forced into administration in January.

Source:-   Mobile Today.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers 16.03.2009

Guardian

BT has frozen pay of all its employees blaming the ‘tough economic climate’.

The pay freeze includes chief executive Ian Livingstone.  The company could be facing a potential multi-billion pound shortfall in its £33bn pension fund due to the recession.

Daily Mail

A Vodafone mobile broadband customer has run up a £22,000 bill for using the service abroad.

Vodafone has said that it will waive the full amount on the bill.

The communications regulator, Ofcom, confirmed that there are currently no rules forcing companies to alert their customers to the size of bills they are incurring.

Financial Times

Vodafone will sell 40 percent of shares in its joint venture with the Qatar foundation.  It will attempt to raise £665m for the shares which would then means the business would be worth £1.66bn

Vodafone Qatar will launch services in the Gulf state by June, therfoe it will break the monopoly of state-owned Qatar Telecommunications.

Source:-   MobileToday.

[A1ia5]

Daily Mail

A Vodafone mobile broadband customer has run up a £22,000 bill for using the service abroad.

Vodafone has said that it will waive the full amount on the bill.

The communications regulator, Ofcom, confirmed that there are currently no rules forcing companies to alert their customers to the size of bills they are incurring.

Bl00dy hell - thats some bill !

Maybe some shrewd cookie will produce a comparison site for overseas data services...

Getting a local sim and data service can put the UK companies to shame with their pittance of bandwidth/throughput with their excessive prices.  Even with three's latest current customer only deal of £5 for 1GB and a free dongoler stick (what's the point - just get a 6 month contract and the right phone - or a deck chair, a car battery and sit near McDonalds, and then it is even cheaper !)

Why is their no cheap gprs packages in the UK ?  For people who only want a little bandwidth, mobile companies could offer this significantly cheaper - but yes there would not be so much profit on this...

Or if it is still possible I can use my unlimited three minutes to do UMTS Circuit Switched Data (CSD) to my home server and then through the bridge and out to the 20 year + interweb (now) - (actually arpanet is a lot older - older than me in fact ! aahh the delights of gopher and unprotected telnet)

Tags : Irrelevance, Anger, Incoherence, Jollity

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 23.03.09

Vodafone freezes staff wages to cut costs further


Independent on Sunday

Vodafone has frozen the pay of 10,000 UK staff in an effort to cut costs.  The move comes barely one month after Vodafone announced it was cutting around 500 jobs in the UK, as part of plans to save £1 billion worldwide by March 2011.

According to the Independent on Sunday, Vodafone will also scrap bonuses and is ordering sales representatives to keep their company cars for longer.


Financial Times

Sony Ericsson has forecast heavy losses in the first quarter of 2009.  The manufacturer is expecting to record a pre-tax loss of €340m-€390m (£320m – £365m), excluding restructuring charges, for the first three months of the year.

Consumers are buying fewer mobiles in the downturn, and Sony Ericsson said it was expecting unit sales by all mobile makers to fall by at least 10% in 2009.


The Sunday Times

Best Buy will postpone entry into the UK and joint venture with Carphone Warehouse until next spring.

The US consumer electronics company has said market conditions are not right to enter UK and it will postpone until next spring.

The US electronics company made a deal to open 200 stores with Carphone.

Carphone has said it is committed to the joint venture, which will still go ahead albeit later than originally planned.

See:-   MobileToday

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 30.03.2009

Rumours resurface of Carphone Warehouse bid for Tiscali


The Telegraph

Carphone Warehouse is considering a last minute bid for Tiscali's UK broadband business after withdrawing from talks last year.

The retailer’s home broadband division Talk Talk is hoping to snap up Tiscali for a bargain price.  The Italian broadband provider is on the verge of administration and has a £558m debt.

Talks between BskyB and Tiscali collapsed recently.  BskyB has not ruled out re-entering negotiations.


Times

Vodafone Africa ambitions have been emphasised with the appointment of Sam Jonah, one of the biggest names in African business, as a non-executive director.

Sir John Bond, Vodafone’s chairman, said Mr Jonah would bring extensive experience of business in Africa, particularly South Africa and Ghana, where the group has recently made big investments.

See:-   MobileToday

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 06.04.09

Uproar as operators restrict use of new Skype application on 3G networks

Financial Times

Operators’ refusal to allow the use of Skype over 3G networks has sparked uproar across the globe.

The voice over internet service was added a week ago to the iPhone in the form of an application, allowing users to make free calls to other Skype users.

In the UK, O2 has restricted the use of the Skype application to calls made through the Wi-Fi connections.

AT&T in the United States has banned the use of the application on 3G networks.  Meanwhile T-Mobile Germany has completely banned the application.

According to the Financial Times, the Free Press, a net neutrality advocacy organisation, on Friday asked the US Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether AT&T was violating US guidelines by preventing the application from running on its 3G network.

The Voice on the Net coalition (Von), which includes Google, Microsoft and Intel, called on European regulators to ensure that consumers could access and run smartphone applications of their choosing on any public network.

The Sunday Times

A new pan-European radio spectrum band could be used to create new Europe-wide mobile phone services.

The 'S band' spectrum could mean partnerships between satellite companies and mobile operators to offer services like mobile TV, mobile radio, and mobile data.

European Commission has chosen to pool the S-band licences from all its member states, and award them in one block with 27 countries included.  Previously bands of spectrum were awarded on a country to country basis.

Mobile phone operators, have therefore had to spend years gathering licences for pan-European mobile phone coverage.

The S-band spectrum could also be used by a new entrant into the mobile phone market, for example, if Google wanted to build mobile broadband services across Europe.  Google has invested in a company building satellite broadband coverage in Africa and has been active in building Wimax mobile broadband networks in the US.

See:-   MobileToday.

[mobaholic]

Digital Britain talks with operators in jeopardy

Some operators may be reluctant to give up part of their capacity for Digital Britain

Guardian

Lord Stephen Carter’s plans to bring broadband to every British household could be in jeopardy amid competing and complex agendas.

Universal broadband was part of the Digital Britain report released in January, but progress is being threatened by disparate positions on access to radio spectrum.

According to the Guardian some operators are fighting to keep hold of their capacity, which could be used for mobile broadband.

Internet advisor to Lord Carter, Kip Meek is heading up the negotiations with operators to ring fence some of their capacity so that it can be opened up, transporting broadband to rural areas.

Sunday Times

BT to axe 10,000 jobs

BT is preparing to axe another 10,000 jobs. The huge redundancy programme will be announced next month alongside a horrendous set of year-end figures say the Sunday Times.

See:-   MobileToday.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 20.04.09

Moat poised to join T-Mobile as MD

Guardian

The Guardian has said that former Orange chief Richard Moat is poised to join T-Mobile as its new MD.

Mobile reported earlier this month that Moat was tipped to be in line for the job.  Moat, a Briton, would join from Orange Romania, where he has been CEO since September 2004, but has also had CEO roles for Orange in Thailand and Denmark.

Moat will replace Jim Hyde as MD of T-Mobile, who announced he would leave the company in January to go back to his home country of the United States.

T-Mobile would not confirm the news.

Financial Times

Vodafone could face trouble in its plans to advance into Africa by buying the continent’s biggest mobile company after a trade union sought a court order to block the purchase.

Vodafone plans to buy am additional 15% stake in Vodacom, a company it currently splits 50-50 with South Africa’s state control Telkom.

The Communication Workers Union said it would try to stop Telkom selling its shares to the UK group, claiming that it had not been properly consulted.

Source:-   MobileToday.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 27.04.2009

Carphone in talks with Tiscali again after price drop

Financial Times

Speculation has mounted that Carphone Warehouse has renewed talks with Tiscali to buy its beleagured UK arm after a significant price drop.

According to sources close to the process, Carphone and the Italian telecoms group, Tiscali are currently in negotiations.  It is understood the price of the broadband company has dropped significantly from £600m to £250m

The retailer pulled out of talks last year after it refused to meet the proposed price and its £550m offer was refused.  Tiscali’s talks with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) also caved earlier this year.

Guardian

O2 and Vodafone may keep 900MHz spectrum

The Government is considering allowing O2 and Vodafone to keep the 900MHz spectrum that they were granted in the 1980s, but could ban them from taking any of the spectrum that will become available when analogue TV is switched off in 2012.

Times

3’s CEO Kevin Russell positive amidst recession.

3 remains positive amist recession as strategy on data services is introduced.

Losses at the group, which hit £1.4 billion five years ago, were reduced this year to only £152 million.  The network now has 4.9 million customers — 8 per cent of the UK market

3’s strategy is to lure in customer with value for money deals such as Skype then encourage spend on other services.

Kevin Russell told the Guardian recently: ‘Mobile is a great product in a recession.  People might relinquish their gym membership or golf club pass,” he insisted, “but they will always cling on to their phone.’

See:-   MobileToday.

[mobaholic]

Speculation over T-Mobile and Orange tie-up

Weekend papers: 4.5.2009

Financial Times

A T-Mobile tie-up with Orange is likely, say analysts as Deutsch Telekom consider selling the UK arm of T-Mobile.

It is thought unlikely that the UK competition authorities would veto a move by Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, to buy T-Mobile UK.

Management of T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, is under pressure from shareholders to decide whether to sell its under-performing UK arm.

Times

Orange's plans to sell phones in HMV has raised concerns that customers will struggle to understand why both brands are in one place.

Instead of seeing the links between the two brands, some say that customers are more likely to wonder why an Orange salesman is trying to sell them phones in a music store.

Previous similar deals, have foundered. HMV and 3 announced an alliance two years ago, a partnership which was dispanded after failing to take off.

Meanwhile, Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, a telecoms research group, argued that the tie-up is a good tactical move by the pair and that Tom Alexander, the head of Orange, has experience of such partnerships having sold mobile phones through Virgin Megastores when he was running Virgin Mobile.

Times, Financial Times

Ericsson, the mobile phone network equipment supplier, saw its net profits fall by 35 per cent last week.

The Stockholm based company posted a net profit of SwKr1.8 billion (£150.7 million) down from SwKr2.6 billion - Its operating profit fell by an even greater margin of 49%.

Ericsson’s chief executive, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said that it remained difficult to ‘precisely predict how operators will act in the current environment’. But he remained upbeat, adding: ‘The effects of the global economic recession on the global mobile network market are so far limited.’

Ericsson is slashing 5,000 jobs this year because it expects further spending cuts.

See:-   MobileToday.

[mobaholic]

What the weekend papers say 11/05/2009

Sony Ericsson confident that smartphone strategy will propel it into top three

Financial Times

Sony Ericsson’s president was confident last week that the company would be in the top three manufactures by 2011, thanks to its smartphone strategy.

Sony Ericsson’s president, Hideki (Dick) Komiyama, said the company will compete by increasing its annual share of the total revenue - rather than volume of handsets sold - with new smartphones.

The strategy marks a change of heart for Komiyama who said in January 2008 that Sony Ericsson would raise share based on volume.

Komiyama said the failure of the company to develop a smartphone resulted in a repetitive string of mid-tier mobile phones with similar specs.

The manufacturer will release at least two smartphones by the end of this year, and a third early in 2010.

Komiyama added: ‘If we do not adapt to this new technology or new market environment, we’re going to lose.’


Times

RIM sponsors Bono

BlackBerry is sponsoring U2 in the latest bid to drive the brand into the consumer market.

The sponsorship will begin as the band kick starts its world tour later in 2009.  Figures from Gartner show that RIM increased BlackBerry’s share from 10.9% to 19.5% last year.

Meanwhile, boosting advertising and sales has knocked RIM’s margins below their traditional 50%.

RIM’s joint CEO, Jim Balsillie, said: ‘Our focus is to drive mass adoption of the BlackBerry - if it comes with some incremental margin compromise, this is a small price to pay.’


Times

France Telecom’s new CEO friend of Sarkozy

Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, will get a new chief executive – multi-millionaire and friend of President Sarkozy, Stéphane Richard.

It is understood that he will replace current CEO Didier Lombard, who it is thought will retire in 2011. Richard has been chief of staff to Christine Lagarde, the Economy Minister, since 2007.

Manuel Valls, a leading member of the opposition Socialist Party, denounced the appointment as a ‘confusion of roles between political power, civil servants and big public and private industry’.

See:-   here.

[mobaholic]

Weekend Papers: Vodafone to speed up cost-cutting

Vodafone is expected to announce an acceleration of £1bn cost-cutting measures alongside results tomorrow

Financial Times

Vodafone is expected to use its full-year results tomorrow to announce an acceleration in its £1bn cost cutting programme.

Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s chief executive since July, used his first strategy presentation in November 2008 to announce the cuts.

He outlined a plan to cut the company’s operating expenses by £1bn by March 2011, mostly at its European businesses. About £500m of savings were due by March 2010, and another £500m by March 2011.

Vodafone is also expected to say it will no longer give revenue guidance, after cutting sales forecasts twice during 2008-09, partly because the economic downturn hurt some of its core European mobile businesses.

Vodafone suffers set back on South Africa plans

Vodafone suffered a set back in its plans to gain a controlling stake in one of Africa’s biggest operators when a local regulator pulled its support of the deal.

South Africa’s telecoms watchdog reversed an earlier decision to wave through the UK mobile giant’s $2.5bn purchase of an additional 15% stake in Vodacom, its 50-50 joint venture with state-controlled Telkom, following a court action to block the deal by the country’s trade union federation.

Guardian

Carphone Warehouse kills commission

Carphone Warehouse will replace its ‘car salesman’ image by slashing individual commission payments for its staff with a new bonus payment system, as of July.

Mobile reported last week that the retailer would end a long heritage of individually rewarding its best sellers by cutting commission payments in favour of a store performance based bonus system.

Carphone’s UK chief executive, Andrew Harrison, said: ‘Customers think this industry has been more akin to estate agency or car salesmen. That is not what our business is built on.’

After a trial of the new system in London stores since October, Carphone has decided to extend the new system to its stores nationwide.

Carphone said fears that the non-commission trial in London would see an exodus of experienced staff to rival firms, were not realised.
The retailer said turnover of staff had gone down and basic wages were raised from £11,000 to £17,000 per annum.

See:-   this.

[mobaholic]

Weekend papers: Orange’s offer for T-mobile re-buffed

Weekend papers 1.6.2009


The Observer

Orange’s offer for T-mobile re-buffed.

Orange is understood to have made an offer for T-mobile’s UK business which was rejected by the operator’s parent company, Deutsch Telecom.

The Observer also alleged that Vodafone has suggested swapping its Turkish business for T-mobile UK – strengthening Deutsche Telecom’s eastern Mediterranean position, where it already runs Greek operator OTE.

Speculation that Deutsche Telecom planned to offload its ailing UK business began as the company valued its business at just £3.3bn.

The news comes as T-mobile gains new boss Richard Moat, who is expected to radically restructure the company in order to turn around the ailing business.


The Independent

Vodafone rewards beleaguered staff following salary freeze.

Vodafone is set to make a one-off bonus payment to staff after morale plummeted following the announcement that bonuses would be scrapped and salaries frozen.

Staff were sent an email last Thursday (28 May) that said they would be paid a bonus equating to 2% of their annual salary.

Vodafone’s chief executive, Guy Laurence, riled staff in March when he announced that salaries would be frozen and bonuses scrapped irrespective of performance.

Staff will receive payment of the bonus in June.


Guardian

Networks to debate spectrum with Lord Carter this week.

UK networks will meet Lord Carter tomorrow (2 June) to hammer out a plan on Digital Britain.

The meeting follows Kip Meek’s recommendation on 13 May that Vodafone and O2 need not give up their 900MHz spectrum but they would be banned from buying any of the 800MHz band, which will be available in 2010 when analogue TV is switched off, unless they relinquish some of their current spectrum.

Orange, T-Mobile and 3 have indicated unhappiness with the proposal that Vodafone and O2 needn’t give up any of the 900MHz spectrum.

See:-   MobileToday