Latest Telecom News (1st Nov - 8th Nov)

1.  Infotel acquires stake in Extramarks Education.

RIL’s Infotel Broadband has acquired a 38.5% stake in Extramarks Education Pvt Ltd.

Infotel Broadband Services Ltd is a subsidiary of RIL. Extramarks deals with school education and digital learning. This investment will definitely help Extramarks in further developing services and wider market penetration.

2.  India’s internet users top 100 million in Sept.

A survey conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB, has found that the number of internet users in India has crossed 100 million (112 million), registering a growth of 11% against last year. This number is poised to reach 121 million in December 2011. With this India has become the third largest internet market in world

Findings

a.    Out of the 28 million active internet users in 30 cities, 89% use the internet for Email, followed by 71% for social networking sites.

b.    Of the 75% urban usage, 21% school children, 27% college students, 27% young men.

c.    Among India’s cities, Mumbai has the highest number of active internet users.

3.  Europe IT spending to drop – Gartner.

IT spending by companies in Western Europe will fall this year and grow only modestly in 2012 as their governments cut back on expenditure and investments due to Euro Zone crisis.

Gartner has forecasted that the enterprise spending on IT will fall 1.8% this year to 494.8 billion Euros and grow at 1.5% next year.

           Government’s IT spending will decline 4.8% in 2011 and 1.8% in 2012.

4.  Paymate and Nokia tie up for NFC.

Paymate has developed a unique and cutting edge NFC technology that enables to perform transactions by using a simple tap.

With the recent launch of Nokia’s NFC enabled phones, Paymate has partnered with Nokia to showcase NFCs capabilities to the Indian Market. NFC (Near Field Communication) uses radio frequencies to allow NFC enable phones to exchange information in real time with a simple tap of the phone against an NFC touch point.

5.  Airtel to disconnect mobiles lying inactive for 60 days.

Bharti Airtel has announced that it will start disconnecting subscribers who are idle for 60 days. This move comes in response to the DOT’s order for tightening the allocation criteria. And also Airtel has been facing a shortage of numbers.

These disconnected numbers will now be available for new users.

About 12% of Airtel’s 180 million subscribers have been found inactive. This is lower than the industry average of 30%

Implications

a.    Users with life time valid prepaid cards will be affected the most as now they have recharge their mobiles every two months instead of 6 months.

b.    Users with multiple SIMs may also be affected.

Users using a SIM card for giving it to a close friend who visit them from other companies.

6.  Top 4 IT companies on a hiring spree.

Cognizant Solutions juggernaut continues as the number of employees added at the end of the second quarter touching 12000.

This addition was partly aided with the acquisition of Core Logic with 4000 employees. But still Cognizant on its own was able to add 8000 employees which are just 262 short of what Infosys added.

           India’s leading IT firm, TCS added around 12580 employees. These figures show that
           business demand is still strong. Unlike the crisis in 2008 where the entire systems
           collapsed, the current crisis in Europe has not risen to such alarming magnitudes. The
           slow uptick in the US as evidenced by a drop in jobless claims and this has given  
           confidence to the IT companies to go ahead on a hiring spree.

       

   7.    DOT slaps penalty on Airtel and Tata Communications. 

DOT has slapped a hefty fine of Rs.50 Crores on Airtel and Tata Communications for allegedly violating international long distance telephony licence conditions.

This notice was issued on Friday and the operators are given 15 days to pay up.

Events

a)    In 2007, both the above operators entered into separate agreements with SingTel (Singapore based Telecom Company) for offering long distance communication services.

b)    International long distance operators are allowed to sell leased line to other companies, in this case SingTel used the leased lines from Airtel and Tata Communications to further resell bandwidth to its enterprise customers in India.

            c) Now DOT alleges that SingTel billed and collected revenues from India without  
                licence. DOT has imposed the fine on the two operators for failing to detect the
                misuse by SingTel.

8.       Brazil Telecom Investments To Reach New Heights

   

              New investments in Brazilian telecommunications industries are set to reach 70 billion Brazilian Real ($41.42 billion) over the next five years on growth in the mobile phone, cable and digital TV sectors, and because of planned infrastructure work for Brazil's hosting of major sporting events.

9.   Iphone To Be Launched In HK, South Korea By Nov ‘11 End

Apple said that it will be launching iphone in Hongkong and South Korea by the end of November ’11, thereby giving them an opportunity to preorder the device. Apple will be coming up with the latest version of iphone. It will definitely add to the sales of iphone after its success in other developing and developed countries.

10.   OnMobile Q2 net doubles on non-operating income

OnMobile Global Ltd. said its second-quarter net profit more than doubled, helped by a boost in other income even as costs rose faster than revenue and tax expenses surged. The Bangalore-based company, which provides value-added services such as caller tunes and music downloads to mobile phone companies, said net profit is increasing as we are walking towards more application based service.

11.   China Mobile lures 5 million new iPhone users with Wi-Fi, rebates

China Mobile has yet to convince Apple to partner on an iPhone that supports its proprietary TD-SCDMA 3G network, but that hasn’t stopped the carrier from attracting customers to the device. In fact, China Mobile added 5 million new iPhone users in just four months, and it now serves a total of 9.5 million iPhone users, Bloomberg said. Each of those customers can use text, voice and 2G data, and all of the iPhone models it sells are unsubsidized. That may sound like a turnoff, but China Mobile has increased its iPhone user base by building out a nationwide Wi-Fi network to make up for its 3G shortcomings, and the carrier is also offering rebates worth as much as $440. The carrier plans to add an additional 1 million hotspots throughout China during the next three years, too. China Unicom has been an exclusive iPhone partner in China since 2005 and while it has less 3G subscribers than China Mobile, it is able to offer a 3G-capable iPhone because it operates a WCDMA 3G network.

12.         Apple positioned for smartphone fightback

Apple is well placed to retake the crown of top global smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter due to extending its range into lower price points, a Juniper Research analyst predicts. The data firm notes that South Korean vendor Samsung topped the pile during the third quarter, shipping 22% of 115 million global smartphones sold compared to 15% for Apple. Junipers points out that Samsung benefitted from continued strong sales of its flagship Galaxy S II model, and believes its future portfolio will shake up the smartphone market with new designs and form factors. However, research analyst Daniel Ashdown tips Apple to recover in the fourth quarter as sales of its iPhone 4S accelerate. “While the 4S is essentially an iPhone 4 with hardware upgrades, Siri is going to be a killer app for Apple,” he states, adding that Apple’s decision to push previous iPhone models down the value chain “positions the company’s handsets at a range of price points, without losing their premium image.”

13.   Returned Android phones costing operators $2bn a year

Customers returning malfunctioning Android phones for repair or replacement are costing operators as much as $2 billion per year, claimed mobile device management firm WDS. By analysing 600,000 technical support calls it handled over the last 12 months, WDS found that 14% of calls concerning Android-powered devices related to various faults in the device has started to hurt operators.

14.   Ambani brothers in telecom talks

India's Ambani brothers--once caught in a bitter feud over their massive family empire--may now be ready to work together again, with Mukesh's Reliance Industries Ltd. in talks to lease telecom infrastructure from Anil's Reliance Communications Ltd. for its new wireless broadband business.

15.   DoCoMo targets 30m LTE subs by 2015

                Japan's NTT DoCoMo has laid out is expansion plans for the next few years, including reaching 30 million LTE subscribers by 2015.  The company's medium-term plan, released today, also details ambitions to nearly quadruple its total smartphone customer base to 40 million by fiscal 2015. This compares to an estimated 1.3 million subscribers to its Xi LTE network - and 10.2 million total smartphone customers - for FY11. DoCoMo to increase total packet revenues by 1.5 times over the period, but this is dwarfed by an expected 12-fold increase in wireless traffic growth. To accommodate for the deluge, the company aims to increase its use of femtocells and Wi-Fi, and more than triple the amount of hotspots for the Mzone public wireless LAN service. DoCoMo hopes to achieve around 60% population coverage for the Xi network in FY12, 80% in FY13 and 98% in FY14

16.   ZTE tops global CDMA base station market

ZTE Corporation,  a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, said that it has become the global leader in the CDMA base station market, with a 32.6 per cent share in first half 2011. The CDMA market global has grown in recent years, especially in Asia Pacific, where it has expanded rapidly. This, coupled with a loss in market share by several established North American CDMA suppliers, prompted ZTE to seek new opportunities in CDMA markets across the globe. Through these efforts, the company has acquired leading market share in several emerging nations such as, China, Indonesia and India. It also has achieved significant breakthroughs in North America.

17.   DragonWave to acquire Nokia Siemens' microwave transport business

   Telecommunications equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks said that
   Canada's DragonWave Inc. is buying its microwave data transmission business for
   EUR10 million in cash and EUR5 million in shares. DragonWave, a wireless
   equipment maker, would also become a preferred supplier and will jointly develop
   future technology with NSN, it said.

18.   France Telecom buys 34% stake in Skyrock's Web ops

Orange, a unit of French telecommunications giant France Telecom, said it has acquired a 34.15% stake in Cascadia, a company that holds the web operations of French radio station Skyrock, for EUR14 million. This acquisition is another illustration of the role Orange intends to play on the web.

19.    Apple loses to Spanish minnow; Samsung takes smartphone lead

Apple had its wings clipped in one of a series of patent lawsuits this week, with a small Spanish computer manufacturer overturning a ban on its Android tablet PCs, and Samsung shipping more smartphones than the US vendor in the third quarter. In what is being billed as a David versus Goliath battle, Spanish computer maker Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá (nt-k) won court backing to re-start sales of an Android-based tablet PC in the country, over a year after Apple successfully had shipments stopped. The Spanish firm is incensed Apple also pursued a criminal case against it, and says it will now seek compensation for lost earnings and damage to its reputation. More worrying for Apple is that the Spanish court’s decision casts doubt on its main argument in a similar patent battle with Samsung that has already resulted in the South Korean firm’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 being banned in Germany. Despite the pressure on its tablets, Samsung topped the 3Q smartphone shipments chart with 27.8 million units sent out the door compared to 17.1 million for Apple, and Nokia’s 16.4 million.

20.    Alca-Lu slashes costs, trims guidance

Alcatel-Lucent chief Ben Verwaayen promises radical action to cut costs by €500 million ($689 million), as he lowered fourth quarter predictions on the back of what he called an unsatisfactory 3Q11. The equipment vendor’s earnings are heading in the right direction - net profit hit €194 million in 3Q11 compared to €25 million in 3Q10 - however revenue fell 6.8% year-on-year to €3.7 billion as sales in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe faded, and the cost of sales hit €2.4 billion.

21.    Barnes & Noble unveils Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble Inc. unveiled the Nook Tablet, a device the bookseller will begin to sell in its stores next week as it targets core readers and takes aim at other hot tablets on the market. With the launch of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble is aiming to court customers during the key holiday season, competing in a space that includes Amazon.com Inc.'s recently announced Kindle Fire and Apple Inc.'s iPad. Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet will retail at $249, with other features including a free cloud service, nine hours of video battery life and access to the Nook newsstand and comics. Amazon's WiFi-enabled Kindle Fire retails for $199, while iPads have a starting price of $499. Weighing less than a pound, the Nook Tablet is physically similar to the company's Nook Color, and includes 16GB of storage and the capability to expand memory using a microSD card. It offers up to 11.5 hours of reading, uses the Android operating system, has Wi-Fi capability and a built-in microphone to read and record stories. Pre-loaded apps include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora and Sudoku.