The week that began with the announcement from Broadcom for its acquisition of Netlogic Microsystems for $3.7 billion, saw another big announcement in the same week – that of BlackBerry’s Q2 revenue dipping by 10 percent.
Blackberry – the data-intensive smartphone from RIM was once the leader in the smartphone market, but in recent times, intense competition has seen erosion in its profits, quarter after quarter, across the world. RIM reported revenues of $4.2 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2012, down 10 percent from $4.6 billion in the same quarter of last year. However, according to company reports, Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ending November 26, 2011 is expected to be in the range of $5.3-$5.6 billion, while Blackberry shipments are set to increase to 13.5-14.5 million handsets, from the current 10.6 million.
Twitter also announced that it had touched the 100 million user mark, marking an 82 percent increase from the beginning of 2011, with plans to add 26 million new users by the year-end. This in contrast with Twitter’s closest competitor, Facebook, which boasts of approximately 750 million users worldwide. On the occasion, Twitter also announced a new ad-model which would see an expansion of promoted tweets.
The UK government this week also announced a $2.7 billion smart meter deployment across the country, while Huawei has partnered with Telenor to roll-out managed services in 10 countries.
In India, while deliberations on the 2G spectrum loss to the exchequer are still on, the government has decided to set up a new body called the Spectrum Management Commission to evaluate roll-out and distribution of spectrum among players with market-based pricing and perhaps auctions for the same. This will be an independent body and answerable to regulator TRAI only in exceptional cases.
In other important news in India, Qualcomm stands the risk of not getting a chance to roll out BWA in the country, after the DoT claimed that the US chipmaker’s bid was invalid, as it was 6 months late in applying for the license, which was supposed to be acquired three months after the auction concluded. Qualcomm was the sole technology firm to win a BWA licenses in the June 2010 auction and paid Rs 4,913 crore to rollout services. This is significant because Qualcomm was the main player pushing for TD LTE in India, at a time when it was equivocally reiterated that WiMax would be better for the country than LTE, due to lack of a common global standard for the latter. While discussions are still on regarding the choice between TD-LTE or WiMax rollout in the country, with RIL also now pushing for LTE in the country and TRAI coming out with a 4G paper for BWA rollout, Qulacomm’s expulsion from the race comes as a big shock. The company had planned to roll out LTE in India by Q1 2012, after tying up with a suitable partner and then exit the venture.
Promising an end to pesky calls by September 27, TRAI also announced that following Do Not Call Registry implementation, mobile subscribers in India would be able to send a limited 100 SMSes per day, to avoid unwanted telemarketing messages. However, neither mobile users or operators – the latter which feel that the new VAS rules will hurt their ARPUs are content with this new ruling.
Other hot news in India this week included Reliance Communications – India’s fifth largest telco according to revenues firing 10 percent of its 7000 staff, just two months after expanding its wireless and enterprise team. Vodafone also paid the Rs 3,900 crore tax, albeit under protest, to the India government, due for the rollout of services in India following its partnership with Essar.
India’s Eros film major also signed a 50-film deal with Korea Telecom, which will enable licensing of the movies across various platforms like IPTV, mobile and internet. The week also saw Chinese equipment vendor ZTE foray into the smart grid solutions market in India, while Korean vendor Samsung announced a $70 million investment to expand its Noida cellphone facility. And, at a time when leading private operators have hiked prepaid voice and data tariffs by 20 percent, greenfield operator Uninor announced its 0.5 paise per second STD offering, across the country.
Meanwhile, in Africa, Airtel continues its expansion drive, announcing an investment of $100 million in Rwanda towards network expansion that includes 3G. The telecom giant also said that it expects a $5 billion return on its investment in its Africa businesses by May 2013.
In Brazil, Spanish telecom major, Telefonica announced its plans to consolidate its entire product portfolio under the Vivo mobile brand by the end of March 2012. This is part of its plans to merge its mobile and fixed line businesses, alike many telcos in Brazil, following recent regulatory changes in the country.
In China, while China Mobile has inked a deal with Clearwire to launch TD-LTE devices, China Telecom has announced the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 in October and has already begun pre-orders for the same, with an elaborate $235 million marketing campaign. This announcement comes after the CEO of France Telecom had earlier announced that the Apple iPhone was due to be released by October 15.
And finally, some good news for LTE. In the Middle East, Mobily, STC and Zain have all launched 4G TD-LTE in a week’s time in Saudi Arabia – the first time for the region. While NSN helped STC in its LTE rollout, Mobily – which became the first to launch LTE in the MENA region awarded contracts to Huawei and Samsung for its LTE rollout, while Zain has partnered with Motorola for the roll out.
By Beryl M
editor@telecomlead.com
