mobile operators

Femtocell shipment forecasts cut by 55% for 2009

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:51:18 -0500

Despite 2009 being positioned as ‘the year' when operators would start to deploy femtocells in their millions, a leading market research firm has dramatically reduced the expected number that it now believes will ship this year.

ABI Research had previously forecast that 790,000 femtocells would ship in 2009, but has now cut this number by over 50 per cent to about 350,000. The company blames this huge shortfall on mobile operators being slower to adopt the technology than anticipated.

ABI's Aditya Kaul said, "Even femtocell vendors are a bit surprised that the operators haven't pushed femtocells as much or as soon as expected. We expect that deployments in 2010 will pick up but will be slower than expected--our data suggests about a 40 per cent reduction on previous estimates."

Kaul also speculates that the slower uptake of femtocells has been due to ongoing doubts about the value proposition, the poor economic conditions and fears in some quarters that a rapid increase in femtocell numbers would cause interference in the macro network.

"Next year will be critical: if conditions don't improve by the end of 2010, some smaller vendors may find themselves in trouble," Kaul added.

While all the major US operators along with Vodafone in Europe offer femtocells, the US offerings have been criticised for being highly priced, and Vodafone's Access Gateway device has sunk into near total obscurity.

For more on this story:
Daily Tech

Smartphone revolution tests established players

Keith Mallinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:13:43 -0400

With smartphones set to account for most handset sales by 2013--in terms of value if not also in terms of volumes worldwide--these devices, their operating systems and mobile Internet service delivery environments are crucial competitive elements for manufacturers and mobile operators alike. Several new entrants, rapid market growth and the precipitous share decline for leader Nokia underline that this is still an emerging marketplace. The pecking order is being reestablished with major upsets for various leading names.

Nothing could be more disruptive than Apple's iPhone and its App Store offering 85,000 applications and 2 billion downloads to date. This is an enormous success for Apple, a mixed blessing for its mobile operator partners with the business model Apple imposes and it is a major threat for many others. As Apple takes the lion's share of ecosystem value and dis-intermediates operators from applications sales with its own user experience and billing platform, partner and competing operators alike are looking for alternatives.

And Apple is just getting into its stride. It has plenty of scope to expand distribution with competing operators when exclusive deals expire. It supplies to just 80 nations so far. Corporate purchasing is only beginning to introduce iPhone, as is higher education. Apple claims more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies are evaluating iPhone for widespread deployment.

The smartphone market segment has been splintered. Nokia smartphones and its Symbian operating system have taken double digit market share losses over the last year or two, albeit with significant market growth. Once ruling supreme with shares of 50 percent in smartphones and 60 percent in smartphone OS, market entry of iPhone and Google's Android, together with stellar growth for BlackBerry and modest progress for Microsoft have harmed Nokia irrevocably. Further declines are inevitable as emerging competitors strengthen.

What's particularly scary for Nokia is that Apple's relatively small iPhone volumes are generating sales in the third quarter of 2009 of $4.5 billion compared to Euro 6.9 billion ($9.7 billion) for all Nokia's handset sales. Gross profits for iPhone are getting close to Nokia's Euro 2.1 billion ($3 billion). Although Nokia shipped 110 million devices in the quarter, the average price of these was just Euro 62 ($87). In comparison, iPhones yield an average of $610 apiece at the wholesale prices paid by operators...Continued

German Digital Dividend auction faces threat of EU legal action

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:02:08 -0400

Regardless of rumblings from the European Commission, the advisory board of Germany's network regulator, the Federal Network Agency (FNA), has given the green-light to auction a spectrum package of 360MHz, including spectrum in the ‘digital dividend' range of 800MHz.

This move has promoted the EU to register its ‘deep concern' about the FNA's decision to ignore the commission's advice on how to ensure fair competition in allocating digital frequency in Germany. A spokesman said that, if the commission finds EU laws were not respected by the German plan it "would not shy away from enforcing the EU's competition and single market rules in this important context."

According to the EU, the FNA plans to auction licences for frequencies to supply mobile internet access to rural areas, in accordance with the broadband initiative by the federal government, sometime in Q2/2010. This has provoked complaints from the smaller operators in Germany--E-Plus and O2--claiming that the auction would benefit the much larger incumbent mobile operators, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

The FNA apparently plans to award only three 20MHz blocks of frequencies in the 800MHz, meaning one operator will be excluded. While this has aggrieved the smaller operators, T-Mobile and Vodafone have welcomed the move, with the latter adding that "we now hope that the auction will be actively pursued at the beginning of next year."

For more on this story:
Total Telecom and Telegeography

UK operators in talks over smart metering bid

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:31:56 -0400

As part of the UK government's effort to reduce carbon emissions, its £1 billion smart metering programme has provoked mobile operators to open discussions with the major energy suppliers in the UK.

Trials using smart metering are already underway within 17,000 UK homes, and the energy giant EDF has confirmed that it has been talking to a number of operators over its plans for smart meters. An EDF spokesman said: ‘We have used mobile communications as part of these trials with reasonable success,' and expected that ‘one or two mobile communications technologies will be prominent' in the smart meter programme.

The mandatory programme will see smart meters fitted in every household and business across England and Wales from 2016, with the aim of cutting emissions. The meters will allow consumers to monitor the rate and cost of their energy output via their handsets.

While operators see smart metering as a potentially new revenue stream, their interest will be heightened by the chance of gaining a firmer footing in UK households. The possibility also exists for the smart meters to be integrated into femtocells.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

Mobile broadband - much promised, little delivered

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:29:11 -0400

Mobile broadband providers in the UK are advertising high download rates but delivering less than a quarter of the speed, according to new study based on over 3,300 mobile broadband speed tests conducted between March and August 2009.

The survey, conducted by the comparison site Broadband Expert, claimed that mobile operators are delivering just 24 per cent of the advertised download rate, with the average actual download speed just barely managing to creep above 1Mbps.

The results from the study were:

Vodafone (advertised: 7.2Mbps) - result: 1.3Mbps
Three (3) (advertised: 3.6Mbps) - result: 1.2Mbps
Orange (advertised: 3.6Mbps) - result: 1.1Mbps
O2 (advertised: 3.6Mbps) - result: 1.0Mbps
T-Mobile (advertised: 4.5Mbps) - result: 0.9Mbps

According to Rob Webber, Broadband Expert's commercial director, consumers who see mobile broadband advertised at such high speeds may see it as a realistic alternative to home broadband, "whereas in truth it should be seen as a complementary technology. Continued developments in the mobile broadband industry will undoubtedly allow it to become a true competitor in the future, but at the moment - as our research shows - there is still a way to go."

These disappointing results come after the five UK mobile operators published ‘Principles of Good Practice for marketing mobile broadband' in June of this year. However, 3UK attempted to defend its lack of performance by maintaining that consumers should consider not just speed, but breadth and reliability of coverage, but also admitted that there was a lot to be done to ensure the industry delivered to customer expectations.

Meanwhile Vodafone claimed that customers were looking for reliability and consistency from mobile broadband, and pointed potential mobile broadband users to its web site to see an example of downloading an image or document at 1.2Mbps.

For more on this story:
ISP Review

European operator margins continue to slide, but worst is over, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:42:00 -0400

The European downturn in consumer spending continued to impact mobile operator margins in Q2/09, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. The market research firm claimed that operator EBITDA fell by three per cent in Q2/09, which provided a spark of optimism given that a five per cent decline was registered in Q1/09.

"Over half of the European mobile operators saw EBITDA fall in Q2," said Phil Kendall, director of wireless network strategies. "However, this region is starting to reap the benefit of cost-cutting measures introduced to cope with lower customer spend during the recession."

While European operators struggle to improve their profits, service providers outside of this region recorded a four per cent growth in EBITDA in Q2/09, which Strategy Analytics believes might signal that the worst of the recession is over.

The firm, which tracks over 180 mobile operators worldwide, summarised its findings by stating that:-

EBITDA grew in all regions outside Europe and registered a two per cent annual increase globally.
Service revenues also registered two per cent annual growth, but were down significantly from the six per cent growth seen in Q2/08.
Gross subscriber additions were up 11 per cent - attributed more to rising churn than rising subscriber growth.

Also of interest was the dramatic fall in operator Capex of 13 per cent in Q2/09, which Strategy Analytics maintained was caused by operators cutting back during this period of economic uncertainty.

This drop in Q2/09 Capex, while lower than that reported in Q2/08, might come under further pressure given the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, and heightened speculation that operator consolidation is increasingly likely in the US.

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Cellular News

Industry and EU partner on emergency service

Ian Channing — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:11:10 -0400

The GSM Association has joined forces with the European Union to push the deployment of a Europe-wide in-vehicle emergency service known as eCall.

European Information Commissioner Viviane Reding and GSMA CEO Rob Conway have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will encourage cooperation between vehicle manufacturers, mobile operators and the EU as well as interested parties such as insurance companies.

eCall is an emergency call generated either manually by vehicle occupants or automatically via in-vehicle sensors in an emergency situation. When activated, the eCall system establishes a voice connection with emergency services. The service sends data including time, location, direction of travel and vehicle identification, to speed response times by the emergency services. The European Commission believes that eCall, which will be a free service, could potentially save up to 2,500 lives every year.

For more on this story go to Mobile News

Mobile operators to gain little from the unified comms revolution

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:26:22 -0400

The market for Unified Communications (UC) is expected to grow significantly in the next five years. Even in the midst of the economic downturn, the market research firm Ovum estimates over 16 million enterprise-owned mobile devices will be connected to UC platforms by 2014. Fixed telecoms operators, IT services providers, UC technology vendors and specialists are all jostling to take a share. In the midst of this, Ovum has identified a significant opportunity for mobile network operators (MNOs) to influence and profit from UC.

While many operators were aware of the opportunity UC provided, Ovum claims most were holding back from launching services in a market which is poised for dramatic growth. Based on feedback from enterprises large and small, Ovum has identified a gap in service provision which should be filled by mobile operators. Article

Femtocells: Vendor adopts 'direct to consumer' sales strategy

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:07:37 -0400

In an unusual switch, the Edinburgh-based femtocell developer, HSL, has adopted a sales strategy that involves cutting out the mobile operator and selling the micro base station direct to the consumer.

This move, seen by some as high-risk, comes after Vodafone's launch of its own femtocell product was received by subscribers with huge disinterest. Also, given the marketing power of Vodafone, HSL is strangely not attempting to undercut on price--its product, with a rather consumer-friendly branding of HSL 2.75G, is priced very similar to Vodafone's Home Gateway device at around €180.

However, the company claims that its femtocell can work with any network operator, or even multiple network operators, over a user's own broadband connection. But, to do this, HSL needs radio spectrum in which to operate, and integration into the network-operator's back end infrastructure--neither of which is trivial.

HSL believes it can overcome these hurdles by persuading possible consumers to register their interest on the company's web site. Using this, HSL plans to convince mobile operators to route calls through their network--why they should provide this service is not detailed by HSL.

However, MD and technical director of HSL, Mark Hay, said that the installation and use of the network would not cost operators very much and would allow them to manage their service better so that customers receive the best coverage that is possible given their locations.

The company has confirmed that it is pursuing agreements with operators in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania with regard to its femtocell product.

For more on this story:
The Register and The Telecom

Twelve operators commit to LTE deployment in 2010

Ian Channing — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:23:29 -0400

At least twelve mobile operators are planning to launch LTE (Long Term Evolution) services during 2010, according to a new study from ABI Research. By 2011 the number of LTE users worldwide could be close to 34 million.

The key to early LTE launch is spectrum availability, says ABI, with regulators in the US, Sweden and China leading the way in opening up appropriate spectrum.

In the absence of such helpful regulators operators are being forced to postpone their plans for LTE deployment. Amongst the first to launch will be Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS Wireless, and U.S. Cellular in the USA, NTT-DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan and TeliaSonera, Tele2 and Telenor in Europe. Korean operators KT and SK Telecom are also expected to launch but have yet to make a formal announcement. China Mobile plans to launch in 2011.

There have also been early announcements regarding LTE infrastructure suppliers with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Starent picking up major contracts from Verizon Wireless. NTT DoCoMo is also using Ericsson together with local vendors NEC and Fujitsu while TeliaSonera has chosen Ericsson and Huawei. The Chinese vendor is looking to be a major player in the LTE market with Tele2 and Telenor as early customers.

For more on this story:
- go to Cellular News and 3g.co.uk