Eastern Europe

3G Will Dominate Hungary's Mobile Services Market by 2012

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:23:29 -0400

Revenue from 3G-based mobile services will grow rapidly over the next four years in Hungary and will overtake 2.5G service revenue by 2012 as more subscribers migrate to broadband mobile data services, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. The telecom market in Hungary generated US$5.2 billion in service revenue in 2008 and will be worth US$5.6 billion by 2013, said Pyramid Research. Article

Economic problems impact mobile phone market

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:06:44 -0500

In the third quarter of 2008 the percentage growth in mobile phone sales worldwide declined to less than half that achieved in the same period in 2007. According to Gartner's latest mobile phone market analysis, total sales were 309 million units in Q3, a six per cent increase on Q3 2007. The global economic crisis is the main factor impacting on sales.

Market leading manufacturers Nokia and Samsung held up well under the impact of the global economic downturn although the former experienced lower replacement sales in mature and emerging markets. The main effects of the economic problems were felt in the battle for the world number three position currently raging between Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola. The Gartner report says Sony Ericsson emerged as the winner in the third quarter largely because of the problems being experienced by its rivals.

Mobile phone sales in Western Europe were 43.5 million units in Q3, down from 47.2 million units in 2007. A slowdown in replacement sales adversely affected market performance in the region and will continue to do so in the fourth quarter says Gartner. In Eastern Europe, although a number of countries including Russia, Hungary, the Ukraine and Romania were badly affected by the financial crisis, this did not translate into a downturn in mobile phone sales.

For more on this story go to Telecomredux and Cellular News

Related articles:
Financial crisis hits mobile phone market as Q3 growth drops
Mobile phone sales will reach 1.28B in 2008
Study: U.S. mobile phone sales down 13 percent

The latest on Telenor's legal battles

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:58:26 -0500

The ongoing legal rows over Telenor's mobile investments in Eastern Europe saw some new twists this week. In the US, a Federal Court judge ruled that Russian conglomerate Alfa Group was in contempt of court for failing to sell its stake in Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar. Telenor, which owns 56.5 per cent of Kyivstar, has had a long running dispute with Alfa, whose subsidiary Altimo owns the remaining shares. The Federal judge ordered Alfa subsidiaries Altimo, Alpren, Hardlake and Storm to sell their Kyivstar shares within 90 days or face heavy financial penalties. Alfa was also ordered to lower its stakes in Turkish operator Turkcell and Ukrainian High Technologies to less than 5 per cent in the same timescale. Earlier this week, a court in Omsk, Siberia postponed the hearing of Telenor's appeal against the US$2.8 billion judgement passed against it until December 12^th. Jan Edvard Thygesen, executive VP and head of Telenor's Central and Eastern European operations described the case as ‘a judicial farce'.

For more on this story go to Cellular News and Unstrung

Related article:
Russian court freezes Vimpelcom shares

Spain disappoints, but emerging markets boost Vodafone

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:06:45 -0400

Announcing that a company the size of Vodafone would feel the effects of the global downturn sent its share price down by 14 per cent, the largest fall in Vodafone history. The company reacted to this fall by announcing a £1 billion buyback. However, this warning by the outgoing CEO, Arun Sarin, that the outlook was less than rosy might have disguised some hidden gems within Vodafone's arsenal of revenue generating resources.

Sure, the sharp decline in the Spanish market hit the company badly as did the lacklustre results from the U.K.--but both are very mature markets and consumers in both countries are reining back on all expenditures. The revenue growth high spots were the emerging markets, namely Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Pacific which was up 30.9 per cent, supported by growth from India of more than 50 per cent. Overall, Vodafone reported a 19.1 per cent revenue growth to £9.8 billion for the three months to the end of June 2008-and added 8.5 million subscribers.

Of more interest was the 50 per cent rise in revenues from its data services over the past quarter, after the number of its customers using the web from mobile devices more than doubled. Data revenue for the quarter stood at £664 million globally, compared with £441 million for the same period last year. The CEO of Vodafone Germany, Friedrich Joussen, was also upbeat claiming that, although revenue fell slightly in the second quarter, due mainly to regulatory causes, "it won't be long until we see growth again."

There are also growing indications that the company is seriously considering an offer for freenet's DSL business. "We are taking a very close look at it," said Joussen, adding that a purchase couldn't be ruled out. Vodafone Germany doesn't necessarily need acquisitions as its organic growth is strong, Joussen said.

For more on this story:
- go to Forbes, NMA and The Guardian

Related stories:
Vodafone stalks Nigerian operator. Nigerian story
Vodafone reports jump in revenue, lowers outlook for year. Vodafone story