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Telefónica Adds in Latin America But Europe Drags
The total number of accesses served by Telefónica reached 309 million as of the end of March, up 7% over the year earlier thanks to growth in Latin America.
Revenues totalled 15,511 million euros in the first quarter of 2012, a 0.5% year-on-year increase (-1.8% in the previous quarter), driven by higher sales at Telefónica Latinoamérica (+8.3% year-on-year), which more than offset lower revenues at the European businesses (-6.6% year-on-year). Excluding the negative impact of mobile termination rates cuts, revenues rose by 1.6% from the first quarter of 2011.
OIBDA totalled 5,081 million euros, down 8.8% compared to last year, while operating income was 2,511 million euros. Meanwhile, consolidated net profit for the quarter stood at 748 million euros and was impacted primarily by Telco’s writedown.
“Our earnings for the first three months of 2012 reflect the strategic priorities set for the full year and the success of the company's shift in commercial strategy, which began in the second half of 2011," said Telefónica Chairman César Alierta. “These results are in line with internal estimates and thus allow us to reiterate our financial and operational guidance announced for 2012."
Some highlights from the quarterly report:
- The company is seeking to implement a new approach to handsets subsidies, reducing its upfront costs
- The company is moving from voice to data-centric tariffs
- Smartphones represent 81% of new commercial activity in Europe in Q1
- There were 2x mobile net adds in Latin America vs. Q1 11.
- The company describes Latin America as its "engine for growth".
- There was a similar revenue contribution from Brazil (23%) and Spain (25%).
- CapEx(ex-spectrum)/sales was 11% in Q1, up 1% over the same period last year. CapEx totalled 1,712 million euros in the quarter, up 10.3% year-on-year. The Company continued to devote the bulk of its investments to growth and transformation projects (81% of total CapEx),fostering the expansion of broadband services, both fixed and mobile.
- The company blamed commercial and regulatory costs for its drop in OIBDA.
- Telefónica’s mobile accesses growth in Latin America accelerated to 13% year-on-year in the first quarter
boosting the accesses base to 170.8 million users.
- Telefónica’s fixed accesses in Latin America rose by 2% year-on-year to 34.6 million accesses. The Company’s retail broadband accesses climbed by 12% year-on-year to reach 8.0 million and net additions of pay TV customers totalled 2.3 million, up 23% year-on-year. 75% of fixed accesses now include some bundled offer package (+7 percentage points year-onyear), while 89% of broadband accesses are subscribed to a double or triple-play offer.
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T-Mobile USA Picks Ericsson and NSN for $4 Billion LTE Upgrade
 T-Mobile USA announced multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks to support its $4 billion 4G network evolution plan.
T-Mobile USA, which acquired AWS spectrum from AT&T as part of the failed merger deal, aims to launch LTE in 2013. This new spectrum, in addition to the refarming effort, enables the launch of LTE in AWS spectrum and up to 20 MHz of LTE in 75% of the top 25 markets.
As part of the agreements, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks will provide and install state of the art, Release 10 capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's 4G network this year. T-Mobile also expects to be the first carrier in North America to broadly deploy antenna integrated radios, enabling accelerated deployment and reduced site loading.
T-Mobile also plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year, thereby supporting the iPhone.
Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed that it will modernize T-Mobile’s GSM and HSPA+ core and radio access infrastructure in key markets to improve existing voice and data coverage. It will also deploy LTE as part of T-Mobile USA’s 4G evolution initiative in 2013. Specifically, NSN will supply T-Mobile with its Evolved Packet Core platform, including Flexi NS (Network Server) and Flexi NG (Network Gateway). The company will also provide for the LTE deployment its Single RAN Advanced platform based on its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station.
Ericsson noted that T-Mobile USA will be the first in North America to deploy its AIR technology. Ericsson will install the radio, tower and switch room equipment, as well as provide consulting and systems integration and rollout services. Ericsson will also provide turnkey services in the areas of installation, commissioning, integration and migration. In 2006, Ericsson expanded its existing network contract with T-Mobile USA to include a nationwide 3G network. In 2010, Ericsson further enhanced T-Mobile USA's network with the deployment of HSPA+ 21 technology, and again in 2011 with HSPA+ 42 technology.
"We're making great progress on our four billion dollar 4G network transformation," said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. "With these partners on board and the AT&T AWS spectrum secured, we're on track to enhance our 4G experience this year and deliver nationwide LTE in 2013."
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"Verizon finished 2011 very strong, both in terms of revenue growth and by delivering an 18.2 percent total return to our shareholders for the full year, and the company has great momentum for 2012. Verizon Wireless produced particularly strong growth in the fourth quarter. While that diluted wireless margins in the short term, it is good news for revenue and margin growth over the long term, particularly given our leadership in the rapidly developing 4G LTE ecosystem."
Lowell McAdam,
Verizon Chairman, President and CEO
24-Jan-12
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TeliaSonera International Carrier has been selected to build and operate a new pan-European managed optical network for Facebook. The multi-terabit optical network will provide Facebook with connectivity between Internet exchange points in multiple European cities and their newest data center on the edge of the Arctic Circle in Luleå, Sweden.
Telstra introduced an "Application Assured Networking" service that provides enterprises with more control over the increasing number of financial, relationship management, IP telephony, video conferencing and other business applications on their network. The new service will initially allow an organisation to produce reports on how networks are being used by applications which can be viewed via an easy-to-use secure online portal on the Telstra Business and Enterprise website.
Telstra said its goal is to optimise the network to ensure the performance of enterprise applications that really count. Enterprises can define application policies for the network which applies Quality of Service and bandwidth controls in real-time or as scheduled.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is promoting a new certification program aimed at transforming Wi-Fi into a true extension of service provider networks.
