Pay monthly mobile

Shares in telecoms companies across Europe were marked lower today as a profit warning from mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson and downbeat comments from Deutsche Telekom hit sentiment, while trading in Telecom Italia was briefly halted as rumours ran rife that the company needs an emergency fundraising.Shares in Swedish telecoms company Ericsson fell to their lowest point in almost five years as its mobile phone joint venture with Sony admitted that first-quarter profits could be halved as sales have slowed and it has experienced a shortage of some key components.

In a presentation to analysts, meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom admitted that it will continue to struggle in its core domestic fixed line market.Also suffering was Telecom Italia. Trading in the company’s shares, which hit a 10-year low, was briefly halted after intense speculation that the company, which faces fierce competition in the Italian market, needs more cash to help reduce its €35.7bn (£28bn) debts. Chairman Gabriele Galateri di Genola moved to reassure investors that the firm has no intention of raising cash, but rumours persisted.

The news came as European telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding warned that companies such as Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia - Europe’s once state-controlled incumbent communications companies - are still too powerful. She added that while eight of the EU’s 27 member states are ahead of broadband usage in the US - where there are an average of 22.1 broadband lines per hundred inhabitants - much more needs to be done, especially to spur competition against former monopoly players.Incumbent operators hold more than 46% of broadband lines and in seven member states control more than 60% of broadband connections,” Reding said.Moreover, access to fixed telephony is still provided to 86.5% of customers over the incumbent’s infrastructure, and to more than 95% in the case of 12 member states.”

Revealing research showing that the €300bn European telecoms market grew at a mere 1.9% last year, Reding said Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden have almost a third of houses connected to broadband services while the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, all have higher broadband usage than the US. But broadband penetration across the EU as a whole lags behind the US, with Bulgaria bottom of the pack with just 7.6 lines per 100 inhabitants.
She said half the EU could match the US by the end of the decade if regulators were to do more to open up their markets.But struggling against often restrictive working practices which prevent them from reducing costs, several of Europe’s former state-owned monopoly players have resisted attempts to prise open their markets.In the past, Deutsche Telekom, for instance, has sought regulatory protection while it invests in its new core network. In a presentation to analysts on Wednesday the company admitted that it will continue to struggle in the German market but hopes to stabilise the situation by the end of the decade.

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The global mobile phone market showed significant growth for the second quarter of 2003, and is on track to emerge from two years of stagnation, according to sales figures released this week by analyst Gartner.

Worldwide mobile phone sales hit 114.9 million units for the second quarter, 12 percent up on a year ago and 2 percent up from the first quarter of 2003, according to Gartner. The mobile phone industry, along with the rest of the IT sector, has seen growth fall off since the boom of the late 1990s, but the market is now on track to achieve “strong growth” for 2003, Gartner said.

In Europe and North America, most consumers already own basic mobile phones, and sales are driven by upgrades to flashier handset models with features such as colour screens, cameras and games. But slower growth in these areas was offset by sales in Japan, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which “far exceeded expectations”, according to analyst Bryan Prohm.The global market is now clearly split into two mature markets,” said analyst Ben Wood, in a statement. “There is the replacement market in regions such as Western Europe and North America that is driving sales, and emerging markets such as Africa, parts of Eastern Europe and China, where new sales are fuelling customer demand.”

Nokia still dominates the global market, with 35.9 percent of sales — 17.3 percent up on a year ago due to success in the North American CDMA market and emerging areas such as Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe. Motorola, the world’s second-largest handset maker, was hit by the Sars outbreak in the spring, and saw its market share drop by 4 percent to 14.6 percent.Samsung, the third-biggest company, saw 16.1 percent year-on-year growth. Sony Ericsson, which has struggled to increase market share since the merger of Sony’s and Ericsson’s handset units, saw sales grow 17.8 percent due to Japanese sales and the successful introduction of the T610 handset in Europe, Gartner said.Researchers have shown optimism about the mobile phone industry recently. IDC this week said it expects handset shipments to total 460 million units this year, rising to more than 500 million next year; an 8 percent year-on-year increase.

Resouce: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/