Telcoflash: Telecom Market News

Dear Reader, I am pleased to wish you spending very nice vacation for XMAS time and a Happy Nex Year for 2009. Best regards Jean Arnal

Canalys reports that the smartphone market continues to thrive, with some 40m units shipped in the third quarter. The smartphone segment now accounts for about 13% of the global handset market, and was recently shaked up by the introduction of the iPhone....

A few set of market information released this week: According to OVUM, APAC would double its mobile subscriber base to 2.9bn by 2013 (from 1.4bn in 2007). That means that the APAC region would house over 50% of the world mobile subscriptions by 2011....

Virgin Mobile USA reports 5.2m mobile subscribers (flat). SingTel had 217m (+10%) mobile users by the end of September, of which 77.5m in India, 60.5m in Indonesia, and 24m in the Philippines, and just 2.9m in Singapore. India added 8m GSM subscribers...

Microsoft unveiled its new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 browser. Analysts are giving Microsoft as the winner of Verizon' s mobile search deal. Amdocs is buying ChangingWorlds for $60m. ChangingWorlds is an expert in customer personalization. The move sent...

Tellabs is providing Claro with its 8600 managed Edge platform. It is joining the list of BT' s preferred system suppliers for its 21CN next-generation network. Nokia provides ATT with its 6650 smartphone, Nortel has been chosen by China Telecom to upgrade...

3 UK will provide free INQ1 handset when a customer subscribe to its £15 per month contract, and offer unlimited free Facebook, Skype, Windows Messenger and web access + 75 mn of regular calls to other networks. T-Mobile Germany launches RIM' s Blackberry...

Mobilink Pakistan announced the launch of its Mobilink Infinity mobile WiMAX service in Pakistan. Kalimat Telecom (Iraq) is launching Iraq' s first WiMAX network. Grameenphone (Bangladesh) has reduced the size of its IPO by 50% to $75m. DoCoMo will pay...

Analyst Corner : CSFB lowered its price target on Leap Wireless by 21% to $55. RBC lowered MetroPCS price target by 5% to $19; Barclays lowered its price target on Sprint Nextel by 10% to $10, and McAdams lowered its price target on Clearwire by 24% to...

Virgin Mobile USA reports 3Q08 profit of $4m, vs a loss of $4.7m last year, on revenues of $323m, up 2%. Vodafone announced a 35% drop in net profit for the first half of the financial year, at £2.1bn, on revenues rising 17% to £20bn. EBITDA rose 10%...