WCA March 2015

45 / 68

43
Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015
Telecomnews
“Take-up of broadband services
continues to progress across Europe
and consumer habits are evolving
with an increase in the use of IP
messaging, IP calls, and location-
based services.”
This decidedly upbeat overture
introduced the annual economic
report of ETNO (European Tele-
communications Network Operators’
Association), prepared by the digital-
economy think tank IDATE.
Published 11th December, the status
report on the European telecom
sector includes figures from 2013,
estimates for 2014, and projections
through to 2016.
These are the main points of the
ETNO/IDATE report:
The data indicates that telecom
services revenues were four per cent
lower in 2013 than in 2012, reaching
$314.9 billion.
However, the IDATE estimate for 2014
has the rate of decrease narrowing to
-1.8 per cent. The telecom industry is
seen as returning to the positive camp
(with a growth rate of +1 per cent) in
2016.
In the period 2012-2013, overall
capital investment growth in the
European Union was negative (-0.4
per cent), compared to strong
growth in the USA (+5.7 per cent);
and the 2014 data confirms that the
investment gap between Europe and
the USA is widening.
Investment in the telecom sector in
Europe totalled $58.2 billion in 2013.
Most of the investment in Europe’s
networks comes from ETNO members:
$34.6 billion in 2013, representing
nearly 59 per cent of total investment.
The greater part of the ETNO funds
went into fixed networks ($20.3 billion),
the rest toward mobile networks ($14.3
billion).
At the end of 2014, for the first time,
fixed broadband subscriptions would
outnumber traditional circuit-switched
fixed lines.
This reflects growing use of Internet
voice services alongside other broad-
band services and confirms that
broadband retains its role as one of
the industry’s main growth engines.
• In conjunction with the publication
of the annual report ETNO’s
chairman, Luigi Gambardella,
issued a call: “The time [for reform]
is now,” he wrote. “Data shows
that a new phase of growth is in
sight. We need to encourage this
expectation with a new regulatory
and policy framework.
More investment will mean better
networks and better services for
European citizens and businesses.
For this reason, we welcome the
Juncker Commission intention
to create an investment-friendly
climate in the EU.”
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
• Last year a Chinese company,
Xiaomi, took over the number
one spot in China’s smartphone
market, the world’s largest.
Founded in 2010 to sell smartly
designed phones at low prices
over the Internet, Xiaomi has now
also become the number three
phone maker globally, behind the
giants it supersedes in China –
Apple and Samsung.
With China expected to account
for 500 million smartphone sales
in 2015 – more than three times as
many as will be sold in the USA,
according to the research firm
IDC – Xiaomi is poised to build
on that momentum. In preference
to the American and European
markets, its founders hope to use
e-commerce networks to reprise
Xiaomi’s Chinese success in huge
developing countries like Brazil
and India.
• Huawei on 9 th December
announced it had signed a global
agreement with the Norwegian
communications and IT group
Telenor to supply radio access
equipment and professional
services over a five-year period.
The focus for the Chinese
telecommunications equipment
maker, the world’s largest, will
be on modernising the 2G and
3G mobile networks of Telenor
subsidiaries throughout Europe
and Asia.
• In association with three Indian
non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), the Swedish telecom
equipment supplier Ericsson has
launched its Connect To Learn
global education initiative in India.
The programme aims to scale
up access to quality secondary
education, in particular for girls,
by providing information and
communications technologies
(ICT) to schools in remote,
resource-poor parts of the world.
Emphasis is on the use of connec-
tivity to implement low-cost and
user-friendly ICT solutions in
schools through mobile broad-
band and cloud computing.
• Nextel Brasil is set to double its
capital expenditure for 2015 to
$1 billion as it extends its mobile
network to some 200 new cities
in addition to the 497 it already
covers. Alfonso de Orbegoso,
vice president of legal and
regulatory affairs, told TeleSintese
(15th December) that Nextel had
entered into a five-year network
sharing agreement with fellow
mobile operator Vivo.
Mr Orbegoso also said that Nextel
is still interested in acquiring the
vacated 1,800MHz frequencies
held by the now-defunct Unicel
in São Paulo – the most populous
metro area in Brazil.
• The New Zealand Telecommunica-
tions Forum (TCF), a government-
mandated organisation of carriers
and service providers, has marked
the first anniversary of nationwide
mobile handset blacklisting for lost
and stolen devices.
Since the programme was imple-
mented in December 2013, the
country’s three mobile operators
(Spark, Vodafone and 2Degrees)
have disabled over 32,000 devices
reported by customers as lost or
stolen.
Blacklisting works by blocking
a device’s unique International
Mobile Equipment Identity number,
or IMEI.
Under the TCF’s Handset
Blacklisting Code of Practice,
once a device is blocked on one
mobile network it is blocked on all
networks across New Zealand.
Said CEO Geoff Thorn of TCF:
“That means that thieves and
‘finders’ can’t profit from your
misfortune.”