WCA July 2013

42 / 64

40 Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2013
Cash-strapped newcomers
to Canada’s wireless
services market hold the
incumbents’ feet to the fire
Mobilicity, a small operator in the $19
billion Canadian wireless industry,
said on 26th April that it planned to
ask its debt holders to approve a
two-part restructuring plan for a
recapitalisation of the company and
a possible sale. The company offers
no-contract cellphone service in
Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton
and Vancouver.
Toronto Star business reporter
Michael Lewis noted that privately
held Mobilicity, formed after a 2008
government auction of radio wave
spectrum used by wireless carriers,
is among several new players in
Canada’s wireless services segment
attempting to win market share from
the big three incumbent carriers: Bell,
Rogers and Telus.
All the new entrants have struggled
for the funding needed to support
infrastructure and operations. Despite
this, wrote Mr Lewis, the rookies have
forced the incumbents to respond
with their own discount brands and
have played a significant part in
Ottawa’s campaign to maintain a
wireless market with at least four
significant competitors.
According to reports in the Canadian
media the largest of the new entrants,
Wind Mobile, has put itself up for sale
despite some success in attracting
subscribers, and Public Mobile is also
seeking a buyer.
The owner of Catalyst is believed
to be pushing for a merger of Wind
Mobile and Mobilicity, an outcome
that the Public Interest Advocacy
Centre, a consumer group, said could
create a viable competitor.
But, Mr Lewis observed: “Consumer
advocates argue that the lack of more
aggressive support, such as a set
aside of spectrum for smaller entities
in an upcoming auction, puts the goal
of more wireless competition at risk.”
Working with regulators
in Africa, Google and
Microsoft promote TV
‘white space’ projects
there
Reporting from Nairobi on 25th
April, Rebecca Wanjiku of the IDG
News Service said that Google is
conducting a pilot test of TV ‘white
space’ technology in Cape Town,
South Africa, in conjunction with
the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA).
At the same time, Microsoft is
cooperating with the Ministry of
Information and Communication in
Kenya toward the same end: enabling
connectivity in rural areas and
removing barriers for small businesses
interested in Internet service provision.
White spaces are bands of spectrum
between TV channels, deliberately
left unused — up until now — to
prevent interference. The testing is
expected to prove that the spaces
can be utilised to provide connectivity
to rural areas that may not have such
essential services as electricity. The
two US companies in the undertaking
According to data from Strategy Analytics, South Korea’s Samsung
Electronics Co captured a third of the global smartphone market in the first
quarter as growth for the iPhone from Apple Inc, of the US, dropped to its
slowest pace ever. Shipments of Samsung smartphones surged 56 per cent
to 69.4 million units in the quarter, Boston-based Strategy Analytics said in a
25th April statement excerpted by Bloomberg News. Shipments of the iPhone
rose 6.6 per cent to 37.4 million units, while LG Electronics Inc — also South
Korean — gained third place for the first time.
“Samsung shipped almost two times more smartphones and grew nine times
faster than Apple during the quarter,” Neil Mawston, a Strategy Analytics
analyst, said in the statement emailed to Bloomberg’s Edmond Lococo in
Beijing. “Samsung should continue to deliver strong smartphone volumes
worldwide in the second quarter.”
The company’s new flagship Galaxy S4 handset went on sale the next day.
Mr Lococo took note as well of the 25th April report from researcher
International Data Corp (Framingham, Massachusetts) showing that the
quarter was the first in which smartphones, the high-end devices offering
Internet access, outsold traditional (voice and text only) mobile phones. Total
mobile phone shipments rose four per cent globally to 418.6 million devices
over the period, according to IDC. Smartphones accounted for 216.2 million
units, or 51.6 per cent of the total.
“Phone users want computers in their pockets,” IDC analyst Kevin Restivo
said. “The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and
send text messages are quickly fading away. As a result, the balance of
smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on
smartphones.”
✆ Global smartphone shipments in the March quarter rose 36 per cent to
209.5 million units, driven by adoption of third-generation service in China
and fourth-generation service in the US, Strategy Analytics said.
Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp, China’s two largest makers of
equipment for phone networks, rounded out the top-five globally, with
market shares of 4.8 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively, Strategy
Analytics said. The rankings from IDC also had Samsung, Apple, LG,
Huawei and ZTE as the top-five global smartphone vendors.
In terms of total mobile phone shipments, Samsung also led worldwide
with 27.5 per cent market share, followed by Finland’s Nokia with 14.8
per cent and Apple with 8.9 per cent, according to IDC. LG and ZTE
completed the top five in mobile phone share, with 3.7 per cent and 3.2
per cent, respectively, IDC said.
First quarter highlights: Samsung surges past Apple
in smartphones — and these outsell traditional mobile
phones