China’s Internet Network Information Centre has released statistics which show that the country is now home to 130 million internet users, making it the world’s second largest internet market behind the US. The market grew by 18.4% in the first six months of the year. There were 53 million broadband subscribers at the end of June, up 23.8% from the start of the year.

upay ¶ 12:37 AM //

True Corp’s Thai mobile operator TA Orange says it expects to end 2005 with 4.2 million users, up from the 3.38 it started the year with. The cellco is the main protagonist in the cut-throat price war currently enveloping the mobile market and it continues to target low-revenue users in Thailand’s rural areas. TA Orange currently has around 4.1 million users and an estimated 20% market share.

upay ¶ 12:34 AM //

Two of Indonesia’s leading operators, PT Telkom and PT Indosat, predict that the country’s telecoms market will double, or triple, in terms of revenues by 2010. Telkom president director Arwin Rasjid forecasts that, excluding handset sales, the industry will be worth between IDR141 trillion (USD14.37 billion) and IDR181 trillion, up from IDR48 trillion last year.

Arwin predicts that by 2010 the number of main lines in service will have doubled from the current figure of around nine million (a teledensity of less than 5%), internet usage will triple to about 48 million users, and cellular penetration will rise from 35 million to more than 100 million – or 42% of the population.

Indosat’s president director Hasnul Suhaimi backed up his counterpart’s claims saying that the rapid pace of growth seen over the last twelve years would continue as telecoms penetration in Indonesia remains relatively low, compared to its regional neighbours.

However, the task of extending the reach of telecoms services to all will not be an easy one. Arwin highlighted the problems of the country’s geography - a key challenge for telecoms companies looking to develop their infrastructure. “As of last month, our division in the eastern part of Indonesia could only cover 29% of regencies and 9% of villages in the whole of the island of Papua,” he said.

upay ¶ 12:26 AM //

VSNL Buys Top VoIP Carrier

India's incumbent international operator, VSNL, announced today that it had agreed to buy Teleglobe, the largest international voice over IP (VoIP) carrier in the world -- and former Canadian monopoly overseas voice carrier. Should the deal meet with shareholder approval and pass regulatory review, the merged company -- which also includes the recently integrated Tyco Global Network -- would become one of the largest multinational providers of voice, Internet, and bandwidth services.

The data below are drawn from the reports and databases of TeleGeography Research, the authoritative source for statistics and analysis on international communications:

VOICE
Teleglobe became the largest carrier in the 30 billion minute international VoIP market when it acquired ITXC in 2004. Although VoIP represented under 15 percent of the global call market in 2004, it is growing at double to triple the rate of the traditional public switched voice market. Combined with Teleglobe's wholesale voice operations around the world, VSNL will become the fifth largest carrier of voice minutes in the world.

source: TeleGeography

INTERNET

Although VSNL is a significant carrier of voice minutes in its own right, its international Internet infrastructure has been limited to a few routes out of India. With the acquisition of Teleglobe, VSNL will be adding backbone Internet connectivity to 14 new countries, bringing its total to 17. Still, the combined VSNL and Teleglobe international Internet backbone puts it only in the top 30 of global backbone providers. This may change rapidly if VSNL builds out its Internet infrastructure to serve India's growing demand for corporate bandwidth.

source: Global Internet Geography

BANDWIDTH
By purchasing Teleglobe, VSNL will be pairing Teleglobe, a major wholesale services provider, with the Tyco Global Network, a major provider of wholesale submarine and terrestrial network capacity that VSNL acquired recently. As of early 2005, Teleglobe owned or controlled part of 90 submarine and terrestrial network systems, as well as satellite connectivity around the world. Although other carriers, such as AT&T and MCI, may connect to more individual city locations, few companies are known to control capacity on as many different systems.

source: International Bandwidth

upay ¶ 4:45 AM //

"Corporate comms managers find it hard to justify migration to VoIP, other than in the contact centre, unless another change is also being made – new offices, new working practices, or a new data network are cited in interviews as factors associated with the move to VoIP." - Margaret Hopkins

VoIP versus Mobile: forecasts for the future of enterprise voice complements other Analysys Research reports addressing the issues of migration to VoIP services, such as The Impact of Voice over Broadband: forecasts for Western Europe . This report focuses on the network and technology issues for large and medium-sized organisations as the vendors cease development of traditional PBXs, and mobile phones become increasingly ubiquitous. In large and medium-sized organisations, comms managers are considering the options for the upgrade or replacement of their voice systems; it is relatively easy to argue for migration to VoIP on the grounds of cost for contact centres, where everything is monitored, but much harder to justify replacing the phone on every desk elsewhere, while, at the same time, costs for calls to and from mobile phones are often running out of control.

- voice in large (500+ employees) and medium (20–499 employees)
enterprisesorganisations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the
UK and Western Europe
- fixed and mobile voice calls and services
- equipment for enterprise voice networks
- management of voice networks
- connectivity such as leased lines and VPN capacity

The report also estimates the numbers of organisations choosing VoIP, hosted VoIP and mobile-only solutions.
VoIP versus Mobile: forecasts for the future of enterprise voice answers your key questions.

-- Can corporate comms managers justify migration to VoIP?
-- How many organisations might choose a mobile-only voice solution and when?
-- Will VoIP over broadband become an important part of corporate voice networks?
-- Will voice over WLAN have a role to play in corporate voice networks?
-- Is there a future for corporate voice VPNs?
-- Will operators manage to retain their lucrative PBX businesses?

upay ¶ 5:10 AM //

According to TeleGeography's latest Bandwidth Pricing Report, a consortium of major American and European carriers have begun shopping for as much as a terabit of capacity across the Atlantic. Such a huge capacity purchase would have two key outcomes:

First, if the purchase goes through, the consortium would be picking up nearly a third of current lit capacity on the route.
Second, because the consortium is looking at a long term purchase, it may indicate that the biggest carriers think that capacity prices are near their long term floor, ending a decade-long plunge in pricing.

Because of the size of the consortium's purchase, the price stabilization theory may turn out to be self-fulfilling. With a great deal of available bandwidth supply taken up, cable operators will be forced, somewhat ahead of schedule, to upgrade their systems. The costs incurred will give them little choice but to hold, or perhaps even raise, prices up for other customers to recoup the upgrade expense.

upay ¶ 6:43 AM //

Adult Services is an insightful strategic report from Informa Telecoms & Media, providing you with thorough analysis of the adult content industry as well as key market forecasts to 2010 for all content segments. The business intelligence and expert industry commentary contained in this report will prove invaluable when making successful investment decisions for your company.

The market for erotic content for mobile devices is predicted to be worth USD2.3bn by 2010, but realisation of this is highly dependent on mobile phone carriers and content providers working with regulators in order to determine solid controls and age verification procedures. This is one of the conclusions to come out of the research for Informa Telecoms and Media's new report, Mobile Adult Services. "The key to turning erotic mobile content into a sustainable revenue stream is to adopt a responsible approach, making sure subscribers who wish to view such content are age verified and that those providers who are looking to make a quick buck are squeezed out of the equation", said Daniel Winterbottom, senior research analyst at Informa and author of the report.

The report goes on to commend the stance taken by the operators in the UK and especially the Vodafone Group for the proactive approach adopted to introduce controls that protect minors whilst not restricting customers who wanted to purchase erotic material. "Of course, there is an element of self preservation involved, but it would be churlish not to recognise the positive standard that the UK operators have set for other cellcos globally," said Winterbottom.

"The formation of the Independent Mobile Classification Board (IMCB) has allayed fears that strict regulation would be introduced, ruining the market for the more responsible providers".
The introduction of age verification systems in the UK, in line with stipulations set out by the IMCB, has surprised many in the industry by resulting in an increase in traffic for adult content, rather than stifling usage levels.

One of the proposed reasons behind this is that consumers have a higher propensity to use services that they are confident in - the robust controls are a far cry from the chaotic and unregulated Internet environment.

Further research in the report looks at the potential outcomes in other regions with regards to regulation.

"We're seeing the Italian operators take a similar approach to those in the UK and banding together to address the issue of content control, averting any possible heavy-handedness from the regulator there" commented Winterbottom. "The situation in the US is slightly different in that many of the operators have taken a walled garden approach to mobile content, and have therefore been relatively unconcerned with the issue of content control. However, consumer pressure and the success of the direct-to-consumer channel for content distribution is meaning that this content strategy is unlikely to survive any significant length of time. Without controls, operators will find themselves being used to distribute adult content whether they like it or not".

The report estimates that by 2010, there will be over 114 million regular users of mobile adult content globally. However, this figure hinges on operators and content providers creating a robust system for content control, one that allays any concerns from the regulators and one that creates a trustworthy environment in which consumers can feel safe when purchasing premium content. "In the adult market, the Internet has tarnished the purchase of premium content for many. However, given the close relationship between mobile operator and the consumer, and with a responsible strategy, there is no reason that this market cannot generate revenue for all in the value chain" said Winterbottom.

Forecasts to 2010 for all key content segments - including premium text messaging, video, voice services and MMS as well as adult games and ringtone analysis for all world regions - make accurate predictions on where the market is heading and target your investments accordingly

A clear overview of the market - understand the key drivers of the market, its size in the various world regions and significant developments to date

Market segmentation analysis - benefit from a thorough examination of services provided in each market segment, as well as the underpinning technologies, including age verification and content filtering mechanisms

Mobile adult content business models - analyse successful revenue models and the different characteristics that have contributed to their success, including pricing, delivery channels, operator and content provider partnerships - what are the regulation differences for mobile content in the various markets across the world?

Real-life case studies - how have different players in the value chain - including Vodafone and Playboy - gone about launching mobile adult services? What lessons for success can be taken from these companies’ approaches to the market?

Adult content services road map - assess key challenges for the future and benefit from invaluable commentary from the industry experts

Major industry questions answered in this report:

What are likely to be the key markets for adult content usage by 2010?
How have operators gone about establishing guidelines for the adult content sector in the UK? Has this proved successful?
What approach has the Australian regulatory authority taken to mobile adult content?
How did Cherry Sauce and Playboy go about launching their services?

upay ¶ 9:46 AM //

upay ¶ 9:52 AM //

Indosat, the second largest telco in Indonesia, has announced plans to try out 3G technology next month. The operator said it will begin with a pilot project in August which it will use to monitor the market response to the technology. The company hopes that the trial launch will support its bid for a 3G licence and increase its customer base.

upay ¶ 10:08 AM //

Maxis to invest USD105 million in 3G network in 2005

Malaysian mobile operator Maxis Mobile says it will invest MYR400 million (USD105 million) this year in building out its third generation network, officially launched last Friday. Investment in the network so far has reached MYR200 million and Maxis plans to spend another MYR200 million by the end of December. It currently has 300 base stations providing 3G services throughout the Klang Valley, Malaysia’s most highly populated region, including the capital Kuala Lumpur. The company says it will roll out another 80 to 100 UMTS stations next year, based local research which found that of its 6.5 million subscribers, 850,000 were active GPRS users, 40% of which expressed strong interest in migrating to 3G. Maxis’ launch followed that of Telekom Malaysia’s wireless arm Celcom, which invested around MYR300 million in the launch of its 3G service on 17 May.

upay ¶ 10:04 AM //