PHONE ARENA: Market

Showing posts with label Market. Show all posts

banglalink launches banglalink billpay with qubee

Admin | 3:43 PM | Market

banglalink has successfully launched the “banglalink billpay” service in joint collaboration with qubee today (18th january 2011). from now on banglalink subscribers can pay their internet bill of qubee directly from their mobile phone by simply dialing *777# and follow the easy step-by-step ussd menu. non-banglalink subscribers and non-mobile users can also pay their qubee bill from “banglalink mobile cash point” marked outlets (currently this service is available in 215 mobile cash points and the number will increase gradually)
banglalink billpay with qubee is yet another milestone of our services in “mobile financial services” category because for the first time in the industry, we are collecting bills of a commercial organization other than utility companies which continues our lead in the mfs sector. this opens up possibilities of expanding our mobile financial service offering in more new and innovative areas.

the chief guests at the opening ceremony

banglalink chief executive officer and md, ahmed abu doma, banglalink chief commercial officer asher yaqub khan, banglalink regulatory and legal affairs director zakiul islam, chief executive officer of qubee, jerry mobbs, were present at the launching ceremony.

Ssubscriptions and innovation drives GP's growth

Admin | 3:40 PM | Market

Grameenphone Ltd. reported BDT 7,473 crore revenues for the year 2010 with 14.4% increase from 2009. The growth was mainly from voice as well as interconnection revenues driven by subscription growth and revenues from sale of mobile devices. Data revenue also has contributed to this strong revenue growth for the year 2010 which increased by 64.0% from 2009. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010 was BDT 1,959 crore, up by 17.0% from the fourth quarter of 2009.

“A year of remarkable performance when it comes to GP’s revenue and subscription growth and we have reached just about 3 crore subscriptions at the end,” said Oddvar Hesjedal, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd. He added, “We diversified our business by forming Grameenphone IT Ltd., strengthened our rural footprint through ‘Baadhon’ product bundled with low cost handsets and continued to be top on the innovation front through segmented price plans, mini-packs for economy data users and services like e-ticketing and vehicle tracking.”

The company has added 67 lakh new subscriptions during the year, holding on to the market leadership by serving about 44% of the mobile market.

While speaking about GP’s subscription growth, Oddvar Hesjedal said “the SIM tax continues to be a significant barrier for the industry where operators, for the sake of industry growth, are taking dents in profitability by subsidizing the SIM tax.”

Net profit after taxes for 2010 was BDT 1,071 crores with 14.3% margin compared to BDT 1,497 crores with 22.9% margin of 2009. The fall was mainly due to subsidy on SIM tax of BDT 680 crores, partly offset by revenue growth. This has also pushed the EBITDA margins down to 49.5% for 2010 compared to 57.0% of 2009. Earnings per share (EPS) for 2010 stood at BDT 7.93 compared to BDT 12.08 for 2009. Notably, 2009 EPS was higher due to a positive adjustment of BDT 412 crore in income tax after successful listing into the stock exchanges. (Without that one-time adjustment, 2009 EPS would have been BDT 8.75.)

During the year 2010, Grameenphone invested BDT 846 crores for network quality and data capacity enhancement and modernization while contributed BDT 3,715 crores to the National Exchequer. Grameenphone paid BDT 900 crores against corporate taxes in 2010, which was BDT 250 crore more compared to 2009.

Grameenphone Ltd. has been awarded the credit rating of AAA for long-term and ST-1 for short-term by The Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh (CRAB).

Along with three other mobile operators, GP’s mobile cellular license will expire on 10 November 2011, in view of which, regulators have published a renewal framework on 19 January 2011. Grameenphone is evaluating the guidelines as per the framework and will provide feedback to the regulators as per agreed timeline.

The 2G renewal fees and astronomically high price of spectrum allocation proposed by the regulator is unheard of in the world and makes the telecom business in Bangladesh and future dividends to shareholders uncertain. Grameenphone CEO noted, “We believe Grameenphone and the regulators will be on a common platform when it comes to license renewal and spectrum pricing to secure the best interest of general people, especially from the remote and rural areas”.

Grameenphone has so far been reinvesting most of its earnings for business expansion. Keeping in mind the shareholders’ right on retained earnings and future uncertainties involving the telecommunication industry of Bangladesh, the Board of Directors of Grameenphone Ltd. have recommended final dividend for the year 2010 in cash at the rate of 85% of the paid up capital (i.e. BDT 8.5 per share) based on the decision taken at the Board Meeting held on 6 February 2011. With this, the total cash dividend stands at 120% for the year 2010 inclusive of 35% interim cash dividend (i.e. BDT 3.5 per share) that was declared in July 2010 based on company’s half-yearly performance and has already been paid. The Shareholders as of the record date of 20 February 2011 will be entitled for this dividend while the date of AGM has been fixed on 19 April 2011.

MeeGo Preview At MWC 2011 Disappoints

Admin | 4:14 AM | Market , news and updates

Intel previewed MeeGo at MWC 2011 today and to say that industry bloggers were less than impressed would be an understatement. MeeGo is a collaboration between Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo, an announcement the two companies made just one year ago from the stages of MWC 2010 in Barcelona. Almost exactly one year later, Meego has developed very little and the future of Nokia has changed quite a lot.
undefined

Nokia announced its partnership with Microsoft and adopting Windows Phone 7 platform last week, abandoning Meego as its future smartphone and tablet platforms. Many are saying that the system has not progressed nor improved from its early alpha stages in the summer. It is so far behind other systems that Nokia had no other choice but to find another OS. Intel has decided it will stay with Meego and push its development for now. Users at MWC have said the software is buggy and slow, and very disappointing.
Meego utilizes a system of sliding panels that lets the user access photos, music, apps, web video, and friends. Tapping on a panel expands it to full screen and a longer press brings up menus. The Chromium-based web browser doesn’t support pinch-to-zoom right now, but does allow cut-and-paste.
Compared to the polished and refined platforms that run Android 3.0 tablets, HP’s webOS, and Apple’s iOS it doesn’t look like Meego will be a serious competitor anytime soon. Intel says they are “disappointed” with Nokia’s decision, but it isn’t hard to fault Nokia after reading these reports. Nokia hasn’t completely left Meego, the company says it might develop the system to be placed in automobiles, netbooks, and possibly other devices.

SG Comics Presents: Survivor Mobile OS

Admin | 4:14 AM | Market , Mobile OS

Mobile/tablet OS platforms are duking it out for survival as platform updates, new product launches, dubious alliances and speculations continue to brew. Android OS is increasingly dominating the marketplace, with Apple’s iOS attempting to regain momentum and stirring up the media with plenty of rumors. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Nokia’s Stephen Elop just made a surprise announcement last week to put Windows Phone 7 on future Nokia phones–seemingly a take-over of Nokia and an imminent demise for Symbian and MeeGo–a move that blindsided Intel and slighted Google. And still earlier last week HP/Palm introduced new phones and tablets to push their own webOS platform. The competition’s getting rough. Can all the operating systems at least just allow us to truly multitask our apps for now?
undefined