news from mfa

Half a billion handsets from one Nokia factory; my mother still can’t work them

Komarom, Hungary – Earlier today, Nokia celebrated an industry milestone at its mobile phone manufacturing facility in Komarom, Hungary – the production of its 500 millionth phone from a single factory.

In his address to Komarom employees, Nokia Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, praised staff on their achievement and dedication to quality.

Established in 1999, the Komarom facility manufactures mobile phones for the European, Middle East and African markets. During the past 10 years the Komarom factory has produced many of Nokia’s most popular models including the best selling Nokia 2760, the highly popular Nokia 6300 as well as Nokia’s latest music device the Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic.

The 500 millionth device produced in Komarom was the Nokia N79 in silver.

This is no doubt an achievement and — half a billion handsets from one factory alone? Fascinating stuff.

Alas my mother still doesn’t understand Nokia or it’s inebriated user interface. 10 years ago it was a piece of brilliance. Nowadays it simply doesn’t cut the mustard.

I keep on having to tell people that whilst it’s easy to think that the future is mobile applications and self-configured mobile experience, it’s ..er.. going to be QUITE a long time before your average normob hits the figures and starts paying for anything other than ringtones via their Nokia handset.

Working on the basis that every one of the 50 million devices knocked out by the Komarom factory this year is carrying the dull-as-ditchwater Nokia UI, and on the basis of a usable life of 3 years, we’re going to have to wait until 2012/2013 before those 50 million customers come back on to the marketplace and get to play with something a little more exciting.

That said, there’s a reason why I’ve standardised on a Nokia N95 8GB as my ‘telephone’. It works.

Hungary – Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband & Forecasts

Kazakhstan has been experiencing a booming telecom market that included 95% mobile penetration by early 2009. This has come about on the back of a growing economy and a program positive regulatory reform in the telecom sector. Legislation adopted in 2004 laid the foundation for the liberalisation and development of the telecom sector and put an end to the monopoly enjoyed by the state-controlled telco, Kazakhtelecom.

The rapid and successful development of telecommunications in the country encouraged several foreign suppliers to establish a presence in this emerging market. Since 1992, international operators and manufacturers have been active in Kazakhstan in providing services and installing state-of-the-art equipment, especially as part of the country’s international telecom network. Companies such as Motorola, Lucent, Siemens, Alcatel, Nokia, Daewoo and Nortel Networks have all been active in the market. Recognising the long-term potential of this market, many foreign telecom companies were looking to invest and form partnerships with local telecom companies.

By April 2005 four private operators had been licensed to provide international and long-distance services in competition with incumbent Kazakhtelecom. They were state-railway subsidiary TransTelecom, KazTransCom, a subsidiary of the national oil company, Ducat, and Astel. Up to 1,500 new telecom service operators had been licensed by end-2005.

The key drivers in the telecom sector included:
Kazakhtelecom’s deployment of a fully-digital national telecom network based on local and long-distance switches and fibre optic lines linking all major cities of the country;

efforts to improve international connectivity and increase both mobile and fixed-line subscribers; the continuing digitalisation of exchanges;

the further reform of telecommunications legislation;

the process of accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).Kazakhstan had a relatively strong fixed-line penetration (22 telephone lines per 100 inhabitants by end-2008), with six operators providing fixed-line telephone services to about 3.5 million subscribers. There had been long waiting lists for fixed-line telephone services over the years. The country’s mobile market entered a boom phase in 2000, no doubt boosted to some extent by the long delays in obtaining fixed-line services. The number of mobile services exceeded fixed-lines in October 2004. Demand for mobile services was so strong that in 2006 the government went on to auction a third GSM licence, which was awarded to NeoTelecom, a subsidiary of Kazakhtelecom. NeoTelecom then launched a mobile service in early 2007.

Key highlights:
The year 2008 saw Kazakhstan’s mobile market continue on its positive expansion path, with annual growth coming in at 36% for the year;

With a 94% mobile penetration by March 2009, the country’s mobile market was continuing to grow but was expected to start saturating in the not too distant future;

Broadband Internet was finally starting to quickly expand on top of a general upturn in the Internet market; the number of broadband subscribers increased tenfold in 2006/07 and doubled again in 2008, with the number of subscribers likely to reach one million before end-2009;

Kazakhstan, despite the considerable presence of incumbent Kazakhtelecom across the market, was benefiting from a diversified market that offered a energetic and competitive environment, especially in respect of the mobile market;

On the economic front, after a six year period in which GDP had been growing at an annual rate in excess of 8%, 2008 saw a major slowdown in the Kazakhstan economy; 2009 was expected to see a significant contraction in growth.

This report provides an overview of the trends and developments in the telecommunications markets in Kazakhstan.

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news from reporterlink

Hungary Telecommunications Report Q3 2009

In our Q309 Hungary Telecommunications Report we have left our mobile market data analysis sectionunchanged (to be updated in the next quarter) while expanding the fixed-line and internet market dataanalysis sections.

Hungary has one of the most developed telecommunications markets in the Central and East Europeanregion, exemplified by its regulator the National Communications Authority (NHH), which has taken aproactive approach to liberalising the telecoms markets and encouraging investment. A number of theregion’s top players are present, including Deutsche Telekom, TDC, Vodafone, Liberty Global andTelenor. Competition between the operators has resulted in broad coverage of advanced technologiessuch as HSDPA, digital cable and IPTV and the development of next generation networks includingfibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and DOCSIS3.0.

At the end of 2008 there were 11.667mn mobile subscribers in Hungary, giving a penetration rate of117%. After full-year growth of 10.8% in 2008, the mobile sector shrank in the first quarter of 2009 assubscribers ceased using multiple SIMs and the operators discounted inactive SIMs. BMI expects this tobe a blip rather than a new trend and we believe growth will return in subsequent quarters, albeit at aslower pace. As well as coping with the tough economic situation, the operators have been increasinglyfocusing on the postpaid segment and encouraging mobile data usage in an effort to bolster their ARPUrates, although in Q408 the majority of net additions came from the prepaid segment.

In March 2009 the NHH revealed that it had cancelled the fourth mobile network licence tender, whichwould have seen a new GSM/UMTS operator enter the market. Four companies had bid for the licence:Digi, DreamCom, Invitel (HTCC) and Mobinet Tavkozlesi Projekt. The NHH was pessimistic aboutthe prospective new entrant having the desired impact on the mobile sector. Although the decision wasappealed against, at the time of writing it still stood after the appeal was rejected. BMI remains optimisticthat the tender could be relaunched at a future data when the country’s economy and financial marketshave settled down. With the existing operators expected to concentrate on the postpaid segment and highvaluedata users, we do believe that there is room for a new operator to target the prepaid sector.

Hungary’s fixed-line subscriber base continued to decline in 2008, falling to 3.094mn subscribers and apenetration rate of 30.9%. The decline is being driven by fixed-to-mobile substitution as well ascustomers dropping their fixed lines in favour of VoIP and VoCable services. Incumbent MagyarTelekom now reports voice customers, which includes traditional copper fixed-line, VoIP and VoCableand has seen the overall number continue to decline during the first quarter of 2009. To help stem thisdecline, operators are turning to double- and triple-play bundles, packaging fixed lines with broadbandand pay TV services. While this should mitigate the situation to some extent, we still expect the fixed-linesector to continue declining.

Cable broadband accounted for the majority of the fixed broadband sector’s growth in 2008 and it seemslikely that by the end of 2009 cable broadband will account for more fixed broadband connections thanADSL. There are four main cable operators in Hungary, UPC Hungary, Fibernet, Digi and MagyarTelekom’s cable arm T-Kabel. Between them they control around 70-75% of the cable broadbandmarket. Magyar Telekom is the dominant force in the broadband sector, with an estimated 54% of theretail ADSL market and 18% share of the cable broadband market at the end of Q109. Hungary’sbroadband market is increasingly moving in the direction of double- and triple-play packages and theoperators have been developing their pay-TV products, offering digital cable, IPTV and DTH services inan effort to woo customers. In May of this year, the NHH issued two WiMAX licences to MagyarTelekom and Antenna Hungaria with a view to boosting broadband coverage in previously underservedrural areas of the country.

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news from mindbranch

Nokia Factory In Hungary Produces 500,000,000th Mobile Phone!

Whilst other manufacturers have come and gone, Nokia has managed to stay at the top of the mobile phone tree by consistently releasing high quality and reliable handsets to every corner of the globe for the past 40 years.

Testament to that broad plan is the industry milestone at an unassuming Nokia factory in Komarom, Hungary, who have recently celebrated the production of their 500 millionth handset. In that one factory.

Established in 1999, the Komarom factory manufactures phones primarily for use in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe like the Nokia 6300 and the 2760, but also cutting edge handsets in the form of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

The lucky phone to roll off the line as number 50 million? A regular Nokia N79. Not a platinum Nokia N97, nor a holo-phone that shoots lightning, just another dependable high quality device.

With worldwide owners well into the billions and an economic weight that counts for almost a third of Finland’s market capital, Nokia’s (almost) unassailable position as number 1 is cemented.

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news from omio

Vodafone to offer Bytemobile solution for mobile internet (Hungary)

Vodafone Hungary and mobile internet solutions developer Bytemobile have successfully deployed the latter’s integrated web and multimedia content solution on the cellco’s network, Bytemobile said in a statement. As a result of the upgrade, Vodafone Hungary will now be able to deliver open internet applications including Adobe Flash Player animation and video, to virtually all wireless handheld devices.

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