3 Billion GSM Connections On The Mobile Planet – Reports The GSMA

16th April 2008, London, UK: The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, today announced that total connections to GSM mobile communications networks have now passed the 3 Billion mark globally. The third billion landmark has been reached just four years after the GSM industry surpassed its first billion, and just two years from the second billionth connection.
The 3 Billion landmark has been surpassed just 17 years after the first GSM network launch in 1991. Today more than 700 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories of the world are adding new connections at the rate of 15 per second, or 1.3 million per day.
The world’s biggest GSM markets today are China (509 million), which is growing at a rate of more than 7 million new connections a month and accounts for 14% of the third billion growth; India (193 million), growing at 6 million per month accounts for 12% of the third billion growth, Russia (178 million) and Brazil (93 million) which both contributed 4% of the third billion growth.
“The growth of mobile communications continues to soar, not least in emerging markets, which are responsible for 85 percent of new connections today,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. “One cannot underestimate the importance of mobile as a vital communications tool, connecting so many people, often for the first time in their lives.
“Against that backdrop, the roll-out of Mobile Broadband services, offering high speed internet and rich media access is well underway and available in more than 73 countries today,” added Conway. “Mobile Broadband hails the next era for our vast eco-system, one that is delivering remarkable social and economic benefits to people, businesses and economies throughout the world.”
The news comes as the GSMA today premiers a special documentary film Mobile Planet, exploring the social and economic value of mobile communications across 20 countries of the world. Produced in partnership with TelecomTV, the film features a host of locations from Japan to Rwanda, South Africa to Chile, where mobile is enhancing lives and changing the face of societies. The film will be shown for the first time in full at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London tonight.

DUBLIN, Calif., May 06, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----Driven by the excellent opportunity provided by mobile banking to enhance existing customer services, nearly a third of the world\'s largest financial organizations are planning to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months, according to a recent survey commissioned by Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. (NYSE:SY), the global leader in mobile messaging services.
The survey, which was conducted by independent research company Loudhouse, pooled the views of 92 of the world\'s top financial institutions (32 European banks, 30 banks in the United States and 30 banks from the Asia-Pacific region).
Results revealed that 66 percent of banks consider mobile banking an excellent opportunity to enhance existing customer service. While provision of such services is considerably advanced in European and Asia-Pacific regions compared to the U.S., growth is projected to be strongest in the U.S. with 53 percent of U.S. banks surveyed expecting to launch mobile banking services within the next 24 months.
\"Key factors for financial institutions offering mobile banking are not solely commercial, such as reducing costs or generating revenue,\" said Matthew Talbot, vice president, mCommerce for Sybase 365. \"Mobile banking provides unique opportunities for customer interaction and retention.\"
This broadening momentum should be encouraging for the consumer respondents to Sybase 365\'s 2007 mobile banking survey, 33 percent of whom expressed a desire to deal with finances on the move. A key element in increasing adoption, which is mirrored in the 2007 consumer study, is the level of awareness that customers have of mobile banking services. It appears that banks are responding to the lack of awareness felt by consumers, with 65 percent of the banks who currently offer mobile services stating that marketing budgets and activities to raise awareness are part of their strategic plan for 2008.
The most common mobile banking services currently available to customers include balance on demand (offered by 87 percent of banks with mobile banking services), transaction alerts (77 percent), money transfers (74 percent) and balance alerts (71 percent). Of those banks that offer such services, the top reasons for doing so are to improve the customer experience (87 percent), to extend internet banking (81 percent) and to achieve competitive advantage (71 percent).

Source: GSMA

Taiwanese handset-vendor HTC has launched a new touchscreen device that industry commentators believe could become a serious rival to Apple’s iPhone. Unlike the current generation iPhone, HTC\'s \'Touch Diamond\' - which was launched in London yesterday – is HSPA-enabled and claims to offer download speeds of up to 7.2Mb/s. Orange has already pledged to support the device. The handset will launch in Europe next month and North America and Latin America later in the year. This schedule could see the device compete directly with the new 3G version of the iPhone, which is also reportedly scheduled to rollout from next month.
HTC has traditionally sold devices to operators which have then rebranded them as their own, but last year made a concerted effort to become known as a consumer brand with the launch of its first touchscreen phone. HTC joins a series of other handset vendors that have recently developed touchscreen devices that mimic the iPhone. Nokia, the world’s largest handset vendor, demonstrated a new touchscreen device codenamed \'Tube\' last month, while pictures also emerged this week showing what appears to be a new touchscreen device developed by Philips called the Xenium X800 e2e.

Source: GSMA

Orange parent company France Telecom has made its strongest hint yet that it is planning to acquire some of its rival European operators – but insists that it has still not opened talks with TeliaSonera, the Nordic operator it was linked to last month. "All the necessary conditions are in place for the group to take part in the consolidation of the European sector," CEO Didier Lombard said in a statement announcing the group’s first-quarter results. However, in a conference call CFO Gervais Pellissier played down suggestions that an acquisition of TeliaSonera was imminent. The French group has also been linked to the Norwegian-based operator Telenor.
France Telecom’s first-quarter revenues increased 1.4 percent to €13 billion from €12.8 billion a year earlier, recording growth across all business segments. Its gross operating margin (deemed a similar measurement to EBITDA) grew 2.8 percent to €4.79 billion from €4.65 billion a year earlier. Pellissier also confirmed that the company is in talks with Apple regarding the launch of the iPhone in other territories where France Telecom operates, which could include Spain and Poland. Orange has sold 100,000 iPhones to date in France - where it is the exclusive distributor of the device - and Pellissier predicted another boost in sales when the 3G version of the device is released, expected later this year.

Source: GSMA

BT, the UK's fixed-line incumbent operator, today unveiled a plan to give away smartphones to its broadband customers in a bid to capture a portion of the UK's mobile market. The two new 'BT ToGo' handsets on offer - the HTC S620 and S710 - will operate over BT's home wireless networks and public Wi-Fi, and handover to a mobile network when Wi-Fi is unavailable. The handsets are bundled into a new BT broadband offering called 'Broadband Anywhere.' Prices range from between £23.99 and £53.99 per month, though only the HTC S620 is given away free with the cheaper tariffs. A standard BT home broadband package is included in the price and users also get access to the BT FON and Openzone Wi-Fi hotspot networks. 
The move is the latest attempt by BT to re-enter the mobile market it exited when it sold-off its mobile arm, BT Cellnet, in 2001. BT Cellnet subsequently morphed into O2 UK, now the UK's largest mobile operator by subscribers, and one of the many UK mobile operators that is now threatening BT's fixed-line revenues by building-out its own fixed-line infrastructure. BT is also considered under threat by the recent trend for UK mobile operators to launch 'dongles' that allow laptops to access the Internet using high-speed 3G networks.  BT's last attempt to break into the mobile market with 'BT Fusion' - a converged fixed-mobile device - is regarded by analysts as a failure, reportedly attracting fewer than 50,000 customers since its launch in 2005.

Source: GSMA