Vimplecom capex up 25% to $ 1.04 billion in third quarter

Telecom service provider VimpleCom on Wednesday said its Capex (capital spending) rose 25 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to $1,040 million from $829 million in the same period last year.

During the first nine months of 2013, VimpleCom Capex decreased 3 percent to $2426 million from $2489 million.

VimpleCom says its Capex for the full year will be approximately 20 percent of revenue.

VimpleCom CEO Jo Lunder said the company would plan substantial investment in its mobile data networks in Russia in the final quarter.

Its capital spending in Q3 reflects the expansion of the mobile networks in Russia, Bangladesh and CIS, as well as the continued roll out of HSPA+ and backbone capacity to support data growth in Italy and acquisition of 3G license in Bangladesh.

In Italy, VimpleCom Capex reached EUR 153 million, which was invested primarily in the expansion of mobile HSPA+ coverage, capacity, and performance, as well as in the backhaul capacity to support the strong data growth.

source: www.telecomlead.com

African mobile subscription to hit 930 million in 2016

Indications have emerged that mobile subscription in the Sub-Sahara Africa will hit an all-time high of 930 million by 2019, says Ericsson.

Out of this number,732 million will come from mobile broadband subscription, mostly in 3G, with about 100 million in LTE services.

The Head of the Sub-Saharan Africa region at Ericsson, Fredrik Jejdling announced this on Wednesday at the on-going African conference holding in Cape Town, South Africa.

During the period under review, he said that there will be 476 million smartphones and mobile data traffic will grow 17 times by the date stated above.

According to him, mobile banking and social networking will drive demand under the period in review.

He stated that Ericsson had studied about 180 operators across the globe and had identified service enablers, network developers, and service creators as major strategic approaches for data growth.

He said that service providers can team up with the enablers to achieve better results. Service creators, he said should develop their own applications to ease service delivery.

He observed that several operators are going to scramble for subscribers over the next few years as the market gets more competitive.