Bharti Airtel saw its profit fall during its fiscal Q1 to end-June, as the operator was faced by regulatory and tax developments in India, and planned accelerated investments in India and Africa.

In a statement, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and MD of the company, said: “Telecom revenues in India have been depressed due to hyper-competition and recent regulatory and tax developments… On the African side, we are gaining market share, benefiting from the significant investments made in the last two years.”

For the quarter to June 30, 2012, the company announced net income of INR7.62 billion (US$138.6 million), down by 37.3 per cent from INR12.2 billion, on revenue of INR193.5 billion, up 14 per cent year-on-year.

Stagnant EBITDA coupled with higher depreciation and amortisation arising from enhanced capex and licence fees resulted in the lower profit.

Mobile subscriber revenue in India during the period was impacted by two changes: Airtel said that guidelines from watchdog TRAI around processing fees restricted the sale of bundled tariffs; and a tax increase led to all telecom services becoming more expensive by two per cent.

For its India and South Asia mobile business, EBIT was INR17 billion, down 18 per cent, on revenue of INR106.8 billion, up nine per cent.

Positive news in India was a 44.2 per cent increase in mobile data revenue.

According to the Economic Times, the board of Airtel is also considering the sale of up to 10 per cent of its towers unit, Bharti Infratel. No timeline has been given for a decision.

In Africa, EBIT was US$62 million, up 23 per cent from US$50 million, on revenue of US$1.1 billion, up nine per cent from US$979 million. The company noted challenges on the horizon, however, including “economic and currency headwinds” in key markets, as a result of the Eurozone crisis, lower aid and grants, rising inflation, and “political issues” in some countries.

As a result of this, it has intensified its market operations, advertising and network rollouts, as well as pursuing new growth initiatives with 3G, Airtel Money, and in the Rwandan market.
Overall it saw a 13 per cent year-on-year growth in mobile subscribers to 250 million, driven by growth of 11 per cent in India & South Asia (to 194.2 million) and 20.6 per cent in Africa (to 55.9 million).

South Africa based MTN Group has announced first-half revenues rose by 17.5 per cent to ZAR66.5 billion (US$8.1 billion), impacted by solid growth in South Africa, Iran and Ghana, as well as by foreign exchange gains. On a constant currency basis, group revenue grew 12.5 per cent year-on-year.

First half operating profit also rose, to ZAR21.641 billion, up 22 per cent year-on-year.

MTN’s subscriber base grew by 6.9 per cent year-on-year to 176 million.

Market conditions continued to be impacted by increasing levels of competition, regulatory requirements, political unrest in certain countries and the global economic slowdown. Growth in Nigeria was lower than anticipated as a result of intense competition.

Group EBITDA increased 18.2 per cent to ZAR29.8 billion. On a constant currency basis, EBITDA grew 12 per cent year-on-year. The growth in EBITDA was mainly due to strong organic growth in South Africa and Iran, which grew local currency EBITDA by 10.5 per cent and 36.4 per cent respectively.

Capex increased 77.7 per cent to ZAR10.14 billion, due mainly to an aggressive rollout programme implemented earlier in the year and the ongoing focus on critical capex investment programmes across the group’s operations.

Africa’s tantalising opportunities: Ten African cellular markets to add 121 million subscriptions by 2016, growing at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 14%.

In a new research report, the Arab Advisors Group (AAG) in cooperation with Pursuit Mode Initiatives FZE analysed the sub-Saharan Africa cellular landscape. The research report focuses on ten African markets with ample room for growth. These countries are Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The cellular adoption in the aforementioned markets grew at an outstanding CAGR of 27% between 2009 and 2011. AAG projects the upcoming growth in cellular adoption to continue to grow at a CAGR of more than 14% between 2012 and 2016.

The aggregate cellular penetration rate of the ten sub-Saharan countries in focus stood at 42% at the end of 2011. On a country level, the cellular penetration rates ranged from 16% up to 85%. AAG projects the combined cellular growth of subscriptions in the selected countries to exceed 121 million during the forecast period ending 2016, translating to an aggregate penetration rate of 77% by the end of the period. Total cellular revenues of the ten countries reached US$9 billion in 2011. AAG projects revenues to grow at a CAGR of 10% during the forecast period. AAG’s projections take into consideration various factors including the current and projected economic and political landscape, historical cellular growth, cellular coverage, 3G investments, upcoming cellular licences, and operators’ strategies.

The growth potential of the emerging economies of sub-Saharan Africa has attracted global and regional investors. Africa’s cellular markets have been growing at stellar rates recently. In order to shed light on Africa’s growth prospects, AAG in cooperation with Pursuit Mode Initiatives FZE prepared a research report, Untapped Potential: Africa’s Remaining Growth Markets in Focus.

The report starts with a general overview of these markets, digs deeper into the specific market dynamics on a country level, profiles and analyses the pan-African mobile players operating in these markets, and identifies the emerging trends in the cellular sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the report concludes by identifying the main investment opportunities.

The new report, “Untapped Potential: Africa’s Remaining Growth Markets in Focus” was published by AAG on August 1, 2012. This report can be purchased from AAG or Pursuit Mode Initiatives FZE for only US$4,000. The 128-page report, which has 109 detailed exhibits, provides an invaluable overview of the growth and investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa’s cellular markets.

Contact Karl Hougaard at Karl@comm.ae or on +971 50 400 1220 for further details and purchase enquiries

Zain Group today reported its consolidated financial results for the half-year ended June30 , 2012, which reflected revenues of KD663.5 million (US$2.38 billion), up 0.6 per cent year-on-year. Net income for the half was also flat at KD141.9 million, also up just 0.6 per cent year-on-year.

The operator counted 41.4 million consolidated active subscribers at the end of June, an increase of 1.8 million users or five per cent over the 39.6 million counted at the same time last year. By way of comparison, Zain added 5.4 million new active subscribers over the 12 months to end-June 2011.

In terms of quarterly performance, Zain Group added 1.1 million subscribers in Q212, up from 40.3 million at the end of Q112. Consolidated revenues for the quarter amounted to KD337.5, up four per cent year-on-year, while net income amounted to KWD70.9, up one per cent year-on-year.

Research In Motion (RIM) has launched a LTE variant of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular networks.

"We’re excited to bring customers the first BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with support for 4G LTE networks," said David J. Smith, executive VP, Mobile Computing at RIM.

The LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is also enterprise ready. It can be managed with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and includes BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows a user to use a BlackBerry PlayBook for both work and personal purposes by keeping business information secure and separate from personal information.

The LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will come with 32GB of memory storage and will be available from Bell, Rogers and Telus in Canada on August 9, 2012.

Additional variants of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet supporting various cellular networks are expected to be available in the coming months from carriers in the USA, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.