Research conducted by Comm. shows that close to 100,000 job cuts have been announced by major global telecoms operators and suppliers since January 2008, with the number of redundancies looking to increase further in 2009. Michelle Mills reviews the rationale behind the job losses and looks to quantify how many more jobs are likely to be lost before any recovery occurs

As the February issue of Comm. was going to print, US operator Sprint Nextel announced the axing of 8,000 jobs at the operator, adding to the mounting toll of telecoms redundancies. Combined with the 4,000 positions the challenged CDMA/WiMAX/iDEN operator axed in January 2008, the numbers place it on par with fellow US provider AT&T, as telecoms outfits that have announced significant job cuts over the past 13 months.

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While 2008 was a horrible year for most communications, technology, and media (CMT) firms worldwide, many Middle East and Africa players – including Etisalat and Orascom –demonstrated above average performance in Oliver Wyman’s Shareholder Performance Index (SPI). Among all regions, the Middle East and Africa, along with Latin America, posted the highest SPI – both with a regional average of 203, almost twice the CMT total average of 107. The calculation of the SPI, which is based on a five-year moving “window” of data, enables consistent comparison of shareholder returns by adjusting for the volatility of returns, differences in local interest rates, and mergers and acquisitions.

Milan Sallaba is Dubai-based partner of Oliver Wyman

CMT firms around the globe collectively shed US$3.1 trillion in market value in 2008, a 43 per cent drop from US$7.3 trillion to US$4.2 trillion – erasing all the gains that had been made since 2003, according to Oliver Wyman.

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The GSM Association’s (GSMA) Mobile World Congress takes place this month, with the spotlight firmly on how industry stakeholders intend to sustain growth during the global economic slowdown. GSMA’s incoming chief marketing officer Michael O’Hara tells Michelle Mills what he believes will be the defining topics at this year’s Congress

This year’s Mobile World Congress is likely to be used by many industry players to gauge just how exposed the telecoms sector is to the global financial crisis, and more importantly what impact recession is likely to have on the market moving forward. For its part, the GSM Association (GSMA), which represents more than 750 mobile operators and 200 manufacturers and suppliers in 219 countries, is looking to calm nerves of those who would suggest the global telecoms sector is facing tough times in the short and medium term.

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Etisalat has made a habit of paying big for greenfield opportunities in large markets, and to its credit, has always gone on to justify the significant up-front fees it has agreed to pay. Having been picked as the winner of the third mobile licence in Iran, Etisalat has again offered top dollar for the opportunity, and it now remains to be seen whether the UAE operator can continue its run of making big business out of big investments

Iran is a country of 70 million, which has a mobile penetration rate in excess of 60 per cent and an industry ARPU of around US$9

Last month Etisalat confirmed it had been singled out as the winner of Iran’s third mobile licence, with a winning up-front fee amounting to US$402.1 million. Etisalat is set to pay a portion of this fee in line with its 49 per cent stake in the operator, and the new operator will then be granted a 15-year licence, with access to 3G spectrum for an initial exclusive period.

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Mohammed Al Ageel, the incoming CEO of Saudi Arabia’s iDEN operator Bravo, has his work cut out in terms of bolstering the company’s digital push-to-talk (PTT) services. The niche technology developed by Motorola has 24 million users globally and despite falling subscriber numbers in some markets around the globe, Al Ageel sees opportunities for iDEN technology to expand beyond its current narrow appeal in the kingdom. Michelle Mills reports

Bravo’s CEO Mohammed Al Ageel says the time is right for marketing Bravo’s services to Saudi Arabia’s large enterprise and government sectors

The prognosis for integrated digital enhanced network (iDEN) technology, at least in its home market of North America, is not good. Nextel, the world’s largest iDEN operator, and the poster-child of the Motorola-developed technology, has witnessed subscriber numbers waning since the operator’s acquisition by CDMA operator Sprint in 2004.

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