3G News / Data

Chinese Internet Giant, Baidu has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to fully acquire 91 Wireless (NetDragon’s subsidiary) for a total of US$1.9bn in cash. According to the agreement: 1) Baidu will purchase NetDragon’s 57.41% equity interest in 91 Wireless for US$1.09bn (~HK$8.46bn). 2) Baidu also agreed to purchase the remaining shares from other shareholders of 91 Wireless if they are willing to sell on the same terms.

Launched in 2007, 91 Wireless operates one the leading mobile app distribution platforms in China and has attracted over 10bn application downloads

Almost 95% of Philippine Telecom’s cellular revenue comes from Voice and SMS. Internet penetration is fairly high at 35% in 2012 (Increased from 29% in 2011) but a large proportion of customers access the internet through internet cafes. Mobile data is growing from a very small base and contributes around 5% of mobile revenue now compared with 2.5-3% two years ago. High smartphone prices as well as high data tariffs have been the key hurdles to a pickup in data in our view. We believe that the key enablers for data growth, including cheap smartphones and network availability, are now in place, but the pricing of data remains high. Data can lead to a trade-off, as despite being the biggest possible growth avenue it also has the

The tower industry is a derivative of the telecom service sector. 2009 witnessed tremendous growth in the sector owing to network rollout and coverage expansion by the greenfield and established operators, respectively. In the backdrop of this we asked few questions to India’s Largest Tower Company CEO DS Rawat of Bharti Infratel and Sudhir Prasad of TowerVision Private Limited.

How will the rollout of 3G and BWA services impact the telecom tower industry?
Sudhir Prasad: Low fixed-line penetration in India has been an impediment for the uptake of broadband services. Wireless broadband will bridge the gap and usher India to “broadband revolution”. To monetize the outlay on airwaves and capital expenditure, operators are expected to market data-rich services. Initially, the tower industry will benefit in terms of increased tenancies due to overlay in networks, resulting in additional revenues. However, with uptake of data services and congestion in the existing spectrum, the need for additional towers and anchor tenants would become inevitable. It is imminent for the tower companies to innovate and make the business case viable