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High taxes in many developing countries have made mobile communications unaffordable for hundreds of millions of people, holding back social and economic development, according to a study by the GSM Association (GSMA).

In 16 of the 50 developing countries in the study, taxes represent more than 20% of the total cost of owning and using a mobile phone. In 14 of the developing countries, the average mobile phone user pays more than US$40 a year in taxes on handsets and mobile services.

Thestudy, which was conducted by Pyramid Research and Frontier Economics, with support from Deloitte & Touche LLP and Tarifica, on behalf of the GSMA, is the first research to examine the impact of taxes on the affordability of mobile phones in a large number of developing countries.

Mobile phones have the potential to give hundreds of millions of people in developing countries access to communication and information technology, but only if governments work with the industry to reduce the total cost of owning and using a mobile phone.

Nineteen of thecountries in the study even levy additional taxes, on top of standard sales taxes, on mobile phone users. Some of these additional taxes are telecom-specific, such as service-activation charges. These special taxes average US$13 per year for each user.

The GSMA study also found that alarge proportion of handset sales today in emerging markets are via the black market. In 2004, an estimated 39% of all handsets sold were distributed via the black market representing a loss of US$2.7 billion tax revenue in the 50 markets examined. If that trend continued,that would meanlost tax revenue of US$24.5 billion over the next five years.

The GSMA and mobile phone makers are together creating a new category of ultra-low cost phones that will sell for less than US$30 at wholesale, but in some countries the retail price of these phones will be much higher because of import duties and sales taxes. If low-cost handsets were exempt from import duties and sales taxes, the GSMA study found that up to 930 million additional low-cost handsets would be sold in the 50 markets covered by the study between 2006 and 2010.

Some countries have already made tax reductions. The Indian government has brought down import duties on handsets over the past three years, helping to boost the proportion ofits populationwith mobile phones to more than 5% from less than 1%. The implication is that governments can use fiscal policy to enable more of their people to become connected.

The study also found:
A government that lowered sales taxes on mobile services by just one percentage point would boost the number of mobile phone users in its country by more than 2% between 2006 and 2010.
In some cases, lowering taxes on mobile communications could actually increase government’s total tax revenue in the longer-term. Each new mobile phone user would generate an additional US$25 a year in service tax revenues at the current levels of taxation on usage.
Eliminating all telecom-specific and other special taxes would boost the number of mobile users in the 19 affected markets by 34 million by 2010 and mobile voice traffic in these markets by 25%.
Of the 50 countries in the study, Turkey levies the highest rate of taxes on mobile communications – nearly 44% of the cost of owning and using a mobile phone is made up of taxes. That represents an average of US$73 in taxes each year for each user.

Greater use of mobile phones can give a developing economy a significant boost, according to previous studies. A rise of 10% in the proportion of a country’s population with a mobile phone will lift annual growth in gross domestic product per capita by 0.6%, according to research by London Business School.

Most governments have acknowledged the importance of giving their people access to technology. At the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003, 175 countries signed up to a commitment to give more than half the world’s population access to information and communications technologies by 2015.

See:
Global – Mobile Communications
Global – Mobile Data

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Michael Carpena recently provided me with the follow information on MMS. He agreed with comments I had made in one of my articles that MMS hasn’t taken off as visibly as SMS around the world. He believes that this is possibly caused by 3 things.

The first is the implementation of the technology. Most carriers have only recently implemented the ability to send/receive MMS. For instance it was only in late September that Vodafone and Telecom NZ implemented a domestic service to exchange MMS between their networks. In the US that is still not fully implemented, and in Europe, most carriers still can’t.

In contrast the Asia Pacific region has led the push with around 80% of operators being able to send international MMS. In Australia, the carriers have a domestic capability but only a limited international capability. The exception is Telstra who launched their international MMS service in August this year and is expanding its reach very quickly with the help of a MMS hub, Aicent Inc. The other Australian domestic carriers do not have a full blown international MMS service yet. They do have a limited capability through bilateral links with some operators. Domestic Australian MMS volumes now count in the millions.

The other reason is the complexity of composing an MMS message. It is not always easy, unless you just want to snap a pic and add some text to it. Some carriers are overcoming this by providing their customers with ready made templates, e.g. Christmas themes, Chinese New Year, etc.

And the final reason is pricing. At a time when the price of an SMS was around AU$0.20, MMS messages were introduced at a price of about AU$0.80. That’s 4 times the cost of an SMS. Michael notes that Telstra has introduced its international MMS service at the price of a domestic MMS of AU$0.50, in order to encourage their customers to use the service. With the penetration of MMS capable handsets reaching very high levels, that’s no longer a deterrent to the use of the service.

2005 has seen a lot of progress in the International MMS scene. The GSM Association has done a lot of work in areas such as end-to-end SLAs for the service, and we are seeing the Europeans coming up to speed quickly. Most European carriers are in the process of launching their service, or preparing to launch this year. Likewise, the North Americans are getting serious about their domestic capabilities with international services slated for launch right after the domestic is up and running. In Asia Pacific MMS international MMS volumes have been increasing steadily for quite some time at an average growth rate of 20% per month. With more and more carriers launching their international capability, that is set to grow substantially.

So in conclusion, Michael wouldn’t write this technology off just yet. In fact he argues that with 3G networks, it will just get better and bolster its business case even further.
mcarpena@starbuckms.com.au

See also:
Australia – Mobile Data – MMS and Mobile TV

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Michael Carpena recently provided me with the follow information on MMS. He agreed with comments I had made in one of my articles that MMS hasn’t taken off as visibly as SMS around the world. He believes that this is possibly caused by 3 things.

The first is the implementation of the technology. Most carriers have only recently implemented the ability to send/receive MMS. For instance it was only in late September that Vodafone and Telecom NZ implemented a domestic service to exchange MMS between their networks. In the US that is still not fully implemented, and in Europe, most carriers still can’t.

In contrast the Asia Pacific region has led the push with around 80% of operators being able to send international MMS. In Australia, the carriers have a domestic capability but only a limited international capability. The exception is Telstra who launched their international MMS service in August this year and is expanding its reach very quickly with the help of a MMS hub, Aicent Inc. The other Australian domestic carriers do not have a full blown international MMS service yet. They do have a limited capability through bilateral links with some operators. Domestic Australian MMS volumes now count in the millions.

The other reason is the complexity of composing an MMS message. It is not always easy, unless you just want to snap a pic and add some text to it. Some carriers are overcoming this by providing their customers with ready made templates, e.g. Christmas themes, Chinese New Year, etc.

And the final reason is pricing. At a time when the price of an SMS was around AU$0.20, MMS messages were introduced at a price of about AU$0.80. That’s 4 times the cost of an SMS. Michael notes that Telstra has introduced its international MMS service at the price of a domestic MMS of AU$0.50, in order to encourage their customers to use the service. With the penetration of MMS capable handsets reaching very high levels, that’s no longer a deterrent to the use of the service.

2005 has seen a lot of progress in the International MMS scene. The GSM Association has done a lot of work in areas such as end-to-end SLAs for the service, and we are seeing the Europeans coming up to speed quickly. Most European carriers are in the process of launching their service, or preparing to launch this year. Likewise, the North Americans are getting serious about their domestic capabilities with international services slated for launch right after the domestic is up and running. In Asia Pacific MMS international MMS volumes have been increasing steadily for quite some time at an average growth rate of 20% per month. With more and more carriers launching their international capability, that is set to grow substantially.

So in conclusion, Michael wouldn’t write this technology off just yet. In fact he argues that with 3G networks, it will just get better and bolster its business case even further.
mcarpena@starbuckms.com.au

See also:
Global – Mobile data – Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

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The price difference between certain cable broadband and DSL services grew in August 2005, with cable modem offerings becoming 75.8% more expensive than DSL, an all-time high, stated research from SG Cowen and reported in SkyReport.

During the month, DSL prices decreased by 9.2% and cable broadband prices jumped by 4.1%. During the first and second quarters, cable broadband services took 47.8% and 46.3% of net new broadband subscribers, respectively. That compares to 50.3% in 2004 and 60.8% in 2003.

SG Cowen estimated that cable will capture about 47.3% of net new broadband subscribers in 2005.

See also: USA – Broadband Market – Cable modem and DSL

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Coverage of the September national German elections is being podcast by Deutsche-Welle, a German broadcaster. MP3 files can be downloaded in English or German, and offer the latest interviews, reports and analyses.

Requirements for the podcasts are a PC with Internet access and an MP3 player. Subscribers downloaded selected reports using a free software program, and the reports are then transferred to an MP3 player for listening.

For further information see: www.dw-world.de/election05

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In 2005 the number of mobile subscribers worldwide stood at 1.6 billion and is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2009. About 80% of this growth is expected to occur in new high growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and China.

Subscribers in high growth markets fall into two main categories. First, there are the potential subscribers in urban areas or large cities, where there is already mobile coverage, or where there is a need for capacity expansion. Second, there are the potential users who live in areas with little or no existing mobile coverage, such as rural communities, where there is a need to provide initial coverage cost-effectively with built-in expansion possibilities.

In the first segment, the likely growth in mobile traffic is putting intense pressure on the limited amount of capacity available. To address this segment is not part of the Ericsson Expander solutions. While in the second segment, network operators are facing the challenge of providing cost-efficient coverage in more remote areas, which can have an impact on the total cost for the network. In both segments, it is increasingly important to find cost-effective coverage solutions in order to meet subscriber growth and network expansion needs of high growth markets.

Apart from network infrastructure costs, there are other issues that must be dealt with, including subscriber acquisition and the availability of low cost terminals, charging systems, managing credit risk and preventing revenue leakage, distribution channels, subscriber retention and management, service differentiation and of course, capital and operating costs (CAPEX and OPEX) in the network. Other key issues include transmission flexibility, growing network complexity, and network rollout and tuning.

See also:
Mobile Communications Global
Global – Mobile Data

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The ‘any questions answered, any time’ business of 199BONGO Text Info has just announced the launch of its new service, 199BONGO ESSAYS. The service provides an online database of essays and assignments tailored for Australian students. The essays are the works of Australian students and a US-based research company.

To access the essay database, students log onto the 199BONGO Website and click on the ‘Essays’ link. When a wanted essay is found, the student texts the word ‘Essay’ to 199BONGO and then receives a password, via SMS, on their mobile phone. Using the password the student can then download one essay from the database for a total, all-up, cost of $2.99, which is charged directly to the user’s mobile phone account. There is no charge to browse the database of essays.

If the subject of an essay is not listed in the database, then an email request to 199BONGO should produce an essay within 24 hours.

See also:
Mobile Data Australia

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The ‘any questions answered, any time’ business of 199BONGO Text Info has just announced the launch of its new service, 199BONGO ESSAYS. The service provides an online database of essays and assignments tailored for Australian students. The essays are the works of Australian students and a US-based research company.

To access the essay database, students log onto the 199BONGO Website and click on the ‘Essays’ link. When a wanted essay is found, the student texts the word ‘Essay’ to 199BONGO and then receives a password, via SMS, on their mobile phone. Using the password the student can then download one essay from the database for a total, all-up, cost of $2.99, which is charged directly to the user’s mobile phone account. There is no charge to browse the database of essays.

If the subject of an essay is not listed in the database, then an email request to 199BONGO should produce an essay within 24 hours.

See also:
Mobile Data Australia

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Europe’s extensive rail network is a natural magnet for providers keen to extend the reach of their wireless offerings. Several European countries, particularly the UK and Germany, have extensive WiFi facilities on certain main lines, enabling users to surf the Internet travelling. The UK, notably, relies on a different system to its continental neighbours for the practical reason that the Victorian bridges are too low for the antennae which are becoming standard on European trains.

The latest venture is to extend the facility from laptops and PDAs to full mobile functionality on both trains and planes. UMTS RailLink has recently tested its service with a European train company at speeds of 220kph. It claims to support ‘true’ broadband speeds, which effectively means at least 512Kb/s. Crucially, the solution seems to be able to hand-over from base stations without interruption – one of the major problems which beset early trials of the technology.

UMTS RailLink is based on TD-CDMA, the high-speed 3G standard designed for mobile operators, and can be deployed in any of the spectrum bands supported by the technology. This makes it especially viable in Europe where unpaired 2000 1900MHz spectrum is available across the continent, and so cross-border travel without losing the connection is a possible.

Faster still will be mobile phone access on European airline routes. From the end of 2006 passengers will be able to use their mobile phones on commercial flights within the western Europe routes of Air Portugal and the British low-cost carrier bmi. Both carriers are to introduce a voice and text service for mobile phones developed by OnAir, a joint venture of Airbus and the Dutch technology company SITA Information Networking Computing. The three-month trial runs are preliminary to a general release scheduled – tentatively – for 2007. The carriers are to use a specially equipped fleet of Airbus 321s and Airbus 320s for the trial.

Mobile phone users will be able to make and receive calls using a base station within the airplane, but only after the plane reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet. Mobile phones are currently banned on aircraft for fear that they might interfere with a plane’s navigation system as they attempt to log on to terrestrial networks, even though transmission frequencies are generally too low to interfere with avionic equipment. Apart from the technological difficulties and limitations, as well as regulatory hurdles, European carriers now have to contend with considerable security measures which may put a halt to the service before it gets off the ground.

See also:
Europe – Broadband – Wireless Overview and Analysis;
Europe – Mobile Communications – 3G;
Technology – Mobile – 5 – 3G WCDMA.

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Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, provides business news and information together with the content delivery tools. The company has access to collection of more than 9,000 credentialed sources and includes the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and the Associated Press, as well as Reuters Fundamentals, D&B, and Bureau van Dijk company profiles.

Its XML-based and Web services-enabled technology platform provides access to this rich content collection via Factiva’s role-specific products or through customised enterprise, group or personal solutions. Executives, information professionals, marketers, salespeople, and other professionals can easily monitor and understand the latest news, market trends, and business challenges relevant to them – directly from the Microsoft Office and job-specific applications they use every day.

They recently launched "Factiva Mobile". This provides now also executives on the move with access to the above listed information

Compatible with BlackBerry devices, it potential can delivers snapshots of key information for more than 1.5 million companies worldwide.

All Factiva.com users will have the option to deliver news updates from their Track folders to a mobile device. Track is a current awareness service that delivers relevant news based on news tracking statements set up by each user. By selecting "Mobile" for e-mail format, they will receive plain text email delivery, specifically formatted for their mobile device. While Track updates have been delivered to mobile devices for years, this new option to retrieve stories from headlines provides a cleaner, tighter format that will visibly improve the user experience.

In addition, Factiva is working to improve the overall user experience for mobile users. Through its "de-duplication" Beta, Factiva will enable customers to eliminate identical or similar articles delivered to their BlackBerry. By eliminating multiple versions of the same article, this Beta addresses a frequent concern of mobile customers who need to manage incoming information in a limited viewing environment.

See also:
Global – Mobile Data

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