Iliad shares drop 4 pct as mobile phone growth slows

PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in France's Iliad fell more than 4 percent after the low-cost telecoms operator founded by billionaire Xavier Niel reported slower growth at its mobile phone business Free.

Iliad said the number of new mobile customers fell to 640,000 in the third quarter from 720,000 in the second, suggesting that a price war with more established mobile operators is making it harder for Iliad's Free Mobile service to lure away their customers.

It was the slowest quarterly increase in customers for Free Mobile since its launch, although the third quarter is traditionally a slower period.

Some analysts had anticipated the slowdown and had expected Iliad to launch a new commercial formula to boost sales.

"Be patient. We will launch new offers in the months ahead, when the time is right," Iliad finance chief Thomas Reynaud told Reuters.

Iliad said in a statement that Free had 7,435,000 mobile customers at the end of September, for a mobile market share of more than 11 percent, up from 10 percent at the end of June.

Mobile now generates a third of the company's revenues, which rose 23 percent to 2.77 billion euros ($3.73 billion) in the January-to-September period.

Third-quarter revenue was up 15 percent to 944 million euros. Analysts from Barclays, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan had expected quarterly revenue of between 927 and 935 million euros.

"These solid results demonstrate Iliad's ability to deliver results, even if does not beat expectations by as much as in earlier quarters," a Paris-based trader said.

Free's no-frills deals - which cost 2 euros or 19.99 euros a month without a phone or long-term contract - have forced larger competitors France Telecom, Vivendi's SFR and Bouygues Telecom to cut costs to compete and accelerate construction of superfast 4G networks to offer a better service than Iliad.

"When the time is right, we too will offer 4G," Reynaud said, adding that competitors' 4G launches had no impact on Free mobile's growth.

Shares in Iliad are up nearly 30 percent this year, after a 36 percent rise last year, and are in line with a broader rally by a European telecoms sector index this year.

The company has a market capitalization of 9.7($1 = 0.7430 euros)

(Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Potter and Tom Pfeiffer)

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às 19:49

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FCC to wireless carriers: agree on phone unlocking policy or face rules

By Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:40pm EST

A man talks on his mobile phone as he waits at a crosswalk at Lindbergh Field Airport in San Diego, California, November 6, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top telecommunications regulator on Thursday demanded that wireless providers voluntarily agree on the rights of consumers to unlock mobile devices once contracts end, or the Federal Communications Commission will make it a rule.

At issue is whether cellphone buyers, who often get new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts, should be able to take their gadgets with them when they change carriers.

The FCC and the wireless trade group CTIA have been working for eight months on developing a policy for the industry's Consumer Code that would address the rights of phone owners to unlock their devices.

In a letter to CTIA President Steve Largent on Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged the industry to adopt the new unlocking policy within weeks, before the holiday shopping season.

"Enough time has passed, and it is now time for the industry to act voluntarily or for the FCC to regulate," Wheeler said in the letter posted online.

According to Wheeler's letter, the carriers agree that consumers should be able to unlock their devices once their contracts are fulfilled but have not agreed to a policy of notifying customers when their device is eligible for unlocking or automatically unlocking the device when it becomes eligible.

"Absent the consumer's right to be informed about eligibility, any voluntary program would be a hollow shell," Wheeler said in his letter.

The ban on unlocking originates in the U.S. copyright law overseen by the Library of Congress. The White House in March responded to an online petition protesting the law and sided with the thousands who signed it.

Lawmakers have introduced bills for a legislative fix but consumer advocates have urged the FCC, the agency that regulates the wireless industry, to get involved.

In a statement on Thursday, CTIA's vice president for regulatory affairs, Scott Bergmann, said the trade association would continue discussions with Wheeler and that consumers now can take advantage of a "wide variety" of unlocked devices and "liberal" unlocking policies.

He added that not all devices can be switched from one provider to another because of their technological or engineering specifications.

Opponents of unlocking have argued that the phones should be "locked," or prevented from moving freely across networks, because of the subsidies that carriers such as AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless and Sprint provide to consumers when they buy the phones.

Wheeler's push on Thursday was welcomed by smaller rural and regional carriers who hope it will help them access more advanced devices now not manufactured with their networks in mind; and by consumer interest groups like Public Knowledge, which has accused the wireless industry of foot-dragging.

"If we all agree that people should be able to use their devices on any network they choose, it's time for that to be a reality," said Sherwin Siy, vice president of legal affairs for Washington-based Public Knowledge.

CTIA, where Wheeler himself was once president, has advocated for the passage of a bill in Congress that would narrowly repeal the Library of Congress decision that sparked this year's unlocking policy debate.

The Library of Congress is responsible for setting rules related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Last year it stopped exempting cellphone unlocking from the reach of the law, meaning customers now have to request their wireless company's permission to legally unlock a phone even after fulfilling the contract with that company.

In response to the online petition that ensued, the White House said it would support a narrow legislative fix.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; editing by Andrew Hay)

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às 02:51

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Smartphones 55 percent of global mobile phone sales in third-quarter

By Harro Ten Wolde

FRANKFURT Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:55am EST

Syrian refugees look at photos of their missing and believed to have drowned compatriots on a smartphone, at the Hal Far open centre for migrants in Hal Far, outside Valletta, October 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Smartphone sales accounted for 55 percent of global mobile sales in the third quarter as customers in China and Latin America swapped their old phones for the higher end of the range gadgets, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Worldwide smartphone sales rose nearly 46 percent from last year to 250.2 million units, it said, while overall mobile phone sales were up less than 6 percent at 455.6 million.

"Sales of feature phones (normal handsets) continued to decline and the decrease was more pronounced in markets where the average selling price (ASP) for feature phones was much closer to the ASP of affordable smartphones," said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

He said he expected smartphone sales of just below 1 billion devices for 2013.

Samsung kept the top spot in the smartphone segment, with a 32.1 percent market share, selling 80.36 million smartphones, up from 55 million in the same quarter last year, helped by its Note 3 large display smartphone.

Apple sold 23.2 percent more smartphones at 30.33 million, but its market share dropped to 12.1 percent from 14.3 percent.

Sales of Apple's new iPhone 5S and its low-cost iPhone 5C model had a modest impact on sales as both phones went on sale in September, the last month of the quarter.

Lenovo took the third spot with a 5.1 percent market share in the smartphone segment, just ahead of LG Electronics and Huawei, with market shares of 4.8 percent and 4.7 percent respectively.

All the companies are in especially fierce competition in the Chinese market, where customers are still replacing their old models with smartphones.

Of the smartphones sold, 81.9 percent were running on Google's mobile platform Android, while 12.1 percent used Apple's iOS and 3.6 percent were on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Gartner said.

Blackberry saw its user base drop to 1.8 percent from 5.2 percent from the third quarter last year, it added.

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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às 23:48

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FCC Chairman: I Want Carriers to Allow Phone Unlocking

The newly crowned chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, is clearly an ambitious man: he's on a crusade to get carriers to allow phone unlocking.

Despite having been in post for less than a month, he's written a letter—that's, oddly, how these things still work—to the CTIA explaining that he thinks that it's time carriers changed their phone unlocking policy. He explained that he wanted the CTIA—a trade association representing the wireless carriers—to codify a consumer's right which would mean they could unlock their device once a wireless contract's obligations had been met:

"For eight months, the FCC staff has been working with CTIA on an amendment to your Consumer Code in which this industry would address consumers' rights to unlock their mobile wireless devices once their contracts are fulfilled. Enough time has passed, and it is now time for the industry to act voluntarily or for the FCC to regulate."

He went further, describing that the policy must be "clear, concise, and readily accessible" and allow consumers to unlock their device "when the applicable service contract, installment plan, or ETF has been fulfilled." He even suggested that US carriers ought automatically notify customers when a product is eligible for unlocking—or even automatically unlock them, all free of charge!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the CTIA isn't massively keen on the idea, but the good thing about making such bold suggestions is that it means there's plenty of room for negotiation. For now, though, unlocking your smartphone without a carrier's permission remains illegal. Maybe, one day, that might change. [Tom Wheeler's Letter via Verge]

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às 13:54

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Windows Phone 8 Finally Gets Support For 1080p

Windows Phone 8 is finally getting support for 1080p, in the third update to the platform, announced today.

That's the biggest part of the update, but there are a few other minor tweaks to Windows Phone 8. First off, you'll now have another row of tiles, so you can have more content on your home screen. Second, you now have the ability to lock the rotation on your screen. Microsoft has also added driving mode, so you can send automatic responses to calls and texts when you're in the car.

Multitasking is also getting a slight refresh. Now you're able to simply tap on an x to close an app in the background. For the most part, the update is pretty incremental, but it's added several factors that make the whole Windows Phone experience a lot more convenient. The update is shipping on new devices and it'll pop up on existing ones shortly.

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às 02:18

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Microsoft is rolling out a third update for Windows Phone 8--the most distinctive feature of which i

Microsoft is rolling out a third update for Windows Phone 8—the most distinctive feature of which is support for 5- and 6-inch displays at 1080p resolution. Brace yourselves for monstrous Windows phones.

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às 11:34

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Our Favorite iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

Congratulations! We may not have a government, but instead of running around and looting and pillaging like a bunch of animals, you're here calmly reading about mobile applications—just like god intended. And to reward you, we've got some good ones for iPhones, Androids, and Windows Phones alike, so go get 'em, tiger. And hey, when you're done, go ahead and loot a little. You've earned it.

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If you snatched up the colorful iPhone 5C and its perforated case before you realized what an eyesore it is, there's now a cheap and simple solution to the problem. The developers at LunarLincoln have just released a free app called CaseCollage that lets you import images from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Picasa and arrange them in any design you like. When you're happy all you need to is print out your design, trim it down, insert it between your iPhone 5C and voila, your phone is no longer an embarrassment. [Free]

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Flickr's new iOS 7 app now offers automatic uploading at full resolution, with sharing set to private by default. Which is pretty great. Of course, all your old favs such as editing tools, shooting grids and custom filters. But full resolution uploads are a long overdue—and welcome—update. [Free]

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Ok, you're right, technically this isn't an app. But it is a very important and hilarious addition to your phone's current capabilities that every iPhone owner should know about. The little single serve website called "Infinite Text-In-Progress" helps you trick your iPhone-toting friends into thinking they're receiving a text. Just open the page on your phone, tap the animated gif, hit save, and then send it to your friend as an picture text. He/she will think you're about to send her a text, but guess what? You're not! Hilarity ensues, etc. etc. [Free]

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Runtastic Six Pack is, as you'd suspect, dedicated to carving out your abs from underneath their nacho-induced padding. It's, essentially, a training program that features a course of pre-defined workouts and a pair of animated avatars to guide you through it. You can start from the easiest one and then build yourself up over the course of a ten week program. The workouts are typically about 15 minutes and the app tells you which days to work and which days to take off. [Free]

This week's update brings lots of cool changes to very few users — right now, it's only available on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1-2014 Edition. Still, it'll hit other Android tablets by end of year, bringing landscape and multi-screen views, a homescreen widget, and an illustrator function that lets you tweet doodles or doodled-on photos. [Free]

This end-to-end encryption app promises to keep your files from prying eyes. Anything you send is encrypted before it leaves, and decrypted after it's downloaded, so no server has access to the unencrypted file. For collaborative work, you can even determine the level of access each user has, and who can re-share the document. [Free]

First thing you'll notice in the updated Outlook.com app is the new colors, with 11 different themes. From there, it's all productivity, with the capability to send emails from any of your Outlook user names and search all your e-mail messages, whether they're on your device or in the cloud. Finally, you can sync your email for offline reading. [Free]

Your built-in calculator app is fine for simple arithmetic, but complex calculations are a pain. Instead of spending half your day trying to find the symbol you need, MyScript lets you hand-write your calculations. You can even cross out incorrect entries to delete them, a strange and wonderful mashup of old and new tech. If you regularly do calculus but don't want to carry a graphing calculator in your pocket, try this baby out. [Free]

Got a new Nokia Lumia device? Then you probably find yourself staring at the clock on your Glance Screen fairly often. Here's a way to shake things up by customizing your screen with colorful backgrounds that don't compromise your phone's battery life. The Glance Background app also gives you the ability to use your own images and tweak them with a minimal photo editor. [Free]

We all know how annoying it is to split the bill at restaurants. eSplitter lets you bypass the hassle of mental math, by allowing users to split costs evenly or by portions. And to make things even simpler, it'll keep a running tally of who owes what as you split groceries, drinks and whatever else your heart desires. [Free]

Everyone's favorite microblogging platform has been heavily revamped for Windows Phone with a dark theme—a stark contrast to its usual look. You'll be able to set up Tweet notifications for your favorite accounts, link keyword searches to your home screen and check out interesting tweets directly on the new Twitter lockscreen. [Free]

Related Just because Apple now has a mid-range phone that they're hocking for cheaper doesn't mean it's not getting the same love and… Read…

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às 22:16

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