This sums up much of my thinking - I hold a few and swing trade a few and even trade intraday sometimes ......

I think there is a lot of slack that management can cut out of the costs and would also anticipate sector consolidation ..... good value currently and have been holding their own in a falling market. Lot of US interest.

ains


Edited by Dominic White
(Filed: 08/02/2003)


Texting makes MmO2 sexy but it's also risky

More and more Britons are discovering the joys of textual intercourse. In the month of December, we fired off more than 50m mobile messages a day, and next Friday (that's Valentine's Day, folks, in case you'd forgotten) we'll send considerably more than that.



It emerged this week that the chief beneficiary of this craze is MmO2 . BT's former mobile phone division revealed that it gets a higher proportion of revenues from texting than any of the other three operators.

Revenue from messaging grew at its fastest rate ever in the last quarter, up 19pc, and data services as a proportion of MmO2 's revenue rose to 17.7pc from 15.6pc.

More good news was the rise in MmO2 's average revenues per customer. ARPUs, as nerdy analysts like to dub them, grew by 5pc to 243 in the UK and by 9pc in Germany to 212.

MmO2 now has 19.1m subscribers and in Britain it may be the smallest player, with 11.9m users, but it is growing faster than its rivals - testament to the success of its rebranding from BT Cellnet.

Only 114,000 of its 503,000 new UK subscribers were higher-spending contract customers, but MmO2 claims its pre-pay customers have started spending more than before.

Customer growth in Germany, which continues to be dominated by T-Mobile and Vodafone, is less impressive and the MmO2 share price ascribes little or no value to this part of the business.

That seems unfair, given the fact that the group has attracted higher-spending customers and has made a decent fist of turning the operation around. An eventual sale or merger is almost as inevitable as a disposal of the Dutch unit, which is losing customers.

MmO2 's larger rival Vodafone is trading on a free cashflow yield of 6pc, while at 49p this week, MmO2 's equivalent valuation remains negative. It might not have Vodafone's scale or profitability but there is room for upside. A risky buy.

Marginally outperforming market and sector at this time - plus 2.65%


ains


O2 claims online lead

London, February 11 2003, (netimperative)



by Chris Lake

O2 today revealed that it has doubled its online subscriber base in the past year, having attracted more than 250,000 new customers through its website.


The company, which claims to be the UK market leader in online sales, claims to have an online subscriber base in excess of 500,000, with nearly half classed as high-value contract customers.

It also said the website has also been the most successful channel for the sale of value-added services, such as ringtones and sms alerts and other premium rate services. Its online portal achieved almost a quarter of a billion WAP page impressions in the month of December, and 51m web page impressions during the last calendar quarter of 2002.

Part of this success can be attributed to O2's efforts in achieving brand awareness over the past year - the company said UK spontaneous brand awareness amongst high value customers has grown from 14% in May 2002 to 61% in December.

22 January: O2 puts 3G back until second half of 2004

11 Feb 2003 11:44 GMT

mm02 sees German 3G launch by Q4

LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - UK-based mobile phone company Mm02 said on Tuesday it might delay its launch of high-speed, third-generation (3G) mobile phone services by a few months until around November.
Chief Executive Peter Erskine said at a press conference that the company, which had previously said it planned a German 3G launch in the late summer, was now set to bring the high-tech, multimedia phones to Germany by "late Autumn".

Mm02, the smallest of Germany's four mobile phone operators, has already delayed its 3G launch in Britain to the second half of 2004 after harsher-than-expected regulatory price cuts forced the company to rein in investment.

Mm02 has adopted a "go-slow" 3G investment strategy in Germany, which has already seen two rivals put costly 3G start-up operations on ice. But the British group plans to meet regulatory requirements and ensure that its 3G network reaches 25 percent of the population by the end of this year.

Although mm02's unit, which is branded 02 Germany, has beaten market forecasts by reaching positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) six months ahead of guidance, it remains loss-making.

Some analysts still believe mm02 might sell the business, which has only around eight percent of a market that is 80-percent controlled by Deutsche Telekom DTEGn.DE and Vodafone Group Plc VOD.L , possibly merging it with Dutch-owned rival E-Plus KPN.AS .

Mm02 insisted last week that an extended 3G German network-sharing deal with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile [TMOG.UL] did not commit the group to a specific strategy in Germany. But analysts interpreted the move as an indication that any prompt sale looked less likely and mm02's shares fell.

Meanwhile, the company is in talks to sell its underperforming Dutch business, 02 Netherlands, as well as examining other options. Its other subsidiaries include a wholly-owned British and Irish operation.

Be more German, mmO2 tells Oftel
By Dominic White (Filed: 12/02/2003) Telegraph - edited


Peter Erskine, chief executive of mmO2, yesterday attacked Britain's telecoms watchdog Oftel, saying Germany's regulator was far more reasonable towards mobile phone operators.

Mr Erskine criticised Oftel's recent imposition of cost cuts on calls between networks and said that because of its regulatory environment a start-up mobile company would find it more attractive to invest in Germany than the UK.



The Scotsman


O2 doubles UK online subscriber base


Mobile phone group mmO2 has doubled its UK online subscriber base to more than half a million over the last year.

The former BT subsidiary, which launched its services online about 18 months ago, revealed nearly half of its internet sales were long-term contracts, with the remaining customers opting for pre-pay tariffs. Dave McGlade, chief executive of O2s UK arm, said: "Our online operation is particularly important because it enables us to build stronger direct relationships and drive incremental sales of new services such as ring-tones and paid-for alerts."

SMS marketing gets better response than direct mail

Enpocket has published its third Insight report The response performance of SMS advertising. The study, which is based on independent ICM telephone survey work with over 5,200 consumers who had seen some of more than 200 campaigns researched by Enpocket between Oct 2001 and Jan 2003, revealed that the average campaign delivers 15% response (of any type), which is more than twice the average other industry reports have given for direct mail (sources: Gartner, DMIS)

The report also noted that the best performing response mechanisms are Reply to SMS (8% average), Visit a web site (6%), Visit a store (4%), Buy the advertised product (4%).

The research shows that 94% of messages are read, which helps explain the high levels of response and brand impact that previous Enpocket Insight reports have unveiled. 23% of messages are shown or forwarded to a friend, which indicates that the total impact of activity is significantly higher than even these figures suggest.

For the best performing campaigns, the study reveals outstanding results as follows: 46% response (of any type), 27% Reply to a message, 19% Visit a web site, 15% Visit a store. Most impressively, the best campaigns have resulted in 17% Buying the advertised product, which suggests that marketers who tailor communications most effectively to this new personal medium can generate exceptional ROI.

Commenting on the findings, Jonathon Linner, CEO of Enpocket, said: With these results, and the findings of the earlier branding report, SMS advertising has firmly proved that it is a more effective marketing channel than other media. The personal nature of the medium and high attention it commands, coupled with its unparalleled targeting and response capabilities, means marketers can deliver actionable campaigns of greater relevance and impact to their target audiences. Add to this the facts that production and delivery costs are low and that 1 in 4 messages are shown or forwarded to friends, and there is tremendous opportunity for marketers to improve total ROI through use of the medium.

Thanks for the excellent postings.

passes the time in a quiet market :-)) ...... market is being massaged one way one day and the other the next

down day today unless US picks up - nas futures don 3 and dow down 11 at this time - sector off 1.1%


ains

Totally agree......

This will help


Wednesday, 12 February, 2003, 12:21 GMT
Phone users become picture savvy BBC


No trendy mobile phone should be without a camera, network operators say

Sales of mobile camera phones are surging worldwide, outpacing sales of personal digital assistants like Palms and Pocket PCs.
But of the 18 million camera phones sold in 2002, more than 70% were snapped up in Japan, and another 13% in South Korea.

CAMERA PHONE SALES (2002, in millions)
N.America 0.2

W.Europe 1.32

Asia Pacific 15.85

C.&S. America 0.03

E.Europe 0.26

Other 0.22

source: Strategy Analytics

Trailing far behind is Western Europe, where multimedia messaging services that allow the sending of pictures were rolled out only towards the end of 2002.

Experts at Strategy Analytics, who compiled the figures, predict that the sales boom will continue, but warn that a limited choice of phones on offer and ill-designed software are holding back growth.

The killer application?

Mobile phone operators around the world have invested heavily in faster mobile phone services.


Sharp's GX10 camera phone has an unusually large LCD display
However, they are still searching for so-called "killer applications" that guarantee healthy returns on these investments.

The Japanese example suggests that sending pictures from a mobile phone to friends and family - either to their phone or their e-mail inbox - could be just such a money spinner.

In the two countries with the world's most advanced mobile phone networks - Japan and Korea - nearly 16 million embedded-camera phones were sold last year alone.

Vodafone's Japanese subsidiary J-Phone was the world's leading camera phone operator in 2002, with more than six million phones on its books, although Strategy Analytics predicts that this year it will be overtaken by the country's largest mobile phone firm, NTT Docomo.

Europe, meanwhile, is playing catch-up, with 1.1 million phones sold during the last three months of 2002 alone, taking the total to 1.32 million.

In the Americas, in contrast, subscribers bought just 230,000 camera phones.

The temptation of multimedia messaging comes at a price for network operators.

Strategy Analytics estimates that each camera phone sold in Western Europe is subsidised by up to $500.

As a result, camera phones last year outsold personal digital assistants by five million units.

Camera phones and 'wicked people'

And there is the danger of a social backlash against camera phones.


The screen of Nokia's new 7250 camera phone is too small, says Strategy Analytics
James Bond proved in his film how easy it is to snatch a picture with a camera phone, and thousands are following suit.

On a multitude of web sites, irresponsible happy camera phone owners are showing off indiscreet pictures taken without the subject's knowledge.

Japanese camera phone maker Yatane is selling phones that make a loud shutter noise to warn people that they have had their picture taken.

Saudi Arabia has taken the more radical approach and banned the sale of camera phones outright because of their potential "misuse by wicked people".

The issues of privacy, decency - and secrecy - are being discussed in other countries as well.

Singapore, China, Ireland, Scotland, Japan, and Dubai are among the countries where authorities or companies have banned the use of camera phones in government buildings, public swimming pools, fitness centres and schools.

Not user-friendly

But the biggest hurdle for the take-up of camera phones is the same that plagued European mobile phone users in the 1980s and is still holding back services like text messaging in the United States: Many multimedia messages can not be sent from one phone network to another.

Poor software, warns Strategy Analytics, is another big problem.

Most camera phones have a navigation that is not very user friendly.

"Device vendors and carriers must take note that they risk slowing future camera phone growth if they do not heed the lessons of WAP."

Wap bombed with the public, after failing to deliver their promise of providing internet services on the move.

And there is the issue of choice. There are not many camera phones to chose from, although Japan recently has seen a boom with 25 models now available.

Britain is a nation of text maniacs, says Government

More than 16 billion text messages were sent last year, new Government figures show.

The nation sent an average of over 45 million messages a day, the Department of Trade and Industry says.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of Britain's 45 million mobile phone users sent 57 million messages on Valentine's Day.

This year the DTI predicts the number of romantic texts to rise to 68 million.

The popularity of texting will, the DTI suggests, come at the cost of the more traditional Valentine Card of which an estimated 13 million are expected to be sent.

E-commerce Minister Stephen Timms said: "It's great to see mobile technologies being embraced so wholeheartedly by consumers in the UK.

"Texting is an instant, easy way to get in touch, and as these statistics for Valentine's Day show, not just for trivial communications.

"And with the advent of new technology, such as picture messaging and 3G, this time next year we won't just be expressing ourselves amorously through text."


Story filed: 12:21 Wednesday 12th February 2003

Volumes on oom are very low this morning with only 7 million traded


London, Feb. 12 (Bloomberg Data) -- Vodafone Group Plc (VOD LN) was raised to ``add'' from ``hold'' by analyst Jamie Mariani at ABN Amro.

Mobile phone ad for Minority Report dubbed menacing
'Minority Report': ad was 'menacing'
Staff, Brand Republic 09:25 12-02-2003

LONDON - A mobile phone ad for the Steven Spielberg movie 'Minority Report', which had a heavy breathing voice asking slowly 'Where's my minority report?' before shouting down the phone, has been condemned as menacing and misleading.

The ad, created for Twentieth Century Fox's 'Minority Report', was sent as a voice message to mobile phones. It started with a man drawing breath as he states slowly "Where's my minority report?" and breathing heavily before he screams "Do I even have one?". He then breathes heavily again, before stating "Do I have one?". A girl's voice states: "No."

The voice was that of Tom Cruise who starred in the film, based on a Philip K Dick short story, and was promoting 'Minority Report' on DVD and video. Although the voice ad did end with a voiceover making clear it was promoting the DVD and video, complainants argued that it was unclear they were getting an ad.

Set in 2054, Cruise plays a police officer working in Washington DC in a division known as "pre-crime" that arrests killers before they commit the crimes. The department uses three precognitive individuals to see the future.

The system works fine until Cruise's own character is named as "perpetrator" and the "precogs" predict that he will kill a man he does not know in less than 36 hours. The title 'Minority Report' refers to one of the precogs filing a report at odds with the other two. Complete agreement is needed before an arrest can be made.

The watchdog rapped the ad for being offensive and said it was likely to cause undue fear and distress. People also complained that it was unclear that they had had to pay to hear the ad by downloading it from their voicemail service.

Fox argued that the campaign reflected the futuristic, innovative and personalised marketing methods shown in the film and was only sent to those consumers who had registered their details on the movie's website. In the film, ads are personalised and tailored to every individual.

Fox maintained it was targeting people who were likely to have either seen or heard about the film and who would be familiar with Tom Cruise's voice.

The ASA watchdog said that consumers would not necessarily immediately recognise the voice as being Cruise's and considered that the message was likely to be seen as menacing and to cause serious or widespread offence and undue fear or distress.

The authority told the advertisers not to use a similar approach again and advised them to consult the Committee of Advertising Practice copy advice team before sending more advertisements to mobile phones.

Although it noted the message made clear at its end that it was an advertisement, the authority thought that that should have been made clearer earlier and told Fox to ensure future, similar ads made clearer that the message was an ad.

On the last point that consumers had to pay a charge for getting the ad, the ASA advised the advertisers to make clear when consumers were asked to give their contact details that a cost could be incurred to receive the requested information

I think u talk too much- shut UP (ainsoph with a small 'a')

12 Feb 2003 18:19 GMT

German watchdog sees no need for mobile regulation

By Boris Groendahl
BONN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Germany's telecom watchdog RegTP said on Wednesday it saw no need to impose price cuts on the mobile phone industry, unlike regulators in Britain, Italy and France and despite pressure from the European Union.

German prices for calls from fixed line to mobile telephones -- so called termination charges -- were among the lowest in Europe and competition between operators held them in line, RegTP's head Matthias Kurth said at a news conference in Bonn.

"We have found so far that there is no market domination on the market for call termination," Kurth said. "Competition in the end customer market is controlling the prices."

Accusing the industry of overcharging consumers for connecting calls from rival networks, regulators in Britain, France and Italy are among those planning to cut termination charges in 2003. Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain may follow suit.

Germany's mobile phone market is controlled by an effective duopoly of Deutsche Telekom AG's DTEGn.DE T-Mobile and Vodafone VOD.L , which command an 80 percent market share, but Kurth said that would not show in the prices.

"If you look at Britain, even after the price cuts (regulator) Oftel wants to impose, termination fees are still lower in Germany," he said. "That shows that for now, we are better off without regulation."

But mobile phone companies, which have paid over 100 billion euros ($107 billion) for new high-speed licences and sunk billions into network upgrades, have argued they might be forced to recoup that lost income by raising tariffs and handset prices.

TELECOM MARKET SLOWS DOWN

Market data presented by RegTP on Wednesday showed the telecom market in Europe's largest economy losing steam amid the economic slump, with growth flattening in mobile telephony, while plain old telephony and employment contracted.

The four German operators won over only three million new users last year, taking the total to 59.2 million, RegTP said. Average revenue per user and month remained comparatively low in Germany at 17 euros. British callers spend 22 pounds per month.

Over the telecom boom years of 1999 and 2000, user numbers had tripled, but with 71.7 percent of the population now owning a mobile phone, operators are finding it impossible to return to similar growth rates.

Call minutes on the fixed line network fell for the first time since the regulator started publishing the numbers, as heavy Internet users switched to broadband technologies and as users switched calls to mobile phones, Kurth said.

The fall in call minutes to 319 billion from 337 billion has hit Deutsche Telekom in particular, as the former monopoly relies on its cash-cow fixed line business to fund its loss-making growth divisions.

Employment in the telecom sector fell five percent last year as alternative carriers cut staff or went out of business, RegTP said.

ainsoph

You seem to be all over this stock, can you tell me if this stock is easy to trade?

One of the easiest - I mostly swing trade but also happy to have a core holding.

You need to look at the newsflow and the charts


ains

Friday, February 14, 2003 Posted: 0816 GMT



LONDON, England (Reuters) -- WILLUBMINE? :)

British mobile phone users are expected to show their love 60 million times with romantic text messages on Valentine's Day on Friday -- about one text for every man, woman and child in the country.

The huge number of texts -- a record for Valentine's Day -- will dwarf the amount of cards traditionalists mail to their loved ones on the day reserved for lovers, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) said on Thursday.

"Last year 57 million text messages were sent on Valentine's Day but this year we are expecting at least 60 million," said a spokeswoman for the MDA, which collates data from Britain's biggest mobile operators.

"Only 12.5 million cards were sent last year so text messages were more popular by about five to one," she said.

Although the outpouring of mobile love will be huge, Britons fired off more than 100 million texts to celebrate New Year's Day this year.

About 45 million texts are sent every day in the UK, more than 16 billion annually.

Are you a mobile one percenter?
By Antony Savvas at 3GSM World Congress in Cannes [17-02-2003]

Bleak outlook for 3G, say analysts
Less than 0.01 per cent of mobile users are currently accessing services via European 3G, despite licences being granted three years ago, delegates at the 3GSM World Congress were told today.
Moreover, less than one per cent of the world's subscribers currently use GPRS, two years after it was launched as the big step towards 3G.

Michele Scanlon, research director at wireless analyst EMC, said that there were 4.3 million GPRS subscribers worldwide, with 2.6 million of these in western Europe. The total subscriber base is 1.134 billion.

The lack of enthusiasm among users to access more data on the move is further illustrated by the small numbers of UK users using multi-media messaging (MMS), or picture messaging, a key application operators are promoting on their underused GPRS networks.

By the end of last year, Orange and Vodafone combined had sold just 150,000 MMS handsets in the UK.

These figures are very poor considering MMS handsets have been heavily subsidised, came with three months free picture messaging and operators spent millions of pounds on marketing campaigns.

Rupert Reid, a consultant at analyst ARC Group, estimated that over half of all handsets would include MMS technology by the end of 2004, provided users want such services when they are bundled

Although SMS was bundled with a large number of phones from the early 1990s, the text messaging explosion didn't happen until the late 1990s.

Scanlon said that a big jump in the availability of 3G networks would take place between the end of this year and 2004.

But poor take-up of the current crop of data services, apart from the popular SMS technology, would likely further delay 3G networks.

Reid explained that data currently makes up around 10 per cent of operator revenues and that it would take another technology to increase this share to 30 per cent.

More than 16 billion text messages were sent last year according to the latest government figures.

The year end figure was confirmed with the announcement of December's text messaging figure of 1.6 billion, an increase of more than 100 million on November 2002.

December's figure takes the daily average to 52 million compared to 42 million in December 2001 and 24 million in December 2000.

Mike Short, chairman of the Mobile Data Association (MDA) said: "It has been a great year for text messaging."

Seem to be holding their own within a tight trading range of 48/50p .... looking for outperformance within sector and market after the war .....



ains


17:35 Tuesday 18th February 2003
Graeme Wearden


Mobile phone base stations have been given a clean bill of health, but with public opposition still high, operators have been urged to work closely with local communities
For the second year running, the UK's mobile phone masts have been given a clean bill of health.

The government announced on Tuesday that the latest study into emissions from mobile phone base stations had found no evidence that safety guidelines are being exceeded.

A total of 109 mobile phone masts were tested by the Radiocommunications Agency (RA) during 2002, of which 82 were sited on schools and 27 on hospitals. Of these sites, the one with the highest emission level -- at Aintree Hospital in Liverpool -- was still over 700 times lower than the maximum allowed under international guidelines.

2002 was the second year that the RA conducted a survey of mobile phone masts, and the second time that they were given the all-clear. The government intents to conduct a third study over the course of this year.

"We are aware of public concerns and it is important to give the public the information they need. These results continue to show that exposure levels of the public are well below recommended limits," said a statement from e-commerce minister Stephen Timms, whose responsibilities include the telcoms sector.

A significant proportion of UK residents are concerned about the safety of mobile phone masts, as has been illustrated by a stream of protests across the country against mobile phone operators. Some county councils, including Kent, have even voted to ban the installation of any more base stations on their property.

The government acknowledges that feelings are high over this issue, and wants mobile operators to take this into account when planning the rollout of their networks.

"I urge the mobile phone industry to work closely with communities and each other when putting up masts and base stations," Timms said.

"They should consult with local groups, to lessen any impact on communities, and share infrastructure where possible. Building public confidence is essential to building a strong future for the industry," he added.

Some in the industry are concerned that public protests could hamper the mobile phone industry's attempts to roll out 3G networks.

O2 suspends email-to-phone service
10:51 Wednesday 19th February 2003
Graham Hayday, silicon.com


The mobile phone operator is making 'improvements' to its email-to-phone service, resulting in the service being taken offline
O2's email-to-phone offering has been temporarily suspended as the company carries out what it describes are "improvements" to the service.

By the time of publication the mobile operator had been unable to provide any information about the nature of the "improvements" or when users can expect the functionality to return.



The full notice which greets anyone now trying to use the online service says: "Unfortunately, we regret that the 'Email to mobile' service has been temporarily suspended. Don't worry -- the service is not being completely withdrawn, but is offline whilst essential improvements are carried out. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but are confident that the service will resume shortly."

This isn't the first occasion O2's customers have had such problems.

One silicon.com reader said: "It was good until Genie 'upgraded' about two years ago since when it has been, at best, erratic. The worst time was January last year when [O2's] entire email service (Web/WAP/POP3) was down for a week or so."

Meanwhile, O2 -- which sponsors the England rugby team -- is appealing for the safe return of some life-sized cardboard cut-outs of several players which have gone missing in mysterious circumstances.

According to a report on Planet Rugby, O2 produced the figures as part of an MMS promotion which took place during the games against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa last November. The company invited supporters to have their picture taken next to their "heroes".

O2 had hoped to continue this marketing activity during the Six Nations championship which kicked off last weekend -- until it emerged that the cut-outs had been stolen.

O2 is appealing for news of the figures. A spokesman is quoted as saying: "Whilst O2 does not condone theft in any shape or form, we have decided to create a cardboard cut-out amnesty. If the cut-outs are returned safe and sound to Twickenham, there'll be no questions asked and we'll say no more about it. However, we understand if you cannot bear to part from your heroes -- just let us know that they're safe."