Nokia Profits Crash In Q4 2008

Wow, when Nokia was riding high with an unprecedented 40 per cent mobile phone market share in January last year it seemed the Finnish giant was unstoppable. Well, perhaps someone just managed to find the brake pedal...

For Q4 period the company has reported profits fell 69 per cent to 576m euros compared to the year ago period. Overall sales dropped off 19 per cent to 12.7bn euros and market share fell more than eight per cent to 37 per cent - though it remains considerably ahead of second place rival Samsung on approximately 20 per cent.

Now Nokia naturally remains in pretty good shape despite this but the results aren't out of the blue. Not one, but two profit warnings had been issued since mid November and the Q3 Results were also pretty depressing. Perhaps more pertinently, aside from the superlative E71 (above) there has been a distinct lack of innovation in its handsets over the last 18 months and the continued success of Apple and RIM - plus a likely strong comeback from Palm - look set to only damage it further.

That said, with its immense resources it will take a lot more than a bad year or even two or three bad years to see Nokia knocked from its lofty position at the head of the mobile phone table.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (£341m) — down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Sony Ericsson's fourth-quarter results, which came out last week, showed losses of €187m (£125m), prompting analysts to predict that 2009 will be a "deciding year" for the company. According to Wednesday's results statement, the 5,000 laid-off workers will include around 1,000 in Sweden, primarily in Stockholm. Many of those made redundant will be consultants and other temporary staff, although Ericsson has also said it will consolidate its research and development sites.

In the statement, Ericsson president and chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg claimed his company had demonstrated "solid performance" in 2008.

"Sales grew by 11 percent with good demand for our entire portfolio and across the world," Svanberg said. "Changes in currency rates had a very small effect on full-year growth. Professional services have continued to show strong growth. Operating margins, excluding Sony Ericsson, have steadily improved, and our financial position is strong with net cash of SEK 35bn. Sony Ericsson is affected by the economic downturn and the declining demand in the consumer market and has taken necessary actions."

Svanberg said the recession's effects on the global mobile-network operator market — Ericsson's primary customer base — "should not be that significant" as operators are still doing well and traffic continues to grow.

"It remains, however, difficult to more precisely predict to what extent consumer telecom spending will be affected and how operators will act," Svanberg warned. "To date, our infrastructure business is hardly impacted at all, but it would be unreasonable to think that this would be the case also throughout 2009."

Ericsson also said it would reduce its number of software platforms and "increase the re-use of hardware", and would also move some of its operations to "low-cost" countries.

Huawei Getting Stronger in Malaysia

I has been informed from reliable resource that Huawei had won contract to supply telecommunication equipment for DiGi3G. It was a major success for Huawei as they just won another big contract with Maxis to swap out their existing 3G equipment with Huawei particularly in Klang Valley.

From my experience working with Huawei, they seldomly getting the contract at the capital city or central business district area but this year is Huawei year. They start winning contract from operators all over the world and gaining momentum day by day.



Their key success factor is PRICE. They can beat any vendors and provide any services but their quality is a major doubt. Their staff also having major problem with language. Communication with customer is a massive problem for them and they had to rely on local staff for communication.

On the positive notes, Huawei will be a big player in telecommunication world ahead of Ericsson and NSN I would say.

~Noktah~

Optus blames Nokia software patches

FLAWED software patches from Nokia Siemens Networks have crippled Optus's 3G mobile network in Brisbane.
Optus subscribers in the city had intermittent interruptions of transmission of data and voice services from 6am yesterday, as the No2 telco battled to reconfigure a recent upgrade to its new 3G software platform.
The upgrade, to all Optus 3G mobile switches nationwide, was supposed to provide efficiency gains in speed and capacity. Instead, it triggered three network failures that combined to cause chaos for Optus customers in Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria last week.
Subscribers were without mobile phone services for 10 hours.
While the upgrade was successfully rolled back in Melbourne and Sydney, the problem recurred in Brisbane.
"We had a new patch put in place in the affected areas by midday last Friday but we now have a re-emergence of a similar problem in the Brisbane area," Optus spokesman Maha Krishnapillai said. He said Optus could offer no guarantees that the problem would not recur as it was related to a Nokia Siemens software fault.
"Nokia's latest version of the software was in effect 'contaminated'," he said. "We had a bug in the software so we have had to roll it back. The issue for us is that we have put the upgrade in other areas and have had no problems whatsoever -- so it's a bit of a lottery."
Engineers from Optus and Nokia Siemens were both responsible for the patch installation. Optus was unsure why the patch had worked in some areas but not others.
"There was extensive testing on both our parts and we were also assured by Nokia Siemens that the software would work in different (network) environments," Mr Krishnapillai said. "But when we went live it was a different story.
"Now we're just hoping the patch will hold. We can't say for sure whether or not we will have more issues over the next week in Brisbane."
Nokia Siemens declined to directly address Mr Krishnapillai's claims, saying it valued its close relationship with Optus. Spokesman Ben Roome said: "Experts from both companies are working in partnership to resolve any remaining network issues, as is always the case when any outage occurs."
Meanwhile, Optus has requested network engineers from Nokia Siemens' Finland headquarters to rectify the problem on-site.
"We have told Nokia to fly out some engineers because we certainly won't be flying them here," Mr Krishnapillai said.
He suggested Optus would be reviewing the service level guarantees it had in place with Nokia Siemens.
"We do have some service level guarantees with them and we will clearly be looking at whether the software they have given us is up to scratch," he said.
Mr Krishnapillai ruled out Optus pursuing legal action against Nokia Siemens or seeking compensation. He said: "As I'm sure Nokia would tell you, we are their most important customer in Australia and a very important customer throughout the SingTel group ... they will clearly want to make sure they work with us to fix this problem."

Mystery of the Telco Tower

PILING work carried out for the construction of a telecommunications tower in Taman Bukit Semenyih has caused a sense of uneasiness among the residents.

Homemaker Eng Yann Yann said the five-storey block of Mutiara Flats where she had lived for the past two years shook when the piling work began on Tuesday morning.

“The noise was deafening but the contractors continued their work till 6pm.

“The work area is only a few metres away from the flats; shouldn’t there be a buffer zone?” she asked.

A resident in neighbouring Taman Semenyih Mewah, Chen Yee Thong, said a monopole telecommunications tower was built in the area a year ago.

”But the workers who erected the structure maintained that it was a test tower and would eventually be dismantled.

”Now, following the piling work, concrete pillars have been embedded into the ground. They are obviously aiming for a permanent structure,” he said.

Flat resident Mokhtar Hussin, who approached the workers for clarification, was told that they were simply carrying out orders.

“I asked them where they were from and which company had authorised the building of the telco tower but they remained mum,” he said.

Kajang municipal councillor S. Arutchelvan said there was no signboard informing the authorities or the residents about the tower and no information was available on the company that had authorised the work. "I have spoken to council president Datuk Hasan Nawawi Abd Rahman, who has informed the engineering department.

“They will look for those responsible,” he said.

He also urged residents to lodge a police report on the matter stating the piling was causing noise pollution and no information was forthcoming about the company responsible for it.

Meanwhile, flat residents Loke Kah Weng and Yap Lee Ling said they hoped the authorities would take crime prevention measures to curb the problem of drug addicts and frequent thefts and break-ins in the area.

Source

Murshidism: The temporary tower built at the resident area is called T5 solution where it come together with caged BTS. Operator "M" is using T5 solution nationwide

Loss-making Alcatel-Lucent dumps CEO and chairman

PARIS, July 29 (Reuters) - Telecoms equipment group Alcatel-Lucent on Tuesday ditched both its chairman and chief executive as it tries to galvanise a still-fragile merger following a series of profit warnings and falling market share.
Chief Executive Pat Russo, long rumoured to be on an ejector seat, will leave before the end of the year while Serge Tchuruk, the architect of the 2006 merger, will leave on Oct. 1.
The move comes weeks after shareholders heaped criticism on top directors following a string of profit warnings and a collapsing share price, and approved measures that would make it easier to oust them. The firm also reported a deep second quarter loss, stemming from the Lucent inheritance.
"I always thought they would both go, this way there is no loser or winner," said the chief executive of another French technology company who spoke on condition he was not be named.
The world's largest provider of fixed-line telecoms equipment, was created when Paris-based Alcatel bought Lucent of the United States. But it had trouble keeping up with technological change as the telecoms market turns more to voice over internet and mobile communications.
Its shares rose as much as 6 percent, after a 23 percent decline this year and a 55 percent fall in 2007. By 0740 GMT the stock was up 4.4 percent at 4 euros.
"These departures are not a total surprise," said Exane analyst Alexander Peterc. "It is a good thing that the company can now move forward and put behind it the differences between the Lucent parts and Alcatel side," he added. Henry Schacht, a former Lucent chief executive until Russo took his job in 2002, will immediately resign from the board.
Alcatel-Lucent said both Tchuruk and Russo had decided themselves to quit. It said the board would commence a search for a new non-executive Chairman and CEO immediately.
"The Board is also initiating a process to change the composition of the Board to a smaller group that will include new members," it added.

AU REVOIR

Russo jetted into her job in Paris filled with American corporate convictions that flew in the face of French culture.
She promised shareholders she would learn to speak French but did not have time to master the language.
Tchuruk, born in November 1937, is a former arms engineer born to Armenian parents in Marseilles who climbed the corporate ladder to become head of oil group Total before joining Alcatel in 1996.
A tireless strategist, he engineered a restructuring of the sprawling Alcatel empire into the core telecoms activities, a defence branch that became part of Thales and the Alstom industrial engineering group.
His departure is likely to reopen speculation over the future of Alcatel's large stake in Thales, which Tchuruk had, according to sources close to the matter, wanted to keep. Thales shares dipped 1.3 percent.
The merger with Lucent was meant to crown his career as it pulled the equipment firm back to the front line of global competition with Nortel, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson .
"The merger phase is now behind us. I am proud that Alcatel-Lucent has become a world leader in a technology which is transforming our society," Tchuruk said in a statement.
"It is now time that the company acquires a personality of its own, independent from its two predecessors," he added.
Alcatel-Lucent also reported underlying April-June sales and profits which came in slightly ahead of expectations, but reported a big net loss for the quarter due to writedowns. [nL9173956]
Nokia Siemens, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are the leading players in the telecoms network market, but have been increasingly challenged by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.
With aggressive pricing Huawei took the No. 4 spot in the global telecom network gear market at start of the year, bypassing Nortel Networks and Motorola.

Murshidism: Alcatel-Lucent is a big player in Malaysian telecommunication industry with a big 3G contract with Celcom 3G and also WiMax contract with Green Packet