It's a fiscal first-quarter fest in today's Euronews courtesy of TDC, Telenor, Swisscom and Iliad. Plus: Free tablets from Telefonica!

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

May 4, 2011

2 Min Read
Euronews: May 4

Telefónica SA (NYSE: TEF) has a healthy-sounding tablet offer, while Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN), Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM), Iliad (Euronext: ILD) and TDC A/S (Copenhagen: TDC) all reveal their first quarter financials in today's parade of Euro telecom headlines.

  • Live in Spain? Fancy a "free" tablet? Walk this way. Spanish giant Telefónica, through its Movistar (Spain) mobile unit, is offering ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763)'s Light Pro Android tablet for precisely €0 (si -- nada!!) if customers sign up to a €49 (US$72.8) per month plan. (Ah, there's always a catch...) (See Telefonica Offers Low-Cost Tablet With ZTE.)

  • Norwegian operator Telenor, which has been challenging Telia Company in the Nordic LTE market, has reported a satisfying first quarter, with 7 percent year-on-year organic revenue growth to 24.1 billion Norwegian Krone ($4.56 billion), despite the distractions of its long-running dispute with VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) over the latter's acquisition of Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA . (See Telenor Reports Q1 , Telenor Opposes VimpelCom Acquisition of Wind, Swedish LTE Challengers Wield Unlimited Offers and LTE Showdown in Sweden .)

  • A drop in revenues at its Italian subsidiary Fastweb SpA (Milan: FWB) marred Swisscom's first-quarter results, with overall net revenues down 3.1 percent year-on-year to 2.8 billion Swiss Francs ($3.2 billion). On the bright side, the number of Swisscom's TV customers in its domestic market was up 70.5 percent year-on-year to 469,000, and mobile-data revenues on its home turf were up 23.1 percent to CHF112 million ($130 million). (See Swisscom Reports Q1 , Swisscom Targets SMEs With FTTP , Swisscom Posts Full-Year Results and Swisscom Launches Managed Services.)

  • French competitive operator Iliad, better known by its brand name Free, reported its best quarter for four years in terms of new customer additions. The triple-play services specialist boosted its customer base by 154,000, taking it to 4.66 million. Like its main rival Orange (NYSE: FTE), which reported its first-quarter numbers on Tuesday, Iliad's financials were adversely affected by a recent rise in VAT on triple-play services and a decline in fixed-line termination rates. (See Iliad Reports Q1, International Mobile Rates Sky-High and FTTH Strategies Need Revamp, Says Analyst.)

  • It's steady as she goes for Danish incumbent TDC, which increased revenues (by 0.9 percent) and EBITDA (by 1.2 percent), despite the loss of fixed-line customers and fierce competition on the mobile front. High spots were the performance of its Nordic units and its TV segment. (See TDC Reports Q1, TDC Reports Q4, Full Year and TDC Sells Swiss Sunrise for $3.2B.)

  • Pan-European service provider Colt Technology Services Group Ltd has underlined its interest in the financial sector by acquiring a majority stake in MarketPrizm, which specializes in supplying low-latency market data and trading infrastructure services. (See Colt Acquires MarketPrizm , Ethernet Europe: COLT's Service Wrap and EENY 2010: COLT Hooks Up to CENX.)

    — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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