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GLOBAL NETWORK

RIM’s the ‘Curve,’
for AT&T show

Research In Motion Ltd. is following up its pursuit of the consumer market with a device dubbed the “Curve,” which will sell exclusively at AT&T Mobility “later this spring,” according to the carrier. No pricing or more precise release date is available.

Vagueness, however, did not stop news outlets from trumpeting the news, as RIM’s device releases have fueled the company’s robust financials and reflect the vendor’s push beyond its enterprise/government customer base into consumer markets worldwide.

The device, according to RIM, is the smallest and lightest Blackberry on the market and includes a QWERTY keyboard as well as AT&T-specific features.

The Curve follows up on RIM’s first effort into the consumer market, the Pearl. Interestingly, RIM’s announcement comes as many vendors gird for the anticipated arrival of Apple Inc.’s iPhone at AT&T, set for next month.

The new RIM device—the name appears to refer to a slight backward arc described by its two-tone casing and, perhaps, its well-rounded look—is quad-band and works over GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks. According to AT&T, that gives the device the largest BlackBerry domestic and international coverage area of any U.S. carrier—more than 13,000 cities and towns in the United States and 125 countries abroad.

The device will offer speaker-independent voice recognition for dialing, a media player and manager, as well as an HTML browser, trackball navigation, a 2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth capabilities and a microSD card for expandable storage.

According to financial analyst Maynard Um at UBS, the Curve fills out RIM’s portfolio, which offers users a variety of form factors and functionalities.

Microsoft grabs
Paris firm

Microsoft Corp. expanded its mobile advertising business with the acquisition of ScreenTonic SA, a Paris-based outfit with carrier partners in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

ScreenTonic powers a variety of mobile advertising formats including banners, fully branded WAP sites and SMS campaigns; the company also provides ad management and reporting offerings.

Microsoft, which last year reportedly was in negotiations to acquire Third Screen Media, said it will integrate ScreenTonic’s technology and relationships with its own Digital Advertising Solutions platform in an effort to deliver ads across mobile phones, computers and Xbox consoles.

“We think ScreenTonic’s platform is a good platform, but that’s not the issue we were trying to tackle,” said Matt Champagne, Microsoft’s director of mobile product management for MSN and Windows Live.

“It was moving to a commercial phase of rolling this thing out across markets.”

ScreenTonic will continue to operate out of its Paris headquarters, Microsoft said.

Nokia launches new handsets

Nokia Corp. announced seven new phones for markets outside the United States at an event in New Delhi, India, news that coincided with the firm’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Helsinki, Finland. The company may have selected New Delhi as its platform due to the country’s preeminence in emerging markets, of which India is the strongest and fastest growing. Nokia claims more than 60% market shares in India, which helped fuel the vendor’s recent earnings.
The product announcements included the “Barracuda,” a thin phone first unveiled in November. Barracuda was the phone’s designation while in development; the company is selling the phone as the 2630. Nokia has been faulted for not pursuing thinness as a primary design feature.

The bevy of phones appeared to be entry- and mid-tier devices aimed at aspiring consumers in emerging markets, with an eye toward thin design and features such as cameras and Bluetooth that are typically associated with more advanced handsets.
At least one model, the Nokia 2505, is a CDMA phone destined for most CDMA

markets worldwide, except the United States. The handsets will be available in the second and third quarters and range in price from $47 to $122, excluding tax and operator subsidies.
The company’s shareholders’ meeting and Nokia’s largely positive fortunes are in distinct contrast to the turmoil surrounding its ailing rival, Motorola Inc., playing out in the press a hemisphere away.

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Virgin Mobile USA wants IPO

Virgin Mobile USA Inc., the first mobile virtual network operator to launch in the United States, filed for an initial public offering in a move that signals the maturation of the MVNO segment of the wireless market in the United States in general and a notable step forward for Virgin Mobile USA specifically.

Virgin Mobile said that it has applied to have its stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “VM.” Although the

company said that “the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined,” a variety of media outlets reported that the IPO could raise up to $100 million.

The firm said it will use the proceeds from the IPO to repay debt and to make an undisclosed payment to Sprint Nextel Corp.Lehman Brothers, with Merrill Lynch & Co. and Banc of America Securities acting as joint book- running managers, are handling Virgin Mobile’s IPO.

Virgin Mobile USA’s parent companies—Sprint Nextel Corp. and Virgin Group—are selling portions of their respective stakes in the firm. However, Virgin Mobile said that, upon completion of the offering, Sprint Nextel and Virgin Group together will continue to hold a majority of voting power “and will continue to control us.”

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Virgin Mobile released detailed information on its business. The firm, founded as a joint venture between Sprint Nextel and the Virgin Group, launched service in July 2002. By November 2003, the MVNO had racked up 1 million customers.

As of Dec. 31, Virgin Mobile counted 4.57 million customers, a 19% increase from the 3.84 million customers it served as of Dec. 31, 2005.As of March 31, Virgin Mobile counted 4.88 million customers.As for the firm’s customer metrics, Virgin Mobile said its ARPU clocked in at $21.48 in 2006, down from the $22.54 it recorded in 2005.

Virgin Mobile’s cash cost per user, or CCPU, was $13.15 in 2006, down from the $14.94 it posted in 2005. Virgin Mobile said CCPU is used to measure and track its costs to provide support for its services to its existing customers.
Finally, the MVNO’s cost per gross addition, or CPGA, was $120.55 in 2006, up from the $118.62 in 2005.

Virgin Mobile said CPGA is used to measure the cost of acquiring a new customer.The MVNO also boasted of its data sales. Virgin Mobile said that 17% of its services revenue for 2006 were from non-voice services, which the firm was 5% higher than the wireless industry average of 12% according to the Yankee Group.

As for the firms financials, Virgin Mobile said it recorded operating revenues in 2006 of $1.1 billion, up from around $990 million in 2005. The MVNO posted a $36.7 million loss in 2006, down from the $102.9 million loss in 2005.

Virgin Mobile USA's IPO filling comes on the heels of a number of high-profile IPO efforts in the wireless market, including those from Clear wire corp. and Metro PCS Communications Inc.

Sprint Nextel shows improvement

Sprint Nextel Corp. continued to lose postpaid customers in the first quarter, but did better than analysis expected. The carrier gained almost 600,000 net new subscribers despite overall losses in postpaid customers due to fleeting iDEN users.

Postpaid subscribers declined by 220,000 reflecting a loss of about 1.1 million iDEN subscribers, according to Ken Hyers of Technology Business

Research Inc. The losses were mostly offset by gains in CDMA subscribers, according to Sprint Nextel, and reflected slowing losses of postpaid customers. The carrier lost 306,000 postpaid subscribers during the first quarter of 2006.

Sprint Nextel's wholesale channel and Boost Mobile L.L.C. brand put the carrier in the black on net adds. Boost added 275,000 customers to bring its base to about 4.3 million. Wholesale channels, including MVNO's and affiliates, added 467,000 subscribers for a customer base of 6.8 million.

Sprint Nextel executives maintained that the company is still on track to return to positive net postpaid additions by the second quarter. Sprint Nextel said it serves a total of 41.6 million postpaid subscribers, with the breakdown of 24.7 million on itsCDMA network, 16.5 million on iDEN and 400,000 Power source customers who use a dual-mode phones to access both networks.

Boost's churn increased from 5.4% in the year-ago quarter to 7% due to "actions to remove inactive subscribers," according to the carrier. Sprint Nextel's postpaid churn was 2.3%, up from 2.1% in the first quarter of 2006 and flat sequentially.

Sprint Nextel's proposed average revenue per user stood at $59, a year-over-year decline of around 5% and sequential decline of about 2%. Most of the decline came from a 9% drop in iDEN APRU, accompanied by a 1% APRU drop for CDMA postpaid subscribers, the company reported.

The company posted a net loss for the quarter of $211 million, compared with net income of $419 million in the first quarter of 2006. Still, Sprint Nextel's stock was close up to 3 percent in midday trading.