Slowdown in voice services

The telecom sector has been a rare bright spot amid the economic gloom. But dark clouds may be gathering for this sunrise sector, as falling revenues per user per minute and higher network costs put the brakes on years of spectacular growth and force it to look at new services in the future, writes Economic Times.

Telecom operators have so far shown resilient performance backed by robust subscriber additions, easily among the highest in the world.

The top three listed telecom companies - Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, and Idea Cellular - continued to report double-digit revenue growth in fiscal year 2009, adding a record 13 core new users during the year, up 37.5% on the previous year. However, some weaknesses lie beneath these strong numbers.

Starting this week AT&T will offer a prepaid cellular plan that gives users unlimited voice service for $3 a day, reports PC World.

The plan, which is part of AT&T's pay-as-you-go GoPhone programme, lets users pay $3 upfront for every day they make or receive calls on their cell phones.

Once they have paid the $3 they can get unlimited voice service for the entire day. If users do not make or receive any calls during the day, they will be charged nothing for their service.

A new C366 cellular phone introduced on Sunday by a Venezuelan-Chinese joint venture caused consumer frenzy with President Hugo Chavez calling for calmness, according to Xinhua.

"Do not break down shop doors," Chavez told his weekly radio and television program, 'Hello President,' while presenting the new phone which costs 30 bolivars (R115). It has a camera and an MP3 player - considered typical features for phones costing hundreds of dollars - along with normal functions such as games, a calculator and an address book.

The phone was made by Venezuela Communications, a joint venture of which 85% is owned by Venezuela's state-run cell phone company, Movilnet, and 15% by the ZTE Corporation, a Chinese telecoms equipment provider and mobile phone producer.