New Fixed Networks research report from Business Monitor International is now available from Fast Market Research – With a estimated 73.544mn mobile subscribers in the Philippines market at the end of June 2009, penetration rates in the country had reached 80.5%, which was up from 76% in 2008.

In contrast 2008 reported a 12.41 percentage point increase in its penetration rate, so that growth in the mobile sector appears to be slowing down. Indeed, during Q209, there were just 1.68mn net additions. This was significantly lower than the 3.808mn reported in the previous quarter, and compared to 3.829mn net additions in Q208. The slowdown in mobile subscriber growth was due to Globe Telecom, which had begun to discount inactive subscribers from its base in Q209, following its 120-day rule. Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is basically an extension of e-commerce on the mobile phone which enables consumers to make payments for goods and services directly from their mobile phones. This gives the consumer the benefit of making payments from anywhere without the hassle of physically being present at a store, standing in a line or turning on a PC to transact online.

Nokia Money – Nokia’s mobile banking and payment service is expected to be commercially available in its first market in Q1 2010, although the Finnish handset manufacturer is unable to divulge any details about the location as yet.

Nokia Money is one of the services that the Finnish group hopes will help extend its remit beyond mere devices. Indeed, the company said its target is to have 300 million active users of its services by the end of 2011; the number is expected to be 80 million by the end of 2009.

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