Wireless Federation

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Wataniya, Kuwait’s Red Carpet Co., has selected Openet, the leading provider of Transactional Intelligence for the world’s largest and most innovative network service providers, for its Fair Usage solution through the deployment of Openet’s FusionWorks(TM) Convergent Charging and Policy Manager products.

This integrated solution approach will ensure profitability from Wataniya’s data services by enforcing limits on subscriber usage volume, while allowing subscribers to purchase additional volume upon reaching limits. Wataniya will also deploy products to correlate and track data across all networks, implementing policies to monetize services and content.

With the growing consumption of rich, bandwidth-heavy content and services and the increase in peer-to-peer traffic, operators across the Middle East are struggling to control network capacity while continuing to ensure that all subscribers are provided the network performance they pay for. By deploying Openet’s Fair Usage solution on top of its Policy Manager and Convergent Charging products, Wataniya is taking the first step to ensure that excessive bandwidth usage generates incremental revenue.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nedjma, the Algerian mobile operator, has introduced two mobile plans for SMEs under its Nedjma Entreprises brand. Nedjma Pro plan offers free calls to other Nedjma number between 08:00 and 18:00, and at DZD 2/minute at other times, with calls to other networks at DZD 4/minute. SMSs will cost DZD 2 to any national network and GPRS data use costs DZD 0.80/KB.
The second plan, “Nedjma Pro Controle”, comes with a DZD 200 set-up charge and offers 500 minutes of calls per month for DZD 1,000. Alternatively, subscribers can pay DZD 2,000/month for free calls between company phones from 08:00 to18:00 and a flat rate of DZD 6/minute for calls to all other national mobile and fixed numbers.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orascom Telecom, the Middle Eastern mobile operator, plans to concentrate on cost cutting and investment in 2009 in new networks in Africa, Canada and North Korea, CFO Aldo Mareuse reportedly said. He said competition with bullish government-backed operators from the Gulf had pushed Orascom to be more alert and disciplined.
The operator has been largely not represented itself in the multibillion-dollar acquisition spree of regional operators in recent years, focusing instead on building up operations in Algeria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Mareuse said the high prices paid for licences in recent years reflect the partially sovereign nature of the Gulf’s biggest telecoms players such as Etisalat and Saudi Telecom. Following a more disciplined financial approach the operator has already cut its capital expenditure in Pakistan and Bangladesh, where drop in currencies and social instability have hit profitability. It aims to cut overall operational spending across the group by 10% in 2009.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa, the mobile operator, announced a new offer on Alfa Active prepaid lines, whereby 60 local free SMS will be granted to every Alfa Active user who has bought a prepaid line from the 1st until the 28th of April, 2009.
Starting the first of May 2009, Alfa will be sending a short message (SMS) informing the winners about the availability of their 60 free local SMS. In addition, the winners will be receiving sequentially other short messages from Alfa informing them about their remaining credit of free local SMS.

About Alfa

Alfa is the brand name of one of the two Lebanese mobile networks owned by the Republic of Lebanon. Alfa is managed by Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) starting February 1, 2009.

About Orascom Telecom

Orascom Telecom is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, having a total population under license of approximately 453 million with an average mobile telephony penetration of approximately 46% as of September 30th, 2008. Orascom Telecom operates GSM networks in Algeria (”OTA”), Pakistan (”Mobilink”), Egypt (”Mobinil”), Tunisia (”Tunisiana”), Bangladesh (”banglalink”), Zimbabwe (”Telecel Zimbabwe”), and North Korea (”Koryolink”). Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe, OTH also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia. Orascom Telecom had over 79 million subscribers as of September 30th, 2008.
Orascom Telecom is traded on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange under the symbol (ORTE.CA, ORAT EY), and on the London Stock Exchange its GDR is traded under the symbol.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecel Globe, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E., announced today that it has acquired the mobile telecommunications operator Cell One in Namibia.

Namibia is amongst the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a GDP/capita of US$ 5,200 (at PPP). It has a population of approximately 2.1 million and a mobile penetration of close to 50% at the end of 2008. Cell One operates a GSM 900/1800 network and has 198,000 active subscribers and over 20% market share.

The total consideration is approximately US$59 million in cash, of which US$32 million already paid and the balance due in January 2010. The debt assumed as part of this transaction is non-recourse on Telecel Globe.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Djezzy, the Algerian mobile operator has introduced two discount offers for its Djezzy Carte prepaid subscribers.
Liberty 1 day, priced at DZD 99, enables subscribers to make free calls between 00:00 and 18:00 to all Djezzy and Allo OTA numbers and at a charge of DZD 3.49/30 seconds to other fixed and mobile networks.
The same conditions are applicable to the Liberty 7 day offer, which costs DZD 599.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa, the mobile operator, announced that it is keeping on strengthening its network in all Lebanon by installing 13 new radio Stations since the 23rd of April 2009 in the different regions in addition to the 54 radio stations installed progressively since the first of February 2009 in different locations, in order to enhance the quality of services, improve the network coverage and increase its capacity to support the subscribers’ traffic and growth.
In compliance with this strategy, the company has installed the new stations as follows:

• 3 radio stations in Batroun
• 1 radio station in Fiyadieh (Liwaa Daem)
• 1 radio station in Mazraa (Mar Elias Street)
• 1 radio station in Hay Selom (Beirut Southern Suburb)
• 1 radio station in Dedde (North)
• 1 radio station in Jdita (Zahle)
• 1 radio station in Jieh (South)
• 1 radio station in Aabra (Jezzine)
• 1 radio station in Frydis (Chouf)
• 1 radio station in ABC Dbayeh
• 1 radio station in Naher el Kalb (between Metn & Keserwan)

About Alfa

Alfa is the brand name of one of the two Lebanese mobile networks owned by the Republic of Lebanon.
Alfa is managed by Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) starting February 1, 2009. Alfa capitalizes on its expertise in the telecom field in order to deliver a global and professional solution for the GSM sector in Lebanon. Its main target is to reach one million subscribers by end of 2009.
For more information visit www.alfa.com.lb

About Orascom Telecom
Orascom Telecom is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, having a total population under license of approximately 453 million with an average mobile telephony penetration of approximately 46% as of September 30th, 2008. Orascom Telecom operates GSM networks in Algeria (”OTA”), Pakistan (”Mobilink”), Egypt (”Mobinil”), Tunisia (”Tunisiana”), Bangladesh (”banglalink”), Zimbabwe (”Telecel Zimbabwe”), and North Korea (”Koryolink”). Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe, OTH also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia. Orascom Telecom had over 79 million subscribers as of September 30th, 2008.

Orascom Telecom is traded on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange under the symbol, and on the London Stock Exchange its GDR is traded under the symbol. For more information visit: www.orascomtelecom.com

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nedjma, the Algerian mobile operator, a subsidiary of Wataniya Telecom, has seen a rise of 19.3% in its subscriber base during Q1′09. The operator ended Q1 with a subscriber base of 5.59 million. Revenues for the operator grew to USD 113.8 million from USD 100 million since 2008. EBITDA reached at USD 34.6 million, up 26.3% since Q1′08. Nedjma widened its net loss to USD 17.1 million from USD 4.8 million, driven by unfavourable exchanged rates.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Wataniya, the Kuwaiti mobile operator, has reported a drop of 4.4% drop in Q1′09 net profits. Wataniya, a unit of Qtel, saw earnings moving to KD15.3 million ($52.3 million) in Q1.
The number of mobile subscribers rose by 16.2% to 11.5 million in Q1′09. “The change in the customer behaviour resulting from the elimination of fees for calls received from the fixed line network has impacted revenue in Kuwait,” Chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Thani said in the statement.
Wataniya which also has its operations in Algeria, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives, experienced a rise in competition in Kuwait and foreign currency exchange rates in Algeria has affected the profits in Q1.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orascom Telecom Algeria (Djezzy) is reportedly planning to announce the launch of a WAP download portal called “Yalla”. The new portal is anticipated to offer music, games, video and other innovative services. Djezzy has focused on voice services, but is now preparing to take on Wataniya Telecom Algerie (Nedjma) in the mobile multimedia arena. The success of Nedjma’s WAP portal proves that there is a strong demand for such services, driven by the massive introduction of multimedia handsets by manufacturers, according to the report.