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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Warid Telecom'

Warid tables USD250 million expansion plan

  • May 12th, 2008
  • 2:57 pm

Bangladeshi cellco Warid Telecom has revealed a plan to invest around USD250 million over the next twelve months to expand its GSM network coverage. The Abu Dhabi Group subsidiary launched commercial GSM/GPRS/EDGE services in May 2007 over a network covering 28 out of the country’s 64 districts, which it has since expanded to 61. Before launch, Warid earmarked initial network investment of USD300 million, with the aim of signing up six million users by mid-2009. At the end of March 2008 it had 2.79 million subscribers, putting it in fourth place in a market of six operators. However, volume of customers is not the company’s chief concern, according to CEO Muneer Farooqui, who said ‘We haven’t reached the optimum level in terms of subscriber acquisition…Our strategy is to go ahead with best quality network. So, we have no intention to have a huge number of subscribers if we fail to provide them best services.’ Farooqui added that the current tax on SIM cards – currently BDT800 (USD11.80) – introduced in 2004, was slowing the expansion of mobile services into rural areas, to a ‘tremendous’ extent.

   

 

 

Bangladesh nears 40 million mobile users in March

  • April 17th, 2008
  • 2:52 pm

According to new data from the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the country’s mobile operators added 1.38 million new subscribers in March 2008 to raise the total user base to 38.93 million. The figures show that market leading Telenor subsidiary GrameenPhone’s subscriber base increased by 610,000 in March to reach 17.81 million; Orascom Telecom’s Banglalink’s customer base grew by 430,000 to 8.31 million; Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL) signed up 90,000 users to take its total to 7.45 million (after slipping behind Banglalink in the first two months of the year); Warid Telecom Bangladesh (which launched in May 2007) has already firmly established itself in fourth place with 2.79 million subscribers at the end of March, up from 2.6 million in February; SingTel-backed CityCell (the only CDMA operator in a GSM-dominated field) added 50,000 users to end the month with 1.56 million; and finally state-owned Teletalk was reported to have 1.01 million customers, compared to a million the month before. The latest growth figures bring the impoverished country’s cellular penetration rate to an estimated 27%.

   

 

SingTel’s mobile base hits 172 mln, boosted by Warid Telecom (Singapore)

  • February 5th, 2008
  • 2:00 pm

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has seen its combined mobile subscriber base reach 171.54 million at the end of last year. Its mobile subscriber base in the eight markets (Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) went up by 53 percent from 112.28 million customers a year ago, boosted by the addition of Warid Telecom’s 13.21 million subscribers in Pakistan. India’s Bharti saw its subscriber base go up to 55.16 million, adding 6.29 million new subscribers in the last quarter. Telkomsel (Indonesia) has the second largest number of mobile subscribers among the associates, it added 3.43 million subscribers to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 47.89 million. AIS (Thailand), Globe Telecom (the Philippines), PBTL (Bangladesh) and Warid Telecom also posted healthy subscriber growth of between 4.4 percent and 11.3 percent during the quarter. In its home market, Singapore, SingTel ended 200 with a mobile subscriber base of 2.33 million after adding 197,000 new customers. SingTel saw its highest quarterly jump in 3G subscribers, growing to 749,000, an increase of 120,000 customers from a quarter ago. 3G subscribers now make up more than half (56%) of SingTel’s postpaid mobile subscriber base. Optus (Australia) exceeded the 7-million mark, adding 108,000 new mobile subscribers. The number of 3G subscribers with Optus increased to 1.16 million, up 288,000 subscribers or 33 percent from a quarter ago.

   

SingTel’s subs hit 158 mln, boosted by Bharti, Telkomsel (India)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 11:30 am

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has seen its total subscriber-base in Asia reach 157.97 million at the end of September. Year-on-year the customer base grew by 57 percent from about 100.77 million customers. Bharti (India) and Telkomsel (Indonesia) had the largest subscriber growth in the group. Bharti added 6.17 million net mobile subscribers in quarter to reach 48.88 million with the bulk being prepaid subscribers while Telkomsel added 1.65 million subscribers to reach 44.46 milion. Warid Telecom, SingTel’s latest investment in Pakistan, contributed 11.87 million subscribers to the group. In its home-market, SingTel reached 2.13 million after adding 185,000 new customers, of which 163,000 were prepaid users. Optus (Australia) added 92,000 new subscribers of which 62,000 were postpaid, to reach 6.89 million in total. The number of 3G subscribers with Optus reached 868,000, up 27 percent quarter-on-quarter. On 7 November the company will issue its financial results.

   

Warid Telecom Uganda selects Motorola for WiMAX deployment (Uganda)

  • September 27th, 2007
  • 3:18 pm

Motorola has announced that it has been selected by Warid Telecom Uganda to design and deploy an 802.16e WiMAX network. Under the terms of the contract Motorola will deliver a high speed wireless broadband network, allowing Warid Telecom Uganda to quickly and cost effectively connect new customers. Initial deployment is due for completion by the end of 2007, enabling residential and enterprise voice and data connectivity services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and virtual private networks (VPN).

   

 

Warid makes test call (Uganda)

  • September 17th, 2007
  • 3:41 pm

Warid Telecom, Uganda’s newest wireless licensee, has transmitted its first call, paving the way for the commercial launch of services in the near future. The calls were made between the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Dr Ham Mulira, his permanent secretary Jimmy Pat Samanya and Warid Telecom Country Manager Mr Zul Javaid. Without giving the specific date, Mr Javaid said the Warid would be launched ‘very soon.’ He said the company was still finalising interconnection negotiations with the other wireless network operators. ‘Some of the things we would like to do before launch is to increase our coverage to cover 70% of the population. We do not feel it is appropriate to launch until we can provide that coverage,’ he said.

   

 

Mobile users top 27 million, reports regulator

  • July 22nd, 2007
  • 6:30 pm

Bangladesh’s mobile subscriber base reached 27.72 million at the end of June 2007, reports the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), giving the country a cellular penetration of 19.8%, according to the regulator’s figures. The watchdog went on to report market shares of the mobile network operators at the end of the month: Grameenphone 50.4%, 13.97 million users, up from 13.24 million at end-May; Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL) 18.2%, 5.05 million users, down from 5.55 million a month earlier; Sheba Telecom (Banglalink) 21.8%, 6.04 million (5.53 million); Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (CityCell) 4.7%, 1.3 million (1.27 million); Teletalk 3.2%, 890,000 (870,000); and new entrant Warid Telecom reached 1.7% and 470,000 subscribers, up from 200,000 the previous month.

   

 

SingTel eyes 30% stake in Warid

  • June 26th, 2007
  • 1:45 pm

According to the Financial Times, SingTel is close to securing a 30% stake in Pakistani cellco Warid Telecom, in a deal that would value the country’s third-largest mobile operator at USD1 billion. Citing unidentified people familiar with the situation, the FT said SingTel had emerged as a strong favourite to buy the stake, ahead of MTN and Vodafone. ‘A deal between SingTel and Warid could be signed as early as next month,’ the newspaper quoted one of its sources as saying.

Warid is owned by the private Abu Dhabi Group, which is one of the largest foreign investor groups in Pakistan and owns Bank Alfalah and Wateen Telecom. Warid owns wireless and broadband operations in Bangladesh and Uganda.

   
 

Warid Telecom selects Telcordia for mobile number portability

  • June 19th, 2007
  • 3:21 pm

Warid Telecom has chosen Telcordia to supply its Number Portability Gateway, which will improve the flow of porting requests. The number portability solution will enable Pakistani consumers and businesses to easily switch providers without the time and expense of changing phone numbers.

   

 

Bangladesh Operator Warid signs up 150,000 users in first five days

  • May 18th, 2007
  • 5:23 am

Bangladesh’s newest mobile operator, Warid Telecom, says it signed up 50,000 GSM customers on its first day of operations on 10 May, and attracted a total of more than 150,000 subscribers by the end of the first five days. Warid, owned by UAE’s Abu Dhabi Group, said that the public response exceeded its expectations.