Etisalcom Bahrain plans to enter Oman mobile market (Bahrain, Oman)
Etisalcom Bahrain plans to enter the Oman mobile under the Mazoon Mobile. The firm signs an agreement with a major global telecom provider to supply network infrastructure.
“Mazoon Mobile is entering the Omani market with an objective of introducing a positive, long-lasting and cost-effective difference to the people, with the option that would truly be beneficial to all in multiple respects,” says Mazoon Mobile chairman Jamil Ali Sultan.
“Mazoon Mobile is set to acquire the leading position in Oman under the country’s new open market regulations and this is now a reality with the strategic alliance,” Mazoon Mobile vice-chairman and Etisalcom Bahrain managing director Samir Nooruddin said.
The partnership is a major milestone for its commercial launch.
Ghana Telecom appoints new CEO (Ghana)
Ghana Telecom appoints Mr David Venn as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). According to the press release by Major Albert Don-Chebe, Head of Corporate Communications and Customer Care, Mr David Venn took over from Mr Dickson Oduro-Nyaning who worked with the company for over 35 years.
Mr Venn in his career has spent 25 years in the telecommunications industry and has also worked in a number of telecommunications enterprises in the USA, UK and other parts of Europe rising to the high position of Managing Director.
He has also spent the last five years in Zambia, gaining good knowledge and special insights into the African telecommunications market.
According to the release Mr Venn was seen as an innovative and respected business leader with proven experience in driving growth and implementing business strategy.
France Telecom extends partnership with Sonaecom (France)
France Telecom extends its partnership with Portugal based Sonaecom in which it holds 19.9% stake. The two telcos sign a 3-year extension to their orignal partnership, signed in 2005. The deal is a collobaration of both the telco’s move towards network sharing, mobile roaming, handset procurement and the provision of multimedia services.
Batelco sets aside $2Bn for acquisitions in India (Bahrain)
Batelco is looking for acquisition oppurtunities in India inspite of high priced assets. Batelco has set aside nearly $2 billion for acquisitions in India and Africa as it seeks to increase revenues from overseas operations to 80% from the current 36% over the next five years.
“The asking price is too much and we do not want to invest that much, the Bahrain market is already saturated and we have to expand to make a profit.”
Batelco’s head of mergers and acquisitions Ghassan Ali Murad, in May the company was in talks with several pan-African and Indian mobile telephone operators to buy stakes.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Azerbaijan introduces MNP
Azerbaijan introduces Mobile Number Portability for the first time for country’s mobile phone users. Iltimas Mammadov, country’s deputy minister of communications and information technologies, says after it recieved proposals from various operators, There will be a decision in a few days. The service will come available within 3 months after the decision. Preparation for the service and to bring it inline with the national legal framework is ongoing.â€
Telenor to own 60% of Unitech Wireless for $1.07Bn (India, Norway)
Telenor, the Norwegian mobile operator, agrees to buy 60% stake in India based Unitech Wireless for a priced at $1.07 billion. Unitech being a new entrant to the Indian mobile market plans to launch its services by mid-2009.
The initial investment will be made by Telenor Asia in four phases which will be done with by September-end 2009. Telenor will initially use credit facilities and commercial paper to finance the deal, and pay this back with a rights issue worth NOK 12 billion planned for Q1 2009.
Cox Communication set to enter the USA mobile market (USA)
The US based cable operator Cox Communication is all set to launch itself in the mobile market by H2’09. According to Pat Esser, company’s President, ‘We’ve spent USD500 million buying wireless capacity in our markets. Now, we’re going to turn it on.’ He added: ‘We’ve done a ton of research, and we’re confident that it will get the kind of market share that will produce a good return for Cox.’ Cox is expected to launch a series of bundled products which offer packages of fixed line and wireless telephony, TV and video content, plus high speed internet access.
Ericsson bags Axis’ network expansion contract (Indonesia)
The Indonesian operator Axis, awards Ericsson a contract to expand its GSM/EDGE and W-CDMA radio access network, including 2,100 sites, in Jakarta and Banten in western Java, as well as on Sumatra.
DiGi posts a subscriber base of 6.8Mn at the end of Q3’08 (Malaysia)
DiGi, Malaysian mobile operator, reports Q3’08 a fall in net profit by 1% year-on-year to MYR269.9 million ($74.9 million) caused by high advertising spending.
During Q3, DiGi’s revenues grew by 10% since Q3’07 to MYR1.22 billion, while the EBITDA margin fell to 45.6%, against 47.9% last year, due to pressure from higher traffic and network operating costs.
The operator added 166,000 net new subscribers during Q3, comprising 126,000 new post-paid and 40,000 pre-paid subscribers. The subscriber base totalled at 5.83 million pre-paid subscribers and 976,000 contract subscribers; a total of 6.8 million.
CEO Johan Dennelind said in a statement, ‘We believe that over time, higher voice and advanced data usage will lead to continued revenue growth…We also see opportunities to further generate revenues in the medium to long-term with the newly-introduced mobile number portability and the impending launch of our 3G mobile broadband offerings in early 2009.’
Avea forecasts 2.5Mn new subscribers with the launch of MNP (Turkey)
Avea, one of Turkey’s leading mobile operator sees a boost of 2.5 million new subscribers with the introduction MNP. Avea predicts that nearly 9 million mobile users in Turkey will switch their operators, taking advantage of this new service.
