Morocco plans to sell $140.7 million bond

By Editor on January 13, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Moroccan private wireless operator Medi Telecom (Meditel), 40% owned by France Telecom,stated that it is planning to sell a seven-year bond to raise US$140.7 million.

According to the company, the bond aims to essentially help Meditel increase its network coverage as part of a US$552.82 million investment plan over the 2010-2014 period and reimburse loans from shareholders.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with France, France Telecom, Investment, Medi Telecom (Meditel), Mobile

Q1 2010 – Zain revenue up 11% & subscribers up 28%.

By Editor on May 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain announces today its consolidated financial results for the quarter ended 31 March, 2010. The results showed healthy growth in several key performance indicators:

Q1, 2010 Key Performance Indicators (in Kuwaiti Dinars)

Total Managed Active Customers	31.4 million up 28% on Q1, 2009
Consolidated Revenues	KWD 329.7 million (US$1.146 billion)
EBITDA	KWD 139.2 million (US$ 483.7 million)
EBIT	KWD 99.4 million (US$ 345.6 million)
Net Income	KWD 51.5 million (US$ 179.1 million)
EPS	KWD 0.013 (US$ 0.05)

For the first quarter of 2010, the Zain Group recorded consolidated revenues of KWD 329.7 million (US$ 1.146 billion), an increase of 11% compared to same period in Q1-2009. The Company’s consolidated EBITDA reached KWD 139.2 million (US$ 483.7 million), EBIT of KWD 99.4 million (US$345.6 million) and net income reaching KWD 51.55 (US$ 179.1 million).The earnings per share reached 13 fils (US$0.05).

Commenting on the results, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zain, Mr Asaad Al Banwan said: These results reflecting the Middle East operations are in line with adopted International Accounting Standards, which necessitates excluding all of Zain Africa’s 15 mobile operations, except for net profit, as the company entered into a definitive sale agreement with Bharti Airtel on March 30, 2010.â€

Mr Al Banwan added, Despite the economic crisis and the competitive markets in which we operate, we are extremely pleased with the 11% revenue increase which is in line with our expectations.â€

He further stated, The organic growth of the EBITDA and Net Income results is all the more impressive when one takes into account that in the same period last year (Q1-2009) we had several reversals of provisions including a favorable ruling resulting in an extraordinary gain of KWD33 million (US$116 million). This is an indication that EBITDA and Net Income growth in Q1, 2010 would have been much higher than stated, as without such provision reversals, the company would have had a respective growth of 14% in EBITDA and 24% in Net Income.â€

Mr Al Banwan also revealed that the quarter witnessed an increase in total shareholders’ equity of approximately 10 percent, reaching US$ 8.72 billion, compared with US$ 7.95 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Also commenting on the results, Zain Group CEO Mr Nabeel Bin Salamah said: “With the sale of the Zain Africa assets about to be concluded, the company will reengineer itself while at the same time focusing its resources on further increasing market leadership in the Middle East, offering customers the latest technologies and quality mobile services.â€

Mr Bin Salamah further added, These healthy results are a sign of better things yet to come as we diligently strive to maximise shareholders’ value in this new era. We will consider all options before us with extreme flexibility.â€

In recent years, Zain has invested heavily in network expansion in the region especially in vast countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as well as technology upgrades in Bahrain and Kuwait, all resulting in robust customer acquisition and healthy revenues, a strategy that Bin Salamah was keen to emphasize. We expect to reap further financial rewards of these strategic and capital intensive investments in the years ahead,â€he said.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Acquisition, Africa, Airtel, Bahrain, banwan, Bharti, Bharti Airtel, CEO, chairman of the board, Customer Acquisition, EBITDA, Financial Results, Investment, Iraq, Jordan, key performance indicators, Kuwait, Middle East, Mobile, Mobile Operations, Net Profit, Network Expansion, Saudi Arabia, Shareholders, Sudan, Zain Africa, Zain Group

Wataniya finally launches in West Bank.

By Editor on November 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Wataniya Mobile finally began operations after months of disputes with Israel. This will break Paltels monopoly and is likely to drive down prices.

Qtel owns 57% of Wataniya Palestine and the remainder is owned by the public Palestine Investment Fund. Wataniya has invested USD 100 Million already and a further $700m is planned over the next decade.

Current penetration in the west bank is only 35% which Wireless Federation expects to go up rapidly following the launch of Wataniya. Paltel currently has 1.5 million Palestinian subscribers.

Wataniya said it has received only 3.8MHz of bandwidth from Israel, instead of the 4.8MHz that had been promised. Without this Wataniya will not be able to launch 3G services.

Wataniya Mobile finally began operations after months of disputes with Israel. This will break Paltels monopoly and is likely to drive down prices.

Current penetration in the west bank is only 35% which Wireless Federation expects to go up rapidly following the launch of Wataniya. Paltel currently has 1.5 million Palestinian subscribers.

Wataniya said it has received only 3.8MHz of bandwidth from Israel, instead of the 4.8MHz that had been promised. Without this Wataniya will not be able to launch 3G services.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with 3G, 3G Services, Fund, Investment, Israel, Monopoly, Palestine, Palestinia, Palestinian, Paltels, Penetration, Qtel, Subscribers, Wataniya, West Bank, Wireless, Wireless Federation

Bintel signs interconnection agreement with Zain (Gabon)

By Editor on September 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

USAN Gabon, Gabon’s fourth mobile licensee signed an interconnection agreement with Zain Gabon covering voice and SMS services.

Operating under the brand name, Azur, the Middle Eastern-backed company, said it expects to sign interconnection agreement with Gabon’s other three mobile operators within this week. Bahrain-based Bintel, Azur’s parent company, had won Gabon’s fourth cellular licence earlier this year in February, which is valid for 15 years including 2G/3G frequencies, before its plans to launch services by the end of the third quarter under an initial investment budget of USD50 million. Bintel is targeting a 6% to 8% share in the Gabonese market within its first year of operations and a 30% share within the next ten. The group has entered contracts with telecom equipment providers including China’s Huawei and ZTE. Bintel, in 2007, was registered in Jebel Ali in Dubai, however it is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: USAN Gabon, Gabon’s fourth mobile licensee signed an interconnection agreement with Zain Gabon covering voice and SMS services.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Bahrain, Bintel, China, Gabon, Huawei, Interconnection Agreement, Investment, jebel ali, Licence, Manama, SMS, USA, Zain, ZTE

Vodafone sale review completed (Ghana)

By Editor on September 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Ghanawww.WirelessFederation.com/news: As per the committee set up by the government of Ghana, they have to review last year’s sale of 70% of national PTO Ghana Telecom (GT) to the UK’s Vodafone Group has completed its report and handed its findings to the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu. He said that the state’s decision on the Vodafone sale would most likely have â€˜major ramifications on foreign investment in the country’, the government felt compelled to place public interest above all other considerations in deciding future decisions concerning the sale.

Filed under Mobile · Tagged with foreign investment, Ghana, Iddrisu, Investment, PTO, review, Vodafone Group

India’s Mobile Market Subscribers to Top 350 Million by 2010, Says The Diffusion Group

By Editor on August 14, 2006 · Leave a Comment

The number of mobile subscribers in India is expected to grow from just over 100 million today to more than 350 million by 2010, an addition of 250 million subscribers in just four years, according to The Diffusion Group. The analysts predict that the evolving mobile markets in China and India will reshape the global telecommunications and technology landscape and realign market share among today’s mobile market leaders.

According to The Diffusion Group, China market is widely heralded as the most immediate and largest market opportunity for mobile vendors. India’s growth rate will be equally explosive. When combined, China and India — what TDG calls “New Asia” — have a population of approximately 2.5 billion people and comprise the single largest opportunity for mobile vendors in the history of mobile telecom.”While India’s mobile market growth will in many ways follow China, the reasons for its growth are very different,” noted Michael Greeson, founder of The Diffusion Group. “India continues to experience a level of poverty far deeper than China and has little in the way of fixed-line infrastructure to support telecommunications. More than half of India’s 700 million rural inhabitants have no access to residential electricity and must rely on community pay phones. It is because of this unique confluence of factors that mobile technologies make so much sense to both India’s government and to operators.”

As Greeson notes, modern mobile telecommunications technology offers developing nations a way to cover expansive ‘greenfield’ territories — in this case, areas bereft of home or personal telecommunications — in a faster and less expensive way than traditional fixed telecom infrastructure. Combined with the world’s lowest per-minute charges, inexpensive handsets, and the social status of mobile phone ownership, India’s mobile operators are preparing to exploit this opportunity.

Other key findings from TDG’s study of India’s mobile markets include the following:

Despite 12 years of deregulation, the number of fixed-line telecom subscribers has increased less than 15% in the last three years: from 41.5 million to 47.5 million, most of which has been confined to urban areas.
In India, the cost of installing new fixed lines is roughly three times the price of installing a mobile line.
As of early 2006, about half of all the towns and villages in India could receive a mobile signal. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has set a goal to reach 90% coverage by the end of 2006 – a very ambitious goal, but one that could be within reach given the steps that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Indian government have taken to enable competition and increase foreign investment.
Despite the fact that government taxes on mobile phone revenues are amongst the highest in the world, TDG expects that taxes, levies, and spectrum fees will be reduced to cover only the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund and administrative costs.
Given the rapid pace of growth, upgrading current infrastructure has taken a backseat to network expansion and quality of service in most areas is extremely poor.
Total mobile service revenue will increase over 170% from 2006 through 2010, which translates to a compound annual growth rate of 22.1%.

While India offers tremendous opportunity for mobile telecom vendors, exploiting these opportunities requires understanding India’s regulatory and business environment, as well as comprehending India’s unique social and demographic landscape.

About the market research report

TDG’s 65-page report, “India’s Mobile Markets – Analysis & Forecasts” (July 2006) by Thomas Wolf and Kambam Deepak with Michael Greeson, presents an in-depth analysis of the social, political, technological, and market forces that are shaping India’s telecom evolution and pushing mobile subscriptions to record levels. The report provides forecasts for total subscriber demand, an analysis of 3G subscriber growth, market share analysis among India’s mobile operators, and forecasts for mobile ARPU through 2010.

Source- http://www.tekrati.com

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