Umniah, a mobile cellular network in Jordan, has reportedly entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s leading mobile phone technology company, Mobile Health Management Company Ltd. (mHC), in an attempt to offer users accurate health information over their mobile devices.

According to reports, Umniah will offer its customers comprehensive health information on various topics including diabetes and blood pressure among others. As per sources, Ihab Hinnawi, CEO, Umniah has said that mobile technologies play a vital role in supporting different sectors through value-added services that have today become widely popular thanks to their accessibility and affordability, which is what Umniah continuously strives to achieve.

He added that they are proud of their partnership with mHC which aims to positively impact their subscribers’ lifestyles through delivering valuable information that enables them to change unhealthy behavior, prevent diseases and encourage better patient self-management.

 

Umniah, a competitive operator in Jordan’s telecom market, has re-launched its popular ‘Khaleek Tabi3i’ line for its prepaid subscribers. The line offers subscribers 5,000 on-net calling minutes, 50 off-net calling minutes, 50 local SMS along with an Internet bundle of 50 MB per month.

According to reports, Omar Omoush, Director of Marketing, Umniah, said that they decided to re-launch the ‘Khaleek Tabi3i’ line as a result of its overwhelming popularity. When it was first launched in the beginning of 2011, the line attracted new subscribers and they are hoping to maintain this subscriber base by continuously developing their products and services. They are also constantly offering competitive promotions that cater to the demands of the Jordanian consumer.

Further, Ahmad Darwazeh, Umniah’s Prepaid Products Manager, has reportedly said that the Khaleek Tabi3i line not only offers their subscribers Umniah’s customary high quality standards, but also allows them to better stay connected with their friends.

 

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Zain-logo

Zain posted a 2% increase in its revenues for the first half to record $2.38 billion, discounting cash inflow and capital gain in the wake of the sale of the Zain Africa assets, closed in June 2010.

The company’s net profit also rose by 17% to $506.5 million, in comparison to the figures from last year for the same period.

Zain also recorded a 16% year-on-year growth in subscriber base across its all operations, and as on 30 June, 2011, the telco boasted of 39.6 million active subscribers. In the same vein, there were 5.4 million new adopters of the Zain Group in the last twelve months; Saudi Arabia contributing the highest with 32% growth, and accounting for 9.1 million customers in total while Sudan witnessing a 24% growth, taking the tally of customers to 11.4 million. In addition, the subscriber base for Zain Kuwait rose by 7%, propelling the number of customers to 2 million while Jordan with 5.5% increase and Iraq 5.2% saw their customer base reach 2.7 million and 12.3 million respectively.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zain, Mr Asaad Al Banwan stated that although consolidated revenues increased a moderate 2%, it gratifies the company that it attained an impressive 17% net income growth and EBIT and EBITDA growth of both 6% respectively. In addition, these results augur well, especially when one considers that the net profit for the half year was adversely affected by currency fluctuations of an amount of $ 75 million.

While Zain Group CEO Mr Nabeel Bin Salamah noted that Zain has emerged as the market leader in terms of customer numbers across five of its seven operations. He also stated that the telco is all set to concluding an outsourcing agreement with an unnamed vendor.

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­The Batelco Group based in Bahrain announced achieving the 10 million customers landmark. The network operator was celebrating its 30th anniversary.

It was also announced by the Chairman of Batelco that the company posted a $102.9 million net profit for half way through the year 2011. However, they posted revenues worth $432.9 million, down by 4% as compared to last year.

Batelco Group Chief Executive Officer, Peter Kaliaropoulos believes that the financial results produced by Batelco for the half year 2011 remain in line with market guidance.

The Group also owns 96% stake in its Jordan based subsidiary, Umniah. They boast of 2.3 million customer base that represents worthwhile growth of 8% in terms of mobile subscribers since the start of the year.

On the other end, STel in India recorded a 43% rise since the beginning of 2011 by way of providing mobile services to 3.3 million users.

In addition, since the first quarter of 2011, the overall mobile customer base of Batelco has witnessed a slight increase of 2%. On the other hand, wireless broadband services provided by Batelco posted growth of 14%. The customer shift to mobile services has seen the downfall of the fixed line services though.

In their bid to purchase 25% of Zain KSA, in partnership with Kingdom Holding Company, the Batelco Group has seen significant headway.

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Zain Jordan appoints new CEO

­It has been announced by the Zain Group that Ahmad Al Hanandeh has been appointed CEO of Zain Jordan. Dr Abdul Malek Al Jaber has ended his two-year contract as CEO of Zain Jordan, eventually to be replaced by Ahmad Al Hanandeh. The former has been understood to have dedicated his immediate future to his family, in addition to pursuing personal business interests.

Mr Al Hanandeh is a Jordanian national who had served as Chief Financial Officer at Zain Sudan.

Nabeel Bin Salamah, CEO of Zain Group in a welcome note for the new CEO of Zain Jordan, said that

Welcoming the new CEO of Zain Jordan to the role, Nabeel Bin Salamah, CEO of Zain Group said, Ahmad Al Hanandeh brings with him new skill sets, energy and experience – the much needed attributes to push Zain’s dynamic operations. He also believes that Mr Al Hanandeh’s background is closely related to meeting customer expectations which is very central to the core business of the Zain group. He expects the new CEO to build upon the distinguished achievements of Dr Al Jaber in further consolidating Zain’s stature as a leading telecom operator in Jordan.

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Jordan Telecom whose trading name is Orange is understood to be working on to invest $70.5 million. The investment will boost its 3G network till the end of this year.

According to Jordan Telecom’s Chief Executive Officer Nayla Khawam, the company had served 500,000 3G subscribers at the end of May. The subscribers’ number reached that touchstone in over a year following the launch of their 3G service.

In a separate interview, Khawam had revealed that the company hopes to garner 900,000 3G subscribers by the end of this year.

However, Khawam did not reveal the number of mobile subscribers for Jordan Telecom at the current stage. As per sources, the mobile company closed the previous year with 2.15 million subscribers.

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Value creation and operator’s business potentials are high on Ericsson’s agenda as top telecoms and ICT companies participate in this year’s Telecoms Convergence Conference in Amman, Jordan.

The event, organized by The Arab Advisors Group, was held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of El Hassan Science City and the Royal Scientific Society from June 6–7.

The Ericsson sponsored event saw Anders Lindblad, Head of Region Middle East and North-East Africa, Ericsson, moderate a panel discussion on the state of the industry. During the discussion, executives from Etisalat, Du, Nawras and Saudi Telecom amongst others shared their insights on innovative business models, the impact of the current political and economic environment on the industry and focused on organic growth versus acquisitions and mergers.

“We see the market is entering the era of convergence, the opportunities are there for all key players with new types of services.  Opportunities to increase revenue and diversify revenue streams, achieve lower total cost of ownership and, most of all, keep customers happy and coming back for more.” said Anders Lindblad. “The network is the key differentiator and greater speed and capacity is now critical factor between service providers’ offerings.”

“Convergence and sustainable investments will enable us to enjoy the benefits of a networked society. With the combination of mobility, broadband, the cloud, applications and services, we will have an empowered society, with more jobs and greater prosperity for people in all kind of economies. To reach our vision of a fully Networked Society and a converged world, we need to think beyond the traditional technology to create new business models that can help achieve a sustainable growth for all. The starting point for us in the Middle East is Mobile Broadband which will help improve our lives and economies. ” added Lindblad.

Lindblad continues, “Digital technology now allows both traditional and new communication services, whether data, sound, picture or voice, to be provided over many different networks. Developments such as online services combined with television via systems such as Web-TV, as well as delivery via digital satellites and cable modems, e-mail, data and World Wide Web access over mobile phone networks, all represent concrete examples of convergence’s potential to touch the lives of every citizen and highlight a change in the range and diversity of traditional telecommunications and media services”.

The two day conference brought together key players from the telecom, IT and media industry and allowed them to exchange knowledge and discuss a sustainable future in which all three sectors would come together to provide consumers with an integrated experience.

Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services.

 

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Vodafone Qatar has extended its World Calling Club international call rates to more than 180 countries for just US$17.69 a minute until June 30.

All of the most popular calling destinations are included in this promotion, which included Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Yemen.

Vodafone is also extending until 30 June its International Calling Card 25 offer that gives customers 51 minutes of talk time at a rate of US$0.13 a minute. The countries included in this are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, Syria, Sudan, Turkey, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

 

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Umniah is sponsoring the ‘Gaming and Mobile App Edition’ start-up camp as part of its long-term partnership with the Jordan Gaming Task Force, which strives to advance Jordan’s gaming industry through supporting and marketing local programmers and producers of electronic and digital games.

The camp was organised by the Jordan Gaming Task Force, funded by the King Abdullah II Fund for Development in collaboration with the USAID in Jordan, and co-sponsored by Microsoft.

As part of its sponsorship, Umniah provided the three-day event with Umax Internet, and delivered a number of presentations on effective marketing tools, local market trends, its experience as a mobile operator in Jordan, and its expectations regarding the future of content creation and mobile applications.

Umniah also offered guidance and suggestions on the projects proposed by the participating students.

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Orange Jordan has introduced a new bundle of mobile TV services, offering subscribers access a wide range of digital content.

According to CEO Nayla Khawam, this new mobile TV platform streams HD content from a variety of TV channels in competitively-priced offers that cater to various consumer groups.

The channels streamed through this platform are Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiyya, France 24 Arabic, MBC 1, Melody Hits, Melody Drama, Melody Movies, in addition to Nagham Television.

The company also intends to continue expanding its Mobile TV platform by adding more channels in the future.

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