Celtel to rebrand Nigeria’s Vmobile
Nigerian mobile operator Vmobile’s new 65 percent stakeholder, Celtel, is preparing to rebrand the company, reports This Day, citing Martens Pieters, group managing director of Netherlands-based Celtel. Pieters explained that the company is making a strong financial commitment to Nigeria with the backing of its shareholder, Kuwait’s MTC.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Technorati : Celtel, Kuwait, MTC, Netherland, Nigeria
Ice Rocket : Celtel, Kuwait, MTC, Netherland, Nigeria
BSNL slashes ISD rates to Sri Lanka, West Asia
New Delhi
: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) 5.8-crore telecom service subscribers stand to benefit as the PSU announced a 40 per cent reduction in ISD rates to
and a 20 per cent cut to West Asian countries from next month.
From October 1, a BSNL subscriber would have to pay Rs. 7.20 a minute for a 10-second pulse rate from Rs. 12 a minute, a statement from the company said. The revised rates would apply to all calls from fixed line, mobile, WLL (M) as well as PCOs and trunk calls.
For West Asian countries such as
Kuwait
,
Bahrain
, the U.A.E.,
Oman
and
Qatar
, the rates have been reduced from Rs. 12 a minute to Rs. 9.6 a minute and the pulse rate has been increased from six seconds to 7.5 seconds.
Maximum call traffic
The sector comprising
Sri Lanka
and West Asian countries has the maximum call traffic from
India
. The tariffs have been reduced to offer customers a good choice and to be ahead of competition, the company said.
Current rates
Private cellular operators currently offer ISD rates of Rs. 9.99 a minute to
West Asia
with some operators offering Rs. 8 a minute to the same destination under certain plans. But, none them offer a unified package of same rate for calls from fixed lines, mobile and WLL phones.
Price war likely
BSNL’s latest rate-cut is likely to start another round of price war in the ISD segment on this busy traffic route of
West Asia
where a sizable Indian population stays.
BSNL has about 3.8 crore fixed line subscribers and a little over two crore mobile subscribers.
Source- http://www.hindu.com
Iraq invites bidders for mobile phone licenses
Iraq will be offering new tenders for licenses to operate mobile phones in the country after the existing licenses expire, an Associated Press report said.Three companies currently operate in Iraq: Iraqna, AsiaCell, and Atheer.
The report quoted Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, as saying that a committee had been formed to review the bids.
It was not clear, however, when the tender would be offered.
Iraqi officials had not specified how much the new contracts would be worth, or given details on the exact timing of the tender announcement, the report said.
Iraqna, a subsidiary of the Egyptian firm Orascom Telecommunications, a major regional communications company, mainly operates in central Iraq and has 2.5 million active subscribers.
Its contract would expire September 30, and the company confirmed it was interested in bidding for the tender, the report said.
Atheer, the Iraqi unit of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications, operates in southern Iraq and AsiaCell operates in the country’s northern part.
Officials at both companies could not be reached to provide details of when their contracts would expire, the report said.
Iraqna was first awarded the license to operate in Iraq in October 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and its commercial launch in December of that year marked the first time mobile phones were used in Baghdad, the report said.
Source- http://www.americasnetwork.com
Technorati : AsiaCell, Atheer, Iraq, Iraqna, Mobile
Ice Rocket : AsiaCell, Atheer, Iraq, Iraqna, Mobile
