Zain, Western Union announce alliance to deliver cross-border mobile money transfer services to Zap subscribers in Africa, Middle East
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zain, (KW: ZAIN), the leading mobile operator in the Middle East and Africa, and Western Union, (NYSE: WU) a global leader in money transfer, today announced that they will work together to deliver mobile money transfer services in countries in Africa and the Middle East through Zain’s new Zap platform.
The Zap service provides Zain customers access to a full range of transactional services from their mobile phones. Customers can interact with select bank accounts, top-up or transfer airtime, and move money to businesses, friends and family. The service allows customers to pay bills such as electricity, and can even be used to settle grocery bills in the supermarket. Zap has been operational in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for several months, making mobile banking services available to more than 100 million people in East Africa. Zain has announced plans to introduce Zap in 22 markets.
Western Union has a global agent network of more than 334,000 locations in 200 countries and territories. Once the service is launched with Zain, consumers will be able to send cash money transfers from participating Western Union® locations around the globe in the same way they do today. Zap customers who are enrolled in the service in select countries will be able to choose whether they want to receive their money in cash at a Western Union Agent location or in accounts tied to their mobile phones (their mobile walletsâ€).
Zain Group extends its agreement with Globitel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Globitel announced today that Zain Group has officially extended its relationship to provide an advanced set of Roaming Solutions to all Zain Group mobile operations in Middle East, GCC and Africa.
Zain’s Group relationship with Globitel started a few years ago with the signing of agreements for Zain Group subsidiaries in Jordan, Bahrain and Sudan.
After demonstrating its commitment to products and service quality, in addition to the unmatched flexibility and swiftness in implementation, Zain Group has decided to extend its agreement with Globitel to include all remaining subsidiaries in the Middle East & Africa.
“We were impressed with the experience we had with Globitel in the past years,” said Mohammed Rafi, Group CIO. “The initial decision we made has been sustained and boosted by the ability of delivery” (more…)
Alfa expands 231pre-based stations (Lebanon)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa, the mobile operator, managed by Orascom Telecom announced that it is keeping on strengthening its network all over Lebanon in order to enhance the quality of transmission, improve the network coverage and increase its capacity to support the subscribers’ traffic and growth.
Thus, 99 Stations have been installed progressively in the different regions since the first of February 2009, and several update operations have been implemented in addition to the expansion of 231 pre-based Stations.
It’s worth mentioning that Alfa has been managed by “Orascom Telecom Holding” (OTH) since the 1st of February 2009. Orascom Telecom is the leading mobile operator in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Orascom Telecom counts over 80 million subscribers.
In compliance with this strategy, the company announced that it is constantly executing operations of enhancement and development for the network’s quality in order to offer the best services to its subscribers and to provide them regularly with the best quality of transmission.
Furthermore, Alfa’s network capacity can cater for a million subscribers with its services, and it is working now on the expansion of the network to be able to serve 1.2 million subscribers, in addition to the execution of the plans aiming to develop and enhance the network.
About Alfa
Alfa is the brand name of one of the two Lebanese mobile networks owned by the Republic of Lebanon. Alfa is managed by Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) since February 1, 2009.
Alfa capitalizes on its expertise in the telecom field in order to deliver a global and professional solution for the GSM sector in Lebanon. Its main target is to reach one million subscribers by end of 2009.
About Orascom Telecom
Orascom Telecom is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, having a total population under license of approximately 498 million with an average mobile telephony penetration of approximately 48% as of March 31st, 2009. Orascom Telecom operates GSM networks in Algeria (“OTA”), Pakistan (“Mobilink”), Egypt (“Mobinil”), Tunisia (“Tunisiana”), Bangladesh (“banglalink”), and North Korea (“Koryolink”). OTH has an indirect equity ownership in Globalive Wireless which has been granted a spectrum license in Canada. OTH was also awarded the management contract of one of the two Lebanese mobile telecommunications operators from the government of the Republic of Lebanon. Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe, OTH also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Orascom Telecom had over 80 million subscribers as of March 31st, 2009.
Orascom Telecom is traded on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange under the symbol (ORTE.CA, ORAT EY), and on the London Stock Exchange its GDR is traded under the symbol (ORTEq.L, OTLD LI).
For more information, please visit www.orascomtelecom.com
Alfa offers free breaking news service via SMS (Lebanon)
Alfa, the Lebanese mobile operator managed since Feb 1, 2009 by Orascom Telecom, leader mobile operator in the MENA region and South Asia, announced that since June 1, 2009, all its subscribers can keep themselves updated with the most current local and international news by getting breaking news headlines on their mobile for free. This service will be provided by Alfa in collaboration with Naharnet and AFP.
The first 90.000 subscribers to sign up to this service will be granted 1st month free of charge by simply replying by a SMS to the number 1018. They will be only charged the cost of the SMS which is 0.09$.
The subscribers will be able to choose their preferred language by texting the letter A for Arabic and E for English.To end their subscription to this service, users can text the letter C or the word “Cancel” to the number 1018. (more…)
Zain Nigeria & Ericsson ink managed service agreement
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC (Zain) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) have entered a five-year strategic managed services agreement under which Ericsson will operate Zain’s nationwide GSM/WCDMA networks in Nigeria.
In the first agreement of its kind on the African continent, Zain, the leading mobile telecom provider in the Middle East and Africa, has teamed up with Ericsson, the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Under the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for the network operations, field operations including optimization, third-party vendor management for Zain’s GSM/WCDMA networks, and business support systems.
Ericsson will serve more than 4000 sites across Nigeria on behalf of Zain. As part of the agreement, about 450 employees will be transferred, under their existing terms and conditions of service, from Zain to Ericsson, where they will undergo further training in the latest wireless technologies. (more…)
Lebanon’s mobile penetration rises by 10% in Q1’09
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Lebanese mobile penetration rose by 10%, as the two operators added a total of 400,000 subscribers during Q1’09. In January, Lebanon’s Council of Ministers had announced its plans of slashing mobile tariff by 40% and calls by 15 percent as part of a drive to increase usage of mobile devices.
MTC Touch posted a subscriber base of 1 million at March end up from 836,000 at the end of 2008. On the other hand, Alfa had a subscriber base of 820,000 subscribers, rising from 600,000 at 2008-end. The rise in subscriber base has led to a growth in Lebanon’s mobile penetration from 37% to 47%.
Alfa offers 60 free SMS to Alfa Active subscribers (Lebanon)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Alfa, the mobile operator, announced a new offer on Alfa Active prepaid lines, whereby 60 local free SMS will be granted to every Alfa Active user who has bought a prepaid line from the 1st until the 28th of April, 2009.
Starting the first of May 2009, Alfa will be sending a short message (SMS) informing the winners about the availability of their 60 free local SMS. In addition, the winners will be receiving sequentially other short messages from Alfa informing them about their remaining credit of free local SMS.
About Alfa
Alfa is the brand name of one of the two Lebanese mobile networks owned by the Republic of Lebanon. Alfa is managed by Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) starting February 1, 2009.
About Orascom Telecom
Orascom Telecom is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, having a total population under license of approximately 453 million with an average mobile telephony penetration of approximately 46% as of September 30th, 2008. Orascom Telecom operates GSM networks in Algeria (“OTA”), Pakistan (“Mobilink”), Egypt (“Mobinil”), Tunisia (“Tunisiana”), Bangladesh (“banglalink”), Zimbabwe (“Telecel Zimbabwe”), and North Korea (“Koryolink”). Through its subsidiary Telecel Globe, OTH also operates in Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia. Orascom Telecom had over 79 million subscribers as of September 30th, 2008.
Orascom Telecom is traded on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange under the symbol (ORTE.CA, ORAT EY), and on the London Stock Exchange its GDR is traded under the symbol.
Zain launches High Speed Data Access across ‘One Network’
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In another world-first, leading mobile network operator, Zain, announced today that it has launched cross-border data
services across the Middle East and in East Africa on its award winning ‘One Network’ platform. The data service is yet another demonstration of Zain’s commitment to expand ‘One Network’s’ revolutionary service in terms of geographical
coverage and product offerings, this time by being the first mobile operator in the world to successfully introduce cross-border local GRX-based data access, an innovative technical solution which ensures faster access speeds at cost effective local rates than traditional internet roaming. (more…)
Alfa installs and expands 278 stations (Lebanon)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Orascom Telecom is the leading mobile operator in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. OTH counts over 79 million subscribers.
During the event’s sessions, Alfa’s CEO, Mr. Samer Salameh, announced that its subscribers’ base is about to reach one million subscribers, and that the company will complete the process of expanding its network to serve all of these subscribers in all the regions. By April 2009, Alfa completed the installation and expansion of 278 Radio Base Stations (RBS).
Now that Alfa has enough capacity to handle over 1 million subscribers, highest priority will be assigned for Quality of Service and enhancing network performance all over Lebanon, consequently an extensive network optimization plan was initiated in May.
Mr. Salameh said, ‘Alfa was able to completely overhaul its old infrastructure in record time and is now ready to recapture its rightful place as the Telecom leader in Lebanon. Alfa accomplished the ‘impossible’ thanks to the incredible hard work and dedication of its talented work force. I am deeply grateful and proud of our people, undoubtedly our best asset.’
Alfa.
For more information, please visit www.alfa.com.lb/
