­A meeting of Government Ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has agreed to work on cutting mobile roaming rates between their countries.

The GCC Ministers decided to adhere to the Ministerial resolution made at a meeting three years ago, which stated that the GCC countries will move the implementation of proposals from a working group for a 30% cut in roaming rates.

In a statement, the GCC Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities said that they will inform the operators immediately after the meeting to implement the resolution. The GCC is a political and economic union of the Arab states constituting the Arabian Peninsula, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

Source: Cellular News

New research from the Arab Advisors Group reveals that 87%of Arab cellular operators provide the MMS service. The SMS service, which is providedby all mobile operators in the region, is priced quite differently across theregion. Yemen and Palestine have the lowest average SMS rates, while Morocco and Syria have the highest.

The research shows that the rate of SMS including taxes in Moroccois the highest. Morocco's highestrates are followed by Syria,Lebanon, Algeria, Qatar,Kuwait, Libya, UAE, Egypt,Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq,Oman, Bahrain, Sudan,Tunisia, Yemen and Palestine.

United Arab Emirates-based telco Etisalat has announced it has reached 500,000 residential broadband subscribers, bringing the country’s broadband penetration rate to 11.4%. The company’s chief corporate affairs officer, Nasser bin Obood, commented: ‘This is above many international benchmarks and means that to grow penetration even further, we need to take a different approach - we need to be service driven.’ He added that to achieve further growth in the market, the company will invest in areas such as IPTV, technical support and mobile broadband.

Source: TeleGeography.

Gulf Daily News reports that Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has cut internet tariffs by 70%. The move is believed to be prompted by the impending arrival of three fixed line operators to the Saudi market, namely Hong Kong's PCCW, Bahraini incumbent Batelco, and a consortium led by Verizon Communications of the US and including Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular (MIC). Currently STC is the sole fixed line voice operator, and faces competition in the broadband sector from just one company, Mobily.

Source: TeleGeography.

Iraqi wireless operator Asiacell announced it has expanded its network to cover the regions of Al-Anbar and Diyala. The company’s services are now available to an additional three million potential subscribers, and now cover all of the country’s 18 governorates. Asiacell CEO, Diar Ahmed, said: ‘Today, Asiacell is at the forefront of Iraq’s mobile telecoms sector, having achieved its goal of becoming the first company to effectively bring its services to every Iraqi citizen, wherever they may be.’ Asiacell is Iraq’s second largest cellco by subscribers and was awarded a 15-year national GSM-900/1800 licence in August 2007 at the cost of USD1.25 billion. At the end of 2008 it had a wireless subscriber base of six million, up from 4.2 million a year earlier.

In a separate story, Middle East Business Intelligence has reported that Iraq’s finance ministers plan to enforce a clause requiring operators to float around 25% of their capital on the Baghdad bourse as a condition of the licences they bought in August 2007. The authorities have given the country’s mobile operators until 2010 to fulfill the new agreement. According to the report, the country’s three largest mobile companies, Asiacell, Zain and Korek Telecom, will make a significant difference to the overall capitalisation of the market, which currently stands at just USD2 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Qatar Telecom has posted a record high of more than 1.8 million mobile customers in Qatar. The subscribers have now exceeded the total population of Qatar, as people look to own multiple phones for business and personal use. Despite of global economic recession, the rapid accumulation of new subscribers up from 1.5 million in November 2008 was achieved.

The gain reflects both the underlying strength of Qatar’s economy and Qtel’s ongoing success in developing new products and services that exceed its customers’ expectations.

The boost in the subscriber base is attributed to re-launch of two of Qtel’s product, the HALA Pay-As-You-Talk service (prepaid) and the all-new “Shahry” post-paid mobile phone service.

Source: Wireless Federation.

­The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is investing US$30 million in Wataniya Palestine, as part of a US$85 million loan, to help build a mobile-phone network in the Palestinian West Bank. Wataniya Palestine is a joint venture of the Palestine Investment Fund and Wataniya Telecom, which is majority-owned by Qatar’s Qtel.

"The network being built by Wataniya Palestine will use the internationally popular GSM standard. It will help address the Palestinian territories telecommunications needs, which are critical for supporting economic growth and integration. Wataniya Palestine’s entry into the sector will improve the current low tele-density, increase competition, and help accelerate market growth.

“IFC’s investment shows a vote of confidence in the economic prospects of the Palestinian territories telecommunications sector, which is an essential element of building the local economy, creating jobs, and offering customers new, high-quality products and services,” said Allan Richardson, Wataniya’s Chief Executive Officer.

Lebanon will see a downfall in the mobile call rates by April’09. The government has official announced a reduction in call rates for both prepaid and post paid cards in order to lower the pressure on the the Lebanese.

UAE's mobile subscriber base accounting of two wireless operators, Etisalat and Du. Etisalat reached to 7.3 million in Q4'08 at December'08-end, rising from 6.37 million a year earlier. Etisalat's market share decreased from 77.24% in September�f08 to 74% at December'08-end whereas Du's market share rose from 22.76% to 26% in the same time period. The operator forecasts a 28.2% rise in net income at 2008-end to $2.5 billion. At the end of December Du had an estimated 3.05 million subscribers, up from 2.07 million a year earlier. Du's revenue is also expected to have grown by 8.6% in 2008, boosted by strong mobile revenue growth.

Source: Wireless Federation.

In a statement last night, the Lebanese government said that Kuwait’s Zain Group and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom had both been awarded one-year contracts to manage the operations of the country’s two GSM mobile networks, commencing 1 February. An extension to Zain’s contract to run Mobile Interim Company (MIC 2), under the name MTC Touch Lebanon, officially ran out last month, but the Kuwaiti group has been allowed to remain at the helm, whilst Orascom will take over the reins of MIC 1, branded as Alfa, from the Ministry of Telecoms (MoT), after the state cancelled the operating contract of Fal Dete Telecommunications, a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom subsidiary DeTeCon International and Saudi Arabia's Fal Holdings, at the beginning of December. Zain and Orascom beat off a rival bid from France Telecom. Information Minister Tareq Mitri said: ‘These two companies have...experience in the Lebanese market that allows them to manage well and positions them as the best companies to run this sector.’ According to local press, the new contracts are worth USD145 million. The privatisation of MIC 1 & 2 has been put on hold until after the next elections in May 2009.

Source: TeleGeography.

Viva, Kuwait’s third mobile network operator, has announced the launch of mobile broadband services for its customers. Viva is an overseas license of Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and began operations in September last year. Huawei has supplied the network which allows Viva to offer high speed wireless broadband at speeds up to14Mbps, although no USB devices currently support more than 7.2Mbps. Customers signing up to the new service in January can make use of a special deal offering unlimited internet access, a free USB modem and data SIM card for KWD20 (USD70.53) per month.

Source: TeleGeography.

Adel Al Mutawa, executive director of group communications, said: "By reaching 1.5 million customers, Qtel has demonstrated our ability to offer something for everybody in Qatar, and our capacity to match the nation's ongoing growth with impressive development of our own."

In reaching its 1.5 millionth customer, Qtel has significantly grown its mobile phone customer base from 1.26 million recorded in 2007. The customer subscribe base now exceeds the total population of Qatar, as people look to own multiple phones for business and personal use, the company said in a statement.

In the Qtel Group announcement for the 2008 third quarter, the company recorded more than 55.7 million consolidated customers across its global operations.

Source: Gulf News.

Etisalat, one of the well known mobile operators across the globe, has won the third mobile phone licence in Iran. Etisalat will be in competition with the two Iranian incumbents ITC and MTN. Etisalat aims to tap a market with a mobile market penetration of less than 60, where more than half of the population of some 70 million people are under 25 years of age.
The licence will be legally applicable only once it recieves an approval from Iran’s minister of telecommunications.

Source: Wireless Federation.

In Oman, the subscriber base has crossed the mark of three-million for the first time. According to the statistics revealed by the Ministry of National Economy, the subscriber base totals to 3,084,941 at the end of September in comparison to 2,500,000 a year earlier, up 23.4%. Post-paid subscribers totalled 316,441, against 293,622, up 7.8% and pre-paid customers 2,768,500, compared with 2,206,378, up 25.5%. There are two mobile operators, Oman Mobile (Majority state-owned) and the Nawras.  In a move to liberalise mobile sector in Oman, TRA has this year granted licences to five resellers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

du, second largest operator of UAE has instigated a scheme called ‘double your talk time’. Under this scheme any du subscribers who buy “Pay as you Go” line or renew his existing one for Dh55 gets double the amount back as free credit of up to Dh110. The subscribers can make use of this offer after recharges done in the form of Dh10 on every third recharge up to a maximum of Dh110, from the time of first call for new customers or renewal for existing customers.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Thanks to its One Region One Rate roaming scheme, all du mobile subscribers can enjoy calling local numbers and receiving calls at just AED 1.25 per minute, while roaming in the GCC region.

The unified rates come into effect immediately without any extra charges and will be available by default to all du customers while they roam in the GCC region. du mobile customers can choose any telecom operator during roaming in the GCC while still benefitting from this attractive scheme.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The Lebanese government approves the reduction in mobile call fees to 10%/min along with other service fees. According to Information Minister Lebanon, Tareq Mitri, the Cabinet has approved the extension of mobile infrastructure and recommendations for improved services. He additionally said the Cabinet also gave a thumbs up to the recommendations by Telecoms Minister Jebran Bassil last week to end the existing management contract of cellco Alfa and let the communications ministry itself manage the Alfa network.
He further revealed a two month deadline for implementation of the following approvals by government.

Source: Wireless Federation.

The new Arab Advisors’ survey of Jordan's Internet users also revealed that WiMAX operators had an 8.3% share of residential broadband Internet accounts in the country. Retail e-commerce in Jordan reached an estimated US$ 181 million the 12 months between November 2007 and November 2008.

Arab Advisors’ online survey revealed that of the respondents who have an ADSL subscription at home, 13.3% share it with neighbors. 28% of those sharing share the ADSL connection with two more households, 22.7% with three additional households and 29.3% with one additional household.

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

A new report from Arab Advisors Group analyzes and ranks 30 fixed services operators and 50 cellular operators in nineteen Arab countries. STC’s Al Jawwal, Egypt’s Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt are the largest Arab cellular operators in terms of subscribers.

With the advent of new operators and increased competition in 2008, cellular subscribers in 19 examined Arab countries reached 194.533 million. ALJAWAL and MobiNil sustained their top rankings by H1 2008, with 17.800 million and 16.328 million subscribers respectively. Vodafone Egypt ended the first six months of 2008 with 15.202 million subscribers, settling as the third largest mobile operator in the region. UAE recorded the highest cellular penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 198.6% followed by Saudi Arabia (123.3%). Both countries report subscribers based on active on the switch method. UAE also had the highest fixed line penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 29.4%.

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

Kuwait’s third mobile operator VIVA will commence operations from Wednesday with the competition in market soaring up. STC’s VIVA has to compete with giants like Zain and Wataniya. As quoted in September Chief Executive Najeeb Alawadhi said that VIVA aims to attract 300,000 subscribers in its first year of operation.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Egypt mobile market has reached a total subscriber base of 33.86million as Q2�Œ08 ends, net addition of 3.01million quaterly and 10.99 million yearly. The penetration rose from 28.5% to 41.5%, seeing a rise of 13% on y-to-y basis. The 9.8% growth in Q2 overpowered the Q1 growth of 6.6%. The annual growth rate of Egyptian mobile market fell acutely to 29.2% compared to last year�fs 61.7%.

Mobinil lead the market 16.33million subscribers, adding 1.31million subscribers in the quarter and 4.82million in past one year. Oddly, the market leader Mobinil lost it�fs market share to the upcoming mobile operator Etisalat, and posted it�fs lowest ever market share of 48.2% and annual growth rate of 59.2%.

Following the footprints of Mobinil, Vodafone also lost 2.7pp of it�fs market share coming down to 44.3% by the end of Q2, and this dip came when Vodafone saw a perked up growth of 4.25million in subscriber base, crossing the 15million mark. The operator recorded an annual growth of 25.4%, falling to half since last year.

Etisalat, completing an year in the Egyptian market, had a subscriber base of 2.53million subscribers by the end of Q2, a rise of 94.9% since it�fs launch. The mobile operator earned a market share of 7.5% in past one year, rising from 2.6%.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Maroc Telecom has reported a 10% year-on-year rise in first half consolidated group revenues to MAD14.308 billion (USD1.985 billion), thanks to the continuing growth of its domestic and foreign mobile operations. Domestic revenues in the first half of 2008 amounted to MAD12.511 billion, up 9.8%, with mobile revenues in Morocco increasing by 12.9% to MAD8.923 billion following the full commercial launch of 3.5G voice and internet services in January. Moroccan mobile customers rose 21.3% year-on-year to reach 14.2 million at the end of June 2008, up from 13.7 million in the previous year and 13.3 million at the start of the year. Mobile ARPU in the six month period fell 8.2% year-on-year to MAD98.6, whilst average outgoing usage was maintained at approximately the same level as H1 2007. Fixed line (including internet) operations in Morocco achieved six-month gross revenues of MAD4.75 billion, up by 0.5%, as the fixed line customer base reached 1.329 million, up by 0.3% compared to June 2007. A 3.9% decrease in average monthly wireline user bills was offset by revenues of data and internet services respectively increasing by 17.3% and 9.1%. The ADSL customer base reached 482,000 lines at the end of June 2008, up 10.0% y-o-y, whilst the company claimed 14,000 Mobile 3G+ wireless broadband subscribers by that date.

Mauritel, Maroc Telecom’s Mauritanian unit, earned revenues of MAD519 million in H1 2008, down 3.7%, affected by exchange rates, despite its mobile customer base growing 32.3% to exceed one million at the end of June. Mauritel’s fixed line subscriber lines increased by 27.8% to 46,000. Burkina Faso subsidiary Onatel achieved first half sales of MAD715 million, up 9.0%, as its mobile subscribers increased by 95% year-on-year to 756,000 at end-June, mainly thanks to extended network coverage. Onatel increased its fixed line customer base by 21.5% in the period to 130,000 lines. At Gabonese unit Gabon Telecom, revenues of all business activities amounted to MAD529 million in the first six months of 2008, down 18.5% on a comparable basis mainly due to substantial price cuts carried out over the last year. Users of Gabon Telecom’s Libertis mobile phone service reached 424,000 at mid-year, up 61.2% y-o-y, whilst its fixed lines in service increased by 40.9% to 31,000.

Mobisud, Maroc Telecom’s MVNO in France and Belgium, reported total six-month revenues of MAD91 million, with a total of 155,000 customers at end-June 2008, down slightly on March, due to an ‘active customer base cleaning process’ by Mobisud France during the second quarter.

In the second quarter ended June 2008, Maroc Telecom’s consolidated group turnover rose 6.5% year-on-year to MAD7.343 billion.

Source: TeleGeography.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), which is the dominant fixed line and cellular operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has reported a second quarter net profit of SAR3.84 billion (USD1.02 billion), up 24% year-on-year. Operating profit grew 21% to SAR3.91 billion. The firm says the growth can be attributed to domestic mobile and broadband services plus higher income from its international operations; earlier this year STC acquired a 35% stake in Oger Telecom, which has cellular operations in markets including Turkey, South Africa and Romania.

Source: TeleGeography.

Saudi Arabia’s number two cellular operator Mobily has reported a 47.4% jump in net profits for the second quarter to SAR448 million (USD119.5 million), from SAR304 million in the same period last year. Operating profit was up 24% at SAR530 million, while revenues grew 25% to SAR2.54 billion. Mobily claims 39% of the Saudi cellular market, with 11.1 million subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography.

A new major survey, “Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008” was concluded and released by the Arab Advisors Group on April 24, 2008. This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for US$ 4,500. Subscribers to Arab Advisors Group Strategic Research Services can order the report for US$ 3,500.

The 159-page report, which has 262 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of the telecommunications and media usage patterns and habits of the population across the Egyptian governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Sohaj and Minya. The survey fieldwork was conducted during March and April 2008.

63.4% of Egyptian households with an ADSL connection reported sharing the ADSL connection with neighbors. Of those, a massive 81.9% share one ADSL line with more than three neighboring households.

“According to official figures from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt had 427,085 ADSL lines by the end of 2007. The Arab Advisors Group estimates that 75% of those are residential ADSL lines.” Jawad J. Abbassi, Founder and General Manager of Arab Advisors Group noted. “Based on the survey results, the average number of households sharing one ADSL connection is 2.98. Multiplying the reported number of lines by this figure yields an estimate for households with ADSL connections in Egypt of 956,000 households by end of 2007.” Mr. Abbassi added.

Source: Arab Advisory Group.

Israel was dumped from third to fifth position in the Middle-East & Africa (MEA) penetration rankings in Q1 2008 as both the Seychelles and Qatar overtook it to line up behind the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have held the top two places for the last year. If the second quarter even came close to matching the first in the UAE, then that market will have finished June with a penetration rate in excess of 200%, the rate having stood at 192.5% at the end of March.

MEA: Number of markets in each penetration band

The ownership in Bahrain was more than 20pp behind, at 172.2%, although in the last two quarters at least, the rate has been growing noticeably quicker than in the UAE. The rate in Qatar and the Seychelles has been progressing much more steadily, but both overtook Israel as penetration fell for the first time ever from 127.1% to 126.3% in Q1 08. Four other markets - Kuwait, Reunion, Saudi Arabia and Libya - boasted penetration rates in excess of 100% at the end of March 2008.

Libya became the first mainland African market to join this elite club in the quarter, as the quite remarkable rise of mobility in the country continues.

South Africa was the tenth most penetrated market at the end of Q1 08 with a rate of 96.6%, after also suffering a decline in penetration (although in this case not its first) from 97.9% in the quarter. The penetration rates of a further seven markets also lay within the fourth quartile at the end of March, these being Botswana (90%), Algeria (87%), Oman (83%), Gabon (80%), Jordan (79%), Tunisia (78%) and new entrant Mauritius (76%). Perhaps surprisingly, only three markets - Morocco, Gambia and Mauritania - finished Q1 with penetration rates between 50% and 75%. However, Iran joined them just a few days after the end of the quarter, the mobile ownership rate there having stood at 49.6% at the end of March.

Iran breaking the 50% barrier would have taken the total number of markets with penetration rates in excess of 50% to 21, after Mauritania and Gambia took the total from 18 to 20 in the first quarter. Including Iran, 50 of the 70 markets in the MEA region finished Q1 08 with penetration rates below 50%. However, progress is clear to see. At the end of Q1 07, 36 of markets had penetration rates of 25% or below, a number which fell to 25 a year layer.

Source: Cellular News.

The chart shows the fastest growing businesses in the MEA region over a twelve month view. The list includes nine of the names that feature in the Q1 08 list, with Zain Iraq coming in at Algerie Telecom Mobile’s expense. The top two places are the same in the year as they are in the quarter, with TCI’s 9.12m just shading Irancell’s 7.95m. The other really strong performances in the region were spread across five main markets - with Mobily in Saudi Arabia taking third place ahead of two Egyptian companies, three from Nigeria and one each from Iraq and Kenya.

Leading MNOs by Net Additions, year to 31st March 08

Source: Cellular News.

According to a report from The Syria Report Newsletter, Syria’s state owned national monopoly fixed line and internet operator Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) has awarded China’s Huawei Technologies a EUR877,000 (USD1.36 million) contract to install 33,000 new ADSL lines in the country. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database writes that STE offers dial-up and ADSL broadband access through two wholly owned ISPs, 190 and Syrian Computer Society (SCS). There were an estimated 16,500 broadband subscribers by end-2007 (latest available figure) and around 300,000 dial-up subscribers.

Source: TeleGeography.

Oman was home to a total of 2.7 million mobile phones at the end of March 2008, up 9.2% from 2.5 million at the start of the year, the Khaleej Times reports citing latest official government statistics. Of the total, post-paid subscriptions accounted for 292,894 users, down 0.2% from 293,622 at the start of the year, but this was more than offset by a 10.5% rise in pay-as-you-go users from 2.2 million to 2.4 million. At the same date the country counted 115,506 internet users (+64%), of which 52,351 were dial-up accounts and 23,969 were ADSL connections. Leased line connections stood at 319 at end-March and other internet connections 1,267. During the period under review, the number of main lines in service increased marginally by 2.3% to 267,169 from 261,207.

Source: TeleGeography.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that the CDMA industry continued its strong growth through the first quarter of 2008, increasing its customer base by almost 17% over the past year to 451 million CDMA subscribers worldwide, with CDMA2000 and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO reaching 438 million and 97 million, respectively. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions claimed the highest year-over-year percentage subscriber growth for CDMA2000, while the Americas and EMEA experienced the highest percentage of subscriber growth for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO.

In APAC, the total CDMA subscribership (cdmaOneTM and CDMA2000) rose to 231 million, which accounts for 51% of total worldwide CDMA subscribers and marks a 30% increase from March 2007 to March 2008. North America’s 140 million subscribers claim the second highest percentage of global CDMA subscribers at approximately 31%, with CALA’s 62.8 million representing approximately 14%. In EMEA, CDMA subscribership reached 17.7 million.

Over 97% of CDMA subscribers around the world are now taking advantage of 3G CDMA2000 services. CDMA2000 grew by 38% in APAC over the past year, bringing the total number of CDMA2000 subscribers in the region to 223 million, accounting for almost 51% of the world’s users. North America is the second largest region for CDMA2000 with nearly 138 million, or 31% of the global users. In EMEA, the CDMA2000 subscriber base reached 16.5 million.

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribership increased to 97 million users globally, with 52 million subscribers in North America and 39 million subscribers in APAC continuing to comprise the majority of the world’s EV-DO users at 54% and 40%, respectively. Uptake is surging in North America and EMEA where increased demand for mobile broadband raised subscribership by 74%and 123%, respectively. The CDG attributes this growth to outstanding broadband performance and, for emerging markets, 3G CDMA’s suitability across varied terrain to serve as an alternative to wireline Internet access.

To date, 38 EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) networks are in commercial operation around the world, with another 35 networks in deployment.

Source: Cellular News.

The UAE's second national operator (SNO) Du has admitted that one in five of its subscribers have never used their account, according to Dubai business daily the Kipp Report. According to the operator, the total number of mobile customers at 31 March 2008 was around 1.7 million, out of which 354,000 subscribers had not made a call or sent a text or picture message during the first three months of their subscription.

The Telecoms Regulatory Authority defines an ‘active subscriber’ as one who has made or received a call, or sent an SMS or MMS, within the last 90 days. Du is hoping that its admission will be seen as an act of transparency and will win favour for the brand. Thanks to giveaway promotions many UAE users signed up for Du account, but continue to use their Etisalat number.

Du released the active subscribers' numbers along with its first quarter results. The company reported revenues for the quarter ending 31 March 2008 of around USD20 million, an increase of 18% over the previous quarter and 313% compared with the first quarter of 2007, during which it first launched services. Du’s bottom line for the first three months of 2008 was a loss of around USD16 million, compared with a loss of USD40 million incurred in the final quarter of 2008.

Source: TeleGeography.

A new Arab Advisors Group survey of Egypt’s urban households reveals rampant broadband account sharing between neighbors. A massive 81.9% of households that use shared ADSL lines share them with more than three neighboring households. The Arab Advisors Group projects that around a million Egyptian households have access to broadband, due to the widespread practice of ADSL accounts sharing.

A new major survey, "Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008" was concluded and released by the Arab Advisors Group on April 24, 2008. This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for US$ 4,500. Subscribers to Arab Advisors Group Strategic Research Services can order the report for US$ 3,500.

The 159-page report, which has 262 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of the telecommunications and media usage patterns and habits of the population across the Egyptian governorates of Greater Cairo, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Sohaj and Minya. The survey fieldwork was conducted during March and April 2008.

63.4% of Egyptian households with an ADSL connection reported sharing the ADSL connection with neighbors. Of those, a massive 81.9% share one ADSL line with more than three neighboring households.

Arab-Advisors-28April2008.doc (94.5 KB)

Source: Arab Advisors Group.

Source: Cellular News.

Syria’s state-owned incumbent fixed line operator the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment (STE) has announced ambitious plans to invest upwards of USD1.5 billion over the next five years to expand its landline network to rural areas, reports online news portal AMEinfo. STE is forecasting revenues of SYP62.5 billion (USD1.25 billion) in 2008, up 13% year-on-year, driven mainly by strong growth from the nation’s two mobile operators – MTN Syria and SyriaTel – both of which currently hand over 50% of their annual turnover to the company by dint of their Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) licences; last year they were required to hand over 40% of their income.

Source: TeleGeography.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that CDMA subscribers grew to more than 431 million, and CDMA2000 grew to more than 417 million during last year. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region added the most net subscribers, and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) grew the fastest by percentage.

CDMA2000 subscribership among the 250 networks worldwide grew 16% in 2007, including strong sales figures for broadband EV-DO devices and services. The EV-DO subscriber base grew from 55 million to 90.5 million in 2007, achieving a compound annual growth rate of more than 64%.

APAC and North America claimed the majority of customers, with 49% and 32% of the global market, respectively. APAC added 6.2 million in Q4 2007 to reach 211 million subscribers, making it the largest net growth region in the world. North America alone has more than 137 million CDMA subscribers. APAC and EMEA saw the greatest year-over-year growth, with 24% and 60%, respectively. Other highly-concentrated regions for CDMA are India with more than 61 million subscribers, China with 42 million, and Indonesia with 14 million. In addition, more and more operators in emerging countries are reaching the one-million CDMA subscriber mark. For example, Angola's Movicel, Morocco's WANA, Starcomms of Nigeria, PTCL in Pakistan, Sudatel and Yemen Mobile all saw subscribership race past this milestone in 2007.

The CDG also noted that 2007 also saw an explosion in the availability of both low- and high-end devices. More than 350 devices were introduced on a commercial basis. Today, more than 82 very low-end (VLE) CDMA2000 handsets (under US$50 wholesale) are available globally from 19 suppliers.

Perhaps most important to the designation of 2007 as a critical year for CDMA is the number of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) deployments that took place. At the beginning of the year, only three operators had deployed Rev. A technology. Now, 26 operators worldwide have upgraded to Rev. A and another 31 operators are in the process of upgrading. Operators with working Rev. A networks have witnessed a substantial increase in their data revenue.

In addition, CDMA has found a home in new spectrum allocations. China Unicom made a successful bid to operate 3G in Macau and rolled-out its first CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network there in October. PCCW-HKT Telephone won a 15-year license to deploy and operate CDMA2000 in the 800 MHz band in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, several operators in the United States are considering CDMA2000 to offer Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) in the 1.7/2.1 GHz frequency band.

On the 450 and 700 MHz fronts, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reached a decision to use the two bands for 3G and next-generation mobile services.

Source: Cellular News.

Kuwait’s telecoms regulator and monopoly fixed line operator, the Ministry of Communications (MoC), reported revenues of KWD146.7 million (USD535.2 million) for 2007, according to a report from Arab Times. A comparative figure for the previous year was not given. The MoC says there were 800,153 telephone lines installed across Kuwait at the end of last year, of which 538,219 were active, giving a wireline penetration of around 18%.

Source: TeleGeography.

Qatar Telecommunications (Qtel) has reported consolidated group revenues of QAR10.373 billion (USD2.9 billion), a year-on-year increase of 134.7% from QAR4.42 billion in 2006. The state-controlled full-service operator expanded its international operations dramatically by purchasing Kuwaiti group National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya) in March 2007, and now has a geographic presence in 16 countries. Qtel’s EBITDA reached QAR5.172 billion, an increase of over 97.5% on 2006’s figure of QAR2.619 billion, and the group reported a net profit of QAR1.878 billion (USD523.5 million), up from QAR1.646 billion (USD459 million) in 2006. Consolidated subscribers reached 16.4 million at the end of December (with seven million proportionate subscribers). Units in Qatar, Algeria, Iraq and Tunisia represented 9%, 28%, 26% and 22% respectively of consolidated customers. The number of GSM mobile phone users in Qatar increased 31% to 1.5 million and doemstic ARPU ‘was higher’ as the economy grew and the population expanded, the company said. Wireless services represented 87% (QAR9.054 billion) of total revenues; Qatar, Kuwait and Algeria contributed 43%, 21% and 10% of total turnover respectively.

Qtel’s fourth quarter net profit fell 9.6% year-on-year due to a one-off amortisation impact associated with its purchase of Wataniya, on revenues that more than doubled to QAR3.47 billion, compared with QAR1.34 billion in the year-ago period.

Source: TeleGeography.

Kuwait’s National Mobile Telecommunications (Wataniya) has reported a fourth quarter profit of KWD21.3 million (USD77.96 million), down almost 8% year-on-year, though profits for the full year were up 50% at KWD80.7 million. Revenue for 2007 stood at KWD407.6 million. Majority owned by Qatar Telecom, Wataniya is Kuwait’s second largest cellular operator, with around 1.2 million subscribers and a 43% share of the overall market at the end of 2007.

Source: TeleGeography.

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Egypt reached 30.047 million at the end of 2007, up from 29.368 million in November and 18.001 million at the end of 2006, according to figures from the ICT ministry. Mobile penetration was at 40.62 percent of the population at year-end. Fixed-line density increased marginally to 15.2 percent at the end of 2007 from 15 percent a year earlier, while internet use was at 11.7 out of every 100 inhabitants versus 8.3 in 2006. Internet use rose to 8.62 million users, versus 8.29 million in November. The number of ADSL users increased to 427,085 from 394,875 in November and was more than double the figure at the end of 2006.

The launch of Etisalat in Egypt in the second quarter of 2007 was much anticipated, not least because more than eight years of duopoly in Egypt had seen the rate of mobile ownership climb to just one-quarter. At first glance, the addition of a third player appears to have energised the market, with net additions topping 3 million for the first time ever in Q2, and Q3 setting a new record of 3.73 million. The size of the total market stood at 26.99m at the end of September 2007, up from 15.87m a year earlier - a growth rate of 70%.

In addition, both Mobinil and Vodafone posted their highest ever figures for net additions since the launch of Etisalat, Vodafone claiming 1.32 million in Q2 and Mobinil 1.82 million in Q3. Of course, Etisalat itself also contributed to the growth of the market, gaining almost 0.7 million customers in Q3 to reach a total of 1.30 million, compared to 11.97 million for Vodafone and 13.72 million for Mobinil.

Egypt: Proportionate Customer Growth, Q4 04 - Q3 07

Etisalat's arrival has undoubtedly had a positive effect on the Egyptian mobile market, but the above figures may exaggerate the level of its impact somewhat. A glance at the proportionate growth rates yields a less dramatic picture. In each of the two quarters since Etisalat's launch, growth has been at around 16%, a respectable figure but not a particularly impressive one given that penetration was just 25.1% at the end of Q1. Moreover, when Etisalat's contribution is factored out the combined growth rate of the other two operators is around 13% in the first three quarters of 2007, which is roughly the same level as in 2005. Of course, there is a strong possibility that quarterly growth would have remained in the single digit figures recorded in Q1 and Q2 06 had a third player not launched, but this does not alter the impression that neither Mobinil or Vodafone has quite shaken off the ‘comfortable duopoly' mindset.

At the end of Q3, penetration in Egypt stood at just 33.5%. This is by far the lowest rate across the five North African nations, with Morocco in fourth place on 57.9% and Libya the most penetrated on 86.2%.

Source: Cellular News.

Morocco's Maroc Telecom has commercially launched a 3G/HSDPA service in the country's main cities the company has announced. The company was originally awarded a 3G license in May 2006, along with competitors, Medi Telecom and Maroc Connect.

The 3G coverage is currently available in the cities of Rabat, Casablanca, Mohammedia, Agadir, Fès, Marrakech, Kenitra, Tetouan, Tanger and Essaouira.

Figures from the Mobile World database reports that Maroc Telecom ended last September with around 12.8 million customers - and a market share of 66%.

Maroc Telecom, a 51% subsidiary of France's Vivendi, with the remainder listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges. The company also holds 51% of the historic operators in Mauritania (Mauritel), Burkina Faso (Onatel) and Gabon (Gabon Telecom).

Source: Cellular News.

After a comparatively quiet second quarter, the mobile market in the Middle East and Africa has bounced back with a record number of new customers. Over 32 million net additions were made in the three months to end September, some 2 million more than were connected in the previous best quarter, Q4 2006. As has been the case for most of this year, the bulk of the growth has come from Africa, rather than the Middle East, with Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa producing the strongest gains. The most notable exception to this generality is Iran, where additional competition is spurring growth.

Since the last review of the region, there have been a number of adjustments to the data, most notably in Nigeria where the regulator has supplied new data on the market. The result is that Glo Mobile, the independently owned operator, is now credited with a larger share of the national total and in fact, market leadership. Its Q2 numbers have been revised upwards to just over 15 million, enough to give it fourth place in the region last quarter, ahead of MTN Nigeria. As a result of this, the proportion of the region’s customers connected to the ten market leaders has risen from around 43% to 47%. However, the regulator’s numbers show that there is a growing issue with inactivity in the country: of the 46.2m connections at the end of September, nearly 8m – or 17% - were inactive.

Top 10 MNOs by Customers

The list of the ten largest companies in the region is, once again, unchanged as far as constituents are concerned. However, there are several positional changes. The top two are not affected - Vodacom SA remains the market leader in the region, with 22.5 million active customers, ahead of TCI of Iran – but third and fourth have swapped places and last quarter’s seventh has dropped to ninth this time. Vodacom has undertaken a major cull of inactive connections in the last quarter, severing some 2.9 million from its list. In the light of this, it is no surprise that the registered base has dropped by some 1.3 million (to 23.3m) though of course, the activity rate has improved from 88.6% to almost 96%.

Second placed TCI continues to grow rapidly, encouraged by the arrival of genuine national competition in the shape of MTN Iran. TCI added 1.7 million new connections in the quarter to take its total to 19.5 million. On the face of it, this looks like a good result, but it has to be seen in context: this is in fact TCI’s slowest quarter for a year and MTN Iran bettered its 1.71 million total by the best part of 0.25 million, taking a majority of net additions for the first time. Third place in the region goes to Glo Mobile, which was sixth at the start of the year but has apparently now overtaken MTN Nigeria as the market leader. This move leaves STC, the Saudi number one, down in fourth place, with 15.8 million customers.

MTN subsidiaries take both fifth and sixth place this quarter, as they did last. MTN Nigeria is now the largest single unit within the group, ahead of MTN South Africa. The Nigerian company added nearly one million new connections to end the quarter with 14.99 million subscribers, while the South African company added 0.67 million, to reach a total of 14.1 million. The four remaining companies on the list are all in North Africa. Mobinil, the FT/Orascom joint venture in Egypt, has risen from eighth to seventh after adding 1.8 million new connections, while Maroc Telecom has also moved up one place and now has a total of 12.8 million. This leaves it marginally ahead of Orascom Algeria, which, despite adding over 700k new connections had fallen from seventh to ninth, with 12.7 million customers. The final place on the list goes to Vodafone Egypt, which, although it failed to match the pace set by Mobinil, nonetheless added an impressive 1.2 million new customers to close the quarter with 12.2 million.

Mobile ownership continues to spread across the region. At the end of June there were over 60 networks with more than one million customers; three months later that number has risen to over 70, with many of these being multi-million operations. All of the top 15 operators have more than six million customers and the three of these in 11th, 12th and 13th places overall - Algeria Telecom Mobile, Celtel Nigeria and Safaricom Kenya – have over nine million. At their current growth rates, all three will pass the ten million mark in the current quarter.

Source: Cellular News.

Algérie Télécom is the first African telecoms operator to put together a business strategy that includes Fibre-To-The-Home. Although the price of connecting households to fibre has dropped considerably elsewhere, it still remains an expensive way to provide a local connection. However, the prize it is seeking to create is a large user base for its forthcoming triple play offer. Russell Southwood looks at what it’s up to.

The operator is deploying an FTTH network from French vendor Sagem Communication and on15 December it will be launching a triple play offer with voice, broadband Internet and television. The triple play service will initially be offered in Oran, Alger, Sétif  and Constantine before being rolled nationally in 2008.

According to Malik Hachelef, the Manager overseeing the FTTH roll-out:"The service will consist of a modem that can connect to the fibre network that will give very high capacities allowing either triple or quadruple play."

Algérie Télécom has 500,000 ADSL lines in place and is on its way to 3 million lines by the end of 2009. According to CEO Slimane Kheiredine, a WiMAX service will fill in gaps in the company's service where it does not offer ADSL and allow it to consider new services such as IP-TV. The Algerian national operator is working with foreign partners like BT and Korea Telecom on developing new services and is also planning to launch digital terrestrial TV trials.