Entries from July 2008 ↓

Hits Telecom chairman Sultan Bahabri tells Comm. how he is going about selecting the best corporate assets in order to create a leading global mobile operation by 2015

Sultan Bahabri describes Hits Telecom as a global telecoms 3.0 style company that can benefit from its lack of legacy infrastructure

On July 28, Hits Telecom is set to commercially launch its GSM network in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. It is arguably one of the furthest markets that a Gulf-based operator has dared to enter, and what makes the development of even greater interest is the fact that Hits Telecom is a relative novice to the telecoms operator space.

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ZTE, the Chinese mobile handset and telecoms infrastructure manufacturer, plans to boost its presence in India by supplying 15 million handsets this year and increasing turnover to US$1 billion.

ZTE currently sells handsets in partnership with GSM and CDMA mobile operators, but is considering bolstering sales by directly marketing handsets under its own brand.

Despite increasing Indian supply from 10 million to 15 million handsets, ZTE does not plan to open a manufacturing plant in India yet.

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French company Providence Technologique has launched a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Cameroon under the brand name Yemba.

It has set the ambitious target of adding two million subscribers by 2010.

Yemba will be targeting the “call box” segment by offering discounted call rates.

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Celtel Zambia, which listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange June 11, and pan-African conglomerate MTN Group, have been rated as “overweight” investments by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

The stocks represent the top picks of African telecoms stocks.

Celtel Zambia’s stock listing was oversubscribed by 200 per cent and raised US$205 million.

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Etisalat announced consolidated financial results for the group for the second quarter of 2008, which showed strong growth in revenues, profits and subscriber numbers.

Etisalat reported net profit of US$1.4 billion for H108 alone

The telco reported AED2.995 billion (US$816 million) in net profits for the second quarter, taking net profits for the first half of 2008 to AED5.12 billion. This figure represents an increase of 37.1 per cent on 2007 numbers.
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