Qtel has concluded an agreement with Gulf Bridge International (GBI), the Middle East’s first privately owned submarine cable operator, which will see Qtel provide a landing station for GBI’s cable in Qatar. This follows an announcement on February 7 that Vodafone Qatar would provide a landing station for the GBI submarine cable.

"The superior capacity provided by this new partnership is a big step towards realising our vision to make Qatar one of the best connected countries in the world," commented Qtel’s CEO Nasser Marafih at the signing of the deal.

The GBI Cable System will connect all the countries of the Gulf region to each other and provide onward connectivity to Europe and Asia. Scheduled to launch in 2011 and designed to operate for up to 25 years, the system has a design capacity of up to five terabits per second on certain cable sections, providing the capability to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in the Gulf.

The other operators who have inked similar agreements to provide landing stations for the cable system other than Vodafone Qatar are Bahrain’s Batelco, Saudi Arabia’s STC and the UAE’s Du.

South Africa’s MTN Group has recorded a consolidated subscriber base of 123.58 million throughout its footprint of 21 markets for the quarter ending March 31, 2010. This is seven per cent higher than the 116.025 million posted the previous quarter ending December 2009.

The South and East Africa (SEA) region contributed 22 per cent of the group’s total subscribers while West and Central Africa (WECA) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) contributed 46 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

The SEA region increased its subscriber base by four per cent during the period. The South African operation contributes 60 per cent to the region’s subscribers, increasing by 2.2 per cent or 358,000 customers to 16,424,000. Uganda increased its subscriber base by eight per cent to 5,615,000 despite aggressive competition. Meanwhile Rwanda and Zambia both witnessed a growth of 11 per cent during the quarter, reaching 2,050,000 and 1,293,000 respectively.

The WECA region increased its subscriber base by seven per cent for the quarter, primarily due to growth in Nigeria which contributed 59 per cent to the region’s subscribers. Nigeria recorded an eight per cent increase in its subscriber base to 33,301,000 as network quality and the continued success of the distribution framework allowed for a competitive advantage. Guinea Conakry increased its subscribers 15 per cent to 1,467,000, while Guinea Bissau saw 10 per cent growth to reach 453,000.

The MENA region grew eight per cent, mainly due to the Iran operation which contributed 64 per cent to the region’s subscribers and increased its subscribers by nine per cent to 25,386,000. Syria increased its subscribers marginally by one per cent to 4,297,000.

MTN South Africa’s blended average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by seven per cent to R155 (US$21). Nigeria and Ghana’s ARPU declined each by 10 per cent to US$11 and US$7, attributed to increased penetration into lower market segments and seasonal trends. Iran’s ARPU remained relatively stable at US$8.

Wateen Telecom, the Abu Dhabi Group’s subsidiary in Pakistan, has announced its initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed. The operator offered 110 million shares on April 20 and 21 at a value of PKR 10 (US$0.12) each, with the added Greenshoe option for a further 90 million shares.

The company’s IPO was the largest undertaken in Pakistan in recent years and performed well above expectations.

Wateen provides fixed and wireless services through its 10,000 kilometres of optic-fiber and international gateways. It has the largest deployment of WiMAX broadband in Pakistan, covering 22 cities with a subscriber base of 160,000.

The price for a nationwide India 3G licence peaked at INR 89.14 billion (US$1.99 billion) on day 16, following 94 rounds of bidding in the government–run auction. In comparison, when 2G spectrum across the country was awarded, a pan-India licence cost only INR 16.51 billion.

Mumbai dominated the metro circles today achieving a top bid of INR 13.83 billion, followed by Delhi with INR 13.49 billion.

The government will receive at least INR 350 billion from the proceeds of the 3G auction, which is what it had originally estimated for both 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA). The BWA auction begins two days after the completion of the 3G auction.

Nine operators are participating in the bidding for 3G spectrum.

LG Electronics’ Mobile Communications division has reported a 19.4 per cent fall in sales revenues year-on-year for the first quarter of 2010, which it attributes to the low season and a decline in mobile phone prices. For the quarter ending March 31, revenues reached KRW 3,422 billion (US$3.057 billion), down from KRW 4,245 in Q109. Operating profit was down 90 per cent to KRW 24 billion from KRW 239 billion a year earlier.

For the Handsets unit of Mobile Communications, sales declined 19.7 per cent to KRW 3,140 billion with operating profit dropping 88.8 per cent to KRW 28 billion.

In regards to handset shipments, the third-largest handset manufacturer after Nokia and Samsung reported 27.1 million devices shipped during the quarter. Shipments were down 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter but rose 20 per cent year-on-year.