Kenya is forecast to be one of the fastest growing telecoms markets in Africa and Middle East from now until 2014, with mobile subscribers increasing from 18.7 million at year-end 2009 to 30.5 million, states a new report from Pyramid Research. This would represent a mobile penetrate rate in 2014 of 68 per cent, expected to be strongly driven by mobile data services and specifically mobile banking.

Kenya’s market revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.1 percent in the 2009-2012 period, exceeding the expected growth of Turkey and Saudi Arabia and approaching those of Nigeria and Egypt, notes Deniss Radcenko, Pyramid Research analyst and author of the report.

As the economy recovers in 2010, Pyramid expects the increasing adoption of new services will result in stronger total revenue growth, reaching more than US$1.6 billion in 2014. Driven by the expansion of data services, particularly mobile banking services such as Safaricom’s M-Pesa, the mobile market will expand to US$1.4 billion in 2014.

Broadband Internet services revenue is also expected to grow over the next five years, generating US$76 million in 2014, up from US$20.6 million in 2009, a CAGR of 30 percent.

Zain Group expects to put pen to paper within the next few days and close the deal selling its African assets to Bharti Airtel for US$10.7 billion, the company said in a statement today. The announcement follows a board meeting yesterday to assess the latest developments and negotiations.

"The board is pleased to report that the due diligence process has been completed and that the parties are finalising definitive agreements, which are expected to be signed in the coming days," the statement said.

"Upon signing, the parties will move towards getting any required approvals," the statement continued.

The deal places an equity value on the 15 operations, which excludes Sudan and Morocco, at US$9 billion with US$1.7 billion of debt. Bharti said earlier in the week it has secured US$8.3 billion of financing mainly from international banks. The Indian operator is required to pay US$8.3 billion upon signing the deal, with the remaining US$700 due one year later.

Bharti Airtel has successfully raised US$8.3 billion from international banks for the acquisition of Zain’s African assets, with the funding over-subscribed. The Indian and Kuwaiti operators are in exclusive talks until March 25, this coming Thursday, over the proposed sale of the African operations excluding Sudan and Morocco.

The details of Bharti’s proposal puts the enterprise value at US$10.7 billion, with an equity value of roughly US$9 million. Of the purchase price, US$10 billion is planned to be paid upon closing the deal, with a further US$700 million due one year later.

The proposal is subject to due diligence, customary regulatory approvals and signing of final transaction documentation. The leading operator in India said the loan is a term facility with the average maturity of just less than five years.

The lead advisor for US$7.5 billion of financing is Standard Chartered Bank with Barclays the joint lead advisor. Other banks involved are the State Bank of India (SBI Group), ANZ, BNP, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Additionally, SBI Group will loan a rupee equivalent of up to US$1 billion, which would partly cover associated transaction costs.

Nawras has announced it will launch its fixed voice and broadband services in Oman during the second half of this year. The operator is currently rolling out its fixed network across the sultanate, with approximately 10 kilometres of fibre optic cable being placed in the ground every day, with a target of 5,000 kilometres. Already 1,500 kilometres of cable have been installed.

Nawras has laid 1,500 kilometres of fibre optic cable from a planned 5,000 kilometres

Additionally the company is building WiMAX base stations to enable homes nationwide to take advantage of high speed broadband services. Fixed broadband will be available to more than 54 per cent of the population at launch with coverage expected to increase to 81 per cent by the middle of next year.

Nawras was awarded the second fixed licence in November 2008 and is part of the Qtel Group. The firm currently offers mobile services and ended 2009 with 1.86 million subscribers. State-backed Omantel is presently the only fixed services provider.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has selected Alcatel-Lucent to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, to begin in the second half of 2010. This trial will enable STC to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models across the kingdom.

“As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology,” said Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC’s vice president networks.  “As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfill our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”

The vendor will provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements, operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems, as well as a range of professional services.

Outside of its domestic market in Saudi Arabia, STC is present in Kuwait, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, and South Africa with a global subscriber base of 100 million, as of March 2010.