Following the close of applications on Friday to bid in India’s 3G auction, the telecoms regulator has announced nine bidders will compete in the upcoming auction, with a further 11 contesting the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) confirmed the nine companies as follows: Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Tata Teleservices, Etisalat, S Tel, Videocon, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Aircel.

The two state-run operators, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have already received 3G licenses, and will be required to pay a license fee based on the result of the auction for private licenses.

The 11 bidders for the BWA licenses are Tikona Digital, Qualcomm, Tata Communications, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Spice, Augere, HFCL, and Reliance Communications.

Three 3G slots and two BWA slots will be up for grabs in most of the 22 telecoms service areas. The 3G auction is scheduled for April 9, followed by the BWA auction two days later.

The percentage of Bahraini households having fixed broadband reached 62 per cent with more than 109,000 residential customers as of Q2 2009, states a market indicator report released by Bahrain’s regulator yesterday. Total Internet subscribers across the kingdom totalled almost 140,000, equating to an Internet penetration level of 12 per cent. Approximately 40 per cent of broadband subscribers had speeds of 1Mbps or more.

Other figures released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority show that as of the second quarter of last year, mobile penetration slightly decreased from 130 per cent in 2008, to 118 per cent. Mobile subscribers reached nearly 1.4 million, of which 83 per cent were prepaid customers.

Fixed lines increased during the period from 220,000 to 230,000 representing a penetration rate of 20 per cent. The proportion of households with a fixed line remained steady at 78 per cent, the same as in 2008.

International traffic grew rapidly between Q2 2008 and Q2 2009 increasing by 50 per cent, with the bulk of international minutes (87 per cent) originating from mobile.

About 72 per cent of international calls were made to South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and Sri Lanka) in the second quarter of 2009. Revenues originated from calls to South Asian countries represented 45 per cent of the total revenues during the quarter.

Zain has extended its ‘Zap’ mobile banking service to Ghana, making it the group’s seventh African operation to offer mobile wallet services. Zap is already implemented in Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.

Philip Sowah, country manager for Zain Ghana at the launch of Zap mobile banking services

Currently 80 per cent of the Ghanaian population is unbanked, meaning traditional financial services are too remote or unavailable to the majority of citizens. Zap will allow Zain customers to top-up airtime, send and receive money, and pay for goods and services using their mobile phone.

Additionally, the m-commerce facility is compatible with Zain’s One Network roaming platform, which gives subscribers the flexibility to move across geographical borders and still be able to access their Zap accounts and make transactions in exactly the same way as they can in their home country.

The Zain Group currently provides mobile voice and data services to over 70 million customers as of 30 September, 2009 with a commercial presence in 23 countries. The group is currently in exclusive talks until March 25 with Indian giant Bharti Airtel to sell Zain’s African operations, excluding Sudan and Morocco. Bharti Airtel offered a sum of US$10.7 billion.

Zain Africa, formerly branded Celtel, includes approximately 42 million subscribers and represents around 58 per cent of the operator’s customers as of the end of the third quarter 2009. Bharti Airtel is India’s largest operator and has almost 125 million subscribers across India.

The Enterprise Mobility Solutions business of Motorola has announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior, expanding its partnership with the Abu Dhabi Police to provide a range of solutions and managed services.

The MOU includes the development of applications, deployment of devices, fixed and mobile broadband connectivity and maintenance for an end-to-end video security system in order to enhance situational awareness for the force’s personnel.

The signing follows a successful pilot project, which commenced at the end of February this year, showcasing Motorola’s mobile closed-circuit television (CCTV) solution for Abu Dhabi Police. During the first phase of the pilot, which is planned to run until August 2010, Motorola will provide Abu Dhabi Police with an integrated mobile broadband solution to enable enhanced video security operations across the force’s vehicles and personnel, in addition to supporting any Internet Protocol (IP) applications.

A core aspect of the solution is the inclusion of the MOTOLocator solution, which enables location-based video surveillance from police in the field back to the control room. The advanced suite of applications also enables operators at five command and control centers in Abu Dhabi to view, interact and respond to high resolution, real-time streaming video from police vehicles and personnel in the field. This enables police on the ground to make fast decisions as situations unfold and to therefore respond appropriately.

MOTOLocator can also be used to cost-effectively connect other applications used by the Abu Dhabi Police including fixed camera installations, automated speed tracking of vehicles, facial recognition and automatic license plate recognition. As the project progresses, National ID, electronic passports and fingerprint reading capabilities will be also added.

Qualcomm is the first international firm to announce it will participate in India’s auction for a broadband wireless access (BWA) licence. The US chip manufacturer has applied to bid for pan-India spectrum in the 2.3GHz band, and if successful, the win would accelerate the company’s deployment of the TD-LTE (Time Division Long Term Evolution) standard.

Local regulations stipulate that foreign companies can not own more than 74 per cent equity in joint ventures, and therefore Qualcomm is looking to initially partner with an existing Indian mobile operator while it builds a network based on the TD-LTE standard, a technology that offers high-speed broadband and high-end multimedia services. At a later stage, the US firm would then look to exit the joint venture.

India’s government plans to auction two slots of pan-India BWA bandwidth, with the reserve price set at INR17.5 billion (US$386 million). The broadband auction is scheduled to begin two days after the commencement of the country’s 3G auction, which starts on April 9. Local mobile operator Aircel has also stated it plans to participate in the broadband auction.