In a move which could be seen to safeguard Telecom Egypt’s revenues which dropped during 2009, Egypt’s regulator has outlawed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls made through mobile Internet connections.

"The ban is on Skype on mobile internet, not on fixed, and this is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway," stated Amr Badawy, the executive president of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA).

Therefore, only Telecom Egypt is prohibited to allow Skype and other such VoIP services, and not providers of mobile Internet connections: Mobinil, Etisalat Egypt and Vodafone Egypt.

"We monitor what is happening on international voice calling and it has had an adverse effect on it," Badawy added.

On March 14, Telecom Egypt posted annual revenues of EGP 9.96 billion (US$1.8 billion), a decline of less than two per cent from EGP 10.12 billion a year earlier. Despite lower revenues, net profit increased 9.7 per cent from EGP 2.79 billion in 2008 to EGP 3.06 billion in 2009.

The ban follows the United Arab Emirates’ regulator which announced on March 15 that international companies such as Skype would not receive VoIP licences to operate in the UAE. Only local firms Etisalat, Du, Thuraya and YahSat are licenced to provided VoIP services.

Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) posted a net loss of US$46.4 million during the quarter ending December 31, 2009, largely impacted by recent unfavourable events in Algeria. The group reported a net profit of US$318 million for the full year, 26 per cent lower than 2008. Annual revenues declined by 4.9 per cent to US$5.06 billion.

Executive chairman Naguib Sawiris said the company would reconsider its investment in Algeria, if it becomes clear its investment is not wanted there

The operator ended the year with 92.85 million subscribers, a growth of 19 per cent over the previous year’s figure of 78 million. This is broken down by subsidiary as follows: Mobilink Pakistan 30.8 million; Mobinil Egypt 25.4 million; Djezzy Algeria 14.6 million; Banglalink 13.9 million; Tunisiana 5.2 million; Telecel Globe (Burundi, Central African Republic, Namibia, Zimbabwe) 1.8 million; Alfa Lebanon one million; and Koryolink North Korea 91,700.

ARPUs declined by 13.4 per cent in 2009 from US$6.60 to US$5.70.

The recent riot events in Algeria following the football match between Algeria and Egypt incurred significant losses for the firm. OTH estimates the impact of the riots on fourth quarter 2009 EBITDA to be around US$55 million, made up of loss of revenue opportunity, damages to stock (SIM and scratch cards, handsets) and provision for taxes.

In addition, the company is still involved in a dispute with the Algerian government over a backdated US$600 million tax bill for the fiscal years 2004 to 2007. On March 7, Algerian tax authorities rejected an appeal from OTH filed in December for a tax reassessment. OTH intends to file an appeal before the Central Commission, which under Algerian law requires payment of 20 per cent of the balance of taxes and penalties alleged to be owing, equating to around US$110 million.

Executive chairman of OTH Naguib Sawiris commented, “We are keen to stay in Algeria; it is one of our main assets and until this incident we were very happy there. However, we need to understand if our investment is welcome there or not. If not, we will consider other options. As always, we consider our strategic position in each country in which we operate to maximise shareholder value.”

India’s Reliance Communications (RCom) said it has reached the milestone of 100 million mobile customers in India, making it the second operator after Bharti Airtel to do so. Subscribers were added through both its GSM and CDMA operations and the company now aims to sign up the next 100 million customers within the following 1,000 days.

"The landmark 100 million mobile customer base makes us the youngest telecom operator to achieve this milestone in such a short span of time,” stated Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance ADA Group, referring to accomplishing this feat within seven years of launching its first nationwide mobile service in 2003.

“Reliance Communications pioneered the mobile revolution in India and since then we have been the frontrunner of telecom innovations in the country. As we take the leap to achieve the 200 million mark, we will lead it from the front with a more customer-centric innovations and service approach."

RCom plans to rollout a CDMA mobile broadband network with Internet speeds of up to 3.1Mbps across more than 60 cities, within the next 100 days. This brings the total number of cities covered by its mobile broadband service to 125.

Bankrupt telecoms vendor Nortel Networks reported a profit of US$1.78 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, mainly due to the gain of US$1.2 billion received from the sale of its CDMA business to Ericsson. The quarterly profit compares to a loss of US$2.14 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a loss of US$508 million in the third quarter of 2009.

Revenues for the three months ending December 31, 2009 slumped to US$794 million following declines across all its business segments and international regions. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2008 were US$2.07 billion.

In full year 2009 results revenues reached US$4.09 billion, down 46 per cent from US$7.62 billion in 2008. The company posted an annual net profit of US$488 million, compared to a net loss of US$5.8 billion during the previous 12 month period.

Since filing for creditor protection in January 2009, Nortel has been steadily selling off its various assets. Most recently, the firm received approval to sell nearly all of its global Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) business to Genband for US$282 million. The deal was initially announced December 23, however the approval from bankruptcy courts in Canada and the United States was confirmed on March 3. Genband is a Texas-headquartered global supplier of IP gateways and FMC security solutions.

South Africa’s MTN witnessed strong growth in revenues and subscribers over the course of 2009, however currency fluctuations particularly of the South African rand and Nigerian naira negatively impacted net profits. Revenues across its footprint of 21 markets in Africa and the Middle East were up 9.2 per cent on 2008, reaching ZAR 111.947 billion (US$15.011 billion) compared to ZAR 102.526 billion a year ago.

Mobile money has been rolled out in seven countries so far, with Uganda already topping 680,000 subscribers 

Net profit declined by 4.3 per cent from ZAR 15.315 billion in 2008 to ZAR 14.65 billion a year later. EBITDA was 6.7 per cent higher at ZAR 46.063 billion. Capital expenditure grew 10.6 per cent to ZAR 31.2 billion.

A better distribution network and a focus on segmented product offerings contributed to subscribers increasing by 28 per cent to 116 million. As a breakdown, 45 per cent of the total subscribers were based in the West and Central Africa region (WECA), 32 per cent in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with the remaining 23 per cent in South and East Africa (SEA).

MTN committed US$191 million to submarine cables with the group having access to cable capacity on the SAT-3/SAFE and TEAMs cables which are both currently operational, as well as future access to EASSy and EIG which are due to become operational in H2 2010 and WACS in H2 2011.

Mobile money was rolled out in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Yemen, with Uganda surpassing 680,000 subscribers.