South African operators MTN and Telkom have reportedly made separate bids for stakes in Zimbabwe’s state-owned mobile and landline operators NetOne and TelOne respectively, according to local newspaper the Herald. Quoting a government source, it was confirmed that several firms expressed interest in the two companies and the government is now conducting due diligence on the bids.

“They will soon be presented to cabinet before we choose the winner. Yes, MTN and Telkom are some of the companies that have expressed interest in the companies NetOne and TelOne,” the source stated.

NetOne has struggled to fund its network through a plague of cash troubles and bureaucracy, and has not replaced much outdated infrastructure.

Zimbabwe has three mobile operators – TeleCel, NetOne and Econet Wireless. Econet Wireless, owned by exiled business tycoon Strive Masiyawa, leads the market with three million subscribers, followed by TeleCel with 600,000 customers. NetOne reportedly ended 2009 with 250,000 subscribers. TelOne is the country’s sole fixed line provider with 386,000 customers.

Fixed line subscribers across 15 Arab countries declined 4.6 per cent over nine months, from 29.2 million at the end of December 2008, to 27.8 million as of the end of September 2009, according to a report by Arab Advisors. The report analysed 20 fixed line providers operating across 15 Arab markets.

Telecom Egypt is the largest fixed line operator with 9.631 million subscribers, followed by Saudi Arabia’s STC with 4.169 million. The third largest was Syrian Telecom (STE).

The UAE recorded the highest fixed line penetration rate amongst the surveyed countries, followed by Lebanon.

India’s Tata Communications has announced that  it has contracted Tyco Telecommunications to construct the TGN Gulf cable system, which will connect the Gulf region to the rest of the world through the Tata Global Network (TGN) cable system. Tata Communications’ local partners in the Gulf gateway to the TGN are the Bahrain Internet Exchange, Oman’s Nawras, Qatar’s Qtel, Saudi Arabia’s Mobily and the UAE’s Etisalat.

Each party will be an exclusive landing party for the high-speed bandwidth TGN Gulf cable system, which will support the development of advanced telecommunications services such as global Ethernet, MPLS based VPN, managed security, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and global telepresence. Each party will have access to a new high-speed route to the globe and at the same time add much needed resilience and diversity to the infrastructure in each country.Work began on the cable system in October 2009 and is expected to be completed during 2011.

In addition, Tata Communications has earmarked US$200 million for investment in the Middle East region over the coming two years.

"We firmly believe in the growth potential and increasing dynamism in the Middle East region,” commented Vinod Kumar, president and COO of Tata Communications.

“This conviction translates tangibly into investments that will increase our infrastructure and services coverage throughout the region. Most importantly, this is steered by the strong foundational partnerships that we have formed with leading Middle Eastern operators. We see the Middle East as a crucial building block in our emerging markets strategy and in delivering the ‘new world of communications’ to our global enterprise customers.”

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Integrated UAE operator Du plans to invest AED 2.2 billion (US$600 million) on network infrastructure in the upcoming year, on the back of surging profits for the full year 2009. Revenues grew by 35 per cent to reach AED 5,339 million, compared to AED 3,951 million for 2008, while net profits before royalty reached AED 528 million, an exponential increase from AED 8 million a year earlier.

Du’s CEO Osman Sultan said the company offers the most technically advanced fixed telephony, broadband and IPTV in the Arab world

Du’s mobile subscriber base reached 4,488,200 active mobile customers as of the end-December, an increase of 41 per cent year-on-year from a previous figure of 3,477,000. Fixed line subscribers also saw significant growth with a rise of 45 per cent to 405,900 lines. EBITDA for the full year jumped 189 per cent from AED 369 million in 2008 to AED 1,064 million.

“Three years exactly after launching our services, we have reasons to be proud of our achievements so far. Our position in the mobile market is a strong one and we have realised our ambition, in a short time, of becoming a serious player in the UAE. Our value proposition in fixed telephony, broadband Internet and IPTV is the most developed, integrated and technically advanced in the Arab world,” stated chief executive officer Osman Sultan. “We see good growth prospects ahead by widening our appeal to more and more customers through the expansion of our offering nationwide via an infrastructure sharing agreement.”

“In addition we have been building the foundations for the company to enter efficiently, through partnerships and joint ventures, into the fast growing universe of digital content and the Internet, allowing progressive ramp up of new revenue streams in the years to come,” Sultan added.

Capital expenditure for the year surpassed AED 2.4 billion, including the addition of 717 2G sites extending coverage to 99 per cent of the Emirates’ population, along with an additional 786 3G sites, reaching population coverage of more than 80 per cent.

During the fourth quarter, the company added 337,900 mobile subscribers, with revenues reaching AED 1,530 million, a 25 per cent increase from the same quarter a year earlier. Net profit before royalty witnessed 155 per cent year-on-year growth to reach AED 209 million for the quarter, up from AED 82 million in Q408.

The Indian government plans to commence its long-awaited and oft-delayed 3G auction process within the next week, the telecoms minister has confirmed. Notices inviting applications will be issued shortly, with an estimated deadline 40-45 days later, meaning the auction will now take place in the 2010 fiscal year starting April.

The auction had previously been postponed due to internal disputes over the pricing and availability of wireless spectrum. The government hopes the expected INR 350 billion (US$7.6 billion) in revenues from the 3G auction will help stem its fiscal deficit, which has reached a 16-year high.

Analysts estimate individual operators could outlay between US$1-1.5 billion for India-wide spectrum, while the actual 3G network rollout could cost billions more. The country’s top three operators – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, have all indicated their appetite for a slice of the 3G pie, while Telenor’s Uninor has also showed interest in 3G licences for specific circles.

Additionally, the minister added that the introduction of mobile number portability has been pushed back a further two months until the end of May.