Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent yesterday announced the deployment of the first solar and wind-powered mobile base station in Qatar. This initiative is part of Vodafone’s wider green technology programme to deploy green energy sources in all of its affiliates worldwide.

Alcatel-Lucent’s technology enables the mobile operator to take advantage of the fluctuating local weather conditions, while reducing ongoing costs and improving the quality of maintenance at remote or inaccessible sites. The trial site plays a key role in validating alternative energy solutions that can be implemented to other countries in the Vodafone Group, especially to areas not served by electrical grids.

The wind turbine at the Qatar site has been mounted at the top of the existing mast to leverage higher winds. The energy controller brings intelligent control to simultaneously draw power from both the photovoltaic panels and wind turbine, based on solar intensity and wind speed, making the most of the two sources’ fluctuating availability.

The system also carefully monitors battery charging cycles and diesel generator maintenance, as well as tracking real-time all weather and energy parameters.

The solution is provided by Alcatel-Lucent’s Alternative Energy Programme to address the challenge that more than 100,000 mobile base stations shall be equipped with alternative energy solutions between 2010 and 2012, representing a yearly savings of about seven million tonnes of CO_2.

Oman’s minister of national economy said the government may restore its previous plan to sell a minority stake in Omantel to a long-term investor in 2010. Ahmed Mekki told press that 30 per cent equity could be on offer, compared to the original 25 per cent quoted when the sultanate received expressions of interest in 2008.

“We are waiting for the global market to recover so we can start looking for a strategic investor again for Omantel,” Mekki stated yesterday.

The ministry of finance cancelled the sale in January 2009, citing the decline in the world financial markets. The sale would have reduced the ministry’s stake from 70 to 45 per cent.

“Despite the solid progress we have made with the sale process to date, and the continued strong interest shown by the bidders, the unprecedented market volatility and economic conditions that we are seeing globally has led to the government taking the prudent decision to stop the sale process,” stated the ministry’s secretary general, Darwish Esmail Al Balushi at the time the tender process was called off.

STC and Etisalat had both expressed interest in acquiring the strategic stake in the Omani operator.

Omantel is the sultanate’s incumbent unified operator providing fixed-line and Internet services under the parent company, and mobile services under the brand Oman Mobile.

However, it faces increasing competition with the upcoming award of a ten-year universal licence, in addition to the second fixed line licence that was awarded to Nawras in November 2008, and five licensed resellers.

Mobily announced today its net profit for 2009 had risen 44 per cent year-on-year to SAR 3.014 billion (US$804 million), from SAR 2.092 billion. Annual gross revenues increased 21 per cent to SAR13.058 billion.

Mobily attributed its high EBITDA margin of 37.04 per cent to the growing contribution from higher margin data revenues, high-spending postpaid subscribers and improved efficiencies.

Mobile broadband revenue based on HSPA technology increased 159 per cent from the previous year, while wholesale revenues represented by sales to third parties increased 470 per cent from 2008.

The operator has more than one million mobile broadband customers subscribed to high-usage bundles and with an overall mobile data exchange exceeding 50 terabytes per day, has the busiest HSPA network in the world. Data revenues contributed 14 per cent to overall revenues in 2009, compared to nine per cent the previous year. However, this is still below North American and Western European averages indicating further growth potential in this sector.

Net profit for the fourth quarter was SAR 1.052 billion, a 35 per cent increase from SAR 778 million year-on-year, and a 30.4 per cent increase from SAR 807 million quarter-on-quarter.

The company’s board of directors has recommended a dividend of SAR 875 million (SAR 1.25 per share), compared to SAR 0.75 per share upon 2008’s results, up almost 67 per cent.

During the year the operator also refinanced a SAR 1.5 billion loan and raised a SAR 900 million loan to extend its infrastructure. Both of these financing packages were achieved in the face of constrained liquidity and financial institutions being risk-adverse.

“The Hajj season was better than expected with Mobily capturing 52 per cent of pilgrims (1.3 million of the 2.5 million pilgrims) who visited the Holy sites. The 3.5G network in and around Makkah saw a 73 per cent increase in traffic compared to the previous year,” stated Mobily’s chairman Abdulaziz Al Sughayer.

Al Sughayer added the operator will continue to invest in infrastructure, its strong brand appeal and network distribution capabilities across the kingdom. Additionally, voice and value added data services, particularly for local and global enterprise customers, will be enhanced by Mobily’s participation in the Tata Global Network (TGN) Gulf Cable System, which will connect the region to the world’s major hubs and city centres. The system will provide added resilience for Mobily’s infrastructure and service capabilities and will give its users access to new high-speed routes to the world.

Mobily is 26.25 per cent owned by Etisalat and ended 2009 with an overall subscriber base of 18.2 million.

Friendi Group has finally entered a strategic cooperative agreement with Zain to provide mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in Jordan, approximately two years after it received its original licence. The deal will allow Friendi to leverage capacity from Zain’s network to provide targeted services to specific customer segments under the Friendi banner.

Friendi Group’s Mikkel Vinter and Zain Jordan’s Malek Al Jaber at the signing of the strategic network agreement

The MVNO will offer services to the Jordanian market during the second quarter of 2010 and will target the prepaid consumer market. This is Friendi’s second operation in the Middle East after launching services in Oman in 2009, where it has garnered close to 150,000 subscribers.

While Friendi and Saudi-based mobile distributor and wholesaler i2 have both held MVNO licences in Jordan since 2008, the country’s fiercely competitive mobile landscape had previously deterred network operators Zain, Orange and Umniah from penning any such agreements with the prospective MVNOs.

“Jordan is the second market destination for Friendi Group within the region after launching mobile services in Oman. Our services have been very successful with high demand, something we expect to see in Jordan too,” commented Friendi Group CEO Mikkel Vinter. He added the group plans to launch some products and services in the Jordan that have not been offered before by the other mobile operators.

CEO of Zain Jordan, Malek Al Jaber, said the strategic agreement with Friendi Group was is in line with Zain’s overall strategy based on targeted and segmented acquisitions, as well as offering quality service in spite of the market reaching saturation, with more than 100 per cent mobile penetration.

Al Jaber further noted that Zain is currently working on expanding its network and has assigned JD100 million (US$141 million) this year to increase overall capacity. Zain currently leads the Jordanian market with 2.7 million subscribers and a market share of around 47 per cent.

Related stories:

Commercial MVNO deal close to ratification in Jordan

Friendi Group: Mindset shift

i2 reconsiders MVNO investment

All four companies and consortia that submitted first round bids on December 23, 2009, for a 75 per cent stake in Zambia’s Zamtel, have successfully proceeded to the second round of bidding. The bidders are Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) of India, LAP Greencom Ltd/LAP Green Networks of Libya, Unitel/Angola Cables of Angola and Altimo Holdings/VimpelCom of Russia.

State-owned Zamtel is the fixed line incumbent and also owns mobile operator Cell-Z and Internet service provider Zamtel Online.

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) board held a meeting on January 11, 2010 and approved the recommended shortlist, after a detailed analysis conducted by an evaluation committee.

“The bids submitted were compelling, and set the stage for an exciting next phase,” stated Muhabi Lungu, acting director general of the ZDA.

The four bidders are now invited to participate in the next round of bidding, which is expected to commence this week. Shortlisted bidders will be given details of the requirements and timing for the next phase of the process.

Zamtel is the third-placed mobile operator in Zambia after Zain and MTN, counting around 200,000 subscribers at the beginning of 2009.

Related stories:

Russia’s Altimo scrapes into race for Zamtel with late bid