Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading GSM operator announced it has topped three million subscribers, with one million customers being added in the past six months.

Roshan’s market segmentation includes targeted call plans for the mass market, business users and the youth. The operator will place more emphasis on the women and youth segments in 2009

The company launched commercially in 2003, and as of November 2008 had a 41 per cent market share ahead of competitors Afghan Wireless, a local privately-owned company, and the UAE’s Etisalat. Afghan Wireless had two million customers as of June last year.

Roshan has focused on differentiating the market and last year introduced three plans tailored to different market-segments: Aali for the mass market; Saadat targeted at business users; and Yaraan, focused on the youth segment. CEO Karim Khoja told Comm. in December that the operator will place great emphasis on the women and youth segments during 2009.

Roshan also partnered with Vodafone to launch M-Paisa last October, the country’s first mobile banking product. M-Paisa provides consumers, businesses, local banks and employers with an accessible, cost effective and safe method for funds transfer, airtime refill, salary payment, microfinance transactions and cashless travel. The service is now offered in 10 provinces throughout the country.

“M-Paisa has the potential to boost economic growth through the elimination of common financial barriers, especially in remote areas and in particular to women, who often are the sole supporters of the family,” commented Roshan’s chief operating officer Altaf Ladak. “Through M-Paisa and Roshan’s mobile network coverage, we provide an important vehicle for the economic regeneration of Afghanistan,” he added.

Roshan’s coverage reaches 56 per cent of the population, including 226 cities and towns across 33 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan.

The company is owned 51 per cent by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), while Monaco Telecom International owns 36.75 per cent and Nordic operator TeliaSonera owns the remaining 12.25 per cent.

Mohammed Al Ageel, the incoming CEO of Saudi Arabia’s iDEN operator Bravo, has his work cut out in terms of bolstering the company’s digital push-to-talk (PTT) services. The niche technology developed by Motorola has 24 million users globally and despite falling subscriber numbers in some markets around the globe, Al Ageel sees opportunities for iDEN technology to expand beyond its current narrow appeal in the kingdom. Michelle Mills reports

Bravo’s CEO Mohammed Al Ageel says the time is right for marketing Bravo’s services to Saudi Arabia’s large enterprise and government sectors

The prognosis for integrated digital enhanced network (iDEN) technology, at least in its home market of North America, is not good. Nextel, the world’s largest iDEN operator, and the poster-child of the Motorola-developed technology, has witnessed subscriber numbers waning since the operator’s acquisition by CDMA operator Sprint in 2004.

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Vodafone Qatar CEO Grahame Maher has detailed the challenges that still lie ahead of the operator commercially launching as the country’s second operator, providing more evidence that a launch is only likely to occur in the latter part of the year.

Vodafone Qatar’s Maher said only half of the required base stations and towers are built so far, with coverage limited to the greater Doha area

Disagreements over interconnection fees with incumbent Qtel still exist, with the number of base stations rolled out by Vodafone Qatar behind schedule. Just 1,000 customers will be able to use the service during a two-month trial period, which is believed to start before the end of March, and which would meet licensing conditions that required the licensee to launch a service by the end of March.

Maher has said he is confident that outstanding issues with Qtel over interconnection fees and sharing of tower infrastructure would be resolved shortly, after the matter was referred to the telecoms regulator ictQATAR.

The two-month trial will start “sometime in March” and will be limited to within the greater Doha area; with hundreds more base stations and towers required for coverage.

“We’re half way through, we haven’t got as much coverage as we would have liked,” Maher acknowledged to local press.

The trial will involve 1,000 pre-registered customers who will be offered discounted call rates of 55 dirhams (US$0.15) per minute for national calls and 40 dirhams per SMS. However, customers must pay an initial fee of QAR70 and must own a credit card, as the Vodafone system can not handle cash payments yet.

Alcatel Lucent is responsible for the construction and integration of technologies across the country and EDS is handling the IT side of Vodafone’s network.

Additionally, Vodafone is still waiting approval from the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) for a date for its initial public offering (IPO). A requirement of the mobile licence required the company to IPO before November 30 last year, but this was delayed due to adverse market conditions.

The IPO of Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Co. (Atheeb), one of the three new fixed-line licensees in Saudi Arabia, has been oversubscribed by 200 per cent.

Shareholders Batelco and private Saudi investors intended to raise SR300 million (US$80 million) in the IPO which closed yesterday, through the offer of 30 per cent of the company’s capital, equating to 30 million shares at SR10 each.

Financial advisor, lead manager and underwriter for Atheeb’s IPO process, Saudi Hollandi Capital Co, stated that at the eight receiving banks in Saudi Arabia had received 60.133 million share subscriptions from more than 774,000 subscribers, as of February 1.

Following the IPO Batelco will retain a 15 per cent stake in Atheeb, with the remaining shareholding divided amongst Atheeb Group, Nahla Company and GOSI (General Organisation of Social Insurance).

Atheeb’s IPO is the kingdom’s first since August 2008, following the country’s Capital Markets Authority reportedly placed IPOs on hold until investor confidence improves. The local bourse has lost 45 per cent of its value during the past four months.

When Atheeb launching commercial services later this year it will compete with incumbent STC and the two other licencees – Optical Communications spearheaded by the US’s Verizon, and Al-Mutakamilah Company led by Hong Kong’s PCCW.

STC has approximately 4.5 million fixed-line subscribers and 1.3 million Internet users, representing penetration rates of 18.75 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively.

Orange Jordan’s 2008 net profit grew 6.1 per cent from a year earlier to JD100.3 million (US$141.5 million), on the back of a strong performance from its Internet services business.

Orange Jordan’s mobile subscribers grew 2.6 per cent to 1.75 million as of end-2008, but faces stiff competition from market leader Zain which had 2.253 million customers at the end of September 2008

Orange Jordan provides fixed, mobile and Internet services, and while overall revenues remained flat, increasing by only 0.9 per cent to JD401.4 million for the year, the contribution from Internet services rose by 52.9 per cent to JD21.1 million.

The operator is 51 per cent owned by France Telecom and is the sole fixed-line operator, yet faces stiff competition in the mobile realm from Zain, Umniah and iDEN operator Xpress. There are also several smaller Internet providers present in the market.

Mobile subscribers grew 2.6 per cent to 1.75 million customers, Internet subscribers rose 55.6 per cent to 102,000, while fixed subscribers increased by a mere 0.5 per cent to 663,400. In comparison, market leader Zain counted 2.253 million mobile customers as of end-September, and is yet to announce its full-year results.

Orange Jordan attributed the overall diminishing growth rate to a weakening economy, while saying the fast-growing data services unit would offset the falling revenues of its fixed business, which decreased by 4.7 per cent year-on-year.