An alliance of website operators, network operators and router manufacturers have designated today World IPv6 Launch day. The campaign is designed to ensure the broadest uptake and permanent enablement by infrastructure providers of the 128-bit Internet-layer protocol. IPv6 allows vastly more IP addresses than 32-bit IPv4, which is running out of address space with the burgeoning number of Internet-enabled mobile devices.

IPv6 offers a potential 340 trillion trillion trillion unique addresses against IPv4’s mere four billion, according to IPv6.org.

Akamai, Comcast, Google, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, D-Link, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are among the participating companies.

Campaigners face an uphill battle, despite the obvious limitation of four billion IP addresses in a world of nearly seven billion people, about one third of whom are online, often with multiple devices.

To date, IPv6 deployment has been slow and accounts for a tiny percentage of Internet traffic.

Today’s ‘launch’ (IPv6 was developed in 1990) is designed to provide an "accelerated timeline", say organisers.

World IPv6 Launch day is not the first such event: World IPv6 Day passed almost unnoticed in 2011, leading the campaigners to add a ‘This time it’s for real’ tagline to the 2012 campaign.

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) announced today that it has reached agreements to increase its shareholding in Asiacell, the Iraqi mobile operator.

Qtel has agreed to increase its shareholding to 60 per cent from its current 30 per cent for a total consideration of US$1.47 billion. Qtel will initially increase its ownership in Asiacell to 53.9 per cent; the further increase in shareholding is subject to Iraqi government and regulatory authority approval. The transaction will be financed from existing funds.

Qtel declined to identify the sellers of the stake, but in January sources said the operator was planning to buy private equity firm Merchant Bridge’s 19 per cent holding in Asiacell.

Asiacell has a 38 per cent share of Iraq’s mobile subscribers, according to rival Zain’s 2011 annual report. Zain’s Iraqi unit is the market leader with 53 per cent of subscribers, while France Telecom affiliate Korek has nine per cent.

The three operators were awarded 15-year mobile licences in 2007. These licences required them to launch initial public offerings to sell 25 per cent of their shares by the end of August 2011, but all three have yet to do so, saying the fledgling Iraqi bourse is ill-prepared.

Liberia’s telecom regulator has announced that it will be suspending the operating licence held by MTN Lonestar for two weeks after the mobile operator suspended interconnection with its smaller rival, Comium over a dispute about unpaid termination fees.

MTN Lonestar had accused Comium of failing to pay outstanding invoices for termination fees and suspended connection between the two networks. The regulator responded by saying that suspending interconnection was a breach of MTN Lonestar’s operating licence.

As shutting down the network for two weeks would have a significant impact on the company’s one million customers, the regulator said that it is still working out the details of how to enforce the licence suspension.

"Following this consultation process, the LTA will notify Lonestar and the public of the effective date for the beginning of the suspension, to enable Lonestar subscribers to migrate (temporarily or otherwise) to other networks," the regulator said in a notice.

MTN Lonestar has denied that its actions breached its operating licence. The dispute about outstanding invoices has also not been settled and the regulator also confirmed that it may take action against Comium if the dispute is not resolved.

Zimbabwe mobile operator Telecel has denied a report by the telecom regulator that the company lost 375,000 customers in the first three months of this year.

A routine statistics update from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) gave the subscriber figures for the three mobile networks as: Econet – 6.4 million, NetOne – 1.6 million, and Telecel – 1.5 million.

However, Telecel said that its active customer base was 1.8 million at the end of March, which would put it at the same level as the figure for the end of 2011.

In a statement though, Telecel’s managing director John Swaim said that the company had gained customers, when in fact, based on their own figures, the customer base seems to have been flat over the three month period.

According to POTRAZ, Econet added 714,000 subscribers during the course of the first quarter while NetOne added 144,000 users.

Virgin Group and regional mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Friendi Group today announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement for the Middle East and Africa. Subject to local authority clearances, the two groups will merge their regional telecom operations to create a combined entity to be called Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA), which will develop and operate mobile telecommunications businesses across the region.

Virgin Group operates Virgin Mobile-branded MVNOs across eight countries including South Africa, and the agreement with Friendi Group will see Virgin Group become the single largest shareholder in the combined VMMEA entity, having contributed its stake in its South African entity, Virgin Mobile South Africa, and some cash to the new entity. Virgin Group will hold a large minority stake in VMMEA upon completion of the transaction.

Left – Mikkel Vinter, founder and CEO of Friendi Group, right – Richard Branson, founder and CEO of Virgin Group

Virgin Mobile South Africa was launched in 2006 as a 50:50 joint venture between the Virgin Group and local mobile operator, Cell C.

In February 2011, Cell C sold its stake, with Virgin Group picking up an additional five per cent and Calico Investments of the Bahamas acquiring the remaining 45 per cent. Virgin Mobile South Africa counts approximately 400,000 active subscribers.

Friendi Group operates MVNOs in Oman and Jordan, and a ‘B-brand’ channel in Saudi Arabia, and has always expressed interest in advancing across the region since its launch in 2006. Friendi Group’s founder and CEO Mikkel Vinter will lead the newly established VMMEA, which will be headquartered in Dubai.

“We are obviously pleased to have reached this agreement with Virgin Group, which I believe comes at an opportunistic time with respect to the development of MVNOs in our region,” Vinter told Comm. exclusively. “With large markets such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt moving towards the implementation of MVNOs this is a fantastic time for the region’s most recognised and experienced players to come together and offer the best services available.”

Vinter said the current operational entities under VMMEA shall maintain their respective brand names, though going forward; either or both brands may be used in a new market, depending on the demographic being targeted.

Virgin Group has attempted to operate in the Middle East previously, having launched Virgin Mobile branded services in partnership with Qtel in Qatar in 2010. Within 18 months of launch the service was disbanded on instruction of the telecom regulator in Qatar, on the grounds that Virgin Mobile was not licensed to provide reseller services in the country.