Zain Group is reported to have rejected all three bids for its 25 per cent stake in its Saudi Arabian subsidiary, a requirement before the takeover bid by Etisalat can be ratified. The stake is currently valued at around US$750 million.

"The board met today and declined all three offers," a source, familiar with the discussions, told Reuters.

Etisalat’s US$12 billion takeover offer for Zain Group expires at the end of this month and was dependent on a deal to divest the Saudi assets due to competition issues in the country between Zain and Etisalat’s subsidiaries.

On February 20 Batelco announced that its offer for the 25 per cent had lapsed.

Batelco Group confirmed today that its offer to acquire Zain Group’s 25 per cent stake in Zain KSA expired.

“We believe the Batelco consortium presented a very fair and reasonable offer to Zain Group, stated Batelco Group CEO, Peter Kaliaropoulos.

“Our offer also involved a significant amount of new cash to be injected into Zain KSA as working capital to accelerate its growth in a highly competitive market. Ensuring that both Zain Group and Zain KSA appropriately benefit was at the core of our offer,” he added

“Negotiations were amicable but we did not reach a suitable deal,” he concluded.

China Mobile has stated it has signed a "strategic co-operation framework agreement" with Vodafone, without giving too much additional information. Vodafone currently owns a 3.2 per cent stake in China Mobile – but has spoken about disposing of the stake

According to the agreement, the two companies will continue their co-operation in areas including: exchange of corporate management, technical and operational expertise; enhanced roaming services; multinational customers; green technology; network roadmap management, joint innovation and R&D, and promotion of converged LTE technology, amongst other areas.

In 2008, China Mobile joined the LTE trials that were already being carried out by Vodafone and Verizon Wireless. A few months later, China Mobile, Japan’s Softbank and Vodafone also set up a Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications and services.

Palestinian telco PalTel Group reported net profit for 2010 amounted toUS$122 million up by 22.75 per cent from the previous year.

Consolidated net operating revenues grew 7.88 per cent to reach US$479 million. With regards to the operating revenues of each of the telco’s segments, PalTel achieved a growth in its fixed line, mobile, data and IT revenues of 10.04 per cent, 9.07 per cent, 9.52 per cent and 13.60 per cent respectively.

The consolidated operating income for the company reached US$158 million at the end of 2010, reflecting a year-on-year growth rate of 7.09 per cent. The telco reported this growth was achieved by an increase in consolidated revenues and a focus of operational efforts on core telecom functions and outsourcing support functions.

Mobile and ADSL subscribers grew by 26.58 per cent and 16.12 per cent, respectively reaching a customer base of 2.26 million and 107,389 compared with 1.8 million and 92,483 a year earlier. The number of fixed line subscribers witnessed a 2.08 per cent decline to stand at 362,792 subscribers.

Etisalat has signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for a planned deployment of  an LTE network in the UAE, with a commercial launch commencing in the months to come.

Alcatel-Lucent, as the leading partner will provide Etisalat with LTE base stations (eNodeBs), all-IP wireless Evolved Packet Core (EPC), network management and a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, commissioning and integration.