The Zain Group has announced that the management of its Iraq operation, Zain Iraq, will henceforth fall under the direct supervision of the group’s CEO, Nabeel Bin Salamah. The former Zain Iraq CEO, Ali Al Dahwi, has been appointed special advisor on Iraq for the Zain Group.

The Zain Group explained that the move was made on the basis of the company’s long term development in Iraq and will not necessarily mean a change in the strategic direction set out by Al Dahwi. Zain Iraq counts a customer base of 11 million, the highest among the Zain’s Middle East operations.

Barrak Al Sabeeh will represent Bin Salamah in an on-the-ground capacity, while Wael Ghanayem, the newly-appointed Zain Iraq CFO will take on the additional role of acting CEO until such time that a new CEO is officially appointed.

Etisalat’s chairman Mohammed Omran has issued a blunt statement setting clear the operator’s position with respect to its investment in Pakistan telco Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and the UAE’s telco’s non-payment of almost half of the US$2.6 billion it pledged for a 26 per cent stake of the Pakistan operator in 2006.

Recently media reports have quoted Pakistan’s minister of privatisation, senator Waqar Ahmed Khan, calling for an enquiry into Etisalat’s acquisition of the stake in PTCL.

“The deal (between Etisalat and PTCL) was full of flaws and legal advisers had asked the then government to scrap it, otherwise it would be considered contrary to rules,” Khan is quoted as saying. Omran countered in his statement by saying Etisalat’s investment in PTCL, “came in the wake of a welcome invitation and encouragement by the government of Pakistan to participate in the privatisation process”.

At the beginning of this year Etisalat was reported to be withholding US$1 billion in payments to the Pakistan government over a dispute relating to its purchase of its stake in PTCL. The dispute is over the ownership of properties in Pakistan that were meant to form part of the original deal.

According to the terms of the agreement, Etisalat was due to pay US$1.4 billion within one month of signing the purchase deal and the remaining US$1.2 billion was to be paid in equal instalments over four and a half years, with one instalment every six months.

Responding to the issue of the outstanding purchase price, Omran said that under the terms of the deal, Etisalat is entitled to withhold payments until the property titles are transferred to PTCL.

“Our aim is to ensure that PTCL receives clean title to and possession of all properties. We are confident that when the privatisation commission fulfils this obligation, Etisalat will immediately release the instalments,” he said.

On March 31, Zain Group announced that for the 12 months of 2009, the mobile operator recorded consolidated revenues of KWD 2.318 billion (US$ 8.056 billion), an increase of 15.7 per cent year-on-year. The company’s consolidated EBITDA increased by 24 per cent for the same period to reach KWD 926 million. Consolidated net income reached KWD 195 million, a decrease of 39 per cent.

Year-on-year customer growth in the Middle East and Africa across which Zain operates was 14 per cent, with the cellco reporting the service of 72.5 million managed active customers as of December 31, 2009. Zain Group added over 9 million new active customers over the past twelve months.

India is set to conduct the auction for much-anticipated 3G spectrum on April 9. Applications from prospective bidders were open until March 19 and pre-qualified bidders were announced on March 30. This announcement will be followed by mock auctions held on April 5 and 6.

The nine pre-qualified bidders for the 3G auction are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance Telecom, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecom, and Vodafone Essar. The 11 pre-qualified for the broadband wireless access (BWA) licences are Aircel, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Indea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMAX, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Communications Internet Services, and Vodafone Essar.

The auction of BWA spectrum will occur two days after the completion of the 3G bandwidth auction.

Despite the promising news, operators and analysts can be excused for being sceptical that the auction may actually take place, as the process has been delayed three times before since the original date of January 16, 2009. The postponements have been due to internal government disputes over pricing and availability of spectrum.

Vodafone Qatar has been awarded the country’s second fixed-line licence, a decision that is subject to approval at an extraordinary shareholder meeting.

The operator broke the Middle East’s last monopoly telecom market by winning the bid for the country’s second mobile licence at a cost of US$2.12 billion in 2007. It launched its commercial mobile network in July 2009, and recorded an operating loss of QAR 495.6 million (US$137 million) for the nine-months ending December 2009.

Vodafone Qatar ended 2009 with 353,580 mobile subscribers, more than double the number at the end of September. The operator’s subscribers represented 22 per cent of the population, and a market share of 14 per cent.

In September 2008, Qatar’s telecom regulator ictQatar announced the award of Qatar’s second fixed licence to the Vodafone and Qatar Foundation Consortium, for a fixed fee of QAR10 million. Vodafone and Qatar Foundation beat off competition from Jordan Telecom and PCCW in pursuit of the second licence.

There are approximately 285,000 landlines in Qatar at present, representing a penetration rate of 30 per cent.