The annual Telco World Summit in Dubai gathers many of the Middle East’s operator community under a single roof to assess the overall state of the market. The event’s key themes were centred around customer acquisition and retention efforts, as well as how best to open new revenue streams while cutting back on infrastructure spending. Recurring themes as these may be, fresh from the sting of the economic slowdown, operators are looking at their businesses more critically with the view to preserving operating margins

Telecom World Summit 2009 had operators assessing whether the worse effects of the economic slowdown are now behind us

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In December 2008 STC-backed Viva Kuwait launched as the country’s third mobile operator. Incumbents Zain and Wataniya had waged a long war of words expressing scepticism for the need of a third player in the country of 3.4 million inhabitants. A year on and Viva is successfully carving out a niche for itself, and its CEO Najeeb Al Awadi sees no reason why it should not aim for the top spot

Najeeb Al Awadi says Viva is looking to garner a market share of 30-33 per cent as soon as possible, and sees no reason why it shouldn’t target the top spot

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Zul Javaid is stepping down as CEO of Warid Telecom Uganda after two years at the helm. Javaid, who leaves at the end of January, says he will be joining a telecom company that operates in the Middle East and East Africa.

Javaid becomes the highest profile executive to leave the Ugandan operator since Indian telco, Essar, took over a 51 per cent stake in the company late last year.

“I made my own decision (to leave) independently, and I can assure you I don’t know who is taking over from me, but I’m sure Essar will be bringing in some of their own management staff,” Javaid told media in Uganda.

Warid Telecom Uganda has added around 1.5million subscribers.

In the middle of November the Essar Group announced it was to acquire a 51 per cent stake in the telecom operations of the Dhabi Group, an investment company led by Abu Dhabi’s royal family. Essar Group was reported to have paid around US$150 million for stakes in Warid Telecom Uganda and Warid Telecom Congo.

The agreement was signed by Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak al Nahyan, chairman of the Dhabi Group, and Prashant Ruia, group chief executive of Essar in Abu Dhabi. The enterprise valuation of the Uganda and Congo operations collectively is estimated at US$318 million. Essar already has a presence in Kenya’s telecom sector through its operation branded ‘Yu’, with the Indian operator looking to strengthen its foothold in the African market.

The GSM Association’s primary reason for being is to lobby for the interests of mobile operators, most of them with a GSM heritage, in a rapidly evolving landscape. Ricardo Tavares, senior vice president at the GSMA believes HSPA has a particular resonance in markets in the Middle East given the pent-up demand for Internet access and the relatively high penetration of mobile handsets

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Less than a month after being fined OMR100,000 (US$260,000) by Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) over a complaint by Injaz International Telecom Company that it had refused to conclude an agreement to provide resale services, network operator Nawras has concluded an agreement with Injaz.

Injaz becomes the fifth licensed reseller in Oman behind Friendi Mobile, Renna, Mazoon and Samatel, with three of the licensees currently operational. Amongst them they count fewer than 300,000 mobile subscribers, representing a market share of around 10 per cent. Friendi Mobile and Renna utilise Oman Mobile’s network in order to offer their respective services, while the other three resellers purchase capacity from Nawras.

“Competition is going to be very tough and I doubt that all five resellers will succeed,” commented a telecom insider in Oman. “The resellers that launched first will be anticipating a challenging 2010 with all the new players entering the market.”