Mobile gaming services have long held revenue-generating potential for operators and developers alike, though the construction of a viable ecosystem has been longer in the making. With the development of appropriate terminals, the greater amount of social networking taking place across mobile devices, and an evolved charging regime, the coming 12 months are set to witness strong mobile gaming activity

At the end of October, Nokia announced the closure of its N-Gage store, which was specifically designed to sell games for Nokia phones. Many lessons have been learnt in the mobile gaming space since the first N-Gage device was introduced in 2003

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Saudi Telecom Company (STC) announced Ghassan Hasbani has been appointed CEO of its international operations, as part of the group’s new organisational structure.

Hasbani is well-known within in the regional telecom sphere through his role at management consulting firm Booz & Company’s Middle East Communications and Technology practice. He frequently published papers on the industry and is a regular commentator at conferences and events.

"We are pleased to announce this appointment, which will further strengthen the focus on our international operations as a growing global operator," stated Saud Al Daweesh, STC’s group CEO. "Our new group organisational structure underscores our commitment to strengthen and develop our international assets, while providing the right focus on our home market."

STC has expanded internationally in the past two years through a series of acquisitions and licences covering Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, South Africa, Kuwait and Bahrain. The group today serves more than 70 million subscribers around the world.

Hasbani has previously held several positions within the industry in the UK with Cable & Wireless and Nortel Networks, and spent the past ten years operating within the Middle East region. His global experience also includes markets such as Europe, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"I am looking forward to being part of the STC leadership team during this important phase of the company’s development on the global arena," commented Hasbani. "The priority is to ensure that all operations work together in harmony and collectively drive the creation of value for individual companies as well as the group".

Zain has extended its mobile banking footprint across Africa, with the launch of Zap services in Niger and Sierra Leone, as well as a full commercial pilot taking place in Malawi. This move follows the launch of services in February 2009 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where more than 10 million people have already used the service.

Using Zain’s continental reach, Zap’s mobile commerce facilities are now accessible to more than 150 million people in six countries, making the Bahrain-based operator the largest mobile commerce service provider in the world based on geographic coverage, enabled customers and service functionalities.

Subscribers can use their Zap-enabled mobile phone to withdraw cash or pay for goods or services such as school fees and utility bills, to send and receive money between people, to access funds and manage their bank accounts, as well as top-up their own or somebody else’s airtime.

This expansion comes in direct competition with fellow heavyweight in Africa, MTN, which announced its MobileMoney service one month after Zap’s initial launch in March 2009, claiming the largest deployment of mobile wallet services at the time. The deal was worth US$9.7 million and aimed to enable more than 80 million MTN subscribers across 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East to access mobile banking services.

However, according to MTN’s website, almost one year later services have only been rolled out in Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda.

The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has received four bids from foreign companies for a 75 per cent stake in fixed line incumbent Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel). State-held Zamtel also owns mobile operator Cell-Z and Internet service provider Zamtel Online.

Originally eight companies expressed interest, however only India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Unitel of Angola and Libya-based LAP Greencom submitted offers before the deadline on December 23, 2009. A consortium between Russia’s Vimpelcom and the telecom arm of the Alfa Group, Altimo, sent a bid which reportedly arrived at ZDA’s offices five minutes after the tender closed. ZDA confirmed on January 1 that Altimo’s non-binding offer had been accepted.

The four offers are now being evaluated by the ZDA and Zamtel’s board, with an announcement due on January 11, over which companies will move forward in the privatisation process. A final due diligence will be conducted before a successful bidder is selected.

The other four companies short-listed in the process but which did not submit bids were South Africa’s Telkom, state-owned Indian operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Portugal Telecom and a consortium between Egypt-based Orascom Telecom and subsidiary Telecel Globe.

Zamtel is the third-placed mobile operator in Zambia, counting around 200,000 subscribers at the beginning of 2009. It competes with Zain and MTN in mobile services.

India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel has received the approval from Bangladesh’s telecom authority to acquire a 70 per cent stake of Abu Dhabi Group’s Warid Telecom for US$300 million, making it the first Indian operator to enter the Bangladeshi market.

National telecom law states that 5.5 per cent of the sale price, US$16.5 million, must go to the regulator, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Warid has 30 days to submit a schedule of Bharti’s initial investment plan to the commission.

The sale by the Abu Dhabi Group’s stake appears to be part of a wider strategy to offload its offshore telecom investments. In November, the UAE-based company announced India’s Essar Group would acquire a 51 per cent stake in certain telecom operations in Africa. Essar Group was reported to be paying around US$150 million for stakes in Warid Telecom Uganda and Warid Telecom Congo. The enterprise valuation of the Uganda and Congo operations collectively was estimated at US$318 million.

Warid owns an additional investment in Pakistan, a joint venture with Singapore’s SingTel, and has not announced any plans to reduce its equity in this market. A statement on Warid Pakistan’s website posted late last year, denies media speculation over a possible merger with an unnamed entity.

Warid is the fourth largest mobile operator in Bangladesh, counting 2.92 million subscribers at the end of November 2009. It launched its operation in the South Asian market as the sixth operator in 2007, and has since invested US$600 million in growing its business. The service provider currently competes with Grameenphone, a Bangladesh-Norway joint venture, Egypt-based Banglalink, Malaysia-Japan joint venture Aktel, Bangladesh-Singapore joint venture Citycell and state-owned Teletalk.

Bharti Airtel provides telecom services within all of India’s 22 licensed circles, as well as in Sri Lanka. As of end-Q309, the operator served more than 113.43 million subscribers.

Low mobile penetration levels, competitive pricing and steady economic growth has enabled Bangladesh to grow from an overall mobile subscriber base of 200,000 in 2001, to 50.5 million as of end-November 2009. However, analysts predict price-warring between operators could fuel the number of customers to top 100 million by 2015.