Etisalat is reported to be withholding around US$1 billion in payments to the Pakistan government over a dispute relating to its 2006 purchase of a 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTCL). The dispute is reported to be over the ownership of several properties in Pakistan that were part of the deal.

According to the terms of the agreement, Etisalat was due to pay US$1.4 billion within one month after the signing of the deal and the remaining amount of US$1.2 billion was to be paid in equal instalments over four and a half years, with one instalment every six months. The National newspaper reported that around US$1 billion of those payments are now up to a year overdue.

“Transfer of land is part of the contract. It says if it doesn’t happen we can stop the payments,” Etisalat’s chairman, Mohammed Omran told the newspaper. Omran declined to confirm the number of properties in dispute. “We have estimates but we don’t want to discuss specific numbers outside for contractual reasons,” he said. “I can tell you the properties are in main cities and very valuable.”

PTCL’s mobile subsidiary, Ufone ended Q3 2009 with around 19.1 million subscribers, representing a market share of around 20 per cent.

In the past three years Qtel Group has matured into a pre-eminent operator having initially been considered one of the losers of the rapid M&A activity that had erupted in the Gulf a few years earlier. Speaking to Comm., Nasser Marafih, Qtel Group’s CEO talks of domestic competition prudent investment considerations and why sub-Sahara Africa is of little interest to the operator

Marafih says things have pretty much been as the telco expected with respect to the offers that Vodafone has come to market with

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The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman has fined Nawras OMR100,000 (US$260,000) over a complaint by Injaz International Telecom Company that Nawras had refused to conclude an agreement to provide resale service in accordance with the terms of the licence and the regulations of the TRA.

The TRA, after reviewing the facts, decided to impose the fine to be paid within one week from the decision. The regulator has also given Nawras 15 working days to conclude the resale agreement with Injaz under a plan presented to the TRA.

In its complaint to the TRA, Injaz asked it to call on Nawras to observe and keep to the licence issued to it and to sign an agreement in accordance with the requirements of the licence relating to the regulatory framework in force.

Injaz has also asked the TRA to address Nawras to apply solutions for the smart network that hosts Injaz to be able to launch its services. Nawras already has reseller agreements in place with service providers Mazoon and Samatel. The latter reseller is scheduled to launch services during the first quarter of next year.

Omani mobile reseller Mazoon Mobile began offering services as the country’s third mobile reseller behind Friendi Mobile and Renna at the end of November, having announced inking a deal with Nawras to utilise the network operator’s infrastructure. Friendi Mobile and Renna services are hosted on Oman Mobile’s network.

Friendi Mobile was the first to launch commercially at the end of April, and has since gone on to garner close to 150,000 subscribers. Renna, which launched less than a month after Friendi counts around 100,000 users, translating to a combined mobile market share of 7-8 per cent.

Given the presence of two existing resellers in Oman, as well as a further sub-brand launched by Friendi in collaboration with a local Omani radio station, it is hard to see where Mazoon is likely to pick subscribers up from.

“The point is we will need to differentiate,” commented Mohamed Al Hashili, CEO of Mazoon Mobile recently. “There is already a lot of activity in the market and we need to build a relationship with customers that they do not already have with any of our competitors,” he added without offering any specific examples.

Another concern Mazoon is likely to face is the fact that projected ARPU levels at the initial two resellers are understood to be lower than initially anticipated, resulting in the requirement for more subscribers to need to be added to their services in order for the operations to break even.

“While we have been surprised and delighted by the number of subscribers we have been able to add since launch, I will say that we are slightly behind or just on par on ARPU levels,” Niklas Nielsen, CEO of Renna’s parent company Majan Telecom said. “Despite this, we shall become cash flow positive by next year.”

Independent consultants have estimated that it now takes the addition of 170,000-200,000 subscribers in order for a reseller in Oman to become profitable, when that figure had originally been estimated at around 100,000. To compound matters further, it is understood that Nawras is required by the regulator to licence one more reseller, a development that is expected imminently.

Orange Jordan is reported to have asked the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), for an extension on the launch of its 3G network, originally expected to take place in February. The company’s CFO Rasian Diranieh is reported to have said he did not expect the network to be launched in the first quarter of the year because of delays in receiving the requisite frequencies.

The TRC has dismissed Orange’s claims, saying that 3G frequencies in all areas where Orange planned to launch have been released.

Orange Jordan was granted a 12-month exclusivity period commencing on the day of commercial launch, with commercial launch having to be a maximum six months after the telco submitted its bid for the 3G licence. As this was done mid-August, the expectation was that Orange would look to commercialise service by the middle of February 2010.

No bid bond was instituted, which is typically linked to the requirement to meet a launch date, though a real commercial penalty may exist should Orange not meet its February launch schedule. The exclusivity period is set to commence counting down from the middle of February 2010 whether the operator launches or not. That is to say, should it launch later, it would face a shorter period of exclusivity in which to establish its 3G offerings.