The Essar Group is 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 is reported to be paying 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 in the middle of November. 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 Tata Group is another telco from India that is expanding its base in Africa, and already owns a 56 per cent stake in South Africa’s second fixed line operators Neotel.

Essar also holds a 33 per cent stake in India’s Vodafone Essar. MobileStore, Essar’s retail chain, has over 1,300 stores countrywide. The group owns Essar Telecom Infrastructure, one of the largest independent telecom tower infrastructure providers in India.

Warid Telecom also operates in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but these markets were not included in the deal with Essar.

UAE based Du reported a 51 per cent rise in its subscriber base over the past year to 3.14 million customers endQ3 09.

Revenues for the quarter amounted to AED1.33 billion (US$362 million) consistent with the previous quarter and up 25.8 per cent year-on-year. EBITDA came in at AED297.3 million, representing an increase of 22.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter, and 192.9 per cent year-on-year.

Net profit (before royalty) was AED157.1 million for the quarter, up 398 per cent on the same period last year and up 36 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

During the third quarter Du’s pre and post paid mobile subscriber numbers saw continued growth with the addition of 25,900 postpaid mobile subscribers, representing a 55 per cent increase in subscriber additions over the second quarter as a result of a continued marketing strategy to increase market share. Post-paid customers represent 3.6 per cent of Du’s mobile business. Prepaid mobile subscribers witnessed the addition of 207,300 subscribers over the quarter.

Du’s capital expenditure programme is set to exceed AED 2 billion in 2009, with AED 424 million accounted for during Q309 bringing year to date expenditure to AED 1.47 billion.

Qualcomm will celebrate its quarter century next year, and will have much to look back and be proud of. Not only did it develop and deploy CDMA wireless technology at a time when not many believed in the viability of the technology, it has gone on to become a US$70 billion plus market capitalised company, and one of the world’s most profitable. Reporting from San Diego, Comm. considers the strategies Qualcomm is employing in order to maintain the significant momentum it has garnered over the past 24 years, and considers the company’s roadmap for the future

Paul Jacobs says he sees significant scope for the telecom industry and Qualcomm to ebenfit from the uptake of mobile broadband, mobile computing, and healthcare

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Mikkel Vinter, CEO of Dubai-based MVNO Friendi Group today announced that the service provider has reached 100,000 subscribers in Oman, just six months after commercial launch at the end of April this year.

In August, Vinter told Comm. that within two months of launch in Oman, Friendi Mobile added 50,000 subscribers. The significance of this progress can be brought into better focus when comparing the entrance of Friendi Mobile with the last time a new player launched in the Omani market. Nawras, Oman’s second licensed telecom provider launched as a mobile player in March 2005, when mobile penetration stood at around 35 per cent. Despite the easier competitive landscape at the time, it took Nawras two months to reach the 50,000 subscriber milestone; the same amount of time it took Friendi Mobile in an environment of 120 per cent penetration and three other competitors.

“We crossed 100,000 subscribers in Oman last week, which is equal to three per cent market share,” Vinter said this afternoon, speaking at the North Africacom conference in Cairo. “I am very happy with this achievement compared to international MVNO benchmarks and our own targets,” he added.

Friendi Group has plans to introduce other MVNO operations in markets across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and is believed to be close to reaching an agreement with Jordan Telecom to establish an operation in the country. Friendi Group already possesses a license to offer reseller services in Jordan.

With the UAE’s mobile penetration rate above 200 per cent, and the country’s two serviced operators pushing technological advances to their networks and services all the time, regulating the market in a manner that enhances and not harms it is a delicate balance to maintain. The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been undertaking this task since 2004, and its director general, Mohamed Al Ghanim highlights the regulator’s policy direction and areas of focus

Mohamed Al Ghanim believes customers must be offered a choice of alternatives whenever possible

Speaking at a conference in Dubai late last year, Etisalat’s chief corporate aff

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