The global telecoms market is on track to reach US$2 trillion in revenue, a 7.6 increase from 2007, according to Gartner. The Middle East and Africa is predicted to be the fastest growing region with a CAGR of 8.6 per cent between 2007 and 2012.

The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) expects the auction for 3G spectrum will take place by the end of the year, and claims that broadband uptake grew 100 per cent in 2007. The PTA’s chairman Muhammad Yaseen stated the regulator is in the final stages of preparation for the 3G auction, and is in discussions with the country’s Ministry of IT.

The world’s largest market has swollen to more than 616 million mobile subscribers, twice the population of Western Europe adding 68.71 million new subscribers during January and August. China also generated telecoms revenues of US$216 billion in the first eight months of this year, an increase of 23.9 per cent over the same period last year.

China’s Ministry of Industry and IT released the figures, which also showed mobile telecoms contributed the majority share of overall telecoms revenues accounting for 54.38 per cent, while fixedline accounted for 35.98 per cent. Fixed-line phone users decreased by 11.57 million to 354.07 million.

China Telecom has announced it will spend CNY80 billion (US$11.69 billion) in upgrading its newly acquired CDMA network, almost doubling its investment in the operation after acquiring the company from China Unicom for US$14.49 billion in June.

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Alex Shalaby, Hassan Kabbani and Tamer El Mahdy

In a major management reshuffle at Orascom Telecom, CEO of Egypt mobile operations Mobinil, Alex Shalaby has shifted to chairman of the board – replacing Naguib Sawiris in this role – and is also heading up Orascom’s business development department.

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