Ooredoo has awarded a contract to deploy telecom towers in its Myanmar subsidiary to a consortium led by the Digicel Group.

The consortium – comprising of Digicel Group, YSH Finance and First Myanmar Investment – will be amongst the first telecom tower companies to begin construction in Myanmar and will accept multi-tenancy agreements.

Earlier this year, Digicel failed to secure a mobile operating licence in its own right, having lost out to Ooredoo and Telenor.

It is not clear why Ooredoo has outsourced the tower deployment to a company that lost the tender for the operating licence, although Digicel does have an active presence in the country.

Wataniya has named Peter Kaliaropoulos as chief operating officer, six months after the Australian left regional rival Batelco.

His appointment follows that of Abdulaziz Fakhroo as chief executive in March as Wataniya – 92 percent-owned by Ooredoo – tries to halt a sustained earnings slump. The Kuwaiti firm’s profits fell in six of the past seven quarters.

Wataniya, which also has operations in Algeria, Tunisia, the Maldives and the Palestinian Territories, did not make a formal statement to the media announcing Kaliaropoulos’ appointment, but he is now listed on the company’s website as among its senior management team.

Kaliaropoulos left Batelco in June after eight years, his roles having included CEO and chief operating officer.

Vodafone Qatar and NetComm Wireless today announced a strategic partnership to extend Vodafone Qatar’s fixed and mobile networks to devices and machines that are used to enable smart city applications such as security systems, intelligent transport systems, smart metering and smart medical devices.

The new agreement follows from the success of NetComm Wireless’ existing partnership with Vodafone Global Enterprise for delivery of the Vodafone MachineLink 3G across Vodafone Global Enterprise’s markets. With Vodafone’s global experience in connecting machines, businesses of all sizes across all industry and service sectors are set to benefit from the ability to remotely monitor and manage previously isolated assets from a central location in real-time using Vodafone Qatar.

Designed to seamlessly integrate with Vodafone’s network in Qatar, the Vodafone MachineLink 3G and NetComm Wireless’ broader portfolio of wireless M2M devices will allow Vodafone Qatar to expand into bringing end-to-end solutions to its customers in the local market.

The Vodafone MachineLink 3G, developed by NetComm Wireless, has been certified by Vodafone Group and is ready for deployment to business customers on the Vodafone Qatar network.

NetComm Wireless’ industrial-strength 3G M2M devices are built to withstand challenging conditions, such as rugged in-vehicle and outdoor environments and feature a Software Development Kit (SDK) for true open management capabilities. The devices are also equipped with TR-069 to support remote asset management and control and multi-system monitoring for always-on connectivity.

Mobily is taking longer to complete a previously announced deal to buy the local landline operator, Etihad Atheeb.

The company announced in August that it was to buy a majority stake in the landline network, and had set a deadline of the end of this month to secure the regulatory approvals and complete due diligence on Etihad Atheeb.

It has now extended the talks until the end of January 2014, with the discussions no longer being exclusive, allowing a rival bidder to emerge. Bahrain’s Batelco owns a 15 per cent stake in the company, but has shied away from buying the entire company in the past.

Etihad Atheeb had itself previously expressed an interest in buying a stake in a mobile network operator, but has posted years of losses and was now considered a likely target for a buyout by one of the country’s mobile networks instead.

The landline operator is a joint venture of Atheeb Trading Company, Al-Nahla Trading Company, Batelco and Traco Company. Just under half its shares are listed on the stock exchange, where they have been suspended several times over the years due to its on-going losses.

Etisalat has secured a court order winding up its failed Indian joint-venture with DB Group.

Etisalat DB was one of a number of joint-ventures set up in the wake of the 2008 GSM licence allocation, and was effectively closed down by the Supreme Court decision to cancel the concessions.

The directors of the DB Group are facing criminal charges concerning how they secured the licences prior to the investment in the venture by Etisalat.

Citing the deadlock between the two companies, the Bombay High Court accepted a petition from Etisalat to wind up the company.

"There is complete lack of faith and probity resulting in irretrievable breakdown between the major shareholders of the company. The liabilities of the company have far exceeded its assets," Justice Kathawalla said.

Etisalat paid US$900 million for a 44.7 per cent stake in an Indian start up mobile network, Swan Telecom (renamed Etisalat DB) in March 2009. The company had licences covering 13 of the country’s 22 operating circles and had received radio spectrum in 10 of the circles.

Etisalat later wrote off the investment.