Telenor’s venture in India, Uninor, has launched its mobile services in a further five telecommunications circles, increasing its coverage to 13 service areas with a population footprint of 900 million people. The new service areas to have access to Uninor’s network are Mumbai, Mahastra and Goa, Gujarat, Kolkata and West Bengal. Mumbai and Kolkata are two of the largest metro areas in the country.

Within these five circles, customers will be able to access Uninor services from more than 85,000 points of sale, through close to 440 distributors and more than 80 exclusive shops. Across India, the operator has more than 300,000 points of sale, increasing its national retail presence by 40 per cent.

"I am satisfied that Uninor continues its roll out across India, managing to keep the momentum from the initial launch in December last year. Covering 13 telecom circles Uninor is about to establish itself as a real pan-Indian mobile operator," stated Sigve Brekke, executive vice president of Telenor Group, and head of Telenor’s Asian operations.

"The valuable learning Uninor has made from the circles where it has already launched combined with the positive energy and optimism in the organisation will be important in establishing Uninor as a preferred provider of mobile services in India," Brekke added.

UAE retailers CompuMe and i2 Mobile have been acquired in a management buyout led by chief executive Dikran Tchablakian.

Tchablakian had owned 40 per cent of digital and IT products and services provider CompuMe, with the rest of the company owned by Saudi based mobile retailer i2.

Tchablakian has now acquired the other 60 per cent of CompuMe, as well as 100 per cent of i2’s operation in the UAE, making an undisclosed investment in the venture.

i2 group’s operations are spread across 21 countries, and are being sold to local partners. The retail deal is restricted to i2’s operations in the UAE only.

Tchablakian (second from the left) details the management buyout of i2 and CompuMe

“The buyout will allow us to focus on the growth of the company and its expansion. We will now use the synergies of both firms to create more powerful brands,” Tchablakian said.

The deal was brokered by the Arab Emirates Investment Bank.

The combined CompuMe and i2 retail entity has 17 outlets, the majority of which are located in Virgin Megastores. At the same event at which the companies detailed the management buyout, CompuMe and i2 also detailed plans to extend their partnership with Virgin Megastores across the Middle East, offering IT, digital and mobile phones sales support.

Tchablakian founded CompuMe in 1998, starting franchise operations covering UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain. In December 2006 Tchablakian and i2 began negotiations on a share-swap deal for CompuMe to be acquired by i2 Group, with the deal finalised in January 2007. Tchablakian acquired 40 per cent of the UAE group.

Later in 2007 i2 when on to acquire CompuMe, taking control of CompuMe’s UAE business as well as the franchise stakes CompuMe owned in Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi.

Saudi Arabia’s Mobily has completed trials of its HSPA+ network with testing speeds of 42 megabits per second, in preparation for rollout to major cities across the kingdom. This is the first major speed upgrade since the launch of the region’s first HSPA network in the second half of 2009 at speeds of 21 Mbps.

Mobily, a subsidiary of the UAE’s Etisalat, ended 2009 with one million subscribers to its high-usage bundles and an overall base of 18.2 million mobile customers. The operator’s HSPA network currently covers 80 per cent of all populated areas.

According to the Communications and Information Regulatory Commission’s annual report, household Internet penetration rates doubled from around 14 per cent at the end of 2008 to 32 per cent at year end 2009. Wireless broadband grew 488 per cent to 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, representing 51 per cent of all broadband connections, in comparison to 47 per cent being ADSL connections.

Of the 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, Mobily dominated with one million customers equating to a 70 per cent market share, as well as a 36 per cent market share of all broadband connections in the kingdom.

Mobily’s HSPA network exchanged 1.23 petabytes of traffic in December 2009, up 283 per cent year-on-year from 0.51 petabytes in December 2008.

In a bid to open between 300 and 400 retail stores in the GCC region by the end of 2011, Spice Global is in talks to purchase troubled Dubai-based chain Cellucom, which closed all its UAE outlets in April facing liquidation and a legal battle. Spice Global is a major mobile handset maker and retailer in India with 700 Spice HotSpot stores, and is looking to extend its footprint into the Gulf region, by buying out other mobile retail chains.

“They [Cellucom] had to take a lot of loans, so the banks closed the shops,” Spice Global’s chief executive Bhupendra Kumar Modi told press in Dubai. “The banks have taken over so, in fact, we are hoping to buy it from the banks.”

The Singapore-based conglomerate, with interests in telecoms, entertainment and finance, is looking to invest around US$150 million in its push to realise its Gulf dream of up to 400 branded outlets by the end of next year.

Cellucom is not the only retailer on Spice’s radar, with other retail chains suffering from weak sales and heavy debt burdens potentially being taken over by the Spice brand.

Cellucom had around 25 retail stores in the UAE as part of a network of 500 shops across the Middle East, Africa and India, at the time its UAE shops closed their doors.

Related story:

Cellucom closes its doors in UAE amid legal row

Shareholders of Kuwait’s Zain have approved a bond sale plan to raise KWD 431.5 million (US$1.5 billion), as well as pay a dividend of 170 fils per share for the 2009 financial year.

“This does not mean we will issue the bonds after this approval, only in case we need it,” Zain Group chairman Asaad al-Banwan told shareholders at a meeting on May 27. “We have enough liquidity to distribute this dividend and repay debt.”

Zain also confirmed that it and Bharti Airtel are proceeding towards completion of the sale of Zain Africa assets to the Indian telecoms giant, with Bharti Airtel beginning to draw down funds for the transaction.

On completion, Zain plans to repay its US$4 billion revolving credit facility and to use the remaining proceeds to attend to other corporate matters. A sum of US$700 million of the total cash proceeds is due one year from completion.