Qtel Group confirmed that its Tunisian subsidiary Tunisiana has been awarded both 3G and landline operator licenses by the Tunisian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communication.

The Ministry announced the award of the licences in March, and the concessions have now been formally handed over.

Tunisiana is the country’s largest mobile network by subscribers but unlike its rivals was not able to offer landline or 3G services.

The additional licences were purchased for a combined consideration of TD205 million (US$135 million). In line with regulatory guidelines, the 3G network will be launched in July 2012, with fixed-line services launching at the beginning of 2013.

Rival networks, Orange and Tunisie Telecom both have 3G licences already.

Samsung Electronics says it is now leading the UAE smartphone market with a 31.1 per cent market share. Samsung posted an impressive 109 per cent growth rate between end-Q411 and end-Q112, fuelled by the wide acceptance of Samsung’s successful line-up of smartphones in the country.

In the Gulf, Samsung recorded a 120 per cent increase in smartphone shipments quarter-on-quarter following the launch of the GALAXY S II and its comprehensive portfolio of smartphones. Samsung’s mobile business, which includes smartphones and tablets, currently holds an average of 25 per cent market share across the region.

The Zain Group today reported consolidated revenues of KWD325.7 million (US$1.172 billion), reflecting a one per cent increase over the same period of Q111. Net income witnessed an increase of two per cent year-on-year to reach KWD70.9 million, while the group’s consolidated EBITDA reached KWD 150.8 million, also up two per cent over the same period last year. This reflected an EBITDA margin of 46.3 per cent.

The cellco reported a total of 40.3 active mobile subscribers across its eight markets at the end of the period, up just 0.25 per cent on the 40.2 million reported at the end of 2011.

Highlights during the quarter included the successful restructuring of a US$433 million syndicated short-term loan into a syndicated revolving long term one, as well as the payment by Zain Sudan of its €220 million (US$287 million) loan in full.

Qualcomm has announced the opening of a new branch office in Cairo. The office, located in the Nile Towers, will serve as a hub for Qualcomm’s North Africa business interests and will provide support for device manufacturers, network operators, retailers, distributors and mobile application developers that are driving Egypt’s fast growing mobile industry.

Despite recent political unrest, Egypt’s telecom sector remains strong and today features some of Africa’s most advanced mobile networks and services. According to the Ministry of Communications & Information (MCIT),the country has more than 90 million subscribers, following year-on-year growth of 27 per cent, and Egypt has reached subscriber saturation levels of 112 per cent.

Qualcomm has a global office network spanning approximately 175 locations worldwide.

Ericsson and Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) today announced the launch of a new strategic partnership that aims to boost the adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) in Qatar. The partnership, which was formalised through a memorandum of understanding, seeks to support Qatar’s National ICT Plan 2015.

The MoU was signed by Hassan Al-Sayed, ictQATAR assistant secretary general, IT and ICT Government Sector and Ray Hassan, president Ericsson Gulf Countries.

As part of the partnership, Ericsson and ictQATAR will collaborate in a number of areas including “Technology for Good” which covers initiatives such as sustainability through ICT solutions and also aims to use ICT to unlock the potential of the e-Economy such as e-Education and e-Government in Qatar and the region. Other areas of collaboration include revamping the ICT infrastructure, and enabling platforms to support consumer driven Arabic content development, and improving the quality and efficiency of ICT services.

In addition, Ericsson and ictQATAR will focus on ICT maturity in order to create a knowledge-exchange based environment to increase the ICT usage in Qatar while leveraging Ericsson’s global and local competence in the ICT industry.

Qatar’s National ICT Plan seeks to double the ICT sector’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to US$3 billion by 2015, while also doubling the ICT workforce to 40,000 personnel during the same period. It also aims to achieve 95 per cent penetration of high-speed broadband, mass ICT and Internet adoption by all segments of society and the adoption of Internet-based services by key government agencies.