Oman mobile reseller Renna Mobile has announced that during the course of last month it reached operational break even (EBITDA).

“We reported our first full month of positive cash flow on our operation in Oman in June,” Joakim Klingefjord, Renna Mobile CEO said. “This is obviously a very crucial milestone for us since we are able now to show to our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders alike that the MVNO model actually does work in this part of the world also.”

Renna Mobile launched operationally in May 2009 after having secured a wholesale agreement with Omantel and a Class II mobile reseller license from the telecom regulator.

Renna Mobile has expressed its interest to expand into territories beyond Oman for the first time

Klingefjord claims the operator’s focus on operational efficiencies and cost prudence have been the major reasons Renna Mobile is the first MVNO in the Middle East to be able to announce a positive cash flow from its operation.

“With the positive cash flow, we are really geared towards expansion which will take us forward in our position in Oman, as well as using this as a platform for launching elsewhere in the region,” Klingefjord said. “Our mobile broadband offers are very well received in the market and our latest triple play has great customer value that has also been recognised by our users.”

At the end of May, it was announced that a further two telecommunication companies are reported to be seeking government licences to offer mobile reseller services in Oman.

Awasif Company was said to be seeking a licence to operate as a mobile reseller, while Madakhil was looking to provide mobile telecommunication services to fishermen.
Should the applications be granted, this would raise to seven the number of companies in Oman licensed to operate as resellers. Current licensees are Friendi Mobile, Renna, Mazoon, Injaz and Samatel.

Vodafone Qatar posted a 65 per cent rise in its quarterly revenue of QR 290.6 million (US$79.7 million), while the quarterly profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached QR 31 million for the period to end-June.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) increased 11 per cent year-on-year to reach QR 116, while the subscriber base rose by 43 per cent to reach 761,000 mobile customers as at June 30.

The cellco has come under pressure from some shareholders to start paying dividends sooner than the company had planned.

There is currently no change from the dividend guidance outlined in Vodafone Qatar’s IPO prospectus, and the company still expects to pay dividends based on performance in the financial year ending March 31, 2013.

Vodafone Qatar is 23 per cent owned by Vodafone, 22 per cent by the Qatar Foundation, with 40 per cent floated on the stock exchange and 15 per cent held by government investors.

Etisalat has signed an agreement with Huawei and the Export-Import Bank of China encompassing Etisalat’s entire footprint in 18 countries.

Under the terms of the agreement, Huawei and Etisalat will work together, while the China EXIM Bank will extend finance support to the cooperation of the two companies.

The MoU was signed by Nasser bin Obood, Etisalat acting CEO; Yuan Xingyong, assistant president China EXIM Bank; and Ji Ping, the executive VP of Huawei.

Bin Obood said that through this agreement, Etisalat and Huawei will share the latest best practice covering telecommunication industry trends, including intelligent management of networks, cloud computing and applications.

“In the past eight years, the cooperation between Etisalat and Huawei has witnessed significant growth and success. From the first 3G network deployed in MENA in 2003, Etisalat and Huawei have since moved on to collaborate on a global perspective by cooperating to build and expand Etisalat’s networks in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Tanzania, Nigeria, Afghanistan,” he added.

Nokia and Siemens have announced the completion of the process to review private equity interest in Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), and have reaffirmed their commitment to joint venture company.

“We believe that the current shareholders are in the best position to further enhance the value of the company,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chairman of NSN.

NSN has made good progress in its turnaround plan, with first quarter 2011 results marking a third successive quarter of year-on-year reported net sales growth, as well as a fifth quarter of non-IFRS operating profits since it announced its change in strategy in November 2009.

Along with ongoing efforts to generate cost savings, NSN plans to take further steps to improve the competitiveness of the company as a standalone entity. For example, the vendor plans to drive further efficiency while strengthening the company’s innovation capabilities in mobile broadband, services and customer experience management to drive and support customer roadmaps.

“Nokia and Siemens have reaffirmed their commitment and continue to be strong supporters of Nokia Siemens Networks,” said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. “With us, they share the common goal of ensuring that Nokia Siemens Networks will be a sustainable and powerful leader in the industry, benefiting from its strength in innovation.”

In June, two private equity groups were reported to have dropped out of the bidding to buy a stake in NSN after disagreements about the price and degree of control the investors would receive over the vendor. The departure of KKR and TPG from the bidding process left just Gores Group and Platinum Equity as a possible investor.

Abdul Al Jaber, the former CEO of Zain Jordan and COO of Zain Group, is set to work on the establishment and development of an Arab application programming interface (API), Comm. can reveal.

Towards the end of June, Zain announced suddenly Al Jaber’s plans to leave the operator at the end of that month, stating that his resignation was for personal reasons. He was replaced as Zain Jordan CEO by Ahmad Al Hanandeh, effective July 1, 2011.

Al Jaber has been pushing the idea of a pan-Arab API for some time now, believing the development of large-scale applications ecosystems incorporating the operator cloud, industry clouds (such as the Wholesale Applications Community or OneAPI), and commercial clouds (mobile cloud providers, enterprise solution clouds, data centre clouds, etc), represent multiple new wholesale application channels for operators.

He believes the formation of a common API for Arab operators would be an opportunity that represents an incremental US$3 billion+ revenue prospect of participating operators through 2015, dependant on the market launch date.

The adoption of an industry-wide API-based business model, Al Jaber says, will also help lower barriers to entry for web players by offering a standard entry point to operators’ networks. This in turn creates an opportunity to resell network capabilities; such as location, messaging; and payments to a new market of developers via an industry agreed standard.

He estimates an Arab API would also increase the urgency to get applications to market, and create market value as a result of the expansion of focus on data revenue by Arab operators.