UAE distributor EMS will distribute the BlackBerryPlayBook tablet from Research In Motion (RIM) through select retail outlets across the region from June12.

“We are very excited to be bringing the eagerly-awaited BlackBerry PlayBook to the UAE,” said Babar Khan, CEO of EMS. “After experiencing a successful launch in North America we look to continue this within our region, where smartphone penetration is very high. With features such as seamless integration with a BlackBerry smartphone, Docs To Go for document editing and HDMI output, we expect the BlackBerry PlayBook to become an essential tool for this region’s businesses.”

The PlayBook was first launched in the US on April 19.

An Egyptian court has fined ousted president Hosni Mubarak and two of his former ministers US$90 million for shutting down telecommunication services during the country’s popular uprising earlier this year.
The court ruled May 28 that Mubarak, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib el-Adly were guilty of “damaging” Egypt’s economy after ordering the shutdown of the country’s Internet and telephone services in January as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets.
Mubarak must pay about US$33 million, while Nazif faces a fine of nearly US$7 million. Adly has the heaviest fine of more than US$50 million.
Mobile operator Vodafone said in January that it and other telecom companies working in Egypt had no option but to comply with a government order to suspend services during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.
Activists relied on popular social media websites, such as Facebook, to organise most of their rallies.  Internet experts have said that while Mubarak’s government was not the first to limit telecommunications, it was the first time that a government had done so in such a widespread manner.

PayPal has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that a former employee, Osama Bedier had been working on a mobile payments platform for PayPal but then left the company to go and work for Google – allegedly then also taking a collection of trade secrets with him.

The complaint also reveals that PayPal was negotiating with Google to be the preferred payment provider for the Android market, and that the two companies shared a significant amount of commercial information about mobile payment services. 

According to the complaint, Osama Bedier worked for PayPal from December 2002 until January 24, 2011. At the time of Bedier’s departure from PayPal, he served as vice president of Platform, Mobile, and New Ventures. Bedier now fills a similar role at Google.

PayPal has claimed that during the course of his work at Google, Bedier and Google have misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers.

Significantly, PayPal is claiming that Bedier transferred up-to-date versions of documents outlining its mobile payment and point of sale strategies to his non-PayPal computer just days before leaving the company for Google on January 24, 2011.

PayPal also claims that he has then cited internal PayPal trade secrets when negotiating with retailers who were interested in supporting the Google payments platform.

Shares in Saudi Arabia’s second fixed line network operator, Atheeb Telecom were suspended after the company posted losses that put it in breach of the stock market regulations. The company has now lost 95 per cent of its capital, which exceeds the 75 per cent loss limit imposed by the Saudi bourse.

The company – which is part owned by Batelco – lost US$153 million in the year to March 31, 2011, after losses of US$101 million in the year before. Last June the company’s CEO Ahmed Sindi was replaced by Raed Abdul Rauf Kayyal.

The company has blamed actions by the former monopoly operator, STC for the ongoing losses and has filed a lawsuit against the telco.

It also blames the regulator for not allowing international calls and prepaid card sales, as were permitted in its licence. The company expects to hold a hearing against the regulator next week.

Atheeb has proposed cutting its capital to bring it in line with stock market rules then raising additional funding from its shareholders. The move is still to be approved by the stock market.

Etihad Atheeb Telecom is a joint venture of Atheeb Trading Company, Al-Nahla Trading Company, Batelco and Traco Company.

Axis, the Indonesian cellco 80 per cent owned by STC, yesterday announced the signing of US$1.2 billion financing deal with a tenure of seven and a half years, with local and international financial institutions. The deal comprises three facilities: a US$450 million Murabaha commercial facility arranged by Deutsche Bank and HSBC; a US$400 million facility for equipment purchases from Huawei; and a US$350 million facility for equipment purchases from Ericsson.

The financing is set to help Axis’ expansion and growth strategies for the next five years, where according toe CEO Erik Aas, the cellco intends to double its market share from five per cent to 10 per cent. Axis launched commercially in March 2008 and currently counts around 11 million subscribers in a market of 200 million mobile users. There are five GSM operators in total in Indonesia.

“Over the coming five years I expect to see Axis enjoying close to 10 per cent market share, with US$1 billion in annual revenues,” Aas said. “We forecast a major contributor of the revenue will be from mobile broadband given the large percentage of youth in the market, many of who have only accessed the Internet on mobile devices, and never a PC.”