The Syrian government has delayed next week’s planned auction of the country’s third mobile licence due to the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

Citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, Zawya Dow Jones said that the delay comes after Syria’s president Bashar Assad dismissed his government and promised reforms to stem the tide of protest that is engulfing the country.

"The licence has been postponed because some elements on the supervisory committee were from the old government," the person told Zawya Dow Jones by telephone. "Some people are no longer on the committee."

No date has been set for the auction. Several bidders that had initially expressed an interest in bidding for the licence have dropped out, leaving only Qatar Telecom and Saudi Telecom in the bidding round before the process was postponed.

According to figures from the Mobile World, the country is estimated to have had just over 11 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of March 2011, which represents a population penetration level of 54 per cent.

The two incumbent operators will have to buy out their current BOT agreements and convert to a conventional licence agreement. The buyout price has been previously reported as being around US$500 million.

Batelco today announced gross revenues of BD80.81 million (US$214.4 million) and net profit of BD17.46 million for the first quarter of 2011.

Across the Batelco Group of companies the telco grew its customer base to 9.8 million, adding 600,000 customers during the three months to end-March 2011, and up 54 per cent year-on-year.

“Our gross revenue of BD80.81 million declined four per cent against Q410 whilst net revenues of BD63.07 million were flat, quarter-on-quarter,” commented Batelco Group CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos. “An increase in revenue by Umniah and QualityNet were offset by competition, regulation and the recent events in the Bahrain market. Our operating profit of BD23.27 million declined by 9.4 per cent against Q4 2010 due to increases in operating expenses and staff costs. However our share of losses from our Indian joint venture, resulted in a net profit of BD17.46 million, a 16 per cent drop versus Q410.”

Batelco’s operations outside Bahrain contributed 37 per cent of revenues and 27 per cent of EBITDA in Q111.

Batelco is confident it will cross the 10 million subscriber figure by the end of April, four months behind its original goal of end 2010, set out in 2005.

Batelco in Bahrain maintained 45.6 per cent market share in mobile with a total of 745,000 customer accounts, a decline of three per cent versus Q410. In Yemen, Sabafon’s mobile subscriber base has grown to reach over 3.6 million customers while at S Tel in India; the subscriber base has risen to 2.82 million at the end of Q111.

Umniah in Jordan has grown its mobile customer base to reach 2.2 million subscribers. Atheeb’s Go brand for broadband and voice services in Saudi Arabia delivers services to over 116,000 customers, representing a 50 per cent rise in their customer base over the course of the past year.

Apple has recorded a record net profit amounting to US$5.99 billion for its second fiscal quarter ended March 26, 2011. The company also posted record second quarter revenue of US$24.67 billion, compared to US$13.5 billion a year ago.

Gross margin was 41.4 per cent compared to 41.7 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.76 million Macs during the quarter, a 28 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

The company sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 113 per cent growth year-on-year. Apple sold 9.02 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 17 per cent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

The company also sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.

"With quarterly revenue growth of 83 per cent and profit growth of 95 per cent, we’re firing on all cylinders," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year."

"Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about US$23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about US$5.03," ," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

STC today announced its consolidated financial results for the period ending March 31, 2011, with first quarter revenues rising to SAR 13.08 billion (US$3.49 billion), up four per cent year-on-year.

Operating income for the quarter reached SAR2.67 billion, up 13 per cent year-on-year, while EBITDA for the period reached SAR4.81 billion, an increase of eight per cent.

The telco said the increase in revenues is attributed to the enhancement of operational efficiencies of the group’s subsidiaries and affiliate companies. However, net income during the quarter amounted to SAR 1.57 billion, down 11 per cent year-on-year. STC attributed the net income decrease to the two-month salary payment to all employees, which amounted to SAR 375 million. The payment was made to all employees as a gesture to follow the initiative of the Honourable Royal Decree.

STC states that without counting the two-month salary, net profits for the quarter would have been SAR 1.95 billion, representing a 10 per cent increase compared to the corresponding period last year.

The percentage contribution of international operations revenue increased to 34 per cent compared to 31 per cent a year earlier.

The STC board of directors also approved dividends of SAR 1 billion to shareholders.

Zain Saudi Arabia today announced strong revenues for the three months to end-March, reaching SAR1.48 billion (US$396 million) up 36 per cent on the same period in 2010.

The cellco reported an 86 per cent growth in gross profits to SAR716 million for the three month period.

First quarter operational losses decreased by 46 per cent year-on-year to SAR233 million, with the gross profit margin grew by 48 per cent in the quarter, compared to 35% in the same period in 2010.

Net losses for the period decreased by 20 per cent year-on-year to reach SAR 532 million.

A consortium made up of Kingdom Holding Company and Batelco is in the process of acquiring Zain Group’s 25 per cent stake in Zain Saudi Arabia.