The Tanzanian government has announced that it would like to buy the 60 per cent stake in Zain Tanzania that is now owned by India’s Bharti Airtel. The offer came a few days after Bharti Airtel offered US$11 million to buy out the government’s 40 per cent stake in the operator.

The Tanzanian government argues that Zain’s decision to sell its Tanzanian subsidiary to Bharti Airtel, as part of the sale of most of its telecom assets in Africa, violated an agreement between Zain and the Tanzania Telecommunication Co. (TTCL). Zain acquired a 35 per cent stake in TTCL, the state-run telco, more than five years ago and had recently agreed to sell that stake back to the government.

The government is understood to be trying to build a profitable state-owned telecom company and would like to own both a landline and mobile network.

The Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has not formally granted permission for the sale of the local subsidiary to Bharti Airtel.

State-owned Omantel plans to increase its shareholding in Oman Fiber Optic Company from 25.96 per cent to 40 per cent. The firm confirmed on Monday it had received approval from the Capital Markets Authority to make the proposed increase.

The other shareholders in the fibre optic manufacturer include Oman & Emirates Investment Holding and Omani bourse shareholders. In the first quarter of 2010 the Muscat-based firm recorded a net profit of OMR 534,000 (US$1.39 million).

Omantel is currently the only provider of fixed telecoms services in Oman, however will face stiff competition from mobile operator Nawras later this year when it launches its own portfolio of fixed services.

Zain Nigeria, the mobile firm which started out as Econet Wireless Nigeria in 2001 and has since changed its name four times, will be rebranded a fifth time on October 1 as Bharti Airtel Nigeria. India’s Bharti Airtel, which purchased Zain’s African assets last month for US$10.7 billion, has also committed US$600 investment in the Nigerian operator over the next three years.

“Fifty per cent of that amount would come up in the first year. We have looked that the Nigerian telecom industry and have discovered three issues: quality of service, freedom to make calls and affordability of service which we would work on to provide quality service to consumers," commented Bharti Airtel’s Africa group CEO, Manoj Kohli.

Econet Wireless Nigeria was renamed Vodacom Nigeria in 2004 and later the same year to V-Mobile Nigeria. In 2006 Celtel Nigeria took over before it was rebranded Zain Nigeria in 2008. Kohli said the launch of the operator’s new brand name later this year would coincide with the 50th anniversary of independence for Nigeria.

Bharti Airtel is India’s largest mobile service provider with 125 million subscribers across the country. It is also the fifth largest telecoms company in the world. The group’s investment in Africa gives the firm a foothold in Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has confirmed that Etisalat and Du are technically ready to open their fixed-line networks for competition. This means both operators will be able to provide fixed-line, telephone and Internet services, and in the near future television services, everywhere across the UAE, and that customers will be able to select which provider they use in each individual household and business, which was previously not possible.

Etisalat and Du have been negotiating an agreement under the supervision and guidance of the TRA to allow them to provide voice, Internet, data and TV services across each other’s copper and fibre networks.

Director general of the TRA Mohamad Al Ghanim said the parties have now concluded the negotiations on complex technical and operational details of the network sharing arrangements and are currently in the process of undertaking comprehensive testing. As a result, telecom subscribers across the nation should be able to access services from both operators once these are commercially launched in the coming months.

Nasser bin Obood, acting chief executive officer at Etisalat, said the company was looking forward to competing for new customers within the Dubai free zones and new residential areas, which were previously exclusively serviced by Du.

“Etisalat is in the process of completing its fibre-optic network which today covers most UAE households outside of ‘New Dubai’. It has invested more than AED 5 billion (US$1.36 billion) in this project which is the largest fibre-optic deployment in the world today,” bin Obood added.

Algeria’s government said yesterday it plans to offer a 4G licence next year, according to local press El Khabar.

Currently there are three mobile service providers in the North African nation – state-owned Algerie Telecom, Egypt’s Orascom and Wataniya Telecom, a subsidiary of Qatar’s Qtel.

Once the licence is awarded, the successful operator will be eligible to migrate to 4G services.

Earlier in June Orascom decided to terminate its discussions with South Africa’s MTN over the sale of some or all of its operations, including its most lucrative operation ‘Djezzy’ in Algeria, which MTN had offered US$7.8 billion for.