Saudi Arabia’s Mobily has completed trials of its HSPA+ network with testing speeds of 42 megabits per second, in preparation for rollout to major cities across the kingdom. This is the first major speed upgrade since the launch of the region’s first HSPA network in the second half of 2009 at speeds of 21 Mbps.

Mobily, a subsidiary of the UAE’s Etisalat, ended 2009 with one million subscribers to its high-usage bundles and an overall base of 18.2 million mobile customers. The operator’s HSPA network currently covers 80 per cent of all populated areas.

According to the Communications and Information Regulatory Commission’s annual report, household Internet penetration rates doubled from around 14 per cent at the end of 2008 to 32 per cent at year end 2009. Wireless broadband grew 488 per cent to 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, representing 51 per cent of all broadband connections, in comparison to 47 per cent being ADSL connections.

Of the 1.41 million wireless broadband subscriptions, Mobily dominated with one million customers equating to a 70 per cent market share, as well as a 36 per cent market share of all broadband connections in the kingdom.

Mobily’s HSPA network exchanged 1.23 petabytes of traffic in December 2009, up 283 per cent year-on-year from 0.51 petabytes in December 2008.

In a bid to open between 300 and 400 retail stores in the GCC region by the end of 2011, Spice Global is in talks to purchase troubled Dubai-based chain Cellucom, which closed all its UAE outlets in April facing liquidation and a legal battle. Spice Global is a major mobile handset maker and retailer in India with 700 Spice HotSpot stores, and is looking to extend its footprint into the Gulf region, by buying out other mobile retail chains.

“They [Cellucom] had to take a lot of loans, so the banks closed the shops,” Spice Global’s chief executive Bhupendra Kumar Modi told press in Dubai. “The banks have taken over so, in fact, we are hoping to buy it from the banks.”

The Singapore-based conglomerate, with interests in telecoms, entertainment and finance, is looking to invest around US$150 million in its push to realise its Gulf dream of up to 400 branded outlets by the end of next year.

Cellucom is not the only retailer on Spice’s radar, with other retail chains suffering from weak sales and heavy debt burdens potentially being taken over by the Spice brand.

Cellucom had around 25 retail stores in the UAE as part of a network of 500 shops across the Middle East, Africa and India, at the time its UAE shops closed their doors.

Related story:

Cellucom closes its doors in UAE amid legal row

Shareholders of Kuwait’s Zain have approved a bond sale plan to raise KWD 431.5 million (US$1.5 billion), as well as pay a dividend of 170 fils per share for the 2009 financial year.

“This does not mean we will issue the bonds after this approval, only in case we need it,” Zain Group chairman Asaad al-Banwan told shareholders at a meeting on May 27. “We have enough liquidity to distribute this dividend and repay debt.”

Zain also confirmed that it and Bharti Airtel are proceeding towards completion of the sale of Zain Africa assets to the Indian telecoms giant, with Bharti Airtel beginning to draw down funds for the transaction.

On completion, Zain plans to repay its US$4 billion revolving credit facility and to use the remaining proceeds to attend to other corporate matters. A sum of US$700 million of the total cash proceeds is due one year from completion.

Bids for an India-wide broadband wireless access (BWA) licence touched INR 41.83 billion (US$902 million) on the third day of India’s BWA auction, already 139 per cent above the base price of INR 17.5 billion. In comparison to the just-concluded 3G auction, it took 14 days for pan-India 3G bids to record a 139 per cent increase.

The government is offering two slots of radio bandwidth in each of the 22 telecommunication service areas, with 11 parties approved to participate: Aircel, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMAX, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar.

It has been suggested that the BWA auction could also prove highly competitive and last more than a month.

The 3G spectrum sale attracted INR 677.2 billion (US$14.6 billion) in licence fees, following 34 days and 183 rounds of bidding.

A 72.8 per cent rise in data revenue, including from the hugely successful M-Pesa mobile money service, has helped Kenya’s Safaricom post net profits of KES 15.15 billion (US$190 million) for the 12 months ending March. This is a 44 per cent surge in profits from KES 10.5 billion a year earlier, while annual sales jumped 19 per cent to KES 83.96 billion.

Data revenue now accounts for 18.7 per cent of revenue for Kenya’s leading mobile operator, up from 12.9 per cent a year ago. M-Pesa customers rose from 6.48 million to 9.48 million.

Meanwhile the total active subscriber base increased by 18.2 per cent to 15.79 million during the year.

The data growth was supported by the landing of two undersea fibre optic cables TEAMS and SEACOM, as well as further expansion of 3G. Safaricom owns a 22.5 per cent shareholding in TEAMS and leases capacity on SEACOM. These cables provide significant increased capacity, greater speeds and lower cost than the previous satellite connectivity.

Following the launch of the 3G network in the prior period, continued investment in the rollout extended the 3G network to all major towns in the country, bringing the total number of 3G-enabled base stations to 607.

During the period the acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in PacketStream Data Network Limited, a WiMAX service provider, added significant capacity to the existing WiMAX business enabling Safaricom to provide fixed data services to corporates, medium-sized enterprises and individual customers. The WiMAX network now comprises 140 sites offering an extensive nationwide network, thereby complementing the operator’s 3G mobile Internet access.