The East Africa Submarine System (EaSSy) was completed earlier this week and is planned to go live in July, according to the consortium’s major investor West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC). The cable system is the second high-capacity fibre optic cable skirting Africa’s east coast after SEACOM, and runs from South Africa to Sudan and onwards to Europe via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The 10,000 kilometre cable also has landing points in Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar and Mozambique.

In addition to the WIOCC which owns 29 per cent of EASSy, the other members in the consortium are Bharti Airtel, Botswana Telecom, British Telecom, Comores Telecom, Etisalat, France Telecom, Mauritius Telecom, MTN International Group, Neotel, Saudi Telecom Company, Sudatel, TTCL (Tanzania), Telkom/Vodacom, Telma (Madagascar) and Zambia Telecom.

In a related project, EASSy signatories are building terrestrial fibre backhauls to link the land-locked countries of the region to the cable – Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Vodafone Qatar announced it has closed the first quarter of 2010 with 464,962 mobile subscriptions, a 31.5 per cent increase from the previous quarter of 353,580. The majority of the customers were acquired in less than seven months since the launch of Vodafone’s prepay product ‘Red’ in September 2009.

"We are thrilled by this amazing result which has exceeded our expectations and targets for customer numbers. We now have a substantial customer base that will help drive future performance and forms a solid basis for generating future revenue growth," commented Grahame Maher, chief executive officer of Vodafone Qatar.

Fifty per cent of account subscribers joined via the operator’s online store, while the rest joined through the more than 700 partner distribution outlets.

Rival Qtel has not yet released figures for Q1 2010, however it ended December 2009 with 2.4 million subscribers in Qatar.

After eight days and 46 rounds of bidding in India’s 3G auction, the price for a licence to provide 3G services nationwide reached INR 60.67 billion (US$1.36 billion). The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) expects the auction to run for up to two weeks. Taking into account all bids received so far, DoT is guaranteed to receive at least INR 242.68 billion from 3G proceeds, with the broadband wireless access (BWA) auction still yet to come.

Delhi has returned to the centre stage in bidding for individual circles on April 19 , attracting a top bid of INR 6.91 billion, followed by Mumbai with INR 6.36 billion and Tamil Nadu with INR 6.06 billion. Gujarat, which made headlines last week for topping the bids on day four ahead of the metro areas, attained a bid price yesterday of INR 5.49 billion.

Upon conclusion of the auction operators will be able to go live with 3G services beginning September 1. State-owned operators Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have already received their licences and launched services, however, will be required to pay licence fees that match the price of auction valuations.

Despite Etisalat posting a five per cent year-on-year increase in first quarter 2010 revenues of AED 7.945 billion (US$2.163 billion), net profit declined by 8.5 per cent from a year earlier to AED 1.99 billion. Earnings per share for the period ending March 31, 2010 was AED 0.25 per share. The UAE-based operator has not provided any further details of its earnings nor a reason for the decline in profits.

Mobile subscribers in its home market closed at 7.71 million for the quarter, down from 7.74 million at the end of December. Fixed line subscribers remained relatively the same at 1.3 million, while Internet customers rose from 1.33 million to 1.38 million.

The firm, which has 100 million subscribers across 18 countries, announced on April 18 that it had acquired a further 14 per cent equity in Tanzania’s Zantel for US$16 million, bringing its shareholding stake to 65 per cent.

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Du) announced today that it proposes to raise AED 1 billion (US$272 million) through a rights issue. The capital raised will fund an accelerated growth strategy.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (‘EGM’) will be held on May 11 to approve the increase in the company’s share capital and the issue of new shares to shareholders on a pro rata basis. The rights issue subscription period is expected to start on May 27 and end on June 8. The subscription price will be determined by the board on or about May 11, subject to final approval by shareholders at the EGM, at a price of up to AED 1.91 per new share.

Transaction rationale

· Deliver on commitment to customers by continuing to enhance network capabilities and expand fixed and mobile infrastructure;

· Invest in the next phase of growth by accelerating Du’s capital expenditure programme to become the preferred integrated telecommunications provider in the UAE; and

· Transform the company from a high growth early stage venture to a more mature company with efficient management of future funding requirements.

The founding shareholders of Du (Emirates Investment Authority, Mubadala Development Company and Emirates Communications and Technology LLC), holding approximately 80 per cent of the company, fully support the rights issue and have agreed to vote in favour of the resolutions to be proposed at the EGM. The founding shareholders have also agreed to take up their rights in full and oversubscribe for any new shares remaining after all other shareholders have had the opportunity to take up their rights and oversubscribe for additional new shares.

JP Morgan is acting as rights issue co-ordinator and bookrunner and Mashreqbank is acting as lead receiving bank for the rights issue.