Saudi Arabia’s STC announced it has exceeded 100 million subscribers worldwide, however, a breakdown of subscribers by country has not been disclosed by the operator.

The Arab world’s largest telecom company by market value has expanded aggressively in the past two years outside the kingdom’s borders to now have operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, India, South Africa, Kuwait and Bahrain. The operator’s most recent foray was the launch of mobile services in Bahrain under the brand Viva.

STC posted a Q409 net profit of SAR 2.94 billion (US$784 million), an increase of 154 per cent year-on-year from SAR 1.16 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. The state-owned integrated operator attributed this partly to the floating in November of a 25 per cent stake in Malaysian subsidiary Maxis, which added SAR 684 million to its coffers.

India will conduct the auction for the much-anticipated 3G spectrum on April 9, the government has stated. Applications from prospective bidders are open until March 19. Pre-qualified bidders will be announced on March 30, followed by mock auctions on April 5 and 6.

Two days following the completion of the 3G bandwidth auction, the sale of broadband wireless access services will begin.

Despite the promising news, operators and analysts can be excused if feeling somewhat sceptical if the auction will actually take place, as the auctions have already been delayed three times since the original date of January 16, 2009. The postponements were due to internal government disputes over pricing and availability of spectrum.

The government hopes the expected INR 350 billion (US$7.6 billion) in revenues from the 3G auction will help stem its fiscal deficit, which has reached a 16-year high.

Analysts estimate individual operators could outlay between US$1-1.5 billion for India-wide spectrum, while the actual 3G network rollout could cost billions more. The country’s top three operators – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, have all indicated their appetite for a slice of the 3G pie, while Telenor’s Uninor has also showed interest in 3G licences for specific circles.

South African operators MTN and Telkom have reportedly made separate bids for stakes in Zimbabwe’s state-owned mobile and landline operators NetOne and TelOne respectively, according to local newspaper the Herald. Quoting a government source, it was confirmed that several firms expressed interest in the two companies and the government is now conducting due diligence on the bids.

“They will soon be presented to cabinet before we choose the winner. Yes, MTN and Telkom are some of the companies that have expressed interest in the companies NetOne and TelOne,” the source stated.

NetOne has struggled to fund its network through a plague of cash troubles and bureaucracy, and has not replaced much outdated infrastructure.

Zimbabwe has three mobile operators – TeleCel, NetOne and Econet Wireless. Econet Wireless, owned by exiled business tycoon Strive Masiyawa, leads the market with three million subscribers, followed by TeleCel with 600,000 customers. NetOne reportedly ended 2009 with 250,000 subscribers. TelOne is the country’s sole fixed line provider with 386,000 customers.

Fixed line subscribers across 15 Arab countries declined 4.6 per cent over nine months, from 29.2 million at the end of December 2008, to 27.8 million as of the end of September 2009, according to a report by Arab Advisors. The report analysed 20 fixed line providers operating across 15 Arab markets.

Telecom Egypt is the largest fixed line operator with 9.631 million subscribers, followed by Saudi Arabia’s STC with 4.169 million. The third largest was Syrian Telecom (STE).

The UAE recorded the highest fixed line penetration rate amongst the surveyed countries, followed by Lebanon.

South Africa’s MTN Group today announced that Phuthuma Nhleko, its president and CEO will not be renewing his long-term contract of employment which ends on June 30, 2010. Consequently he will stand down but has agreed to continue in his current role up to March 2011.

During the remainder of his tenure Nhleko has agreed to particularly focus on achieving certain key objectives including facilitating a seamless transition once his successor has been appointed.

“I have given this decision very careful consideration. I feel it is the right time to secure the next generation of leadership for the group – and the right time for me personally to start thinking about the next phase of my career”, Nhleko said.